What Does it Means to be a Theatre Director

1064 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The role of the theatre producer

When someone goes to watch a play, they are usually focused around the actors. Never really reminding them or thinking about all the other jobs and efforts that are used to put together his production. It is often looked past, that the whole play was thought up by a director. What they are watching was something that a director had to envision. The director is the boss of the play. They are physically directing what the actors and actresses need to do. But being a theatre director is not just about telling actors what to do during scenes. Being a theatre director means having a vision and something unique that you have to say. But instead of talking or writing what you have to say, you make a visual reference that actually shows and plays out emotions of what you are trying to say. An old high school drama teacher states, “Being a director means trying to control what is, at times, uncontrollable. It’s like trying to coordinate something that is next to impossible, but when you do it right, there’s no better feelings.”(Gratzer 2014). Being a good theatre director is kind of a mix of a poet and a general. You have to be part poet so you can have the unique message which you are trying to tell through emotions and sight. But you have to have the mix with a general because you have to tell your actors what to do, how to do it, and unite them to make them get your message out as clear as possible. Also having enough perseverance and patience to make sure that this long-term project will be seen all the through. “Being a Director requires great creative vision, dedication and commitment. Directors are ultimately responsible for .. success or failure." (http://www.creativeskillset.org/) Directing a play has three main phases, the fir...

... middle of paper ...

...eir vision and they are the ones bringing it to life.

Bibliography

Anne Bogart, Scott Ellis, Daniel Sullivan. Internet Chat Interview. Jul 2008.http://americantheatrewing.org/wit/detail/directors_02_08

Sheldon Epps, Michael Halberstam, Gregory Mosher. Inernet Chat interview. July 2011

http://americantheatrewing.org/wit/detail/directors_07_11

n/a, . "Fim Directing:The Basics." http://www.filmplus.org/. Theatre UAF, n.d. Web. 14 Mar 2014. .

Dannenfeldt, Diane . "How Stuff Works."http://www.filmplus.org/. HowStuffWorks In, n.d. Web. 13 Mar 2014. .

n/a, . "Creative Skill Set." creativeskillset.org. SkillSet, n.d. Web. 14 Mar 2014. .

Gratzer, Robert. Personal Interview. 14 Mar 2014.

Show More
Related

  • Modern Professional Theatre Case Study

    1307 Words  | 3 Pages

    Modern professional theatre is characterized by the widespread challenge to established rules surrounding theatrical representation. This resulted in the development of many new forms of theatre. Such included modernism, expressionism, impressionism, political theatre and other forms of experimental theatre. It is also characterized by the continuing development of already established theatrical forms like naturalism and realism. As years went by, the reputation of modern theatre has been improving, after being belittled through the nineteenth century. However, the growth of other media, more specifically movies, resulted in a smaller role culturally.

    Read More

  • The Adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet for a Cinema Audience

    2644 Words  | 6 Pages

    In film however, the production is definitely a directors medium as he or she has total control over what parts of the texts are necessary and what parts are not. The director can lead an audience's attention in film by moving the camera to various angles and from various viewpoints whereas on stage this is limited as the only way in which to catch the audience's attention is by moving the spotlight on to someone at a certain part of the stage but even so they can still look around to other parts of the stage. In films their is a different chronology of events and intercutting is often used. This could be because a director feels that it's necessary to have the audience see what's happening in the other character's lives at the time something crucial is perhaps happening in another character's.

    Read More

  • The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime: A Film Analysis

    1999 Words  | 4 Pages

    The most memorable part of a play that a person remembers when he or she leaves the theater are the people that came together as a group to make the production happen. The scenery, lighting, and special effects should not overpower the performance of the actors. It also should not determine whether or not a play is successful. Theatre productions such as You Tweet My Face Space, Home Chat, The Curious Incident of the dog in the Nighttime, Cats, and Peter Pan Goes Wrong are examples of plays that had wonderful playwrights and performers. Some of these productions used good supportive measures to make the play successful and some unfortunately used measures that overpowered the talent of the people in the show. It is very difficult to know where

    Read More

  • Raisin In The Sun Vs Hamlet

    506 Words  | 2 Pages

    In each and every culture theater exists. However, they are not always portrayed in the same way and could take up many different forms. What differ them from others is influenced by the convention of what governs them. What happen on stage depends on the conventions of the theater. Convention is define as “Rules governing a given style of theater, such as fourth-wall verisimilitude or bare stage. These rule should not be violated, but often are, as when actors “break” the fourth wall by delivering a line directly toward the audience” (Altshuler and Janaro 208). The condition governing the staging and performance are known as theatrical conventions, in which what the audiences agree to accept as what is real (Altshuler and Janaro 173). In comparing an Elizabethan and a modern theater to each other there are many differences and similarities between the two. By comparing William Shakespeare “Hamlet” to Lorraine Hansberry “A Raisin in the Sun”, we can see that there is a major difference between the two

    Read More

  • Richland Writes Play Analysis

    963 Words  | 2 Pages

    The plays that I enjoyed began with a clear introduction and ended in an appropriate place. The plays had an introduction that caught the eyes of the audience along with an interesting story line. Throughout the plays A Hopeless Dream, The Devils Are Here, and Four Stalls the audience was on bored with what was happening. The script was very organized. It was as if I was watching a movie, these performances had no mistakes, it was nearly perfect. In theses plays they began with an introduction that explained what was going on to the audience. The cast made me feel as though I was with them. They were not every dramatic. It seemed like they acted the way they would have if these situations actually happened to them. They did a great job of performing the content without making it seem like this was all made up. Once these plays were finished I wanted more, I wanted to know what was going to happen, especially in the play A Hopeless Dream. The lights went out at an appropriate time, but it made my friends and I want to see what would happen next, it was like a “to be continued” episode of The Vampire Diaries. I had the same feeling with the play The Devils Are Here. It was humorous and it caught my full attention, but once the lights went out I wanted the actors to continue acting because of how phenomenal the play

    Read More

  • Romeo and Juliet: Act 3, Scene 5

    2122 Words  | 5 Pages

    play. As director I must decide to direct the play in a way that shows

    Read More

  • The Technique of Role Playing

    512 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the techniques used most often by theatre high school teachers is role-playing. The reasons that this technique is often used are numerous. When students read a text silently some of the nuance contained in the meaning can be lost. This is particularly true when dealing with a play, or anything containing multiple characters. Reading the piece aloud can help them to understand the connotation as well as the denotation. In the theatre, how a passage is spoken will determine the feeling that it carries with it. Lines of dialogue can suddenly become funny or sad once given inflection. This is the prime reason role-playing is used. The prime time that this technique is employed is when teaching the works of Shakespeare.

    Read More

  • Class Interview with Director Adam Burke

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ssence, Adam Burke’s perception on directing and theatre production is very useful insight. He expressed that importance of a director being a true leader. A director must navigate the cast and crew to a particular vision and keep them on that path. In addition, a director must be professional and maintain a positive attitude when it comes to dealing with opposition from a crewmember in the production. Essentially, Adam Burke expresses that a director must stay ahead, in regards to funneling the cast towards the appropriate vision and talking dealing with any problems that arise. Additionally, if there are any mistakes during the performance, it is okay because the audience does not expect a flawless production. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. Overall, I thought Mr. Burke did an exceptional job answering our questions and I would like to thank him for his time.

    Read More

  • Acting: The Art of Becoming All Characters Inside One Body

    1475 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dating back to ancient Greek theater in the sixth century BC, acting has tremendously evolved and become more than the plays acted in the Roman period. As it continues to evolve until this day, it is important to look into history to understand the present era of the career in acting. For Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, acting is “the right management of the voice to express various emotions,” considered to be a talent rather than a skill to be taught. While growing in Greece, the acting field was supported by a lack of subtleness and a great variety of huge costumes; all played in outdoor theaters with books, the written version of the play, written by Euripides and Sophocles. Despite the expansion in Greek theaters, acting as an art began to decline during ...

    Read More

  • A Psychologically Framed Expoloration of Human Nature: The Wild Duck

    2530 Words  | 6 Pages

    ... tragedy. I think as a director the acting skills I would use most likely with my actors is to know if they are capable approaching indirect action on stage, I think that’s something that the production will consist of repeatedly. The theme throughout the play is constant illusion of self awareness and others around you. I need an actor who can go on stage and become the place and time. The set would consist of few elements, major obstacles of what I want to get across to the audience, by doing that it won’t take away from the feel of the play and what’s it trying to convey. This is a story of an idealistic son of a corrupt merchant exposes his father’s duplicity, but in the process he destroys the very people he wishes to save. Gregers Werle forces his friends, the Ekdals to confront the truth about their lives, but the truth only serves to wound them further.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Living In The Moment

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Acting is not about being someone different. It’s finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there.” ― Meryl Streep. I love exploring and gaining knowledge about the beautiful craft of acting. During my journey of being an actor, I notice there are two types of actors: stage and film. Stage and film actors are different in their times of rehearsal, their relationship with an audience, and their emotional challenges.

    Read More

  • Define Clearly the Differences between Drama and Theatre

    620 Words  | 2 Pages

    Define clearly the differences between drama and theatre and outline in some depth and detail there social function with and with some reference to your interest and experience to drama and theatre:

    Read More

  • performing arts

    1341 Words  | 3 Pages

    By 1970 the term, performance art was used globally and specifically defined as live art, not theater. Even though theater and performance art often times share the same stage, in practice they are very different. Performance art is not a form of representational art, rather a moment of acquiring multiple characters and creating a fusion between one and the next, but never allowing the true self to ever fully disappear. A performer of performance art is usually oneself either telling a story, a feeling, an opinion, whether it be through video, movement, music, television, poetry, sculpture, spoken dialogue or any mix of these. An actor usually is personifying someone else under very specific conditions. Performance art leaves more leeway for improvisational efforts to factor whether it is text based or strictly movement. The script is a security paper reassuring a certain aspect of structure, but does not hold an absolute strict compromise. No two performances are ever really alike. A script for an actor is a bible; it tells how and when an action will happen. All cues, lines and characterization get memorized and obsessively rehearsed so that every time performed an almost identical performance is released. Rehearsals for performance artists are much more conceptual and often times will include researching, gathering props and costumes and having discussions with collaborators in their rehearsal time. Maybe this is so due to the little or no technical training that a ...

    Read More

  • Importance Of Theatre

    1376 Words  | 3 Pages

    For thousands of years, people have been arguing that theatre is a dying art form. Many people think theatre is all just cheesy singing and dancing or just boring old Shakespeare, but there is much more to theatre than those two extremes. Theatre is important to our society because it teaches us more about real life than recorded media. Theatre has been around for thousands of years and began as a religious ceremony that evolved into an art form that teaches about the true essence of life. Theatre can incorporate profound, and provocative, observations of the human condition that can transcend time; lessons found in Greek plays can still be relevant to the modern world. People argue that the very essence of theatre is being snuffed out by modern

    Read More

  • Reflection Paper On Theatre

    1117 Words  | 3 Pages

    There wasn’t any particular scene on stage that made me doubt the integrative work of the director since all the staging work such as lighting, design, costumes and performance were well coordinated and blended for a very good production. The lights were well positioned with well fitted costumes and a very ideal scene to match. There wasn’t much change of scenes in the play except for some movement of tables and chairs. There was an entrance and exit for the performers which made their movements uninterrupted. There was a loud sound of a bell when school was over while the lights were dimmed whenever there was a change of scene. The pace of the production was very smooth since one scene followed the other without delay and most likely because most of the performers wore the same costume; especially all eight students wore the same costume for the entire

    Read More

More about What Does it Means to be a Theatre Director

Open Document