Directing Lesson

Theater combines many things that I love. Storytelling, costuming, make-believe and imagination, learning and teaching, and making connections with lots of people in many different ways. Even though I have directed in the past, I had to learn and relearn so many things. These are some of the lessons that I have learned.

1. Don't agree to direct until the support team is in place, or at least have an assistant director/volunteer coordinator. This can be one person who can then find volunteers and delegate, or it can be several volunteers who focus on just one part. Either way, those people (or person) should be settled before auditions take place. The areas that I can't direct and coordinate are: rehearsal snacks, rehearsal monitors, rehearsal photos, performance volunteers, posters and playbill design, advertising. A design team would also be great. I know costuming, but I'd love to share that. And I need help making the set and lighting look right. If I wait to see who auditions, then ask those parents, I don't get the time to work with the volunteers to share my vision for the show

2. Find a balance between individualized and mass communication. One of the things I've tried to do with the last three plays is make a personal connection with the parents or guardians of my cast members. This has been really helpful as we get closer to performances or need to make changes to the schedule. It is way more work to make those connections than to send a mass email, but it has been worth it every time. These families are so amazing. There dedication and sacrifice for the play inspires me to do my best. I need to continue figuring out the best way to communicate which information.

3. People love it when you are passionate about something, until it requires them to change. Then they feel like you are judging them. There were people would said, "I love hearing you talk about the play. You are so passionate!" so I thought being passionate was contagious. But my actors didn't care about my passion when they had to get on stage. In fact, my passion was intimidating and they expressed worry about not doing it right. They liked my excitement when I was telling the story, but they didn't like it when I was asking them to do it. I had to replace passion with compassion to make a human connection.

4. So much of directing is creating space to explore and giving choices, not telling actors what to do. This play I focused a lot on acting choices. Kids would ask me "What do you want me to do?" and I tried to ask them, "What seems right for your character?" If they didn't know, I'd show them a few different interpretations, then encourage them to play around and see which one fits the best. Part of that is also encouraging kids not to play stereotypes, but relatable characters. This was a new way of directing for me, and I have to continue working on balancing it with pushing kids to try a different choice. There were times when I thought that a certain action would make the scene more funny, but I didn't always challenge the actor because I wanted to respect their choices. So I don't think I have that balance quite right yet.

 As I told the actors, part of theater is sharing where we are at this point in the process. It isn't about getting the perfect performance, because we can always get better. And part of the joy of the process is being done, evaluating, and preparing for the next one.