Ch8 Study Guide 1. Directors started having rehearsals to work on the play as well as trying to make a more organized and natural approach to staging rather than the artificial acting style that was being used. Actor-managers and pageant masters were in charge of the play before directors. Actor-managers had little concern for a production that was unified, unlike directors who believe the acting should be unified. 2. Gesamtkunstwerk literally means “total art work”. The union of all the theatrical elements to create a thematically unified stage work. Richard Wagner developed the term. It unified the theatrical work and set the tone and mood for the characters. 3. A) Weimer Classicism: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is related to this type of movement. He made rules for actors to follow on stage so the piece would be well-composed. All the actors had to read the text together rather than memorizing it on their own.
B) Meiningen Players: Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, ran this company. He wanted his costumes and setting to be very accurate to history. Crowd scenes displayed each actor as an individual character, while at the same time working in unison with the other actors.
C) Naturalism: Andre Antoine used naturalism in his productions. In La Terre he used real hay and live chickens in a farm scene. He also used natural lights from candles showing that a real barn is being presented. 4. A) Choosing the Text: This is the first job of the directors. They may want to address an important issue or present themes that the director wants to explore. A director may want a script that accommodates a particular actor or theatre space. The director also has to take into account the audience as they play a key role, having to decide what they might enjoy or if there are any problems in the community that should be addressed in the text. B) Establishing the Directorial Vision: A director will imagine which physical world the play will inhabit. The director will search the play for a central idea that can unite all the elements of a production and sum up the meaning of the piece. C) Conceiving a Play for the Stage: Directors imagine the theatrical world the play must inhabit on the stage and develop a clear concept of how they will communicate the central meaning to the audience. The director’s chosen style for the play must capture something essential in the play and permit it to realize its full dramatic potential and meaning. D) Shaping the Visual World: Directors seek designers who can translate their conceptual language into tangible costumes, sets, sounds, and lights on stage. The director usually meets with all the designers to share his or her interpretation of the play and vision or concept for the production. Occasionally a director will have a specific costume or set piece in mind or will be planning a particular bit of staging that will require certain set or costume demands. E) Working with Actors: Most of the time directors hold auditions to cast actors for a show. They have a basic idea about what qualities they seek for each role. A director may ask auditioning actors to perform prepared monologues or to read from the play they are casting. At the first rehearsal, the director sets the tone for the project and to explain his or her personal working process. At the next set of rehearsals, the director frames each scene within the interpretation of the play and defines the relationships and goals of the characters. Eventually they get to a run-through before they get to perform. F) Integrating the Elements of Production: The first opportunity the director has to see how all the conceptual pieces fit together on stage is during technical rehearsals. Much of the time of integrating the elements is spent with the directors deciding on what will best support the text, the acting, and the world on stage. A technical dress rehearsal gives the opportunity to see the costumes under the lights and to make any final changes to actors’ wardrobes before the dress rehearsal. Previews give the director an opportunity to try out the production in front of a live audience. Work continues until opening night, when finally the director’s work is finished.
5. An auter-director is a French term meaning author or originator of a concept; applied to stage directors who conceive a total performance rather than the beginning with a play. He or she creates a performance text that records all that will happen on the stage by the director using directorial conception giving the work a unified whole expression and a distinct and personal point of view. This is different from the process in the above question because they start not with the play, but with the total performance.