Unify the Stage

Directors of the world! Have a road trip coming up? Need some podcasting to listen to while you clean your house? Just want to learn a lot by listening? CHECK OUT THIS PODCAST SERIES It's the Stage director's and Choreographers Foundation's Masters of the Stage podcast, and there is so much to listen to and learn... 131 podcasts to catch up on, so get listening!

 Vanity Fair: 3/11/14 Always choose good collaborators. It seems so obvious, but the best collaborators are the ones who disagree with you. It means they’re passionate, they have opinions, and they’ll only ever say yes if they mean it. Try to learn how to make the familiar strange, and the strange familiar. Direct Shakespeare like it’s a new play, and treat every new play as if it’s Shakespeare. If you have the chance, please work with Dame Judi Dench. Learn to say, “I don’t know the answer.” It could be the beginning of a very good day’s rehearsal. Go to the ancient amphitheater at Epidaurus, in Greece. It makes you realize what you are a part of, and it will change the way you look at the world. If you’re an artist, you will feel central, and you will never feel peripheral again. Avoid, please, all metaphors of plays or films as “pinnacles” or “peaks”; treat with absolute scorn the word “definitive”; and if anyone uses the word “masterpiece,” they don’t know what they’re doing. T...

On today's blog, I'm excited to post that Katie Mitchell is also a total directing history nerd...and to prove it, she created this exhibit at the V&A. And it was two years ago, but it's new to me: she makes 5 videos of Ophelia in the style of great directors: Artaud, Brook, Brecht, Grotowski, & Stanislavski. It's just like my directing history class, only maybe cooler.

I was struck by this article in the New York Times about Frank Castorf, famous German director, and his new production of The Ring Cycle at Bayreuth. First off, to direct at Bayreuth is an honor. The festival theater was built FOR The Ring Cycle, under the genius of Wagner himself, who is credited with pushing along and defining the role of the director in the modern theater. And Frank Castorf is no unknown. He's run the Volksbrune theater in Berlin since 1992 and is known for his avante-guarde work. (I saw his Medea when I was in Berlin in 2009, the theater was being renovated so it was staged on the front steps of the theater:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESGluUOXDlc ) So when a director known for their desecration of text and insane directorial concepts is hired to direct THE RING CYCLE what do you expect? Sure, parts of it sound horrible to me. And sure, the audience booed. And there he stood, pointing at them. He wanted to make them angry. It's what he does! So...

In A Director Prepares , Anne Bogart describes getting the German theater magazine Theater heute and drinking it in, how it expanded her ideas of theater, how it inspired her to learn German, and how she eventually directed in Germany. The director's theater of Germany is truly outstanding and mind blowing. The artistry of the director is paramount in the German theater and opera, and while for many it's too much, learning about it (instead of writing it off) can help expand our own directing ideas and creativity. And now, with the magic of google translate, you can even read it online in English (broken google translate English, but it's pretty awesome) http://www.kultiversum.de/Schauspiel-Theaterheute/ Take advantage of expanding your horizons via the internet!

You should know who George Abbott was, because he was a legend. The man lived to be 107. He first directed on Broadway in 1913, and directed almost to his death. He made a few movies, he was known for the "Abbott Touch" which caused hits. He is known for using young, malleable actors, so he could shape them. Here's a great little tidbit from the New York Times in 1989. Google him. Look around. He directed all the musicals you've ever heard of. Enjoy.

So I've been contemplating this award application that I have to turn in soon. I was up for it last year and received an honorable mention so I get to apply again. And I was looking through my writing from last year and this amazing thing hit me: I want to rewrite my artist statement. This might not sound like a big deal to everyone, but it is to me. My artist statement, while it's had revisions, deletions, and additions in the past, has been basically the same since I wrote it in late 2006. And I have believed whole heartedly in it every time I've turned it in for an application. But here I am, suddenly, in 2013, wanting to chuck most of it and rewrite! This is both exciting and frightening, as the last one helped me receive lots of awards and fellowships. It was well written. I remember being incredibly inspired the day I did the first draft and I have felt so good about it. But more importantly to the writing, what this means is, something changed for me this yea...