The Director Just Gets In The Way

Nine times out of ten, the director you are working with undertands less about acting than your mailman. This is a rather sad conclusion that I have come to recently. I didn’t ask my mailman, but I’ve dealt with a lot of other directors and heard plenty of first hand accounts of dealing with directors from actors that I trust. You see, the director’s job is to help the actor to do their job. And yet, most directors say that but then heap, no burden upon the actor a whole host of suggestions, ideas and directions that are not only garbage, but they are impracticable, and for those of you without a dictionary, that means that those spoutings from the God-head are.. not capable of being put to use.

So what are they then? They are ‘the best they can do in the situation’. And the situation is, they don’t not squat about acting. They know what they want, they can create it visually, but they are damned if they can get those naughty children the actors to stop yapping for five minutes and do what they’re told.

The actor knows how to perform. It is their gift, or it is their discovery. They know how to do it. And yes, they are not always the best judge of their own performance BUT… most frequently, it would be better for them to have no vision than to try to take on board the suggestions of the director.

Most of the time, the director just gets in the way of what the actor is doing. Sure, it helps to have a performance editor, but that’s no what directors do, they instead come up with ‘the good ideas’ and then they force them onto the performers. Not all directors, like I said, 1/10 is smart.

So what am I saying? Do away with directors. Not entirely no. But the director needs to understand their role better. They are master of ceremonies, conductor of the act of creation, but they must also know and understand how to make performance, how to speak to performers and how to provoke from actors the performance required by the play in action. Not from the picture in the director’s head, their ‘vision’ is usually little more than idle, self-gratification.

So directors, this is for you.

Actors and director have one task. To stage the play. Discuss the play until you all understand it from a practicable, actable point of view. All else is academic twaddle and a waste of time. Forget your clever ideas, open your lug-holes and listen to the actors, their instincts are often golden, guide them through any difficulties, then build a play area for them in rehearsal, let them play inside this area, but reinforce the boundaries. Rehearse the piece often enough that it is never set in stone. That’s the trick of course. Because rehearsal by its nature creates stasis, things begin to degrade, just as the performance grows near. Trust your actors, trust their abilities, you have built the play area for them, now let them go play and marvel at what they can do, without your meddling.

Do these things and stay out of the way of the actors. They don’t need your vision, they need a little help from time to time.