Directing 1

Catalog description

This course applies to the director's craft the principles of the Stanislavski System that the student directors have been learning in Basic Technique and Scene Work Classes. The directors and actors (and playwrights) have learned the "common grammar" that inspired Stanislavski to begin his exploration, precisely so that the various disciplines could communicate with each other. That Communication is at the heart of this course, as the First year's theory becomes the Second Year's process, enabling the directors to deal directly and effectively with the play, the playwright, the actors, and the audience. In the first semester, the directors work on realistic material based on short plays and short stories. In a stet-by-step, hand –on- process the director learns how to tell the play's story through every theatrical means, by working on the play before rehearsals begin; conducting auditions and casting the play; conducting reading rehearsals around the table; introducing the actors to the director's concept of the play and the production; guiding the actors in the creation of character; organizing the rehearsal time; putting the play "on its feet"; leading the actors toward the play's events; creating truthful, organic moment to moment blocking; and incorporating all of the external elements of setting, lighting and costume.