what I do

Philucifer, (aka Charlie Willis, aka D. Piddy, aka EveryMonkey) recently made a reference in his blog to a comment I had made about the process of directing. Thought I would answer it here (hey, it’s as good a use for a blog as any, and this page has been silent for too long now).

When I see a production of an established text, I’m primarily interested in what the artists working on this particular production have to say. Any established text that has risen to the point of name recognition has already been dissected in dozens of reviews, critical essays and college bull sessions. The script in and of itself rarely interests me while watching a stage production. On the other hand, I’ve never been much of a fan of concept productions, where the script is completely ignored because the director felt like setting Othello in space so he could make a bunch of Star Trek references and show a bunch of scantily clad women. What I do find interesting are the places where the director and actors shine a new light on a text. To put it another way, I enjoy those moments of symbiosis where text and action work together to accent ideas or images that are only partially realized or alluded to in the script itself.

The first three plays I directed were by ‘established’ playwrights, i.e. plays that I found in a book somewhere, that had been staged in professional productions before. As I left college I switched over to directing new works by playwrights that I knew. At the time I said to anyone who would listen that this was because I didn’t have to pay royalties (which my college/local theatre had covered for me in the past). Closer to the truth, I was fortunate to know a number of very talented playwrights who were kind enough to let me take their new babies out for a spin.

When I started working with playwrights that I knew, my initial feeling was that I had an obligation to stage a ‘pure’ version of the show. The premiere of a new piece is often looked at as the definitive version; if nothing else, it will most likely strongly influence subsequent productions. I still think that there is a huge level of respect that must be brought by the director to a first production, but as I’ve grown as a director I’ve realized that at the end of the day, all I can EVER bring to a show I’m directing is my own point of view. I don’t need to bring the playwright’s point of view to the rehearsal table; if they are skilled at their craft, their ideas will be evident in the text. What I do is to take the ideas, philosophies and emotions of a script and use them as the beginning of a conversation.

This conversation starts in pre-production with the playwright, grows with the addition of actors and designers and eventually becomes fully formed with the inclusion of the audience into the dialogue. One conversation, taking place over the entire length of the production. Often conflicting ideas will exist within the same piece… this friction is one of the essential elements of drama. In Nosedive James generally sets the topics we talk about, but many different opinions and ideas on these topics emerge throughout the production. My job is threefold: first, to begin the initial dialogue with the playwright (or with the script itself in the scribe’s absence) by bringing my own ideas about the topic into the mix; second, to facilitate this conversation as we bring the other artistic elements into the fold; and third, to ensure then when it is presented to the audience it is of a whole cloth.

And yeah, I do most of this consciously.

Signing off for another six months,

Pete

My Union-Leader debut

Ted Koppel is a Waffle

One of my all time favorites:


Sorry I haven't updated in a while. This is what I seem to do with blogs... Start up a new one, post for a few weeks and then let it run fallow. Will try to do better.

Lots of good stuff coming up for Nosedive. We just confirmed our dates for the upcoming fundraiser. It's going to be Saturday, Spetember 25th at the Emerging Artists Theatre on 42nd Street. Details are over at the Nosedive site; more will be added shortly.

Speaking of the Nosedive site, we had a little DNS crises there last weekend. Took a couple of days to resolve, but in the process I was able to move it off of Jeremy's machine and on to a professional server. Jeremy's been a huge supporter of Nosedive for years now, allowing us to host our website for free off of Torgo, his in-house server. If you're not familiar with Jeremy's work, he's an excellent cartoonist operating out of the heart of the Granite State. He's been writing his File series for nearly 15 years now. Check out his homepage here (yes, that is me in the upper left hand corner with the squinty eyes) and his new Union Leader published strip, "Leave, Freeze or Die" here.

Boundaries and Limitations

I want to write a little bit about two recent blog entries written by my fellow Nosedivians, Patrick and James.
 
I think that an actor, like any artist, needs to be able to make their work a reflection of themselves. Any truly creative instinct will come from a place inside of you, from the bedrock of beliefs and desires that make you who you are. To dismiss an actor as a hack because they choose not to use certain words or do certain things in a performance is dismissive of their individuality and free will.
 
Now, the places you will find artistic inspiration tend to be toward the boundaries of what you are comfortable with. An actor who is passive and unwilling to stretch themselves into new types of roles will end up giving a boring performance. But, there are many different ways to work outside of your comfort range, and I don’t think it is necessary to break every taboo in your work. Breaking taboos can lead to revelatory moments, but when it is done for purely for the sake of crossing a line, it becomes sophomoric. In my mind, an actor can legitimately choose to not do certain things on stage (profanity, blasphemy, nudity) and still be considered to be an artist. Moreover, if you completely cede you will to a playwright or director, your performance will become less artistic, because it will no longer come from you. The danger comes when an actor refuses to cross ANY line they have set for themselves. This will lead to comfortable drivel.
 
Basically, I’m saying that it is completely legitimate to have a personal line that you will not cross in a performance, so long as you are actively searching out other ways of pushing your boundaries. If we did not have these boundaries, everybody’s worldview would take on the same shape, which would be incredibly boring.
 
On the other hand:
 
If as an actor there are things you will not do, that’s fine. But for God’s sake, make this clear in the audition process. DO NOT accept a role in something that you feel you will need to substantially change in order to perform. This is a recipe resentment and bitterness between you and the writer/director. I always try to make clear upfront what a show entails for the actors. A lot of the work Nosedive does is laced with profanity; when I’m cutting sides for a cold-reading audition I always try to pick scenes that are representative of the extreme elements of a show, in order to show the prospective actors what we are shooting for.
 
When we produced Ruins (a show with a great deal of nudity and sex in it) we laid our goals and expectations for what the performance would require out on the table, talking in specifics about how much nudity each of the roles required. Several actors who auditioned were uncomfortable with the requirements, and chose to take themselves out of the running. I have an enormous amount of respect for these people; as a young actor in NYC, you want more than anything else to be working. To turn down a show based on your personal beliefs is a very hard thing to do. But I tell you, by being upfront about it in auditions, they saved me so much hassle and grief down the road, and I am grateful to them for that.

i can't even find the words...

Seymour Hersh claims that the US government has videotapes of boys being sodomized at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in front of their mothers.

I pray that this is not true.

Nosedive Updates

If you haven’t been to the Nosedive website recently, you should check it out. We have a ton of new updates posted, including:

* The first entry of Lil Jimmy’s new column, Jamespeak. This will be a regularly updated feature on the site, with James sharing his thoughts on theatre in general, and Nosedive in particular.

* Production photos from Mayonnaise Sandwiches, as well as behind the scenes pics (look for Beneath the Mayonnaise at the bottom of the Photo Gallery)

* My portfolio page, featuring photos and information on excellent productions of Cabin Fever, Woyzeck and many others.

* Recently discovered photos of the Ruins cast in their natural environment (i.e. McGee’s Pub; check the House of Nosedive link at the bottom of
the Photo Gallery)

Enjoy!