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Praise for Notes on Directing
“Notes on Directing might just as well have been called 130 Secrets of
Managing Extremely Difficult People…deserves to earn at least a million
dollars if not a Nobel Peace Prize.”
– Wall Street Journal
“The most sensible and practical work on directing on the bookshelf.
One cannot help but ask, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ or ‘Where was
this book when I started my career?’ This book has such wonderful
insights it will benefit anyone interested in directing or play going in
general. Summing up: Essential.”
– Choice
“A highly useful…thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking look at
the directing process…Equally insightful for directors and actors,
whether experienced or novice, this slim volume is essential for all per-
forming arts/theater collections.”
– Library Journalin a starred review
“Libraries and bookshops are full of tomes on stage and film direction,
but none are quite like Notes on Directing…provocative…witty…re-
freshing. The authors are erudite but never pretentious; their shared
point of view is supremely humane; their prose has a lucidity, even
elegance, that is unknown among contemporary American how-to
books.”
– Theatremania
“An indispensable resource…a straightforward glimpse into the art of
playmaking.”
– Backstage
“At last! A book [that] doesn’t have to be big to be beautiful or weighty
to be significant…likely to find itself in very many directors’ essential
reading lists.”
– UK Theatre Web
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“This book is a gem—witty and full of insight. It should be compulsory
reading for every aspiring director.”
– Dame Judi Dench
“Shamelessly dogmatic and practical, this book offers the serious,
time-tested elements of craft that are readily applied yet too often neg-
lected. It’s bold, audacious and refreshing. Don’t go to rehearsal
without it.”
– Director Moisés Kaufman
“This book is full of wonderful insights, expressed in a simple and straight-
forward way. It would benefit anyone interested in directing.”
– Director Jerry Zaks
“This book is filled with smart, useful, thoughtful advice, born of years
of service to an elusive craft. How rare it is for two of our own to talk
so shrewdly, candidly and succinctly about the process of making a pro-
duction. I learned a lot from this remarkably straightforward book, and
I debated with it. It is invaluable.”
– Director Mark Lamos
“The fundamentals that no director or actor can afford to ignore.”
– Actor Rupert Graves
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N o t e s o n
D I R E C T I N G
130 Lessons in Leadership
from the Director’s Chair
FRANK RUSSELL
H AU S E R R E I C H
walker & company
new york
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Copyright © 2003 by Russell Reich
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or
reviews. For information address Walker & Company, 175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, New York 10010.
Published by Walker Publishing Company, Inc., New York
All papers used by Walker & Company are natural, recyclable products
made from wood grown in well-managed forests. The manufacturing
processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of
origin.
The cover and interior proscenium illustration is from a 1933 Playbillfor
Roberta. The artist is not credited.
library of congress cataloging-in-publication data has been applied for.
ISBN-10: 0-8027-1708-X
ISBN-13: 978-0-8027-1708-5
Visit Walker & Company’s Web site at www.walkerbooks.com
First published in hardcover by RCR Creative Press in 2003
This paperback edition published in 2008
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designed by Pneuma Books, LLC, www.pneumabooks.com
Printed in the United States of America by Quebecor World Fairfield
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in memory of
Bill Stiles
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Contents
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Notes on Notes on Directing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
More Notes on Notes on Directing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii
1. Understanding the Script. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1. Read the play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. Take a break and read it again. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
3. If you have any choice, try to fit
the designers to the work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4. Don’t finalize the designs too early . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
5. Read each character’s part through as if
you were playing it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
6. Don’t overstudy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
7. Learn to love a play you don’t
particularly like. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
8. Identify the story’s compelling question. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
9. Realize that the human experience is one
of suffering and the resolution of suffering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
10. Appreciate that character is the result of conduct . . . . . . . . . 4
vii
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notes on directing
11. Understand that plays depict people
in extraordinary circumstances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
12. Recognize that the struggle is more
important than the outcome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
13. Realize that the end is in the beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
14. Express the core of the play in as
few words as possible. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
11. The Director’s Role. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
15. You are the obstetrician. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
16. Just tell the story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
17. Don’t always connect all the dots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
18. Keep the audience guessing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
19. Don’t try to please everybody. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
20. You can’t have everything. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
21. Don’t expect to have all the answers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
22. No actor likes a lazy director, or
an ignorant one. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
23. Assume that everyone is in
a permanent state of catatonic terror. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
24. Lighten up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
25. Don’t change the author’s words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
26. You perform most of the day. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
27. It is not about you . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
28. The best compliment for a director: “You seemed from
the beginning to know exactly what you wanted.”. . . . . . . . 14
111. Casting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
29. Directing is mostly casting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
30. Don’t expect the character to walk in the door. . . . . . . . . . . 18
31. Put actors at ease, but don’t befriend them. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
32. Don’t act with auditioners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
viii
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Contents
1v. First Read-Through. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
33. Don’t start with a great long brilliant speech. . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
34. Don’t let the actors mumble through
the reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
35. Talk it out after the reading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
36. Ask basic questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
37. Mark the waves in a scene. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
v. Rehearsal Rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
38. Work from your strength. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
39. Rehearsals need discipline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
40. Plan the schedule a week at a time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
41. Don’t keep actors hanging about needlessly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
42. Don’t apologize when you don’t have to. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
43. Make sure stage management get
proper breaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
44. Say thank you. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
45. Include the crew. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
46. Always read the scene by yourself just before
rehearsing it with the cast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
47. Don’t bury your head in the script. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
48. Treat difficult moments as discoveries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
49. Don’t work on new material when
people are tired. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
50. End rehearsals on an upbeat note. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
51. Don’t be grim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
52. If you choose to allow outsiders to see
a late rehearsal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
v1. Building Blocks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
53. Every scene is a chase scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
ix
