Directing A Play For A Live Audience

It doesn't matter if you are directing a comedy, Shakespearean Tragedy, farce, musical or any other type of play, you, the theater director are creating a new work of art.

To interpret a play would be to describe in words the play's meaning, significance, etc. But a sharp director can transform the written word into a new work of art: a performance.

He or she works with words, pauses, inflection, facial expressions, breath, movement, images, sound, lights, costumes and sets to create a new work of art that lives and breathes. The play on the page is a work of literature; the play on the stage is a work of theater.

The written play provides only the barest hint of what the production demands. Take a simple moment: a pause. How long should it be? Should the actors be one foot apart or ten feet apart? The director's job is to provide details left unsaid by the playwright. The theater director must have the final call on whether the costumes or props are appropriate for a given person or period of time.

You may have an excellent lighting designer but without the director's final OK, the play will not be complete, no matter how good the playwright is.

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