No matter the age range of the actors in the musical I'm directing, I always strive to create a supportive, safe experience that warrants risk-taking while driving toward a professional product the audience will rave about. I mean…who doesn’t want good reviews with a fun rehearsal process? But I’ve found that keeping things positive while pushing everyone professionally can be one of the hardest things to balance when directing a large-scale production.
THE PRESSURE OF OUR PRODUCT
Early in my directing career I was in charge of one of the top high school programs in the city who recently opened a state-of-the-art theater facility. Our productions began winning annual musical theatre awards and participation and donors doubled in size. I began to feel pressure year after year and created an atmosphere where I needed to always top what I did the year before. I became so focused on what the final product would be that an educational and safe process began to fall further down the priority list.
Winning an award and pleasing donors and administration took priority. One day during a final dress rehearsal speech, I replaced my usual, “No matter what happens, don’t worry about making a mistake, have fun and make amazing memories on stage you’ll remember forever,” with, “We have competition judges in the audience tomorrow and we need to focus and have as clean a show as we did last year!” There was nothing about storytelling or character or enjoying the moments on stage. I reflected during my drive home that night and realized that the steady growth in the program had caused me to become a “product-driven director” and that is not who I wanted to be for the students involved and as an artist myself.
“OPENING NIGHT IS LIKE A FINAL EXAM THAT EVERYONE GETS TO GRADE.”
A math teacher friend said to me once, “I wouldn’t want your job. We all work hard, but your work is so visual. It’s up there in front of everyone to judge. It’s like a final exam that everyone gets to grade.”
Yikes! I was never very good at taking tests and the thought of a mass grading reminded me of a chronic nightmare I used to have as a kid where I would run screaming from the test room..in my underwear. But there was truth to the statement. I never forgot that conversation and I replayed it a lot in my head early in my career. Unfortunately, it made me too aware of people watching and it affected the way I began to approach productions without even realizing it.
Let’s be honest. All directors face degrees of pressure from parents, donors and producers which can inadvertently drive some decisions, but we have to leave these pressures outside the rehearsal room. I was letting fear of what audience opinions may be take precedence over the process of getting to an audience. It led to stressed out students who spent two months in an unhealthy rehearsal environment.
How did I change and finally find this balance? How did I continue to have award-winning shows, but with a healthy creative process? For me it was remembering one simple thing; “we are all artists.”
WE ARE ALL ARTISTS
No one wants a director who dictates every choice for every actor and doesn’t allow for some creative freedom in the process. Yes we need to keep everyone following the same vision we, the director, have set forth and keep the story and theme of the script at the forefront of everyone’s choices. But an atmosphere where a director becomes a dictator and barks orders the entire time shows no respect and consideration that from actors to designers, we are all artists and enjoy using our creativity to build characters and moments on stage.
The rehearsal process is an actor’s canvas. It’s where they play and try out ideas and your job is to help “direct” these choices, but not dictate everything to them ahead of time. Allowing this freedom is the easiest way to keep the balance between process and product directors strive for. If ideas and creativity are celebrated in a safe environment, we all take ownership of our role in the production, and that polished, professional production will happen organically with a cast that is confident and excited to perform it. A stage full of happy, confident actors…it will likely be the best opening night you have ever had.
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