THE IMAGE MAKERS: THE DIRECTOR Forerunners In the 1860s in Europe, the practice of a single person guiding all as­ pects of the production process began to take hold. Before that time,) leading actors, theatre managers, and sometimes playwrights "staged" the play, thereby setting actors' movements, dictating financial matters, and making decisions on casting, costumes, and scenery. During the first half of the nineteenth century, actor-managers (following the tradition of James Burbage in England and Moliere in France) resembled the mod­ ern director in some respects. Nevertheless, the actor-manager was first of all an actor and considered the production from the perspective of the role he was playing. David Garrick (1717-1779) was one of En­ gland's successful actor-managers. Although the theatre between 1750 and 1850 was immensely popular in Europe, most actor-managers­ Garrick was an exception-maintained inferior artistic standards in their pursuit of large box office receipts. This general condition in the theatre began to worry a growing num­ ber of theatre people, who reexamined the production process. With the formation in 1866 of Duke George II of Saxe-Meiningen's company in Germany (known as the Meiningen Players), the director in the modern sense of the term began to emerge. He exercised a central artistic disci­ pline over the company, serving in the modern sense as producer, direc­ tor, and financial backer. By controlling design, he introduced a unified look in costumes and settings. The Duke's efforts to define the direc­ tor's role were followed by those of Andre Antoine in France and Con­ stantin Stanislavski in Russia. Under their influence, the modern stage director's identity took shape in Europe: someone who understood all The director, in collaboration with the playwright and with the help of many other artists and assistants, creates the performance in the theatre's space for us to see and hear. DUKE OF SAXE-MEININGEN­ GEORGE II Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, George ll (1826-1914), transformed the Duchy of Meiningen's court theatre into an example of scenic historical accuracy and lifelike acting. As producer-director, the Duke designed all costumes, scenery, and properties for historically authentic style, and worked for ensemble acting. The Duke was assisted by Ludwig Chronegk (1837-1891), an actor responsible for supervising and rehearsing the company. The Meiningen Players were noted throughout Europe for their crowd scenes, in which each member of the crowd had individual traits and specific lines. In rehearsals the actors were divided into small groups, each under the charge of an experienced actor. This practice was in keeping with the company's rule against actors being stars and was the beginning of the new movement in 1874 toward uni­ fied production under the director's control. Saxe-Meiningen's example of the single creative authority in charge of the total production influ­ enced Antoine and Stanislavski. theatre arts and devoted full energies to combining them into a unified, artistic whole. The Director as Artist The director collaborates with playwright, actors, designers, and techni­ cians to create on stage a carefully selected vision of life-a special mir­ ror. Alan Schneider described the theatre's role from a director's view­ point as presenting life not in its literal exactness but through some kind of poetic vision, metaphor, or image-the mirror held up to nature. The director can have several roles in the theatre, ranging from the mun­ dane, like attending to budgets, publicity, and box office details, to the / i~aginati~dis_fgvery and creative interpretation of the playwright's L;:::t~ In all events, the director is the controlling artist responsible for unifying the production elements, which often includes the use of text, music, sound, and visuals. 248 Chapter Ten Although each director has his or her own way of working creatively in the theatre, in general three types of directors have evolved over the years. On the first day of rehearsal, one type of director gives a speech to the cast on what the play is about and describes the approach that will be taken to interpreting the text. Actors, directors, and designers are often treated as "servants" to the director's concept and expected to deliver the "look" and "meaning" of the play's world as specified by the director. Another type of director reverses this approach and be­ comes the servant or coordinator of a group of actors, thereby limiting his or her own vision to the suggestions, criticisms, and encouragements of the group. The third type of director functions as a guide, or helmsman, who senses at the outset the direction that the production will take but pro­ ceeds in rehearsals to provoke and stimulate the actors. This director creates an atmosphere in which actors dig, probe, and investigate the whole fabric of the play. Rehearsals are used to search out ("to harrow" in the original sense of the word rehearse), to listen, and to yield to sug­ gestions. The "directional conception" is what Alan Schneider refers to ,. as the director's poetic vision, and it precedes the first day's work. Nev­ ertheless, the "sense of direction" only crystallizes into a consistent stage image at the very end of the process. The director's question, unlike the critic's, does not deal so much . , with "What's the event about?" as with questions about the event's po- ,{. tential. This is the reason a director chooses one sort of theatrical mate- ' ' rial over another-because of its potential. It is this realization of a play's or event's potential that motivates directors to find space, actors, and forms of expression. The director, like the hunter or the explorer, intuits that a potential exists within a work (or text) and yet explores the un­ known with a sense of expectation and discovery and with a deepening commitment to leading the team. Try to imagine the potential of an un­ tried script called A Streetcar Named Desire and the excitement of its first director, Elia Kazan, struggling to find the direction of what he called the spine (or the throughline) of the play's main action. In his note­ book, he defined the play's spine as the "last gasp" of a dying civiliza­ tion: "This little twisted, pathetic, confused bit of light and culture ... snuffed out by the crude forces of violence, insensibility and vulgarity which exist in our South-and this cry is the play."2 Consider a director like Peter Brook who sets out, over a number of years, to explore an ancient Hindu epic (The Mahabharata); Brook's The Image Makers: The Director 249 ANDRE ANTOINE Andre Antoine (1858-1943) was producer-director of the Theatre Libre, or Free Theatre, in France. Beginning as a part-time actor, Antoine founded in 1887 a theatre and a naturalistic production style that became world-famous. The Theatre Libre was a subscription the­ atre, one open only to members and therefore exempt from censorship. It became a showcase for new plays (Ibsen's Ghosts was one) and new production techniques. Seeking authentic detail, Antoine tried to repro­ duce exact environments. In one play he hung real beef carcasses on stage. In an effort to stage "real" life, Antoine developed three impor­ tant principles: realistic environments, ensemble acting, and the direc­ tor's authority. nine-hour theatrical realization presents humanity's greatest dilemma: human beings caught up in the conflict of divine versus demonic forces. The story of this 1985 theatre epic is essentially a quest for morality: how to find one's way in an age of destruction regardless of epoch, culture, or society. As director, Brook-with the assistance of collaborators, in­ cluding writers, designers, and actors-himself created a theatrical epic out of an ancient, sacred poem of Hindu origins. With A Streetcar Named Desire, Elia Kazan interpreted Tennessee Williams' text. They are both directors creating a "mirror" that is held up to nature in its many forms, varieties, and expressions. Early Responsibilities: Audition, Casting, Assistants Basically, a director has six responsibilities: (1) agreeing to direct an of­ fered script or selecting or creating a script, especially in college and university productions; (2) deciding on the text's interpretation and the "look" and configuration of the stage space; (3) casting actors in the various parts; (4) working with other theatre artists to plan and execute 250 Chapter Ten CONSTANTIN STANISLAVSKI A scene from the 1904 Moscow Art Theatre production of The Cherry Orchard, directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Constantin Stanislavski (1863-1938) was producer-director-actor and co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre (see Figure 9.3 ). As a director, Stanislavski aimed for ensemble acting and the absence of stars; he es­ tablished such directional methods as intensive study of the play before. rehearsals began, the actor's careful attention to detail, and re-creation of the play's milieu after visiting locales or doing extensive research, The Moscow Art Theatre's reputation was made with Anton Chekhov's plays depicting the monotonous and frustrating life of the rural landowning class. Stanislavski is remembered most for his efforts to perfect a truthful method of acting. His published writings in English-My Life in Arl (1924), An Actor Prepares (1936), Building a Character (1949), and Creating a Role (1961)-provide a record of the "Stanislavski System" as it evolved. The Image Makers: The Director 251 ALAN SCHNEIDER The first American production of Beckett's Waiting for Godot was directed by Alan Schneider in 1956 at the Cocoanut Grove Playhouse in Miami. Tom Ewell played Vladimir (center) and Bert Lahr was Estragon.