The director's job is a difficult job to describe: even though I'm restricting this description to only live theatre productions - specifically, community and small semi-professional companies - the variations are endless.

In a large, well-established community theatre, the director might have the help of a wide variety of experienced people. On the other hand, as the co-owner and artistic director of a small theatre company in Colorado, I had to serve not only as the director, I generally designed the sets and costumes, as well as directing the play - not unusual in many of the smaller companies I have worked with. Even when there are people available with the skills to take on these jobs, they work very closely with the director, who generally has final approval on all design aspects of the production.

In professional theatre and regional theatres, there are additional people involved in the decision-making process - for example, the producer who is paying for the whole thing. That is also sometimes the case in larger non-professional theatres with a salaried staff of technical people.

This description will focus on small, amateur productions and will be based largely on my own experience as a director.

The Job

The director's job begins long before anyone else gets actively involved in a production. Task number one is to read the script, over and over again... getting to know the characters, the situation, and to understand the action of the play.

In every play script, there is a conflict of some sort. Imagine how boring it would be if a show was about a ho-hum, ordinary day where absolutely nothing went wrong! Live theatre would not have survived for more than 2,000 years if plays didn't have conflict!

Since there is always a conflict, the director has to understand what that conflict is and must identify the good guy (protagonist) and the bad guy (antagonist). The good guy always wants something and it is the bad guy's job to try to keep him from getting what he wants. (I'm using the term 'guy' generically; just as often as not, the 'bad guy' is a 'bad girl'!)

After a few readings and a lot of note taking, the director begins to see pictures in her head of what the finished product should look and sound like, including the actors, the costumes, and the set. She may, at that time, either do some costume and set design or work with the designers, when there are any. At the very least, she must have a floor plan of the set.

Costume design examples - The Beggar's Opera Copyright© 2003 Sunny Carney

When I reach this point, I'm ready to block the play. That means designing all of the movements the actors will make on stage and their onstage positions at just about every second of the play! It's very much like choreographing a dance. A great deal of information is conveyed to the audience by the position and movement of actors during the action of the play. This 'blocking' is, of course, subject to change: when there are real live people on the stage, it doesn't always look like it did in the director's head and adjustments have to be made.