What's a Director?

According to our textbook as well as the papers that Mrs. Moon has printed out for me, I grow more and more knowledgeable of a theatre directors role and job description when creating a play. The first aspect of being a director that I had been errant about was the fact that a director should control most of the aspects of the play. I dealt with a great amount of stress thinking that I was in charge of forcing things to happen, when actually my job was much more gentle. It wasn't about handpicking the costumes or songs or lights, it was about guiding and quite literally "directing".

According to the textbook, a theatre director's job and goal is to ensure that the vision, central theme, purpose, and message of the play is clear to each individual as they help devise the play. The director's job is also to ensure that each prop, lighting, music, and costume stays within the devised budget amount. As for directing the actors, it is up to the director. There are directors who want very specific movements that are physical like Anne Bogart, and then there are those who want the actors to use their own emotions and movements like Pina Bausch.

Upon reading about the role of directors in the past, I came upon a realization that I must merge the definitions in the past with ones of present day. The ancient Greek word for director is "choregus" which quite literally meant the organizer or the utilizer, their goal was to be efficient. It did not really involve the artistic aspect of being a director. The "didaliskos" was in charge of ensuring that the actors were accurate with their emotions and script. However, in today's day, there are artistically centered directors like Robert Wilson and Peter Brook. Their definitions are much more about a director's artistic interpretation and perception of a play, or vision.

The paper that Mrs. Moon had printed out for us had various definitions of a director. One memorable definition of being a director was someone who could guide the play. GUIDE. It was about allowing the actors to clear their minds and giving them space to interpret the emotions of their characters. The paper had stated that the director should let the actor play with their characters and utilize various voices as well as movements. It was a freer definition that didn't cause too much stress on the director or the actor.