Chapter 5

The Director

Why the director?

Because the product of the director's art is not directly visible, audible, or sensed, it is perhaps the most ambiguous and mysterious in the theatre.

ROBERT COHEN

Greek διδάσκαλος (Didaskalos)Although the development of the

director as an independent theatre artist has occurred in the past century, directing has been going on since theatre began.

Greek – teacher

Medeival – master

Task was to pass along the accumulated wisdom and techniques of “correct” performance

This evolution can be divided into three phases.

Teacher-directors

Realistic directors

Stylizing directors

Playwrights served as directors

The French playwright,Actor and “director”Moliere

Actors served as directors

David Garrick Edwin Booth Henry IrvingEnglish Actor-Manager American Actor-Manager English Actor-Manager1717-1779 1833-1893 1838-1905

Teacher-directors They occupied the first phase, transmitted

knowledge of the accumulated wisdom of the "correct" performance within a particular convention to others.

Richard Burbage,The Globe Theatre

Moliere and The ComedieFrancaise

Realistic directors…

...sought to organize and rehearse a company toward a complex and aesthetically comprehensive theatrical presentation that reflected the diversity and minutia of life.

The Meiningen Playersin Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar

The first Modern Director

Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen1826-1914

Plays were vigorously rehearsed and inspired other “new” directors

They also opened the theatre to the myriad possibilities of psychological interpretation, thus making the individual crucial to the analysis and interpretation of plays and increasing the director's creative function substantially.

Andre Antoine in France

“The Earth” at Theatre Antoine, 1900

Konstantin Stanislavski in Russia

The Seagull at the Moscow Art Theatre - 1898

Directors who allied themselves with nonrealistic playwrights, however, soon began a third phase, that of the Stylizing directors who aim at the creation of originality, theatricality, and style.

Their numbers are still growing.

Unrestrained by verisimilitude, such directors introduced a lyricism and symbolism, an expressive and abstract use of design, explosive theatricality, and intentionally contrived methods of acting that continue to affect drama and theatre profoundly.

Today, the answer to no question is self-evident, no style obligatory, and not interpretation definitive. The director has nearly limitless possibilities.

Functions of the Director

When an independent producer is not involved, the director accepts responsibility for the financial support of the production as THE PRODUCER.

VISION

Fundamentally, the director envisions the primary lines of the productions and provides the leadership to realize that vision.

The steps necessary to do so divide into two phases.

In the preparatory phase(Before rehearsals begin)THE DIRECTOR...

selects the play,

formulates the concept for the production,

selects designers,

guides collaborators in designing the look and sound of the show,

and casts the actors.

During the implementation phase

much of the director's focus turns to the actors, as he or she stages the movement and positioning of actors and objects, coaches the actors toward effective performances, conducts the pacing of each section of the play, coordinates the designs with the acting and general staging in the final rehearsals, and gives the performance over to those that will present it.

Where do directors come from?

Directors come to the craft of directing in a number of different ways.

Mike Nicholswas an actorand acomedian

Susan Stroman was a choreographer

David Mamet is a playwright

Directors entering the profession today have in most cases trained as directors in a conservatory or dramatic graduate program...

The Julliard School, NYC

University of WashingtonSchool of Drama

Where they have developed...

a strong literary and visual imagination

a strength of intellectual conceptualization

Spring Awakening, Eugene O’Neill Theatre, 2006

a sound knowledge of theatre history's developments, styles, and masterworks

familiarity with the potentials of technology, design, and theatrical space.

The Director’s Role

Communicate a vision for the production

Collaborate with designers

Working with actors

Casting

Staging

Rehearsing

Coaching

Pacing

Laurie Metcalf and Joe Mantello

Joe Mantello working on WICKED

Prepare for opening night...

Promotions

Tech rehearsals

Dress Rehearsals

Notable Directors

Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen

Konstantin Stanislavski

The Lower Depths, 1904

Peter Brook

RSC, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1970

Mike Nichols

Matthew Warchus

Boeing, Boeing - 2008

God of Carnage - 2008

LaBete on Broadway 2010

Susan Stroman

CONTACT - 2000

The Producers2001

Young Frankenstein - 2007

The Scottsboro Boys - 2010

Big Fish (2013)

Bullets Over Broadway (2014)

Julie Taymor

The Magic Flute

The Lion King

Joe Mantello

The Santaland Diaries

Wicked

The Last Ship

Doug Hughes 2010

2005

2011

2008

2014

Speak the speech, I pray you...

Society of Directors and Choreographers

First contract for this union was negotiated in 1962 for Bob Fosse to direct and choreograph LITTLE ME...