Unify the Stage

I have a first rehearsal tomorrow for Neighborhood 3 at Strawdog Theatre. Right now, I’m in the middle of crafting my first day address. I am of the opinion that the first day address is a crucial point in a director’s process. This is for two major reasons (although I have more secondary reasons): 1.   This talk will get your cast, company, and anyone else in the room all at the same launching point for rehearsals to commence. It also re-establishes and solidifies the work that you’ve done with designers to get to this point. It is the opportunity to declare to everyone what your production of this play will be about, what it will look like, feel like, and why they should be excited about it. (And you hopefully expel their fears about the production, if they have any.)       2.   The crafting of this talk forces the director to articulate what the play is about, what the world of the play is, and why not only to the group but to themselves, and in that articulation, the

I originally wrote this post for the Goodman Theatre's educational outreach blog when I was the Michael Maggio fellow there in 2009-10. They wanted me to write about what it is to be a director, and perhaps a bit about how I've gone about my career. This was my response: I’m often asked what it is a theater director does.  “Do you tell everyone what to do?” my mother asks me.  Others nod their head with some sort of recognition, but then ask me about working on movies.   And most people I encounter assume that a young woman like myself who is involved in theater must be an actress.  I kindly smile and reply that I direct, and they give me a sideways glance and say something polite but non committal.  I assume it is either their lack of knowledge about what a director does or their disbelief that this petit woman before them could actually hold that important-sounding title.  I’m used to it.  I’ve been a director for more than ten years, and while in my early twenties I ofte

And for those of you not familiar with Francesca Zambello, here is her website: http://www.francescazambello.com/

Ghita Hager passed away, here is her obit. She was the first female stage director to direct at the San Francisco Opera in 1968. That opera company now has a woman directing many operas and acting as artistic advisor, the amazing director Francesca Zambello. Although I do not know Hager's work, I thank and admire those who broke ground for woman directors! http://www.oregonlive.com/performance/index.ssf/2012/08/ghita_hager_controversial_oper.html

" Modeled after The Flea Theater’s successful resident company of actors, The Bats (now in its 16th season), this intensive residency program will allow a small team of young directors to work, train and direct in support of The Flea’s season under the supervision of Artistic Director Jim Simpson and The Flea Theater staff. THE   FLEA  IS  NOW   ACCEPTING   APPLICATIONS FOR   THE   DIRECTORS  IN  RESIDENCE PROGRAM An intensive full time Residency in Directing at a leading Off-Off Broadway Theater, this unique program offers a deep hands on, learn while you do it practical entrance to contemporary theater directing and production. The Resident Director program, while being open for all to apply, is suitable only for outstanding young directors, demonstrating exceptional promise and with a minimum of nine months to fully commit to the rigors of a real theatrical environment. This is not an intern program, an assistant directing program, or a workshop where you discuss the id

NY based director Daniel Aukin and his process, as reported by the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/theater/daniel-aukin-director-of-sam-shepards-heartless.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=arts

Russian Theater Director Pyotr Fomenko beautifully remembered in The Moscow Times: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/blogs/432775/post/remembering-pyotr-fomenko/466393.html And a short article in the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/10/theater/pyotr-fomenko-innovative-russian-stage-director-dies-at-80.html?hpw

The thing that continues to strike me as ironic as I teach the history of directing is that commitment to the theater and only the theater is commitment to a moment, in the now, not to making your mark on the future. The directors that are easiest to study are those who wrote replete theories on what theater, directing, and art should be. But perhaps this obscures the great directors who did just that: directed. They didn't write theories down, they didn't publish books on how to direct, they just did their work. This is how I feel about Max Reinhardt. He had a massive career. He directed over 300 (and by some accounts closer to 500) new productions in his lifetime. Between 25-40 a year. He was versatile: he did realism, symbolism, expressionism, and most notably he blended these forms together as the play seemed fit. He is credited with putting Wagner's theories of the "total art work" into practice, he tried to make his theater the ultimate form of words, musi