Chapter 3: Directing

 The stage director’s contribution may be the least visible and least understood.
o The playwrights words can be heard or read
o The producer raises and spends money
o Designers create scenery, lights, sound
o Actors create relationship with spectators
 Director is the “captain” of the team, responsible for all artistic aspects of production
o Provides the overall artistic vision for the production
o He is the “spectator’s eye”, standing in the audience
 The director is the “author of the production”
o Doesn’t author the pieces, but uses them to write the staged production
o Should trust and respect teammates, guides the process
In practical terms, the director’s main functions can be broken down as follows:

1. Interpreting the script and developing a vision or concept for the production.

2. Working with the design team to develop the visual, oral, and spatial world of the production.

3. Casting the actors.

4. Rehearsing the actors.

5. Integrating all of the elements into a unified whole.

 Directing separately is a recent development in the history of theatre

o Often, the playwright or leading actor carried out these tasks. Rehearsals were short and cursory
 Those in charge were more executive than artistic
 Modern theatre director found with the rise of realism in the nineteenth century
o 18th century, Britain’s David Garrick wanted more thorough rehearsals and greater attention to
detail
o Actor managers used plays as vehicles for their talents, rather than execute playwright intention
 Actors first and objective interpreters second
 Georg II (Saxe-Meiningen) and his collaborator Ludwig Chronek were originators of modern directing 1870
o Never wrote nor acted, but supervised from the audience
 Famous for historical accuracy and attention to detail, intricacy and realism of crowd
o Classics and heroic melodramas
 Late nineteenth century, realism, portray the truth of human behavior and interaction
o First great dramatists were Norwegian Henrik Ibsen and Russian Anton Chekhov.
o Russian Konstantine Stanislavsky put actor’s truthfulness at the center of his theatrical practices
 Realized understood importance of detail, specificity, and absence of false notes
 Primary function of modern director is to interpret the script and to develop an artistic vision or
production concept
o Using the faithful approach, the playwright is treated as production’s primary creator. Follows
playwright closely and realizes play as literally as possible
  Translator Approach: Director honors play but may depart from specifics. Stage directions and other
details are altered
o Most common in today’s theatre
o Based on director’s strong vision of the play; develops unique style
 Auteur Approach: script is raw material that direct shapes and reshapes according to artistic
intentions.
o Uses play as jumping off point, adding and subtracting
o Auteur means author in French
 The wise director is continuously analyzing the play in response to discoveries made throughout the
process. Most directors cover the same bases

Analyzing and Interpreting the Play

 Design team is included in early stages of interpretation.
o Earliest design meetings compromise a dialogue about the play.
o Discussion of text led by director must include practical questions and he must lead a detailed
analysis of the play’s structure, characters, language and themes, feeling, thinking, and meaning,
genre, mood, style, world, comic, tragic, realistic, fit in.
o Must have firm grasp on play and defined creative vision for steady course.

The Production Concept

 Questions lead to an interpretation, vision, or concept in an overriding metaphor
o Verbal phrase “a chess game” for Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton
o Painting or picture: Munch’s “The Scream” For Marisol by Jose Rivera
o Physical object: early typewrite for Machinal by Sophoe Treadwell
o Should put the whole team on the same page, should communicate directors approach
along the faithful translator auteur continuum, and determine place time of action

Working with Designers

 Visual, aural, and spatial world of the play.
 Members of the team also discuss practical and technical considerations
o At meetings, artists present their ideas. Designs for production are give and take 4 group

Casting
 Good casting makes directors job in rehearsal smooth and productive, or harm
o Director should have grasp of character personalities, physical, and interrelate
o Remain open to actors

 Many theatres practice nontraditional casting, from Actors’ Equity Association

o The casting of ethnic minority and female actors in roles where race, ethnicity, or sex is
not germane
o Breakdowns – character descriptions are distributed for auditions
 Urban, all-American, and sassy best friend are euphemisms
 Cattle Call or open call, where actors present a prepared monologue or song
o The next callbacks, where actors perform cold readings from the script as they’ve never
read the script
 o Closed calls – specific actors are invited to read because they are known or sent by a
casting director. Casting directors work with actors through agents
 Casting Director: Alan Filderman Casting does shows
o Casting director is hired by the producer. CD reads the play, get submissions from
agents and then do callbacks and make offers
o Looking for talent. Some roles require very specific physical features, some don’t
o Acting “professionally” means be on time, friendly, and prepared: learning song or
worked on scene
o Mistakes: Late, unprepared, chatting too much or not enough
o Learned the business working for a talent manager, on the phone told one he was lookin
o Taste, ability to see talent
o Theatre is much more about the art. Film and TV is much more corporate
o Unfair business and talent always wins

Rehearsals
 Rehearsal is a collaborative process
o Cast meeting introduces everyone to each other and script
o Table Work: early rehearsals for closely exploring the text
 Actors read their parts aloud and stopping frequently to know meaning
o Ground Plan: two-dimensional bird’s-eye view of the set with the entrances and exits,
furniture, and all of the acting areas mapped out before u start rehearsing
o Scene Work: exploring the play in smaller units, the most intensive phase of rehearsal
process
 Director must lead actors towards his interpretation but let them have creativity
 Director manipulates space by creating stage pictures (bodies artfully arranged on the playing
space to communicate ideas.)
o Pictures created through blocking (or staging), term for the movement and placement
of the actors on the stage.
 Entirely under director’s control. Collaboration between actors and director
o Director shapes time: influencing pace and rhythm of the scenes. Variation fo tempo
 Tempo: how fast or slow the action is moving
 Blocking is given from the actors perspective
 Director will schedule a run-through to get a sense of the whole, as soon as blocking is roughed
in and actors are off-book (free from holding the script)
o The first run-through is known as a stumble-through because its rough
 Technical rehearsals: technical elements are introduced
 Dress rehearsals: running the show full costume and technical elements
 Major theatres may offer previews. Performances before audiences with discounted tickets
before official opening. Lasts several weeks and critics refrain from reviewing. Can fine tune
 Director’s closest partner is stage manager (responsible for running all activities backstage, and
keeping a prompt book (copy of script marked with notes) and communication)
o Once show is open, director is done and stage manager runs the show
 Stage director has leadership and communication
 Color blind casting entirely overlooks race to open opportunities
Video
 The Director: the highest artistic authority in a production. Decides everything. Approves details
o Does blocking, tells actors where to move. Liking or disliking is blaming the director
o The Producer: has more money and can fire people is more powerful
 Spine: The one line that explains what the show is about.
o “X (character) struggles to…”
 Theatre is about conflict
o Director knows what story he’s telling
 Point of Attack: Where does the playwright pick up the story?
o Epic structure is an early point of attack where we see all the events
 Shows how life gets put together
 Open Text and Closed Text
o Open: Many different meanings in a play. Plays are about characters not setting or time
 Hamlet and Shakespeare is written in poetry, with people expressing in poetic
manner
o Closed: Doesn’t want to be set in another time period or place
 August Wilson deals with slavery
 Production Concept: a director’s approach to a play. Once you know a story, you must tell it.
Find best way to tell the story
 The Marriage of Bette and Boo. Late point of attack. Memory play
o Skippy is the narrator. Had a tumultuous childhood. Looking back on his life on his crazy
marriage.
o Trying to figure out the past.
o Had the show take place on a wedding cake. Refined the designer’s sketch. Director
works with designer.
o Ground Plan lets you know where your acting areas are
 A Midsummer Night’s Dream about 2 lovers but father doesn’t want, father wants choosing
o They run into a magic forest and into fairies , magic Puck,
o How crazy we are in the face of love
 Shakespeare making fun of love. He put it in a modern context
 No historical accuracy during Shakespeare’s time. Modern dress was
typical for Shakespeare
 Modern day new York, soap operas, in a TV studio, soap opera actors run into
forest (central park). Fairies were statues in central park
 Backdrop was painted before 9/11
 Backdrop is a big painted curtain.
 Curtain call is actors there on stage
 The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck novel)
o Jode family during dustbowl of 1930’s, farm is decimated. Dust everywhere, no fertile
land.
o They go into truck and go to California to try and live a better life (Journey. Family
struggling to keep dignity and sense of self and protect their own.) Journey of life
o Moved walls for different scenes
o River needed so they took a pool liner
o Route 66 and We Serve Good Food, jobs keep going
o Campfires were done with light
o Music in the play, fiddler and banjo player.
o Square dance
o Cut out for grave