Directing a Play

1. Directing a Play

2. Director’s Role • The director oversees the entire process of staging a production, coordinating everything that actually happens on stage. • The director reads and re-reads the script, interpreting its meaning and forming a vision of how the production should look and how the action should unfold.

3. Director’s Role continued… • You conduct auditions, choose the cast, divide the play into rehearsal units, and schedule the rehearsals. • You help the actors establish relationships by techniques in positioning and placement. • You evaluate both the total performance, and the work of each actor.

4. Director’s Skills Must see toward final performance Strong visual sense Movement handling Broad knowledge of technical theatre Analysis and interpretation of a play

5. Vision toward Final Performance • A director must inspire, motivate, and focus people of varying talents and personalities toward the fulfillment of that common mission. • Must have concentration, patience, communication, and imagination.

6. Strong Visual Sense • Must have a strong visual sense to create clear, meaningful stage pictures, because balance and proportion in the arrangement of actors on set is vital.

7. Skill at Handling Movement • Must have a skill handling movement—its rhythm, pacing, and style. • Must be able to explain to an actor how and why a particular movement is necessary for a scene, to motivate the actor to perform the movement.

8. Technical Theatre • A broad knowledge of the technical areas of theatre and experience as an actor will make communicating your ideas easier and more productive.

9. Analysis and Interpretation • Most importantly, a director must be able to analyze a play and present an interpretation of it through each stage picture, each movement, each word.