Chapter 6
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
English Actor-Manager
1717-1779
Edwin Booth
American Actor-Manager
1833-1893
Henry Irving
English Actor-Manager
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 Comedie
Francaise
Realistic directors…
The Meiningen Players
in Shakespeare’s
Julius Caesar
...sought to organize and rehearse a company toward a
complex and aesthetically comprehensive theatrical
presentation that reflected the diversity and minutia of
life.
The first Modern Director
Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen
1826-1914
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 Nichols
was an actor
and a
comedian
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 Washington
School 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
Laurie Metcalf and Joe Mantello
Casting
Staging
Rehearsing
Coaching
Pacing
Joe Mantello working on WICKED
Prepare for opening night...
Promotions
Tech rehearsals
Dress
Rehearsals
Notable Directors
Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen
Konstantin Stanislavski
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 Producers
2001
Young Frankenstein - 2007
The Scottsboro Boys - 2010
Big Fish (2013)
Bullets Over Broadway (2014)
The Lion King
Julie Taymor
The Magic Flute
Joe Mantello
Wicked
The Santaland Diaries
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...