Hello. I am new to acting. I worked with a director last year who was quite authoritarian and so i was very?

Question

dutiful. During the Summer I did another play with a different director and this director was annoyed that I was constantly looking to her for direction. Whats the lesson here !!!!! ?

Answer 1

Some directors tell you at the start that they expect you to do everything they say or expect you to interpret the role within the constraints of their blocking or that they'll leave you pretty much on your own, as long as your interpretation of the role fits within their vision of the play.



There are other directors, however, who don't do this. They expect you to figure out what kind of director they are.



Here are some pointers to figuring out what kind of director you've landed:



The Auteur Director:

This director is usually either a schoolteacher or has been one. Used to mapping every aspect of a play, right down to how a line is to be said and what actions have to be made at each point in the play, she will throw a fit if you try to interpret the role. She will interpret the role and you will do what she says, or else!



Such a director will usually:

a. Stop action and direct actors in detail in the middle of a rehearsal, and/or

b. Have copious notes to convey to actors at the end of every rehearsal, and/or

c. Say the lines the way she expects the actor to say them, considering this to be direction



The Stage Director:

Understands that the stage is an actor's medium and expects the actors to interpret the roles. Such a director will enforce adherence to rehearsal schedules (as Auteur Directors do) but will leave interpretation up to the actor. Scenes will be blocked. You will be told when to enter and from where but not how. You will be told where you have to be when you deliver a line but how to get there - in character - after your last line is your problem. Such directors rarely make impossible demands of actors, however. They are open to listening to an actor's concerns (always in private and after the rehearsal) and modifying the action accordingly.



The Lazy Director:

Doesn't really know much about the stage or actors. Usually fancies herself a tremendous theatre personality and expects that simply announcing a production will make it happen. Cancels rehearsals without prior notice. Has favourite actors who are allowed to skip rehearsals.



Needless to say, if a director cancels a single rehearsal without notice (or worse, simply doesn't turn up for a rehearsal and is unreachable) you're better off walking out of the production and never working with that director again.

Answer 2

There are 2 types of directors. The first on is the guy who wants to do everything his way, and does not want any input from outside sources. And then there's the director who lets the actor be independent and doesn't really care how you do it. Well, you had the 2nd kind of director and I think the only actors who can really do it on their own without the directors help, are the professionals.

Good Luck!

Answer 3

Unfortunately, you have encountered one of the oldest dilemmas that every actor and director has faced since Thespis: How much of each comes into play when creating a piece of art? Some directors are martinets (demanding) and some actors are divas... and the opposite as well. The clue here is to find the workable middle ground, the proverbial give-and-take relationship. In a great many years of greasepaint, one truth I have found is that every director will piss off every actor somehow/somewhere and every actor is a complete idiot if you ask the director! The nature of the beast!

Answer 4

The lesson is that first the actor must be flexible.He must be self-reliant and be able to do the part with little or no direction, or he must be willing to be part of the clay that the director is molding into the production. That is a fact of acting.

Answer 5

Acting is adapting.



To the script; genre/style, the director, the other actors, the designers, the medium, the audience or camera angle, etc.



Always be ready to adapt.

Answer 6

When performing, act as if the stage is your only world. You are your character. The audience or the director doesn't exist. Pretend it's real, because that's how it's supposed to look like.

Answer 7

Well it would really depend on how I am about to die. If I am about to be murdered or if it's sudden I would ask for 5 minutes to think about my life, the people in my life, and I would prey. If it's another way and I have a good amount of time I would talk to the people I love and see them one last time.