Blending interviews with rare rehearsal footage, documentaries with production excerpts, the Playwrights and Practitioners video collection is an essential resource for students, actors, and academics. From the songs of Brecht to the provocations of Burlesque, the collection rings with the voices of Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winners and offers a rich insight into the creative processes of some of the industry’s most esteemed writers and directors.

This collection features:

• A discussion on the art of directing by the playwright David Mamet in The Playwright as Director, and a masterclass with Jacques Lecoq, entitled Twelve Lessons
• Interviews with acclaimed international actors and directors such as Peter Brook and Ryszard Cieslak
• Rare film footage of legendary Italian actress Eleonora Duse, prefaced by an exchange between Eva Le Gallienne and Julie Harris who discuss Duse’s artistic legacy and the importance of biography.
• Harry Burton’s unique 2007 documentary Working With Pinter, featuring an interview with the playwright himself and rare footage of Pinter rehearsing extracts from his own plays
• Making War Horse, a behind-the-scenes documentary detailing how Michael Morpurgo’s classic children’s novel became an acclaimed National Theatre production. With candid commentary from the author, the documentary also features interviews with the actors as well as exclusive access to the Handspring puppet company

Synchronised transcripts and closed captions for this collection are being added to videos on a rolling basis. All videos will have transcripts by December 2023. Where films in these collections are in a language other than English, captions will appear on the video and may not always be accessible to screen readers.

Image credits: Arthur Miller sitting at home(Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images); Duse, Eleonora - Schauspielerin, Portrait (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images).