Directing Copyright © 2000 Robert C. Huber After actors, directors are the most recognizable of dramatic artists. Whereas most Americans would have great difficulty naming any contemporary dramatists, most can name several directors, albeit most likely from the world of film. Directors are the newest dramatic artists to have emerged historically, tracing their roots only to the nineteenth century. The more complex the production process became, the more necessary it was for a manager to come forward to organize and guide it. With the advent of film, the emerging directors found their true home. Film, even more than theatre, demands such an organizational head to control its many phases and dispersed operations.
DIGRESSION: A Short History of Directing
While the title of director is fairly recent, some of the functions of the director have been handled by others in the past. In ancient Greece the playwright himself was expected to rehearse the actors and chorus, although specialists ultimately emerged to train the choruses. Later, in the middle ages, performers banded together in traveling troupes under the control of a leading actor. This custom continued through the Renaissance and into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, ultimately becoming known as the actor-manager system. The actor-manager was the star and owner of the company. He kept all profits after paying the others' salaries and covering expenses. Since he was the boss, he got to make many of the artistic decisions that are now the duty of modern directors.
The first modern director is often said to be George II (1826-1914), the duke of Saxe-Meiningen, a part of what is now Germany. He lived in an age when the states of Germany were not united, and each duchy had its own hereditary leader. As the head of state he had little to do, and like other idle playboy leaders, took up an expensive hobby. Some of his kind raised race horses or collected art, but George was a theatre nut. He decided to build his own theatre, and form his own acting company. Now at this time plays were written in such a way that characters fell into certain narrowly defined types. Actors conformed to this situation by specializing as one of these types. The method of playing these characters became so highly conventionalized that actors needed little guidance on how to do what was called their line of business. In fact, they resented anyone telling them what to do. In George's case, since he was the head of state and his actors his subjects, he had no such problem. This was fortuitous since he had very good theatre ideas indeed. The Duke, like many Germans, had a deep appreciation of Shakespeare, and so chose as his premiere production Julius Caesar. Contrary to the standard practice of the day, he spent a great deal of time in planning his production, going so far as to create a notebook which contained detailed drawings of how each scene would be staged-not unlike a modern movie storyboard. He did thorough historic research on the costumes, weapons, and architecture of ancient Rome, and commissioned the finest artisans in his realm to create them. When all was prepared, the result stunned his contemporaries. No one had ever taken such care and expense in mounting a play, nor in exerting such artistic control over actors. His company toured throughout Europe and helped spread the idea that a strong central managing artist could make a tremendous difference when staging plays.
The Director: Manager and Artist
All directors function in two very different modes: manager and artist. These two modes come and go, and often overlap during the life of a project. They also vary somewhat between the worlds of theatre, film, and television. As manager, the director is in charge of an organization which is called a production. In larger productions such as the typical film, television program, or Broadway play, management responsibilities are shared with producers. But in medium or small projects such as independent film or regional theatre the director may be the ultimate boss. In this case the director may have to manage the budget, handle all personnel matters, and create a marketing strategy. The late Stanley Kubrick, a notorious control-freak, even planned the television commercials for his last film, Eyes Wide Shut.
As artist, the director's work falls into three categories: critic, creator, and conductor. In the first phase of a project the director must analyze the script to determine its structure, theme, and purpose. This is essentially an exercise in dramatic criticism. Unless the author is present, the director must become the ultimate authority on the text. This kind of in-depth knowledge can only come from close, careful, repeated, reading and research. The director must also be able to communicate this information to the actors and designers-also a function of criticism. Having reached an understanding of the text, the director must then translate these ideas into a vision of a fully formed physical production. This is the creative phase. The director must establish the style and shape of all the elements that make up a finished work. Much of the communication of this vision is accomplished in discussions or character conferences with actors, and in design meetings with technical artists.
Finally there is the conducting phase. This is the function of directing that lay people are most familiar with. It is most obvious in film where the director on his folding canvas chair, megaphone in hand, shouts commands to actors and technicians. This phase occurs when the stage director gives encouragement and corrections from a darkened auditorium, or puts his arm around an actor offering advice or sympathy. In this role his function is not unlike that of the conductor of an orchestra who coordinates, cajoles, interprets, and sets the tempo for his players--driving the creation of the piece with the force of his will and personality.
Director as Critic
Most directors are very comfortable dealing with the written word because of their formal training or long experience, or both. They have learned to read past a script to see the fully realized production beyond it. They also sense the bones of the piece, its essential structure and how each of the parts work together. Because of the essential differences between stage and screen, theatre scripts tend to be more literary and film and television scripts tend to be more visual. Theatre scripts contain more dialogue and are generally longer. Film and television scripts depend more on action and background to tell their stories, so contain more description. Theatre directors must determine how the dialogue can be translated into action, and film directors must determine how each moment will relate to the camera.
Script analysis has two phases. In the first phase the director attempts to understand what the author had in mind. In the second phase the director decides how to interpret the script based on his own artistic impulses. The trick is to put your own unique stamp on the project without violating the intentions of the author. Remember, dramatic art is both collaborative and interpretational. This means that to be fully realized, a script must be interpreted and expressed through the collaboration of a team of creative artists including the director, actors, and designers. In this regard, the director's contribution may be described as his concept. Once the director has decided on a concept for the production, it must guide all the other creative artists who work under him. In film, the director must also transform the screenplay into a shooting script. The shooting script adds all the camera set-ups and other technical details to the dialogue.
Director as Creator
Concept involves both style and purpose, and style has both personal and conventional dimensions. Personal style has to do with the director's own tastes, likes, and dislikes. It is difficult to describe, but easy to see. For example, films by Spike Lee and Woody Allen even if not labeled are easily recognized by those who are familiar with their work. Their personal directorial style is that clear. Plays directed by Julie Taymor, such as The Lion King, clearly reveal her personal interest in puppetry. Style can also be conventional, conforming to or influenced by patterns that have been established in the past. For example, stage directors often use styles established in the art world to help shape their productions. Such styles include impressionism, expressionism, dada, pop, or minimalism. This can even extend to the work of a particular artist such as Grant Wood in the original production of Oklahoma, or the German illustrator Giger in the Alien series of films. Conventional style can also be expressed through theatre history or tradition, as when Shakespeare is produced in the original Elizabethan style, or Sondheim's musical Assassins as a kind of vaudeville. However, when the matter of style first arises, the fundamental question that is most often asked is: "Will it be realistic, or nonrealistic?"
Realism
It is difficult to think of realism as a style because it so pervades every aspect of the dramatic arts today. We can't see the forest because of the trees. How many film or television dramas can you think of that aren't realistic? As a literary and dramatic movement, Realism developed in the nineteenth century. The concept can be somewhat confusing since what is realistic to people is relative. For instance, some who went to the theatre in the late 1700s wrote in their journals about how "realistic" an actor's performance was. Yet, we know from other sources that such acting would seem very artificial if seen today. Originally, Realism as a movement had more to do with subject matter than style. The Realists sought to overturn the fantasy and idealism of Romanticism which had dominated the stage since the eighteenth century. There had also been a long tradition that prohibited the treatment of subject matter on the stage that was distasteful, morally objectionable, or controversial. Playwrights such as Emile Zola and Henrik Ibsen pioneered the breaking of these traditions by treating such previously taboo topics as marital infidelity, prostitution, venereal disease, and divorce. This shockingly "realistic" subject matter clashed with the rather artificial acting and staging practices of the day. Soon directors were experimenting with more realistic styles of acting and scenery to better match these subjects. The most extreme form of realism was Naturalism. The Naturalists argued for what we might call today documentary drama--plays that featured stories taken from case histories with dialogue transcribed from actual conversation. While this movement (circa 1880) was short-lived, it was to have lasting impact in the area of staging. The ideal naturalist scenery was a room and its contents that had been entirely removed from an actual building and set up on stage. This extreme degree of fidelity to real life is taken for granted today in film and television, and when it appears on stage is called kitchen sink realism.
Nonrealism
What then is nonrealism? Essentially anything that departs from realism. It is really a rather inexact term which includes the isms borrowed from the visual arts mentioned previously, as well as any specific nonrealistic elements that may appear within an otherwise realistic production--the singing and dancing in a musical such as Miss Saigon, for example. Realism and nonrealism usually interplay as in the case of the classic American play, Our Town. Most of the text and acting are very realistic, but the scenery (practically nonexistent) and staging (with a talking stage manager) are quite nonreal. Such blending is often referred to as heightened, selective, or fragmentary realism. In truth, both realism and nonrealism can best be understood as opposite poles on a spectrum of style. At the realistic end we have its most extreme form, naturalism. At the nonrealistic end we might find expressionism, the most subjective of all performance styles. Between we have the whole range from heightened realism to the most fantastic and theatrical of hybrids.
A word is in order about fantasy. Fantasy as a style is not necessarily nonrealism. This is particularly evident in the film genre of science-fiction. While the Star Wars series is certainly a fantasy, director George Lucas went to great lengths to make it as realistic as film magic would allow. Recently, television and film producers have become obsessed with vampires, witches, and ghosts. While the subject may be fantasy, the style is unvaryingly realistic. On the other hand, the stage productions of the American playwright-director Robert Wilson, such as his recent Monsters of Grace 1.0 which played at UCLA, was as close to pure nonrealism as can be imagined. His productions have a meditative or dreamlike quality in which all the traditional elements of staging and dramaturgy are turned on their ear.
Purpose
Another aspect of the director's concept is purpose. In the chapter on criticism we looked at the various purposes that playwrights and screenwriters might have when they create their scripts. While the director must be aware of these purposes, he is not obligated to promote them. This is particularly true when it comes to reviving older plays and classics. In fact, a common rule of thumb is that the older a play, the greater the latitude for changing not only the purpose, but other elements as well. One example might be Zola's nineteenth century novel, Les Misérables, which was adapted as a musical in 1985. Zola's purpose in writing this book was to expose the dehumanizing living conditions suffered by the poor of France in the 1800s. The dramatized version had to find another purpose since the original "problem" of the piece had been solved. However, directors may not change the lines of copyrighted material without the permission of the playwright or his heirs. Only material in the public domain (50 years after the author's death) may be altered. Even so, it is considered bad form to make such changes, especially in regard to classics like Shakespeare. When textual changes are made in Shakespeare's works, they are cuts and rearrangement of scenes, never rewriting of speeches. On the other hand, when plays are translated from another language into English, words that are dated can be modernized to assist the audience in understanding them.
Director as Conductor
Earlier I used the metaphor of the orchestral conductor to give a sense of the last phase of the director's work. However, that metaphor breaks down when it comes to performance. Whereas the orchestral conductor takes center stage during the performance, the director of dramatic artworks is finished before the performance, and is never seen by the audience. The director's "conducting" is mainly done during rehearsal, and in the case of film and television, during shooting and editing.
Selection of Material
Another conductorial duty of the director is the selection of material to be presented. In the theatre, this will depend on who the director is working for. On Broadway, the producer selects the play and a director is hired to direct it, and this is sometimes the case in regional theatre as well. But it is also common in regional theatre for the director to be a part of the permanent staff of the company. In this case the director may suggest or select the play. In the case of non-English plays, the director may select a particular translation of the piece. It should almost go without saying that to be successful, a director must have a strong attraction to the script. It is not always love at first sight; sometimes the director must find a connection to the script. Art is so personal an enterprise that any artist who is emotionally disconnected from the material is doomed to failure.
In the theatre, directors are often assisted in both script selection and analysis by a literary manager or dramaturg. The term dramaturg comes from Germany where this function was popularized. Dramaturgs are found most often in the regional theatre where they are a permanent part of the staff. Among their duties are to review scripts that are submitted for production, to recommend specific plays, and to advise the director on the literary aspects of the production. When the playwright is present, which is usually the case in first productions, the dramaturg will work with the author as well.
Casting
It is difficult to overstate the importance of casting in the creation of dramatic art. One way to understand this is by looking at the meaning of the word itself. To cast is to form into a shape by pouring liquid into a mold and letting it harden. This is why the word was applied to selecting actors to play roles. A good actor, like a fluid, can conform to many shapes, and a role is like the mold. It also recognizes that each actor, like each liquid, is unique--that once the actors are selected, the production will be defined and limited by their individual qualities. The selection of cast is the single most important choice that a director will make.
How does a director decide which actor is right for a role? Casting usually involves the following elements:
In amateur plays and student or smaller independent films talent and acting skill is something that must be screened for in an audition. Talent is normally considered a "given" at the professional level-anyone who is being seriously considered can act well. Type has to do with what actors looks like and the range of characters they can believably portray. Market or "bankability" has to do with the popularity or star quality of an actor-how much money he or she can be counted on to bring to the box office. The top five stars in this category for 1999 were: Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, and Jim Carrey. The top woman was Julia Roberts at number eight. This market aspect of casting is much more evident in film and television projects than in the theatre.
Rehearsal
In the theatre, most of a director's time is devoted to rehearsal. The French word for rehearsal is répéticion, which describes much of what goes on. What happens specifically during a rehearsal will depend on the nature of the play and the personal style of the director. Sometimes the actors are allowed plenty of time and freedom to explore and experiment with their characters. Indeed, one of the most important duties of a director is to maintain a "safe" environment during rehearsals in which actors feel free to take risks in the creation of their characters. On other occasions the director might give the actors very specific blocking and other instructions at the first rehearsal. Actors are usually given a deadline by which time they are expected to be off book--having learned their lines and blocking. Plays are usually rehearsed in small fragments at first. There is much stopping and starting, discussion, and repetition. Then, as these individual sections begin to take shape, they are combined and rehearsed as full scenes. Near the end of the rehearsal period, the scenes are combined for uninterrupted run-throughs of complete acts. At this point the director is more likely to give notes to the actors at the completion of scenes or acts rather than by interrupting them in progress. In the case of musicals, separate rehearsals are conducted by choreographers and music directors. Finally, the director begins to shape the entire piece by focusing on such overall elements as pace, tempo, and rhythm.
The last step in preparing a play is the introduction of the design elements during technical rehearsals. While there are variations in practice depending upon the play, theatre, and level of production, the following pattern is fairly typical. The first tech usually involves adding the actual scenery and props that will be used. In the case of a multi-set show, this will include coordinating the changing of scenery with the movements of the actors. The second tech adds the lighting and sound cues. The third and fourth techs involve adding costumes and make up and are called dress rehearsals. Finally, a test or preview audience is admitted in order to make final adjustments based on their reactions. At this point, the director's contractual obligations normally end. Although in the case of long-run shows the director may be required to check back periodically to ensure the integrity of the piece--that actors are not making gratuitous changes.
In television, especially episodic dramas and sitcoms, rehearsals are much shorter. For example, the television series Homicide: Life on the Streets, was filmed on location in Baltimore. Often different directors are hired for each episode. A director for Homicide was on the job for only fourteen days: seven days of pre-production planning, and seven twelve-hour days of shooting. They had no "real" rehearsals at all, only walk-throughs with the camera. This is possible for three reasons: the lead actors have already created their characters and relationships, many of the sets are the same, and the script itself is shorter than a play. To finish on schedule they must shoot six to eight pages per day as compared to from two to three pages which is common in film. In film, rehearsals are held in piecemeal fashion because the shooting takes place over several months in many different locations. In both film and television, actors need less time to learn their lines since each shot is only a short piece of the script. Actors have time between set-ups to study their next lines.
Unions
There are two unions that represent directors in the United States: the Directors Guild of America and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.
SSDC
The Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers was founded in 1959, comparatively late in the union movement. This was because for many years directors were seen more as management than as worker-artists. At the outset it was little more than a support organization because the producers refused to recognize it as a legitimate bargaining agent. This finally changed in 1972 when the late Bob Fosse refused to move his very popular show, Little Me, to Broadway without a union contract. One producer was unwilling to forgo the certain profit that this show would guarantee for the sake of principal, so agreed to recognize Fosse's union. After that the SSDC became the officially recognized union for all directors. The SSDC currently has several contract categories ranging from Broadway to the smallest regional theatre, and represents over 1,000 director members nationwide.
Stage directors are paid according to the level of contract under which they are working. The SSDC has negotiated a contract divided into four categories with the League of Resident Theatres (LORT). Let's take a medium sized regional theatre as an example: South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California. SCR has two theatres, the larger considered a category "B" contract house because it grosses between $33,000 and $56,000 in box office income per week. Its smaller theatre takes in less than $18,000 per week so is under a category "D" contract. A director working in the Main Stage "B" Theatre (507 seats) is guaranteed a four-week rehearsal period at a rate of $8,000 per week. The same director working on the smaller Second Stage "D" theatre (161 seats) is guaranteed only a three-week rehearsal at $2,750 per week. Since stage directors will be lucky to do four to five productions per year, you can see that their income on the LORT circuit could range anywhere from about $40,000 to $160,000 per year. The reason that they are limited is that they must devote several weeks to research before going "on the clock," and that there are usually periods of dead time between bookings. Broadway contracts are substantially larger, and there are others in between, so pay can vary widely. Most directors must lead gypsy lives, traveling from job to job, city to city. They may be doing an off-Broadway show one month, and a regional theatre production in Seattle the next. Remember that contract amounts are minimums, so the top directors can command much more.
DGA
The Directors Guild of America represents not only film and television directors, but assistant directors, production managers, and stage managers as well. An offer of employment by a signatory company is sufficient for membership. The Guild negotiated its first contract in 1939 and today represents over 10,000 members working throughout the world. Like the other arts unions it affords its membership minimum wages, working conditions, health and pension benefits, and legal representation. It has had only one nationwide strike (1987) which lasted only three hours before an agreement was signed with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Salaries vary tremendously depending upon job category, project budget, and of course fame. Directors may also receive residual payments whenever their pictures are reused on videocassette, pay television, cable, or free television. Working conditions for film directors are somewhat less disruptive than stage directors since much of the industry is in one location: Hollywood. Although film directors may shoot on location, most pre- and post-production work can be local.
Superstar directors of the Steven Spielberg and George Lucas variety command colossal salaries. In many cases they produce and write as well as direct which boosts income even further. In many cases such directors earn most of their money through ownership of a percentage of the income of the picture. James Cameron of Titanic fame was so confident of the film's ultimate success that he worked without an up-front salary, then later made millions on a percentage of the film's income. On the more down to earth level, the DGA minimum for directing a one-hour episode of a television dramatic series is $24,200--about two weeks' work.
Training
Since theatre is delivered to its audience without an intervening layer of technology, we might call it a direct mode. Therefore theatre directors need only know about text and actors. The theatre is heavy on literature and philosophy, so as the head of a production, directors need to know more about the script than anyone else they supervise. Stage directors also need to know a great deal about actors and acting before beginning to direct. It takes a while to accumulate this knowledge, so many directors end up with both undergraduate and graduate degrees in theatre arts. They get most of their specific directorial training and experience at the graduate school level, often earning a Master of Fine Arts degree in directing.
Film and television are indirect modes, therefore its directors must know about the additional layer of cameras and editing as well. Many film directors start off by learning the basics of text, actor, and staging by attending a college theatre arts program with an emphasis in directing. Those who wish to specialize in film go on to a graduate program at a film school such as UCLA, USC, or NYU. The prestigious American Film Institute (AFI) of Los Angeles will not even accept anyone who has not completed a B.A. in the field. While in graduate school, directors learn the specifics of making movies. On the other hand, some film directors do go directly to film school as undergraduates, and learn about text, actors, and staging by trial and error while in the process of making student films.
Reading Assignment
You should be reading Chapter 8 in your textbook to get more information about the director and the producer. By now you should know the routine. After studying the chapter go to the online quiz at:
Take the quiz and send the answers back to me as directed at the bottom of the quiz
Lecture Exercise
A stage director who directed twice under a LORT "D" contract and once under a "B" contract in one year would earn at least the following amount for that year. Assume the minimum number of guaranteed rehearsal weeks.
a) $18,000 / b) $33,000 / c) $40,500 / d) $48,500 / e) $56,000
If you show your math I can guide you if you are wrong and need to redo your work.Note that when submitting the answer start the subject line with:
TH101DE -- YourFirst&LastName -- L-10
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