Directing Unit Notes

Director's Vision:
by Hunter Foster

• Whenever he approaches a show, he always look for the shows "core" or "heart"'
• Wants the audience to walk away with an emotional experience no matter the genre of the show itself
• In order to have the complete emotional impact and truly resonate with the audience, they must follow the journey of "Man in Chair"
• This sad and lonely character is the heart of the show
• He is the core and foundation, they see The Drowsy Chaperone through his eyes
• The creative team will approach the show the show with huge imagination
• Imagination helps him and Choreographer Chris Bailey create the show how "Man in Chair" envisions it, instead of how the show was originally staged 
• This will allow the audience to go on this journey with the character and discover the world as he sees it
• He hopes that by the end of the play, although it was hilarious, the audience will be able to empathize with his despair and loneliness and maybe see a little bit of themselves in him

Hartford Stage's Production of Henry V:

• It was a history play written in 1599 by Shakespeare, about history then
• Shakespeare is using that story to look at a number of questions that are just as timely for his audiences now as it was back then
• Why does a nation decide to go to war? What is the cost of war? Who gets to decide for a country what the country is doing, and then who's impacted by those decisions
• The main character Henry IV, decided to go to war at the end of his reign. Shakespeare makes it very clear there's special interest pushing him to make that decision
• There are many question presented like "who's actually leaving with how much money on our leaders to make the decision they're making" which is something that is always relevant. Some other questions are what it is to be a leader, what your responsibilities are, what it is to actually listen to your people or not, who is being impacted by the decisions you are making
• These questions are all very "timely"

Spring Awakening From Script to Stage: The Director's Concept:

• There is a juxtaposition between the original play and the addition of modern rock songs
• You'll hear the students speaking the colloquialisms of the 1890s' but once they sing the rock songs sing like modern day teens
• This makes the show exciting and fresh as well as timeless because the audience can see that things haven't changed much in between the time periods
• For this production, they used elements from both the Austin production as well as in Oklahoma they are using the set from Austin
• Beautiful and simple set that works well with the original play and the rock show within the play
• Added new costumes, had a new line designed 
• lighting also plays a large part in rock musicals

A Director's Interpretation: The Comedy of Errors:

• The moat important question to ask when staging a play is "what is the dynamic of the play?" or "what's the main action of the play?"
• In The Comedy of Errors, the main dynamic is about a man trying to find his family, in a way, or find his place in the world, which was the driving force of the play
• The idea of the play is about being estranged from who you are and being an outsider
• Key Idea: the kind of mental state that goes with being as outsider
• Played this story with the idea of a different point of view so that they were anchored in on learning Lenny Henry's character's point go view a lot of the time, we viewing the city from his eyes
• Wanted the look of the show (design) to be very vibrant and bright, wanted to set it now
• Fast paced, gritty, edgy, moments of feeling kind of dangerous, but lively, multicultural, crazy kind of atmosphere you get in large cities
• A big note he made was to get to the "kernel" of the atmosphere 
• wanted to anchor the play into something recognizable and true rather than a cartoon world
• if your interpretation of the play or your basic kind of principle you are working from is rooted deep in the text, it will release the actors 
• There is a theory, and you test the theory out in real time with the actors and see what comes out. You have to be open to what they bring. And it's very important the actors feel that they're being creative, that they're finding and discovering things and the process in the rehearsal room is alive
• The director's responsibility is making a clear and very exciting interpretation for that moment, and for that moment alone
• You can't define the play forever, so it is best to keep it ephemeral 
• you're defying it according to your own response and the people you're working with's response at that moment