It is often assumed that a director’s role is the same regardless of whether they are leading a theatrical production or the development of  a new play. 

Although both require a director to have a well developed sense of what works and doesn’t work theatrically, leading a creative team to mount a production is a very undertaking than leading a creative team in the development of a new script.

In this article, we continue our series on how cast and creative members roles affect the feedback they give playwrights by first, examining  how a director’s role differs in  production and new play development and second, how a director’s role influences the kind of feedback they give playwrights.

Directors in Production

In production, a director’s job is to provide a production concept for the play and then assemble, organize and synchronize the cast and creative team’s work into a unified theatrical production of that concept.

Depending on the director’s approach, the analysis process may focus on bettering their understanding of the playwright’s intent in order to develop a production concept that best serves the text, or they may prefer to focus on how they might use the text to serve a greater directorial vision with minimal consideration of text.

The first approach is often referred to as a directorial vision that serves the playwright’s intent. The second is often referred to as a directorial vision that’s imposed onto the playwright’s text.

Both approaches have led to great and not-so-great productions. But, as a playwright, it’s important to understand which approach a director is taking. Directors who impose a directorial a vision onto a text tend to give notes and suggest rewrites that support their production concept in order to strengthen their production of the piece. Directors who serve the playwright’s intent tend to give notes and suggest rewrites they believe will strengthen the text’s capacity to convey the playwright’s intent.

Directors in New Play Development

There are boundless ways of developing a new work for the theatre. For the purposes of this blog post, we’ll focus on how it is done at Northwest Theatre Workshop.

At NWTW, we believe an effective new play development process utilizes multiple approaches—analytical, creative, and collaborative—that explores the script both as a literary piece and as a blueprint fro production. Using a variety of approaches, playwrights often discover and clarify their literary intention as well as sharpen the theatrical experience the script creates for the audience.

NWTW sees the role the director serves when leading a new play development process as a very different role than that of a director who is leading a production.

When a director is taking a new play through the development and production, we work with the playwright and the director to ensure there is open communication about when the director is using their expertise to guide a playwright towards a sharpened draft of their script versus when they’re focusing on sharpening the production.

Goal During Script Analysis

With a new script, it is not always appropriate for a director to dive immediately into the script analysis process. Most new scripts are incomplete. If a script is complete, the play doesn’t need development; it is ready for full production. For this reason, a director’s first task is usually to determine whether the script needs development.

If it does, the director’s second task is to assess whether they can lead a development process likely to improve the script. To make that assessment, a director often considers:

• What specific directorial approach, techniques and/or explorations will likely strengthen the play?

• What kinds of talents, skills and resources can the director provide for the playwright that the playwright isn’t able to provide for themselves? 

• What’s the director’s goal in working with the script? Does the director intend to ride it out to full production? Does the director want to build a collaborative relationship with this particular playwright?

Once the director has decided the script needs development and that they are a good fit for the kind of development process the play needs, they often set up a preliminary meeting with the playwright.

Entering the development process

It’s not uncommon for both directors and playwrights to dive head first into a development process without first examining their own personal agendas. This often leads to miscommunication and a collaboration where both are working at cross purposes. For this reason, NWTW requests that playwrights and directors have a preliminary meeting where both share their goals and ensure their agendas align.

A playwright has the right to know the director’s intention and the purpose of the new script development process they are about to undertake. Playwrights often report their scripts have been “developed to death,” usually because their plays have been put through a series of various workshops or readings with no specific goal set, then end with no benefit to the script or any further progress towards production.

Having a conversation with the director about the director’s goal in working with the play—including their intended approach, the techniques or explorations they expect will strengthen the play, and whether the workshop is a necessary step to full production—usually abates these fears and sets up the right expectations.

The playwright’s goal in seeking development is equally important. Most directors of new works are seeking playwrights who believe the development process has value and use it as a tool for the exploration and improvement of their scripts. Such directors often agree to take on projects because they are seeking productive collaborations and playwrights who value these relationships once they’re established.

If the playwright doesn’t honestly believe that taking the script through a development process will benefit the script and is only pursuing it because they believe it is a prerequisite to production, the director has the right to know.

At NWTW, once the playwright and director have assured each other their goals are aligned and agree on the purpose of the development process, four separate dramaturgical meetings are set up where different aspects of the script are discussed between the director and playwright.

Workshops and Rehearsals

In workshops and the early stages of a rehearsal process, directors tend to focus on facilitating the theatrical exploration of the script while critically examining what is being revealed when. They tend to center their attention on “moments” and how connecting one moment to the next unfolds on stage, revealing the story and themes to the audience. The techniques and strategies directors use to accomplish this are varied and endless, but a handful of them are discussed in our article, Workshopping With Directors.

It is often useful for a playwright to see a script on its feet to learn why a particular scene or character doesn’t work as intended. In these situations, it’s important for the director to let scenes and characters stand on their own.

But, a director might also suggest directorial tactics that can convey the playwright’s intention such as a symbolic set piece, projection, or a special effect. If the directorial tactic is effective, the playwright might include it in a later version.

Director’s Feedback

“If we were to put this up today, I’d have to work against the script to make it work. It’s a lot of action that doesn’t add up to any moments. Moments need a beginning, middle, and end. Chloe’s entrance doesn’t give us even a hint of where she’s coming from, how she feels about it, or if any of that is important to the story. There’s just … nothin.’ Give me a moment.*

“Let us see her adjust to being in this bathroom, show us if it’s familiar to her or not, then end the moment of her entrance with some kind of transition to the mirror so we know what it is about her reflection and her hair that draws her there. Build a moment that reveals whatever’s important to the story here—her relationship to the bathroom and the space outside of it maybe. Then jump to action that shows her relationship to the mirror, or her reflection, or beauty, or whatever it is you’re going for there. You’ve also got all these interesting lines about blood scattered randomly throughout the scene, which doesn’t make any sense, but is interesting.

“I need a moment, a sequence of smaller actions that adds up to something that can reveal or imply whatever it is you’re trying to do with the blood here. And don’t even get me started on the sentient toilet. How are these women—who are based on the greek Fates, right?—how are these powerful women okay with sitting down and using a sentient toilet? A sentient toilet that growls and grumbles and belches, so I’m guessing it’s male, right? I … I just … I can’t even get my head around this play without understanding that, and it’s never addressed. I mean, I’ll make it work, so … whatever. But if you don’t give me at least a hint about what any of this means, I’m just gonna have to direct in something myself just to make the setting make sense and motivate the actors.”

At first glance, the director’s feedback might look like it’s addressing issues different than those raised previously by the resident playwright and the dramaturg. The resident playwright questioned why the writer chose to structure the scene in an unconventional way. The dramaturg asked about the lack of definition and inconsistencies in the world of the play. The director’s feedback, on the other hand, is focused on the script’s incomplete moments and the lack of meaningful action.

But, with deeper consideration, it becomes evident how all three are addressing the same issues.

Opening scenes are often referred to as exposition scenes or “the set-up.” They usually have a different structure than later scenes because their purpose it to set up the scenes that will follow. In our play about the Fates, the playwright had many later scenes that were exceptionally strong in their structure and humor, which is why it was picked up for production.

An opening scene introduces the audience (or reader) to the play’s world and characters. It sets up the play’s world.

The world of they play is its context. Context is what gives meaning to action, and meaningful action is what builds moments that reveal the characters and story to the reader or audience. A party that celebrates a person’s life means something considerably different at a funeral, or at a birthday, anniversary, or retirement. The characters’ behavior at the celebration will have vastly different meanings and consequences in a world where social status, standards, and constructs are strictly observed versus a world where they are lax.

The resident playwright, dramaturg, and director’s comments arise from their mutual inability to make sense of the play’s world—the play’s context—which leaves them unable to make sense of the playwright’s choice in structuring the scene, the purpose behind using the Fates and the nonrealistic world, and the meaning behind the main character’s actions. The difference in feedback stems more from the different roles they serve in the process than in the issues they’re addressing.

As we stated in our previous article, about the role of the dramaturg in new play development, helping a playwright discover the intent behind their choices to reveal their deeper vision is not an easy task. Defining the playwright’s intent behind their choices of the world’s logic and how its essential features work together to create a cohesive and consistent world would be an ongoing issue throughout the development and production process.

*Directors often use the word “moment” to refer to something of significance that happens on stage within a minute or a minute and a half, which is close to the literal definition of the word. Often, in scene writing books and classes, the “moment” of the scene is shorthand for the “moment of highest action,” which refers to the climax of the scene that shows the consequences of the characters’ choices. In our Create workshops, to use a common and consistent dramaturgical language, we use the world “phrase” for something of significance that happens on stage within a minute or a minute and a half and avoid the term “moment” or “moment of highest action.”