To this end, a large part of the director’s job is creating the right atmosphere for the cast to work in. I believe that rehearsals should be fun, as well as being hard work, and that the cast should be able to have a laugh together. For this production we went to the extent of taking the cast out of the rehearsal room for two days, and all going together to a small cottage in the middle of Snowdonia. The difference after the two days was quite impressive, despite the fact that we had only worked on the play for about five hours while away. Most of our time had been spent playing silly games, walking up rain-sodden mountains, and taking daft photos of each other. But we had become a group of friends who knew better each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and who could enjoy working with each other.
It is my belief that the director’s job is not to come up with all the ideas for a production, but to listen to all involved and to incorporate everyone’s best ideas, while maintaining a cohesive feel for the play. Before the rehearsal process begins I tend to know how I want the play to feel, or what I want the audience to feel when watching the play, although I have no exact ideas how it will look. Each actor works differently, and until they are there in front of you, you cannot presuppose how they will move, speak or use their face to express ideas. When Stewart (our designer) gets angry (which is very rare) he shouts. When I get angry (which is slightly less rare) my voice lowers to a whisper. We are both livid, anyone watching can see that we are both about to explode, and yet we are both acting in a completely different manner. It is exactly the same on stage, and the director’s job is to observe the actors and to encourage them to react in a way which feels comfortable to them.
The director is the audience. He or she sees what the audience will be seeing, and has to judge whether the actors are giving out the right signals. There are no clearly defined roles for the director, and no hard and fast rules that have to be followed. However, there are a couple of ‘jobs’ which the director definitely has to do. The first of these is ensuring that the actors understand the lines and why they are saying them. This is often done through discussion – the whole cast will sit down to talk about ideas and what individual characters mean by individual lines. The director is also in charge of ‘blocking’ the piece. This simply means putting the actors into positions on the stage. At its most simple level blocking is needed to ensure that actors aren’t standing in front of each other, or hiding behind the set.
However, movement and placement of people can often, quite subconsciously, tell the audience a lot about a character’s frame of mind, his or her status, and relationship to other on stage. After this, the director is there to help the actors, to underline particular passages, to do….well I’m not terribly sure really! Each production is different and as a director I have done everything from teach people how to cry, to standing on someone’s feet for an hour in order to stop them moving. The director is there to make sure that the audience see exactly what the company want to portray.
I am also playing the role of Capulet in this production. Normally directing and acting in the same production is a recipe for disaster, and it is usually the acting that suffers because that ability to watch as a member of the audience is lost. One of the only reasons that I chose to act in this show is that I have such a strong assistant director in Matt Bartlett, but generally I would advise in the strongest possible terms against acting and directing in the same production.
It is my firm belief that the director is there to ensure that the production
as a whole holds together, and works as a cohesive whole. I think it is vital
that a director knows what it is like to be on stage or to work as a stage-manager,
how to rig a lantern or work a sound desk as the director must bring all these
disciplines together. It is impossible to work successfully with somebody
if you have no idea what their job entails. The job is about co-operation
– working with talented people, and pushing each other to get the best
out of both.