This core course for theater majors is taught each fall in the Department of Theater. Using exercises, peer critique, observation, and analysis, students develop the fundamental skills of stage directing. Units are structured to explore the different roles that directors take on in their work with actors, designers, and the text. Each student's work in the class culminates in a final scene.
Course objectives:
- To practice telling a compelling story with the tools of theater.
- To identify style in one's own work and in others'; to develop a vocabulary to discuss style.
- To experience the organizational and logistical demands on a director.
- To identify the director's relationship with key personnel on the production.
- To practice auditioning, casting, and coaching actors for performance.
- To translate textual and interpretive choices into staging decisions; to develop a vocabulary to discuss staging.
- To synthesize practical and analytic skills into an independent, sustained directing project.