What is a director?
A director is a leader who collaborates with a theatre company to create a production.
What are two levels of the director's process?
Technical levelArtistic level
This involves scheduling the work process and supervising the acting, designing and staging. The director inspires a theatre creation at this level
The artistic level
During this phase it was the director's task to simply transmit knowledge to others. The director was to pass along the accumulated wisdom and techniques of a correct performance.
This phase is described as the teacher-director phase. It is also known as the first phase in the history of directing
During this phase the director worked toward creating an ensemble rather than focusing on the star players. These directors were idealists who sought to make the theatre a powerful social and artistic instrument for expression of truth.
This is the realistic director phase and is also known as the second phase in the history of directing
The aim was primarily a theatrical and original production. The director is unrestrained by rigid formulas with respect to verisimilitude.
This is the antirealism phase and is also known as the third phase in the history of directing
Instead of teaching what is "proper" the contemporary director creates what is stimulating and wondrous. Also the current phase of directing.
The contemporary director. The contemporary director fully synthesizes the script, design and performance into a unique theatrical event.
What are three characteristics or traits a director look for when casting?
Personality, physical and vocal characteristics, technical abilities, and presence.
What should a director consider before selecting a play for production?
Interest in the play, whether that be the theme, characters, topic, language, plot or style.What is the interest of the intended audience?Capability to produce the production as conceptualized.
Tthe central idea, which provides focus for the production.
A director's concept
What is the difference between a core concept and a high concept?
A core concept is the director's determination of the most important of the many images, ideas, and emotions that should emerge from the play. When a director uses a high concept, they place the entire play within a context not hinted at in the script.
The director spends most of his or her time coaching actors. What does this involve?
Discussions, improvisations, games, exercises, lectures, research, blocking, polishing.
What does blocking mean for a director working with actors?
Major movements such as entrances, exits, crossing the stage are blocking basics. The director must consider the scenic design to make decisions about the timing and placement of a character's entrances, exits, crosses, embraces, and other major movements.
Business refers to the small-scale movements a character performs. Describe an example of stage business as performed by an actor/character.
Mixing a cocktail, answering a telephone, adjusting a tie, shaking hands, fiddling with a pencil, winking an eye, etc.
What is the small-scale movements a character preforms?
Business
What is directorial composition as used by a director to stage a play?
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What refers to a production's rhythm?
Pace. It is sometimes confused with the speed of an actor's delivery. The pace should be determined largely by the quantity and quality of the information it conveys to the audience. Setting the production's pace is the director's responsibility.
This occurs near the end of the rehearsal process as the play comes closer to production time, but before the actors apply make-up.
Technical rehearsals