JUL
19

Help for the First-Time Director

By Kevin Stone 

Kevin Stone has been writing and directing plays for over 20 years.  He has experience as an actor and as a director of community theatre, church plays, high school productions and touring collegiate groups.  Besides teaching drama classes, Kevin is the pastor of a church and the managing editor of a ministry website.  Kevin’s play After Hours won the Shubert Fendrich Memorial Playwriting Contest. 

So you’re directing the play!  Congratulations!  You are about to experience a few weeks of intense growth and vivid discovery.  Directing a play for the first time is something you’ll never forget, and you’ll touch many lives in the process.

Don’t Panic.

There may be moments of panic in putting together a production, but don’t let panic become your default setting.  One of the many benefits of directing a play is the honing of problem-solving skills, so meet those difficulties with a clear-headed, can-do attitude.  Let your actors see your coolness under pressure.  You can do it!

Get Organized.

A director is, in many ways, a coordinator and facilitator.  Bringing together the many different strands of a play production requires a fair amount of pre-planning and organization.  A rehearsal schedule is very helpful.  Set deadlines for dropping scripts, collecting props and posting play bills.  Reserve the first few practices for blocking out the scenes, and make sure to include a tech practice or two.  You don’t have to keep the schedule with a grim rigidity, but the actors and their parents should have a good idea of what is expected and when.  Communicate to everyone that rehearsal time is precious and that, during rehearsal, the focus needs to be on the play.

Visualize the Play.

As Carl Sandburg said, “Nothing happens unless first a dream.”  Imagine the action of the play.  Have an idea of how each scene should look and sound.  What lines have a potential for a laugh (or for a gasp)?  What sections of the play should move more rapidly than others?  What lines should be slowed down?  Where are the climatic points?  As you develop the “dream” in your mind, directing simply becomes a matter of communicating your vision to your actors.

Focus on the Basics.

You might have a high-tech stage, a phenomenal set, jaw-dropping special effects and costumes by Versace, but if the acting is flat, your production will suffer.  On the other hand, with good acting, you can have a bare stage, with no effects and only thrift-store costumes and still absolutely dazzle the audience.  The best productions start with a solid foundation of acting basics. 

Vocal projection and articulation are key.  If the audience cannot hear the dialogue, they will be disappointed, and no one wants a disappointed audience.  Plus, all that work on memorization will have gone for naught!  Projection involves proper breathing, common-sense phrasing and clear enunciation.  Usually, an inexperienced actor can “turn up the volume” simply by opening his mouth more widely when he speaks and over-enunciating.  The audience will perceive clarity as an increase in volume.

Positioning on the stage is also important.  Many student actors tend to face any which way as they speak, hiding their faces or closing themselves off from the audience.  With a little training, any actor can learn to “play to the audience” and let everyone see his or her wonderful face and the fantastic expressions it holds.

Pay Attention to Detail.

The stage is a magnifier.  Little things can become big things on stage, and a tiny distraction can wreak havoc in a big scene.  View your production from the vantage point of an audience seeing it for the first time by actually sitting out in the house for a rehearsal.  In fact, move around the theatre and try different angles.  Watch carefully.  Listen closely.  And then communicate to your cast and crew what you saw and heard.

Value Your Actors.

Remember that actors are not chess pieces to be moved around a board.  They are thinking, feeling people with complexities and a life outside of rehearsals.  Encourage their creativity on stage.  Help them relax and have fun (which means you need to relax and have fun, too!).  Be positive and let your actors know that you appreciate their work.

Build a Network.

Drama is a collaborative art, so don’t try to do it alone.  More than likely, you will have connections with people who can do carpentry, electrical work, sewing and fund-raising.  Develop a good working relationship with those people and solicit their help.

Don’t Forget the Support Roles.

A play needs more than just actors.  It needs a stage manager, a house manager, a property mistress, technicians, stage hands, set painters, publicity people, etc.

And Finally.

Have fun.  The storytelling you oversee will be full of creativity, inspiration and merriment.  And when the curtain closes on the final performance, you’ll find yourself, as a seasoned director, saying, “I can’t wait until next year!”