The Director

A little while back I was thinking about the role of the director and the different way in which people deploy this role. On my own shows I work with Holly Stoppit, she comes from a circus and street theatre background, this brings pragmatism and a concern for the experience of the audience that is so useful in preventing a practice like mine, which involves introspection, self reference, and general oddness, from disappearing up it's own arse.

For me the biggest fault with Fine and Live Art is when the work forgets about it's audience and become solely concerned with the artist's output and their point of view of the work. This purity of focus - where it's just about the artist expressing themselves, has many positive qualities in particular it's ability to produce truely singular bits of work, but it's main drawback is that can lead to works that are impenetrable or where the artists intent is not accessible to the viewer. In my opinion if you aren't interested in how an audience finds a way into understanding, enjoying, appreciating or being engaged with your work then you shouldn't ask people to look at it, just produce the stuff for your own gratification but don't put me in a position where I have to suffer through your box of mirrors round the head, internally focused, self regarding, inaccessible noddling.

For me this is the role of a director, to bring the work, the artist's intent, into a place where it can fully meet it's audience.

A word on styles of direction.

There are loads of different styles of direction, and depending on the project you might need to employ them all.

The choreographer: A director who knows what they wish to see and how they wish the performers to be, for them it's just a case of the people doing what they say and getting into the right place with the right feeling. As if they had a pre-written score of the work.

The facilitator: Someone who understands how to create a space where the performers feel safe and are able to explore what they wish to see and how they can bring this to an audience.

The auteur: They make you do really weird stuff that you don't understand, with a view to getting you into such an odd place that this feeling comes across in the work.

Well those tree are pretty arbitrary but you get the idea.

What I'm really saying is that unless you're actually a genius, and none of us are, then your work would be better if you could find the right director to work with. It's all about finding some one to match your style and bring out the best in your work whilst cutting out all the bits that are rubbish. Simple really. Oh and if you've got a problem with the very idea of using a director then maybe just call them an 'outside eye' and have them do the same thing?