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The Director
Part 1: The Captain of the Ship
Imagine yourself on a ship. There are lots of folks who help the ship go in the right direction and get to its destination. Sailors furl the masts. Navigators map out courses to take. Even swabbies are needed to keep the ship clean so that others can do their jobs. Of course, on every ship there is a captain. She is the one who makes sure that the ship goes one direction and who makes sure all on board communicate with one another so that the ship runs efficiently and smoothly.
In theatre, the captain of the ship is the director. He makes sure the production team is headed in the right direction. He presents his Directors Concept to the other theatre artists, who then create artistic theatre using the direction provided by that concept.
Theatre did not always have directors. Before the middle of the 19th century, most theatre was done without a solid and single director. If a great and famous actor happened to be in the company, he or she would often tell the minor actors where to stand or what to do, but few individuals paid attention to the production as a whole.
Then came the Duke.
The Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, leader of his own touring theatre company in the 1870s, was obsessed with minute details about which other theatre companies did not worry. He saw the whole stage as a moving painting that needed artistic concepts such as balance and form to be excellent. He began a process of intensive rehearsals, demanded discipline from his actors, and included much more stage business and movement than had been previously seen. Basically, he had a vision for the play and how it should be seen and performed. And he made sure all of the other theatre artists played to that vision.
This gives us a hint of what the director does today, for only minor points of a directors job has changed since the Duke. Here are some of the responsibilities of a director:
1. Crafts and communicates a DIRECTORS CONCEPT.
2. Directs the movement, pace and mood of the play.
3. Makes sure the other theatre artists communicate with each other and that their communications are in line with the directors concept.
4. Bites fingernails when the show opens.
We will explore each of these in the following workshops.
Part 2: The Directors Concept
In planning for a play, the director usually presents a DIRECTORS CONCEPT to the other theatre artists. Sometimes, the concept is a combined effort between the designers and the director, but the director is usually the one who makes sure it is clear and solid before proceeding. The directors concept guides the other theatre artists toward a unified production. In other words, it helps them all stay on the same page, or at least in the same book. Here are some good examples of directors concepts:
Directors Concept for A Thousand Cranes
“The text of Kathryn Schultz-Miller’s short play is a kind of structured memory: through Sadako’s brief life, we encounter the Hiroshima bombing as an incomprehensible human act. The issues of race, culture, nuclear war and patriotism are complex for young audiences. Producing ‘A Thousand Cranes’ demands restraint, imagination, the willingness to face horror, the willingness to forgive. In our production we try to stir a young audience’s theatrical imagination by presenting another world that seems familiar, a child’s flights of fancy as a journey to understanding, a story that is simple yet compelling. In the end, we hope to ask questions rather than teach. If a child can know loss as a necessary outcome of war, and see another culture as human rather than exotic, we have succeeded.” Andrew Tsao, Indiana Repertory Theatre.
Directors Concept for King Lear
” “King Lear” is a reminder of how quickly a country can be destroyed from within by political back-biting, greed and complacency. Lear takes for granted both his responsibility as king and his land’s stability, assuming he can leave the daily running of the country to others while he retires to “the good life”. Because Shakespeare’s message is appropriate for any point in history, we have chosen to set this production without specific period or culture. We also wanted to create a raw, elemental world where violence becomes commonplace. Fire, wind and water are placed within a steel structure set upon the earth, giving the set a non-realistic, presentational feel, where one does not expect each location to be fully realized visually. This helps to accommodate Shakespeare’s quick and constant scene changes. In the background you can see a vague image of the empire that everyone is trying to capture. It is polluted and corrupt, not beautiful. On this land, no one is immune from the desire for power. In our “King Lear” there are no heroes and there is ultimately no innocence; everyone gets their hands dirty. As the battles both political and personal ensue, the story reveals itself to be actually
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