Directors and Designers

“Directors and Designers”
Pamela Howard
Notes by Jillian Bartels

In theory, when working in collaboration, “designer and director emerge[e] to become a single unique creator of text and vision”
o Not always so and is even described as an “uneasy relationship”
o Designers and Directors do not always agree on the nature of their interactions

Howard suggests that directors take a more positive view saying they “never had any trouble collaborating with designers”
o In reality many designers disagreed
o Some were even afraid to speak up in the matter lest they lose their jobs
“Designer Speak”
o When designers, in an attempt to convey their feelings on a design, must pose it as a question to a director (stoking the ego of the director)

“Do YOU think it would be a good idea if…”

As such the designer must play the wife-like figure
· She must be cooperative, thrifty, funny, and, above all “accepting that no relationship is finite”, that “she” can be replaced at any time for a newer and fresher model of designer
·
A good designer or director should work in their passions
· Success comes from collaborating
· Philip Prowe à director/designer
· Said “the best conversation I ever had with a director was with myself in bed at night”
Note that he is self centered but that he was able to successfully communicate his vision fully
Had a team of “interpreters” to translate his vision and his “visual vocabulary”

“Creation meant the synthesis of space, light, and performance achieved by one personal vision” –Adolphe Appia
o The director has total control as designer à one big “creative statement”
o He designed and directed the process while the scenic artist collaborated with him

“The American public…is specially sensitive to visual appeal”

o “The imminent death of the realistic theater”
o Idea that directors get too cluttered and worried over the wrong details
o Robert Edmund Jones said that directors ought to write direct for a bare stage and soon we would “have the most exciting theater in the world”

· Sometimes we get too wrapped up in what it “should” be, rather than what it could be

The Stage Director

o New breed of director who had “signature” ways of designing with the producers wishes in mind
o No more “stock scenery” but more specified drawings and models used ONLY for that production
o Designers were working specifically for one show under this stage director

Keep in mind that designers are still at the whims of the director without any real say in what or for whom they design
· “visual theater artists could only...work through the directors”
· Note: this is unusual because at the turn of the century designers would often initiate productions

“The designers never precede the dauphin in theater”

o This speaks volumes on the feeling of designers à the director is royalty while the designers are “worms”, “servants”, “obedient” people.
o Once again the metaphor of designers as subservient comes up
· Becomes a cycle

· Goes so far as to suggest the theater buildings are part of the hierarchy
Directors office on top floors, lots of light, a place of good perspective
Designers/ artisans in basements with no natural light (stuck in the boiler room)
· Directors sit in the center of rehearsals

“Of course the designer is always welcome to rehearsals”

· The sarcasm is shown in the fact that she goes on to say that “there is never a dedicated space allocated for designers to put their things”
· They can come but they are not ever truly “welcome”

“What is now needed is to find a different direction for directors”

o Obviously talent is going to waste by ignoring the needs and ideas of the artisans of the theater
o However people are different so separation will always exist
“Some people are born with spatial imaginations”
“Some people are born with literary imaginations”

Though a new direction is wanted, there are still major flaws
o Direcor and Desiner Luciano Damiani and Giorgio Strehler sometimes did not get along in their ideas
o There are few women who have EVER taken charge of all aspects of production, and even still few men who have actually done it successfully

Idea that the “Spectator’s experience begins as soon as they enter the building from the street”
o Theatre du Soleil in Paris
o Each time one enters a theater it is different in order to match the show
o Café art changes
o Paintings and Costumes in lobby
This comes through “recognize[ing] the value or collaborating with architects
o This is the way to bring success

“The actor/ Performer becomes the primary visual element”
o Enhanced by stage elements
o Economically healthy
§ More talent = better production = more money without crazy expensive sets and “stuff” on stage
o Co-existing in theater à director uses actors which forces them to work with the movement director à 2 co-directors à scenographer collaborates with a team of “interpretive artists” (such as sound, light, etc)

“Let us therefore move away from labels, stereotypes, and definitions and focus our attention on what we can do, individually, on the ground” – Theodore Zeldin

There is much talent in the theater and lest we forget and label everyone into static categories, a lot of talent and many good ideas will be overlooked and go unused.