THE DIRECTOR

Chapter 6

Directing

Directing is an art whose product is the most ambiguous, perhaps the most mysterious, in the theatre.

The person who organizes the production. The director inspires creation of theatre with

each production.

A Historical Overview

Playwrights from the time of Aeschylus have been known to direct their own plays.

The idea of an independent director did not exist until the 19th century.

Teacher- Directors

Didaskalos- the Greeks called teacherA teacher had already mastered his art and

they then were required to teach.Reached its pinnacle in the late

Enlightenment and Victorian eras.

Directors of Realism

Began during the end of the 19th centuryWanted to make their plays more lifelike than

those of past eras.Duke of Saxe-Meiningen was the first

“modern” director. Dazzled the German public with carefully harmonized

acting, staging and scenery. Historically correct designs Created a true acting ensemble.

Directors of Realism

Andre Antoine- Paris- Theatre LibreStanislavsky- Moscow Art TheaterThey both developed innovative staging

techniques in acting and actor coaching based on the duke’s staging.

Sought to make the theatre a powerful social and artistic instrument for the expression of truth.

Directors become part analyst, part therapist, and even part mystic.

Directors of Antirealism

Aimed primarily at the creation of originality, theatricality and style, and be unrestrained by rigid formulas with respect to realistic theater.

The goal was to create sheer theatrical brilliance, beauty and excitement.

Paul Fort- Theatre d’Art in ParisVsevolod Meyerhold- biomechanical

constructivism- an acting method characterized by bold gestures and rapid, near acrobatic movement

The Directing Process

The director may spend a year or more preparing and staging a production and then more years restaging it in different theaters.

Preparation period Implementation period

Preparation Period

The play is selectedThe text may be translated or adaptedA producer is foundthe director begins to conceptualize the

play’s production.

Preparation Period

A director guides the production Dramaturgically- the story we want to tell Intellectually- why we want to tell it Aesthetically- how we want it to look, sound and feel

A director assembles a team of designers, technicians and actors.

Producer

Finances the productionProducers can be invited to help stage a playProducers can hire the directorCan be part of a producing entity (groups,

corporations or partnerships)

Producers in Academia

Primary goal is to safeguard the ling term interests of the institution that hosts the production

Producer

Hire (and fire) the directorProvides financial resourcesCreating and managing the budgetChoosing and acquiring the theater facilityEstablish the play’s rehearsal and

performance datesHandle legal and business aspects of the

production.

Choosing the Play

This may come from the director or producerConsiderations:

Eagerness to mount the production Confidence that it can be successfully cast,

conceptualized, budgeted and staged Belief that the production will engender genuine

enthusiasm among the artistic team, cast and audience.

Adapting the Play

The most common adaptation is “cutting” or deleting lines to compress the play’s action and limit its duration.

American copyright law currently covers an author’s work until 70 years after his or her death

Adapting the Play

Adaptation may change the fundamental aspects of a play’s dramaturgy (history, context or theme)

Adapted productions are meant to be controversial

Core Concept

The director’s determination of the most important of the many images, ideas, and emotions that should emerge from the play.

A director that tried to give equal weight to all of a play’s themes would create a “mess”- a production that is unfocused and “all over the place.”

Core Concept

The highest priority image, idea, style or emotion becomes the play’s core organizing principal

It is what the play is “about” or what it “means”

It ensures that the play signifies something.

High Concept

Introducing highly unexpected insights into character, story or style

May mean nothing more than moving a play out of the period in which it is set and placing it in another.

Modern audiences have come to expect high concepts

High Concept

Aim for unique and revelatory rethinking of major works

Transcending their plays’ original conventions and presenting profound, moving, new and uniquely illuminating theatricalizations that make telling references to current issues.

High Concept

Must work for the entire playHeavy duty research and comprehensive

thinking through the entire script

Dramaturg

Literary advisor or research assistant or bothA specialist in dramatic analysis who serves

as a bridge between the director and the playwright

Help the director with research, conceptualizing, and understanding the play’s structure, meanings and historical context.

Implementation Period

Selecting the designers.Casting the actors.

Casting the Actors

“casting is 90% of directing”Casting directorsAuditionsCallbacks

Rehearsals

The play will be read aloud, memorized, staged, and rehearsed- often in rooms with makeshift “rehearsal furniture” and the walls taped on the floor.

Director should maintain both leadership and creative inspiration.

Staging

Goals of staging Create focus Lend credibility to the characters Generate interest Impart an aesthetic Provoke suspense Stimulate a fulfilling theatricality

Blocking

The timing and placement of a character’s entrances, exits, rises, crosses, embraces and other major movement

This is the framework of all stagingPre-Blocking- preplanning the movements on

paperSome blocking may be specialized and then a

director may wish to bring in a choreographer or other specialist.

Business- small scale movements that a character performs within the larger pattern of blocking.

Actor Coaching

The director is the actor’s coach and leads the various activities- discussions, improvisations, games, exercises, lectures, research, blocking, polishing

Must provide an atmosphere where the actor can feel free to liberate their powers of sensitivity and creativity.

Good directors lead their casts; great directors inspire them.

Pacing

“well paced” “well directed”“slow” or “dragging”It is not just the rate at which the lines are

saidCreated on the basis of a complex and

composite time structure that incorporates many variables: credibility, suspense, mood, style and the natural rhythms of life such as heartbeat, respiration, sob, laugh

Pacing

Faster tempos tend to excite, bedazzle and sharpen audience attention

Slower tempos allow the audience to consider and to augment the play’s actions and ideas with their own reflections.

Coordinating

In the final rehearsals the director’s responsibility become more of one of bringing together the concept and design, the acting and the staging, the pace and the performance.

May have to modify or eliminate those parts of the production that aren’t communicating to the audience effectively.

Technical rehearsalsDress rehearsals

Presenting

No one is more useless on opening night than the director.

Director Training

Most directors have brought to their art a comprehensive knowledge of the theatre in its various aspects.

Entering the profession today are directors who have been trained in a dramatic graduate program or conservatory and often have supplemental training with an apprenticeship at a theater.