Director respondsibilities
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Directing
Forum Discription: For questions about handling shows, actors, crew, board members, children ...or do we repeat ourselves?
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2218
Printed Date: 11/23/24 at 3:30pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Director respondsibilities
Posted By: dramasign
Subject: Director respondsibilities
Date Posted: 1/17/07 at 11:11am
| I just became a board member for our CT and am now on a committee to make a list of director respondsibilities. Can any one tell me a web site that might have just a list? Or any ideas on what to put on the list would be great!! |
Replies:
Posted By: Nanette
Date Posted: 1/17/07 at 12:48pm
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There's a good link at AACT.org (American Association of Community Theatre) that explains the tasks and responsibilities for actors, directors, designers, etc.
http://www.aact.org/people/ - http://www.aact.org/people/ ------------- In a world of margarine, be butter! |
Posted By: avcastner
Date Posted: 1/19/07 at 3:17pm
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For a director, the responsibilities I would require as a producer and expect as a director:
1. The right to be in auditions (I've read some real horror stories about other groups on this site) 2. Final say in casting the show3. Final agreement on choice of stage manager.
4. Provide an overall concept essay or meeting with the designers, providing at the very least where they invision entrances and different levels.
5. Coming to rehearsals completely prepared to rehearse--even if they don't set out their blocking in advance, they should be so well read in the scene that they don't look like they are floundering.
6. Be well-versed enough in the script to encourage the actors to discover motivation--sometimes the director may even have to state it.
7. Inspire actors to become their characters.
8. With the stage manager, maintain rehearsal diligence so the play can happen.
9. Oversee the artistic end of the rehearsal so that the play can be polished and paced properly.
10. Constant communication with designers in regards to cues, colors, etc.--perhaps via the stage manager.
11. Take a step back after tech rehearsals and let the stage manager handle it from this point forward. ------------- |
Posted By: Jim_L
Date Posted: 4/12/07 at 8:10am
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You forgot one...
12. Take the script that the author has worked incredibly hard on and throw out all the hard thought out stage and lighting directions for the characters and insert your own that make no sense and destroy the storyline, cut out lines of dialog important to the story and characters and insert your own that make no sense and are just plain stupid and good for a cheap laugh and constantly agrue with the author about how such and such a direction and/or lines of new dialog would just be so much better than what was originally written but not take it upon yourself to just go and write a script yourself if your so much better at it than the author who's work you raved over when you first read the script...
And do all this very loudly in front of the author and the cast with no regard for the authors opinion...
oh, one more thing, read the script at each rehersal as if it's the first time (it's ok, stare at it, take your time... no need to take notes beforehand and work out all the details prior to rehersals) then ignore it and do whatever you want (like block it all wrong and help destroy the story and continuity) because your so much better at telling the authors story than he/she is...
Did I miss anything?
It's no wonder playwrights get a bad name for being protective of their stories... what do we know anyway? We just wrote the thing...
-Jim ------------- 
http://home.comcast.net/~castle.walls/tavern/ |
Posted By: POB14
Date Posted: 4/12/07 at 9:11am
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Jim, I agree with 95% of what you've said (although I would guess few of us on this forum have had the opportunity to work directly with an author). However, as I'm sure you're aware, a published script of an established play often has stage directions and such that make no sense for another production. Many times these are NOT the work of the author, but are taken from the Broadway prompt book, and reflect the set and concept of the original production. Some publishers are worse about this than others. Often you can tell; a stage direction written by Shaw, Miller, or Williams is unmistakeable. Sometimes you can't. Anyway, some directors of some shows will simply tell actors to cross out everything in parentheses, for this very reason.
I realize that you (Jim) are referring to stage directions that you wrote, and that everybody else knows you wrote, for very good reason. I just don't want less experienced people to read your message and think their production has to follow every cue and stage direction in a published script blindly; I'm sure that's not what you meant. ------------- POB Old Bugger, Curmudgeon, and Antisocial B**tard |
Posted By: Jim_L
Date Posted: 4/12/07 at 9:53am
|
I understand perfectly about stage directions, based mostly on the size and if the required stage set can be somewhat recreated per the design the author had in mind. Things need to be adjusted for the situation. But if a stage direction says 'everyone runs to the door to escape the fire about to engulf them in the restaurant' (fer' instance...) and the director says to ignore that and sit around the table and continue eating... well, that's the kind of situation I'm talking about. The 'director' changes the thing to suit their own 'vision' of what the story should be. Well, the next scene would say something like "Roy runs up to Mary who just came outside, coughing from the smoke" now if Mary is still inside dying a horrible death - whats Roy to do? And then the director wonders why Roy is waiting to do something. The example is a bit far out but the intent is the same. Change one thing and all that comes afterward is ruined and makes no sense. It stops being the story the author wrote. Directions are there for a purpose and are an integral part of the script. The director may know their stage better than the author but it should be the directors sole purpose to bring the script to life the best way possible in their venue, not change the story to suit their own desires & ideas. If they can't, they shouldn't be doing the script.
So again, I'm referring to specific stage directions that are integral to the story - don't have a character laugh when they should cry. When a character is supposed to leave the scene, don't have them stay. If everyone is supposed to move stage right, don't spread them out across the stage for the sake of 'balance'.
Don't change a single word of the dialog because some twit in the audience might be offended and complain because they have nothing better to do with their life - a single word, "Your" was changed to "The" and ruined the line and turned something funny and well thought out into a cheap joke that I will be credited for. But, we don't want to insult anyone now do we? But that's ok, it's not the directors name that will follow the script around afterwards...
If the thing fails, it should be because of what I've written not because of alterations & modifications done by someone else.
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http://home.comcast.net/~castle.walls/tavern/ |
Posted By: POB14
Date Posted: 4/12/07 at 10:14am
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Jim, it sounds like you've been burned by a director who thought he was an author, and that's wrong. Obviously if you write "Mary exits" and the director has Mary stay around, that's rewriting. I don't think anybody here would disagree with that.
But what about more borderline situations, some of which you've listed? What if the script says, "Muffy rises, bangs her fist on the table, and shouts: 'I'm going to kill you!' "? What if I, as the director, and the actress playing Muffy, think it serves the production best for her to stay seated, caress her nail file, and say the line in a quiet, icy tone?
Edit to clarify: she says the line word for word as written.
I think the latter is perfectly appropriate, and within the purview of the director. Do you disagree? Others on the forum, am I off base here? ------------- POB Old Bugger, Curmudgeon, and Antisocial B**tard |
Posted By: Shatcher
Date Posted: 4/12/07 at 1:27pm
| No POB I think you are right. I am not sure I have ever used the stage directions in the script. I read them but every house is different. Not that I think it is right but the playwrite has little or no control over the finished show. Screenwriters have no control over the finished film. They sell the script and the studio can do whatever they want with it. The nature of a play is that is is interputed by the company doing the show. I think this is the great part of theatre seeing what someone else makes of what was writen. That does not mean I think writers should just shut up and take it but it does happen all the time. I think fewer new plays would get done if writers were not open to suggestion on how to improve the script. I think the only time a writer can control it is with the first production, and then only if they put up the $$$ themselves. |
Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 4/12/07 at 2:06pm
No, you're entirely correct IMHO. |
Posted By: Topper
Date Posted: 4/12/07 at 3:41pm
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Having been on both sides of the fence as a playwright and a director (sometimes on the same show), the only advice I have to offer is this:
"Choose your battles."
If you're going to quarrel with the director over EVERY line, EVERY piece of blocking and EVERY bit of stage directions, eventually he will realize he is incapable of pleasing you and will stop seeking your input or tune you out altogether. From the tone of your post, it appears this is what has happened.
There may be some things that are VITAL to your vision of the script and other things that are less so. It's selecting the IMPORTANT moments and fighting for them, not nit-picking about everything that isn't "exactly" as you wrote it. Notice the word is spelled "playWRIGHT," not "playwrite" or "playright." Plays are not WRITTEN, plays are WROUGHT -- like iron. It takes a lot of banging from all directions to shape them into something useful. And, also, you cannot possibly always be RIGHT! You have your vision for the script; the director has his. The actors also might have opinions. The designers might need to make alterations as well. If you cannot agree or come to some sort of compromise, then you're naturally going to feel cheated, angered, humiliated, frustrated, etc.
Of course, if the director is a complete and utter HACK or LOON (which is possible) it doesn't mean that whatever "improvements" he may have added are anything you must KEEP.
It's still YOUR script. Hopefully, it will be produced again someday and then moreso to your liking.
------------- "None of us really grow up. All we ever do is learn how to behave in public." -- Keith Johnstone |
Posted By: Jim_L
Date Posted: 4/13/07 at 4:47pm
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POB14, it would depend what happens next in the script, if that character was supposed to then go postal for the rest of the scene then no, sitting there dark and menacing while delivering the line wouldn't work... other than that I don't see a problem but again, if it screws up what comes after... whether it be the next immediate scene or is referenced later on scenes later "Yeah, Muffy went berserk in the restaurant and had to be carried out and sedated!" when in fact she didn't... kinda puts a dent in the story... As for lines said as written, the author expects them to be said unless someone drops a line and improv's a save...
Shatcher, I've been open to suggestions, if there were any...
Topper, if the director likes your script and tells you so and then doesn't say anything else, then you would be led to believe that he likes it because of what he's (or she...;>) read, not because of what he thinks he can change. If the director is that good at stories, then he'd be a writer...
am I wrong? As for directorial visions, if the initial vision of the author isn't good enough then don't do it. Why would someone want to produce something that they can't initially 'see' from the script?
What's more, I wrote it for the school drama group to save them money so i'm very familiar with the auditorium and stage and everything was designed around it. This is not a haphazard production that the director picked out of a hat. It was good enough for him to want to do it then but as time went on it seemed to become less so and that's another thing that upsets me - he should have said something before this all started, but there was no mention of concerns on his part, just accolades.
Here's the last email to me from the director:
This is perhaps the best show the Players have staged since Little Shop,
twelve years ago. Musically, it is as solid. As far as comedy, I don't remember when I have laughed more. I blame all that on you. Your script works, and Wednesday night proves it, if only that the consummate theater perfectionist, Sharyn said to me with tears still in her eyes from Act 2, that she doesn't remember laughing like that for quite some time. I have not had more fun doing any show. I have not been more comfortable working with anyone. This might be the best show I've been involved with, and all the more remarkable because I had so little to do with its success. Everyone involved has had a blast and believes in what we're doing. You have undone all the damage that the Music Man did to us all. So, thank you. Pete"
I suppose I should be thanking him for his kind words but I really don't care anymore, that's how much **** that's gone on since this started.
2 more nights and they'll get their much needed funds for upgrades and such and I can get some sleep before I start the re-write and increase the page count with the things (and directions for much needed clarification at certain points) I've been seeing as an audience member and not as a camera lens. -------------
http://home.comcast.net/~castle.walls/tavern/ |
Posted By: POB14
Date Posted: 5/03/07 at 12:57pm
Sorry to revive an old thread, but I happened upon a relevant passage on DPS's website.
So that seems to track what we're all saying. ------------- POB Old Bugger, Curmudgeon, and Antisocial B**tard |
Posted By: Jim_L
Date Posted: 5/03/07 at 3:23pm
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Exactly, thank you! -------------
http://home.comcast.net/~castle.walls/tavern/ |
Posted By: avcastner
Date Posted: 5/20/07 at 11:59am
Sounds like you're trolling me . . . so I'm going to rise to the occasion and let you know you offend me. I do not do what you imply and would never suggest anyone do. Any good director should be able to tell the difference from inherent blocking (such as you describe and is necessary to the story of the play) and implied blocking (which is added by the original director and added to the published version--don't ask me why).
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Posted By: Jim_L
Date Posted: 5/20/07 at 1:15pm
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No, not trolling you or anyone. Just giving an opinion from experience. -------------
http://home.comcast.net/~castle.walls/tavern/ |