DIRECTOR’S VISION
Directors need to have a vision for the play. That means ALL directors: professional, community, high school, and middle school. Why is it important to have a vision?
 A vision gives the play a drive, a look, a tone.
 A vision creates a unifying factor—something that can be communicated not just through the text but through staging, lights, sets, sound, and costume.
 A vision helps students focus on the bigger picture. It’s more than learning lines and blocking.
 A vision gives a director purpose; it’s the creative element the director brings to the table.
Visions do not have to be complicated and esoteric. The simpler the vision, the easier it will be to convey to the cast, crew, and designers. There’s nothing wrong with a vision of fun and frivolity. Just make it clear and then be consistent with what you’re trying to achieve.
For Example:
I directed the original production of my Alice in Wonderland adaptation Alice.
The line of dialogue that really jumped out at me after reading the book was from the tea party: ‘We’re all mad here so you must be, too.’ I thought it was interesting that Alice’s response was that she didn’t want to be mad, like she didn’t want a cold.
What was my vision?
My vision was to focus on the madness of Wonderland and see if the other characters could make Alice crazy as well.
I created a huge physical division between the Wonderland characters and Alice. Alice was the only character with flesh showing–all the others were as inhuman as possible. I had a trio of girls play the Cheshire Cat instead of one to emphasize the fact that the cat wasn’t “real.” The Wonderland characters mistreated Alice at every opportunity; shoving her, towering over her, pinching her. They hissed at her from the darkness. She was not of their ‘world’ and the only way she could be is if she changed, becoming more like them. This is how I took my vision of “mad world” and translated it to the staging, to communicating acting choices, and to informing the costuming.
How Do I Find A Vision?
 Highlight the one word, image, or action that speaks to you in the script.
 Find music that represents the story and the main character.
 Give each character a colour palette.
 Find magazine pictures, pictures of art, sculptures—anything that can help you and everyone you talk to about the play to SEE the play.
 Create a folio. The more visual the vision can be, the better.
Take the script you’re working on. Describe the play using the five senses. What is the taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell of the play? How does describing the play in this way define the play for you? This is an excellent exercise for student directors who might have no idea that directors need a ‘vision.’
Colours:
Texture:
Sound:
Sight:
Smell:
Taste:
The play has a clear visual conflict. There’s a clear colour palate for costumes, lights, and set. There’s a defined sound to the play. There’s a set direction. There’s a very simple visualization of light and dark.
This is how senses can assist in developing a vision that can work for you to construct dramatic meaning and purpose.
Play ‘What If?’ with the text. That’s how many of the most interesting visions are born—a director simply said “what if” and then went for it! What if Romeo and Juliet took place today instead of in the 11th century? What if Sweeney
Todd was set in a mental institution where the patients played their own instruments? What if the alienation of the main character was shown in the costumes, with everyone else in black?
One thing to always keep in mind…
Remember that while the director’s vision is your own interpretation of the script, you have to stay true to the playwright’s intention. You can’t come up with a vision and then change the play to suit the vision.

1. What is the subject of this play? (extract / scene) a. Describe the play in one paragraph, five sentences, one sentence.
2. What is the genre of the play? a. Must the piece be staged in this specific theatre genre? Why or why not?
3. Where does the play (scene) take place? a. Can the location be changed? Why or why not?
4. When is the play set? Is there a specific period? a. Can you change the time period? Why or why not?
5. Who is the audience for your play? How will your audience affect your vision?
6. What is the one word, line of dialogue, image, or action that leaps out at me?
7. What is the dominant theme for this play? a. Why is this theme important? b. What visual comes to mind when I think of this theme?
8. What is the dominant metaphor for this play?
9. What piece of art represents this play?
10. What type of architecture represents this play?
11. What type of music represents this play?
12. What song represents the main character?
13. What is the primary shape for each main character? a. How do these shapes illuminate the main theme?
14. What is the primary colour for each main character? a. How do these colours coordinate or clash with the main theme?
15. Describe this play using the five senses. What is the primary sight, sound, texture, taste and smell?
16. What emotion describes this play the best? a. Does the primary emotion change from the beginning to the end of the play?
17. Is this play heavy or light?
18. Is this play fast or slow?
19. Is this play tense or free?

20. Is this play iconic? Will an audience have an expectation when they come see the play?
21. What do you want the audience to experience while watching the play?
22. What do you want the audience to take away with them after seeing this play?
WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR THIS PLAY? DESCRIBE IT IN ONE SENTENCE
SCENOGRAPHY
Scenography provides the audience’s window into the story, themes, characters and relationships explored in any performance. Scenography involves the manipulation of Set, Costume, Lighting, Sound and their interaction with the actors and the audience.
Scenographic study activates design so that it is not interpreted as static elements of the dramaturgy, but active, living dramatic devices that enable the audience to read the message of the performance.
"The scenographer visually liberates the text and the story behind it, by creating a world in which the eyes see what the ears do not hear."
"Scenography is always incomplete until the performer steps into the playing space and engages the audience.
Moreover, scenography is the joint statement of the director and the visual artist of their view of the play, opera or dance that is being presented to the audience as a united piece of work."
"The scenographer has to be an artist who can understand how to work with and incorporate the ideas of the director, understand text as a writer, be sensitive to the needs of a performer exposed to an audience, and create imaginative and appropriate spaces for productions........."
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-ND
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-ND

Australian Gothic Theatre “explores a vision of Australia that is the familiar made strange and foreboding. It warns us of the dangers that lurk under the façade of the ordinary and mundane images of the Australian landscape. This style of theatre is built on the post-colonial notions of Australia as a topsy- turvy landscape where swans are black instead of white, the seasons are reversed, the trees lose their bark rather than their leaves and the water spins in a different direction. The familiar European view of the world was somehow jarred by the Australian landscape, conjuring notions of the supernatural and other worldly.
The lost child is not only found in fairytales, but figures as a much feared and recurrent theme in Australian literature.
The fear of the child lost in the woods is embedded deep into the Australian psyche and is evident in literature such as Picnic at Hanging Rock.
Gothic Themes and Spaces

AUSTRALIAN GOTHIC MOTIFS AND THEMES
Below is a table outlining some the motifs and themes commonly seen in Australian Gothic texts.
Commonly Used Motifs and Themes in Australian Gothic Plays
Archetypes & Tropes (stylistic devices)
BINARY OPPOSITES
Good vs Evil
Pure vs. Violated/Injured
Light vs. Dark
Entrapment vs Abandonment
MOTIFS CHARACTERS
Mirrors
Paintings/ Portraits
Death Disfigurement
Ghosts, Spirits, etc.
History erupting into the present
Foreboding doom Inevitability of future/ destiny Castles
Storms, rain
Secrets
Winter, Autumn
Shadow
Familiar rendered unfamiliar
Vanishing/ Sudden Appearance
The pure and innocent heroine
Demon lover
The violated one
The disfigured one
The undead or unborn one
The evil one
The doubled or shadowed on
• in terms of style, naturalism is an extreme or heightened form of realism
• as a theatrical movement and performance style, naturalism was short-lived
• stage time equals real time – e.g. three hours in the theatre equals three hours for the characters in the world of the play
• costumes, sets and props are historically accurate and very detailed, attempting to offer a photographic reproduction of reality (‘slice of life’)
• as with realism, settings for naturalistic dramas are often bland and ordinary
• naturalistic dramas normally follow rules set out by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, known as ‘the three unities’ (of time, place and action)
• the action of the play takes place in a single location over the time frame of a single day
• jumps in time and/or place between acts or scenes is not allowed
• playwrights were influenced by naturalist manifestos written by French novelist and playwright
Emile Zola in the preface to Therese Raquin (1867 novel, 1873 play) and Swedish playwright August
Strindberg in the preface to Miss Julie (1888)
• naturalism explores the concept of scientific determinism (spawning from Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution) – characters in the play are shaped by their circumstances and controlled by external forces such as hereditary or their social and economic environment

• often characters in naturalistic plays are considered victims of their own circumstance and this is why they behave in certain ways (they are seen as helpless products of their environment)
• characters are often working class/lower class (as opposed to the mostly middle-class characters of realistic dramas)
• naturalistic plays regularly explore sordid subject matter previously considered taboo on the stage in any serious manner (e.g. poverty).
EXPLORING PSYCO-PHYSICAL ACTIONS
“It’s funny that the general public and many aspiring actors have no respect or idea of what it takes to become an actor. “I think I’d be a good actor, because I’m a good liar.” when the opposite is required, or
“…because I’m an emotional person”. Most have no idea what kind of training and dedication is involved. When asked, “Can you play the cello?” for most of us, the answer is “No. I don’t have the skill” But when asked, “Can you act?” the answer often comes closer to, “I don’t know. I haven’t tried”. Reading Stanislavski in Rehearsal was another reminder for me of the amount of work that one has to put in.
The basis of acting is action not emotion. The basic premise behind the psycho-physical technique is that if you take care of the actions in such a way that they are fully justified by the given circumstances, then the emotion will take care of itself.
Most actors know from experience that moving into a particular physical form results in an inner experience or emotion which, if we allow ourselves to express it, can materialise. This isn’t playing at emotion. It’s real. The emotion is a natural by-product of the action. Rarely is it the case that we get carried away in this experience.
We know that we are in a scene or in an exercise and we can check it; a duality of control/form with an honest expression of emotion.
What it takes is a lot of work on the actor’s part to be receptive to the by-product of action. Therefore, I think
(as Stanislavski believed) that we must use our bodies in our work constantly, so that we can become receptive to how the form affects an inner life, or the psycho-physical connection. I’m not talking about movement-based theatre, but initiating our acting from our bodies, a physical form that we can play with. It can be subtle, in fact,
I think subtlety is a great place to work from because it is in the little changes and shifts that we can develop a great awareness. Certainly, in realism and naturalism and most text-based theatre, these subtle shifts help to distinguish one moment to the next. The movements are subtle and yet result in an honest change in our vocal and physical tones, tempos, rhythms. The danger is in our habit to “think” about it, which will in essence cut off the emotional well which can add greater depth to our work. We can only be sensitive or aware of our emotional life and allow it to be expressed honesty and in our bodies, not to set it. The preparation is in the action.
There’s a difference between carrying out a physical action for its own sake, and one that is fully justified within the world of the play and by the given circumstances. An action that comes from the given circumstances keeps us in the play, connected to our character and if we’ve spent enough time being receptive to our body informing our inner life, then it will keep us connected to a true and justified emotion.
I’ve heard that 80% (it maybe another # but I think this is close) of human communication is physical – eye contact or not, posture, breath, gestures, movement toward or away from someone, etc. If that’s the case, then we as actors need to work on our bodies, work on our physical communication in our work.
We do it naturally in life, but how do we do it in our work when we know how the story ends? I think that
Stanislavski’s method on physical actions is a great way to work on this.”

ELEMENTS OF DRAMA: SYMBOLS
A dramatic symbol is defined as “something other than the literal. The use of symbol in performance can be very powerful yet is often challenging to create in drama.
Performances that use symbols are often multi-layered, work an audience, and refuse to spoon-feed important information. Effective use of symbol in drama can be both simple and complex. www.thedramateacher.com/symbolin-drama/
Symbol in dramatic performance can be developed using:
• words
• sounds
• objects
• lighting
• characters
• costumes
•
•
• movements gestures images