Very
few people are capable of being a good director. Very few! Students may
eventually become very good actors but effective directors are few and far
between. No matter how intelligent, clever or well educated, you need to be a
certain personality type to be able to direct effectively. If a student has a
talent for directing, that ability can be developed over time and become
stronger. A student without inherent directing talent will unfortunately never
become good at it and will end up leaving the actors with little guidance and
no clear direction, causing uncertainty and stress.
So …
if this is not your strong point, focus on the things that are and enjoy doing
those! I can’t do maths or fix a car or write a computer program to save my
life … and it doesn’t bother me … I stick to what I can do and leave those tasks
to others!
As a director, you need to understand that human beings
(all of us!) have been wired to get what we want, when we want it. The human
being is essentially selfish, narcissistic and unconcerned about other people’s
troubles! Not a pretty picture, but there you have it! Acting students,
especially, will manipulate, use blackmail (emotional or otherwise), employ the
blame game – will in fact do anything and everything in order for things to work
out the way we want them to. We wish to be part of the project in order to be
in the limelight … but on our own terms. If we don’t get what we want then
anger, negativity, gossip, bad vibes, talking behind the director’s back in
order to get others on the band wagon and gain leverage, tantrums, playing on
your feelings with a sad little face and a small little voice, etc., will
all be employed to shift your requirements to suit the individual. If you allow
this to change your path you will be in hell for the entire rehearsal process,
so don’t! Ignore these attempts and, if it starts affecting the project, get
rid of the guilty company member soonest … if possible without having to cancel
the show. If most of the company members are doing this, cancel the whole thing
before having to pay lots of money and wasting your time for nothing!
THE REHEARSAL SCHEDULE
First of all, the rehearsal process has to be handled correctly. If this is not done, problems and difficulties will occur as a result.
1.
A
definite, written rehearsal schedule needs to be provided to all company
members - preferably for the entire rehearsal period. If the schedule
needs to be worked out monthly for valid reasons, it has to be given to the
company at least a week before it comes into play. This schedule will never be
changed. Company members need to adjust their lives to fit in with rehearsals.
Rehearsals are not to be adjusted to fit in with individual company members’
lives. In order for this to occur, company members need to know when
rehearsals will take place in order to organise their lives around the
schedule.
2.
Actors
need to understand that, even though dates on which they are not available (due
to work responsibilities or university tests and exams only – no
social activities!) have been requested, they are not entitled to get that time
off. It is not their right – it is a generous privilege to be granted if at all
possible. Nobody will ever ask an actor whether or not it suits them to work on
a certain day in the professional industry. You’re either there or you’re out.
3.
If
the above is not done, the entire process will become problematic. Confusion,
looseness of form and lack of structure and control will result. Informing
company members when they are to be available on a week by week or rehearsal by
rehearsal basis results in chaos. They will complain that they’ve already
arranged this or that for that day and cannot change it. They will expect the
arrangements to be adapted to suit them, causing more work for whoever is in
charge of the schedule. If they have to change their other plans they will
become annoyed and negative. This is unfair and unworkable. Chaos!!
4.
Since
acting is an ensemble art form, working with only one person in a scene that
requires four actors or working with some of the actors in a scene - but not
all - is a pointless exercise in futility. This is never even to be
contemplated. Actors need to rehearse with those they play the scene with – not
with a stand-in or a stage manager reading the lines. They have to hit the ball
back and forth with the actor playing opposite them and nobody else. Don’t
even consider rehearsing a scene without everybody there! If you want to work on certain performance
issues with an individual actor, this rule does not apply.
5. Exercises
to overcome speech patterns (staccato or sing-song, meaningless delivery) are
done with the entire group in a specific scene. It would be pointless to work
with one or some of the people in a scene. Everyone involved must be there.
Focusing on daily activities and sense memory work should help the actor to get
rid of speech patterns also, but then it needs to be done with focus, awareness
and attention and beginner actors may find this difficult.
6. Blocking
and daily activities that are worked out with some scene partners absent has to
be repeated, wasting everybody’s time and energy and causing negativity. In
order for integration to take place everyone needs to be there! In order
for the final product to be successful, analysis, performance and work choices,
characterization, etc. need to be worked on with all actors in the scene
present. A loose, out-of-control rehearsal schedule as discussed above will
make this difficult if not impossible to attain.
DAILY ACTIVITIES
7.
Method
actors are never without daily activities – never! Actors cannot
stand around doing nothing, staring into space. This causes tension, lack of
focus, speech patterns, indicating and bad work. Activities that are boring,
unmotivated and repetitive are pointless though. Directors are to assist actors
to think as the character to find several possible motivated and logical
activities that will assist in the performance being real and believable and
are things the character would logically do. Activities must add to the
characterization. Beware of actors running around the stage like chickens with
their heads cut off though. Motivate and justify activities.
PERFORMANCE
8. Your main concern
once the blocking and daily activities have been set is acting. This is
an acting school so we need to see real, believable acting. In order for
that to happen the performances need attention and devotion. Directors
need to assist actors (especially the beginners) to find the right work
choices. You stop each time an actor needs to fly in new work for an emotional
shift or new beat. The actor needs to stop and say they need time to bring in new
work. The others continue working on their Method while the actor does
relaxation and sense memory for the new work. When s/he is ready (and only
then), the cast continues with the scene. This is the only way. If this is
not done during rehearsal actors will simply indicate. This is a breeding
ground for speech patterns and bad acting.
9. In order for this
work to be done enough rehearsal time needs to be allowed when working on a
scene. Jumping from scene to scene quickly in order to get the technical
aspects right is not enough. At least two hours need to be allowed for each
scene in order to work on performance if it is a short scene and more
time must be scheduled for a long scene. This work on acting dare not be left
to the last few rehearsals! It is of paramount importance and enough time
should be spent on it. By the time
the show is performed for an audience the actors must be so comfortable with
doing the sense memory work that it almost comes automatically and that they
can get and keep the work easily, no matter what might go wrong on stage. This
demands doing it over and over and over again.
10. Light
and shade and speaking like a real human being, as well as getting the actor to
think about what s/he’s saying and why s/he’s saying it, is essential. Actors
need to listen and speak to each other, responding in the moment and hitting
the ball back and forth. Actors also need to know who the character is. In
order for this to occur, specific character choices need to be made based on
the text, with the help of the director. They need to play the intent! It is
the director’s job to make sure that this performance work is done and that
there is enough time spent on doing it, with the director’s input and guidance
and assistance.
THE DIRECTOR’S DUTIES – SHAPING THE PERFORMANCE
11.
The director needs to have a vision – ideas about what s/he would like the end-result to be –
and needs to work towards attaining that vision. The vision might change over
time, but there must be one! In order to achieve that vision the director must
have a plan. You need to know what
you want to work on before you go into a rehearsal and you must be flexible,
think on your feet to find solutions and have plans how to achieve the results
you wish to set in place. You cannot leave your actors rudderless by walking into a rehearsal not knowing exactly what you
are going to do / what you wish to achieve during the time scheduled / how you
are going to work towards achieving it. You cannot expect of the actors to come
up with the solutions to blocking / daily activities / acting problems because
you are not providing leadership and
you don’t really know what you want or how to get there. The actors cannot
direct themselves. Listen to their ideas and implement their solutions if these
can work, but the ultimate responsibility is yours. You need to be in charge of
and lead the process.
12.
In
order for you to be capable of the above, you need to be a creative thinker and problem solver as well as a strong personality.
You also need to be capable of seeing / hearing when an actor doesn’t understand
or “get” the character, doesn’t have work, has the wrong work, is not thinking
as the character, is not in the zone, has a speech pattern. You then have to be
capable of working with that individual to understand who the character is,
find the right work, get the work, think as the character, get in the zone and
lose the speech pattern. This is your responsibility and you have to actively do this job. This means you
need to be involved while planning each rehearsal and every moment during a
rehearsal – thinking, judging, creating, finding solutions, working on problems
until they are solved - actively working with actors by talking them through
challenges, etc.
13.
The
fact that few directors in this industry work this way doesn’t mean that you
should follow their example. Looking at the results they achieve when it comes
to performance means that they are not doing what they ought to do. Working with
good professional actors will make the process easier than working with
inexperienced student actors who still need to learn, but your job remains the
same.
0 comments:
Post a Comment