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I was prompted to write a blog on directing - "What kind of director are you / do you like? Drilling blocking or letting it emerge organically from actors? " - so here goes...
What kind of a director am I? I like to think I'm an intuitive director.
Approaching direction as storytelling and intuitively meliding imagery with performance. I think too frequently directors forget that this is a visual medium. It's desigend to be seen and frequently there is not enough visual interest to keep a story moving.
Know the story. Read it. Twice. Three times. Then put it down and think about it. Oversaturating yourself with the minutia of a show only will bog me down this early in the process. Understand the simple story. Boy loves girl. Girls father won't allow a marriage to anyone but his choice. Girl runs away with her true love. Boy Girl Father's boy, and Father's boy stalker girl get lost in forest. Quartet loose themselves in the forrest and in the process find eachother. At dawn, they find their way home. That's midsummer... screw the magic, screw the fairies, screw all of it. For me that's the basic arch for midsummer, everything else is things that happen to that story. I know the story. What does the story do to me? How does it make me feel... what is the story I want the audience to know? how do I want them to feel?
I start visually as a director. I compile an image book. Images that specifically create a mood, feeling, idea, and emotion in me. They frequently have nothing to do with the production... splashes of color, the hang of material, the look of a model, the movement of a painting, these things are what I use to create a moment - enough images and you create emotional pictures in your head that feed the story telling process.ALL THIS MUST HAPPEN BEFORE CASTING. I need to know exactly what the story is before I commit other people to it.
Read. AGAIN. AND AGAIN. Throw the script at the wall. Quit the show. An hour later devour the script again. Talk the story to people you trust tellign them what you think the show will look like. Take their criticism. Analyze. Update it. See how it affects your story. Then throw their ideas to the wall. Whatever sticks to your ideas stays, everything else is trash. Tell the story again with the new and old ideas together. Justify. Understand teh story? Like the story? Is the story worth telling? If you have "yes" to all these then you have a concept.
So I know the story now. I get the mood. I have a clear concept. now cast the show.
HIRE THE BEST ACTORS ? NO! This is the biggest mistake directors make! I don't care if your the best for the role! There are two things that I ask and neither of them are "IS THIS THE BEST PERSON FOR THE ROLE"? The two things I ask are "CAN THIS PERSON DO THE ROLE?" and "IS THIS A PERSON I WANT TO WORK WITH?" More then anything else, that second question rules all casting decisions.
I cast quickly. I know within seconds if the person is 'right' for me and the production. I know what I want at this point and intuition is my secret weapon. I KNOW. RARELY am I wrong. I see talent and potential. I hate 'good auditioners'. I want actors who can be vulnerable with me. I want actors who are willing to take chances, risks, and set their fears aside and jump off a cliff. My gut is my best friend. I choose to trust it.
So I have a cast... now what? Get the cast scripts before rehearsals start... the earlier the better.
2 days of table talk - minimum. I enjoy 3 to 4 for large shows. 1 day I should do all the talking. 1 day the cast should do all the talking. In those 2 days I know what kind of actors I have and then I formulate my plan.
With trully instinctive actors I work more organically because they will find the character early in the process. For more technical actors they have to explore and play to find what works and speaks for them. I generally have key images and movement patterns but hardly ever block hard scenes - ie deliever every bit of blocking.
We're blocked - now lets work. THIS IS WHERE MY TRUE WORK BEGINS. This is when you need actors to bear their sould and show their scars and own their flaws and in the midst of it all, you're asking them to be proud of them all! Show the wounds and flaws and intriques and misconceptions proudly!
This is when actors really find out alot about me...and I them. We share intimacies, we tell stories. We find common ground and I help them to trust me. One actor whom I loved just couldn't focus one day. It was just me and him sitting in my little apartment and he could not let go of his life and all that baggage we try to leave at the door and sometimes fail at. He jus t couldn't do it and it was frustrating the hell out of him. He didn't know the moment he walked in, but I did that he was not ready mentally for rehearsal. 10 minutes in, I stop rehearsal and refocus. Directors need to be prepared for a change in plans. I took him through a 10 minute breathing exercising. Just simple old acting excerssie BS but it was what was right for the moment. After the exercise we resumed rehearsal and it was the best performance of the monologue we were working he ever did. It was clean, pure, and honest. He seemed so pleased and happy with it. I know I was. The next day he called to say thank you for rehearsal. For being able to do that with him. To this day when I question my legitmacy as a director I remember that young man and smile and am greatful to him. I helped him that day, that role... but he still is helping me.
I love actors. i think most actors who've worked with me know that. I hope anyway. I want them to be vlunerable but more I want them to play. If they can't... I have to help them. If I think they can handle it and I feel they trust me I attack. Everything from screaming in an actors face to getting into a shoving match or making two actors fight physically while performing a scene, hoping on one foot, invading their personal space, anything and everything that will get them out of their head and onto the stage I do. Every actor I've ever had to do this to has been so pleased with their outcome. My first question after it is "How do you feel?" and it's followed by "What was different." The answers are always variations on these answers "Great" and "Free."
Once we have freed the actors, and we know the moments we're looking for, we come to cosmetics and repititon. This is generally about one week out if I've done my work. 1 week out and we start tweaking moments, finding new ones because we're bored, and really going deeper into the ones we've established. This is the Putting it together week. It's hellish in it's minutia and exhausting in the detail.
I take actors home with me at night. Their successes I celebrate and their shortcomings I mourn. I want to see my actors succeed and when they are not living up to their potential it tears me up.
So what kind of director am I? I'm an emotional one. I go through the process with them, leading them through it but also experiencing it at their side... sometimes even more then them.