I once took a musically illiterate friend to an orchestra concert, and when it was over, she said, "OK, that guy waving the stick up there -- does he really matter, or what?" That's a smart question, one that first-time theatergoers rarely think to ask about directors since, unlike conductors, they do their invaluable work offstage and out of sight. If you've never acted in a play or watched a rehearsal, chances are that you'll have only the vaguest idea of exactly what a director does, and even if you have, it's hard to do more than guess at his contribution to a production.

For a guided backstage tour, I recommend Notes on Directing (RCR Creative Press, 126 pages, $19.95), a crisp catalog of 130 directorial dos and don'ts written by Frank Hauser and Russell Reich in the pithy manner of Strunk and White's Elements of Style ("1. Read the play"). Though it's meant for use by theatrical professionals, not playgoers, I have never read a clearer, more straightforward description of the craft of directing, and the layman who longs to know what happens in a rehearsal -- or what ought to, at any rate -- will find it informative and illuminating.

Notes on Directing is often dryly funny, as befits a book about the theater: "23. Assume that everyone is in a permanent state of catatonic terror. This will help you approach the impossible state of infinite patience and benevolence that actors and others expect from you." But while some of its plain-spoken maxims are stage-specific ("115. When a scene isn't clicking, the entrance was probably wrong"), I suspect that readers of the Journal will be struck by the extent to which many of them are no less applicable to the world of business. Directing a play, it turns out, is best understood as a species of management a la Peter Drucker: "Identify the story's compelling question... Express the core of the play in as few words as possible... Directing is mostly casting... Treat difficult moments as discoveries... Watch for and value happy accidents... Never, NEVER bully."

I wonder whether Notes on Directing might not just as well have been titled "130 Secrets of Managing Extremely Difficult People" and sold at the checkout counter of your neighborhood bookstore. Anybody capable of getting the best out of a bunch of catatonic actors certainly deserves to earn at least a million dollars, if not a Nobel Peace Prize.

Mr. Teachout, The Wall Street Journal's drama critic, also blogs about the arts at
www.terryteachout.com.