Being a Director

B E I N G A D I R E C T O R A LIFE IN THEATRE Being A Director ‘Hard to remember how few women directors there were when i was cast in Di’s first play. She was revolutionary, an actor directing, one of the company, conscious of a wide european repertoire and irreverent imaginative theatrical magic. inspired by the subtle dance of words, she was just so excited to create a playful rehearsal room, her laugh infectious. rehearsing in 1984, she had me standing outside McDonald’s on a box haranguing hamburger eaters. i haven’t stepped inside a McDonald’s since. that’s how good Di is.’ Mark Rylance Di trevis is a world-renowned director, whose work with Britain’s national theatre, royal Shakespeare company, and directing productions worldwide has deeply informed her knowledge of the director’s craft. in Being a Director, she draws on a wealth of first-hand experience to present an immersive, engaging and vital insight into the role of a director. the book elegantly blends the personal and the pedagogical, illustrating how the parameters of time, Space and Motion are essential when creating a successful production. throughout, the author explores and recycles her own formative life experiences in order to demonstrate that who you are is as integral to being a director as what you do. Di Trevis has worked at the national theatre, rSc, Almeida theatre and the royal opera House. in 2001 she adapted, with Harold Pinter, Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past which transferred to the olivier stage in 2002 and won an olivier Award the same year. She has taught extensively in the UK, USA, France, germany, Austria and cuba. Between 2003 and 2007 she was Head of Directing at the Drama centre in London. A Figure In The Distance, original illustration by William Schroder Being A Director A Life in theatre Di Trevis First published 2012 by routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, oxon oX14 4rn Simultaneously published in the USA and canada by routledge 711 third Avenue, new York, nY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2012 Di trevis the right of Di trevis to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. no part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data trevis, Di. Being a director : a life in theatre / Di trevis. p. cm. 1. trevis, Di. 2. theatrical producers and directors – Great Britain – Biography. i. title. Pn2598.t73A3 2011 792.092—dc22 2011006874 iSBn: 978-0-415-60922-7 (hbk) iSBn: 978-0-415-60924-1 (pbk) iSBn: 978-0-203-81636-3 (ebk) typeset in times new roman by HWA text and Data Management, London For DeccA CONTENTS List of plates ix Foreword by Ronald Harwood xi Acknowledgements xiii Introduction xiv ParT 1 Directing: the parameters 1 1 Space 3 2 Time 15 3 Motion 21 ParT 2 Directing: the specifics 31 4 Deciding to be a director 33 5 Choosing the play 40 6 Reading the play 44 7 Casting the play 53 vii contentS 8 Rehearsing the actors 60 9 Forging a directing language 83 10 Fluid staging 109 11 Specialist skills 114 12 Final work in the rehearsal room 122 13 Technical rehearsals 124 14 The final ingredient: the audience 128 ParT 3 Directing: the kwoth 133 15 A figure in the distance 135 16 My salvation 141 17 I became a director one weekend 146 18 The plays and poetry of a german and a Spaniard 149 19 Things French 162 Notes 173 Index 175 viii PlateS Frontispiece: A Figure in the Distance by William Schroder ii Plate 1 Jack Murphy exploring period deportment with the cast of Remembrance of Things Past 96 Plate 2 Movement work informs every character 97 Plate 3 The little band of girls, Remembrance of Things Past 98 Plate 4 Image from the epilogue to Fears and Miseries of the Third Reich 99 Plate 5 Simple gestures stretched into heightened image 100 Plate 6 Keeping calm and carrying on 101 Plate 7 The Duchess of Malfi 102 Plate 8 The Jerwood Workshop, 2009 103 Plate 9 Sian thomas and Alfred Molina in The Taming of the Shrew 104 Plate 10 Sian thomas in The Taming of the Shrew 105 Plate 11 The Revenger’s Tragedy 106 Plate 12 The masked pavane in The Revenger’s Tragedy 107 Plate 13 Circular disc etched in silver to outline a pentangle. Gawain 108 ix ForeWorD Ronald Harwood Di trevis is an original. in her understanding of the process of directing plays she is, in my experience, unique in that she has transformed her craft into an art. She could not have done this consciously because as a director she is free of pretensions. Her process arises out of her personality which is without affectation and her intellect which is considerable. Her concerns are for the most part with content not form, with the inner life both of the play and the performers. Like all artists she is intrigued by mysteries and directing is to say the least a mysterious business. Being a Director seeks to penetrate those mysteries but not always to solve them. Her method is to lay down clues, to follow trails, sometimes to make rules, all to entice the reader into the baffling world of theatrical presentation with its complex components of the playwright’s intentions, fictional characters, the actors’ personalities and individual interpretations. Add to these the function of design, light and movement and you have the elements which, to achieve unity in presentation, are finally in the mind, the heart and skill of the director. Here then is a sort of detective story because the director is, in this book, rather like a private investigator unravelling an intricate plot. Directors only see the results of their colleagues’ efforts because for each the process is in essence private. of course the playwright, actors and technicians participate but they are seldom allowed into the secret, innermost world where the director’s concepts and ideas are born and struggle to find life. Being a Director takes the reader into that secret world so it is not just a book for beginners wanting to learn; it will serve other professionals, celebrated or not, as an invaluable guide. the book falls roughly into two parts: the technical, nitty-gritty of stagecraft on the one hand, and on the other, the illusive life of the work. For example, she is fascinated by time and space in so far as they influence staging. the choices of where or where not to place actors in relation xi ForeWorD to each other and to the audience is one of her many preoccupations and she reveals formulae that may serve as a basis for solving these difficult decisions. But far more importantly are her concerns for the choice and meaning of the play, the need to cast actors who will embody the characters and bring them to life and, finally, to understand that no theatrical presentation exists without an audience. i have watched Di trevis in rehearsal and, although she is cunning at concealing it, she is at heart a wondrous teacher. gifted teachers are rare: they must, self-evidently, have knowledge they are eager to impart; they have to love their subject and, more importantly, their students to whom they should transmit their own enthusiasm. these gifts Di has in abundance. But she has something more to offer and that is imagination and instinct, those two indefinable qualities all talented artists share. in Being a Director she conveys the necessity of embracing both the real world and the world of the drama; above all the obligation to breathe life into the work. xii AcKnowleDgeMentS My thanks go to talia rodgers who first suggested i write this book, to nigel gearing who was both a friend and advisor and to niall Slater at routledge for his editorial help and advice. Much of the book was written in Petaluma, california and i am grateful to my friends Kathy and Michael Lerner for their hospitality at their home on cherry Hill and many happy sunlit memories. thanks must go to numerous colleagues and friends for their help and encouragement: Daphne and Micky Astor; Merry conway; Sam and Skye Dakin; Flo Hodes; Pamela Howard; Jane gibson; Alexander Medem; Shona Morris; christopher Peak; graham roos; Sylvia rotter; Barbara Stone; my sister, Sarah trevis; my daughter, Decca; my agent, John Wood; tom Kuhn who supplied me with material about Brecht; Alice Knight who did photographic research; Helen Manfull, my assistant at State college, Pennsylvania where this book was completed; Dominic Muldowney who taught me about music and kindly married me; to the national theatre of great Britain for allowing me to use excerpts from Remembrance of Things Proust. i must also thank staff at the national theatre Archive and the royal Shakespeare company for their help in locating photographs.

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