chapter 5
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Chapter 5. 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 ). - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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 – teacherMedeival – masterTask 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 Edwin Booth Henry IrvingEnglish Actor-Manager American Actor-Manager English Actor-Manager1717-1779 1833-1893 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 ComedieFrancaise
Realistic directors…
...sought to organize and rehearse a company toward a complex and aesthetically comprehensive theatrical presentation that reflected the diversity and minutia of life.
The Meiningen Playersin Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
The first Modern Director
Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen1826-1914
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 DirectorWhen 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 actorand acomedian
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 WashingtonSchool 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
CastingStagingRehearsing
CoachingPacing
Laurie Metcalf and Joe Mantello
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
The Producers2001
Young Frankenstein - 2007
The Scottsboro Boys - 2010
Big Fish (2013)
Bullets Over Broadway (2014)
Julie Taymor
The Magic Flute
The Lion King
Joe Mantello
The Santaland Diaries
Wicked
The Last Ship
Speak the speech, I pray you...
Society of Directors and ChoreographersFirst contract for this union was negotiated in 1962 for Bob Fosse to direct and choreograph LITTLE ME...