MY PROCESS
I’ve been fortunate to learn from some incredible directors, from Lyndsey Turner to Katie Mitchell, Nancy Meckler and Sacha Wares, from organisations including the Young Vic and RTYDS.
Taking their brilliant teachings, I’m continuing to grow and realise my process of directing work.
I see my role as a facilitator, creating a roadmap through which a team of artists can come together, in a shared vision, to collaboratively create a new, exciting and playable piece of work.
Prep
I get quite nerdy about prep. Sometimes it’s a bit like writing fanfic for the particular play I’m working on. It’s the usual case of preparing so diligently and expansively that spontaneity and rule breaking becomes easier. The more prepared I am, the easier it is to think loosely and instinctively in the rehearsal room. Plus it helps with the nerves...
I generally split the prep into key areas:
1. text work: character, time, setting, immediate circumstances, story
2. concept and design
Rehearsals: where the hell are we?
It all sounds a bit Stan, but my first stages of rehearsal will be to map out the answers to the key questions:
who am i?
where am i?
where have i come from?
what am i trying to do, and what’s stopping me?
This is always collaborative within the room - one of those times where prep is a strong guide, but it could be torn up or shaped into something slightly different.
A core pillar to my process, in terms of text work, is the principles of “wants” and “obstacles”. The ideas of intentions used to terrify me, but since Nancy Meckler taught them with such clarity I’ve sworn by them. Again, it gives us a strong, repeatable and playable framework from which we’re better equipped to make some magic - and a clearer system when it later comes to giving notes.
Rehearsals: image making
Since assisting on Trainers…A Theatrical Essay at the Gate Theatre in 2020, with the most incredible & visionary collaborators, image making has been a core element to my process. We’ll often play around with objects, or costumes or bodies. I’m interested in the visual journeys of texts, how this maps onto form, and how it might bring out and illuminate a core theme or narrative. After exploring a text through play and collaboration, the process becomes about locking-in our choices and running them - hopefully leaving us with a near final piece ready to be refined in the last week and previews.