Time for Reflection

Disclaimer - While this is a reflection of personal thoughts, it could also be seen as the promotion of the related show.

I really know how to pick them don't I? I have now directed 4 plays - a One Act - "Quake" with a cast of 5 (slightly on the larger side for a one act), then two J M Barrie's - "Quality Street" and "The Admirable Crichton" - both having the challenge of three scene settings and rather large casts. QS also had a large cast of children while TAC had THREE VERY DIFFERENT SETS!!

For my fourth, I decide to find something ... smaller. Fewer scenes and less cast. What has been revealed is that a smaller production Technically does not equate to an easier production to direct. In fact, they have got absolutely nothing in common.

While obvious in hind-sight (and I did try to organise a longer rehearsal schedule initially) but a smaller cast attempting to learn the lines that would normally be spread across a larger cast poses a very different directional issue. Particularly with a production that has such a literary lead character. It was tight, very tight, but as we rapidly close on opening night, it all seems to be coming together.

The play is very much driven by the characters and the language of the script. It has the potential to become a Talking Heads type production and the challenge for the director is to find ways to give it visual movement. So we worked on the Characters with everything we had to make them as interesting as possible. Characters that wanted to move.

When it comes to character development, I really go in for Layers of Character, that often appear to be in conflict with each other. Aspects of a whole person that seem to bubble away just under the surface giving a level of unpredictability that hopefully will keep them from becoming "boring" for the audience. This idea, I feel, becomes even more important when the prime vehicle of your show is the language itself. Maintaining a rather consistent performance through a play will not do you any favours.

For most of us, this should be pretty obvious really, and when we think about it, it probably is. However, it is all too easy to fall into a single track just because you are trying to achieve some level of repeatable performance or are focused on "Learning the lines", or other similar reasons. Heck, I am as guilty as anyone else could be. That's what we have directors and co-actors for, to keep us aware.

So let's complicate the issue even more shall we? Let's make use of the Fourth Wall. Yes, that clear piece of space that we usually ask the audience to pretend is present, even thought they can see right through it. Occasionally we break this wall with Asides (or completely ignore it in Pantomimes.) Let's instead make this fourth wall an actual window, one that the characters are completely aware of yet cannot see out off ... clearly. A two-way Mirror.

Let's put the focus of the antagonistic Lead and all his gripes right through this window, effectively exposing the audience to all his ideas, concerns, fears and accusations. Let them also use the fourth wall as the mirror that it is and leave the audience wondering who they are actually looking at. Let's in effect make the fourth wall as much a character as the rest of the cast.

This introduces a new range of directional blocking possibilities and challenges, which actually have been a lot of fun. What we as a team have managed to achieve is a play that is able to place the audience right in the hot seat. No longer are they abstractly viewing a scene as if a fly on the wall, they are now Observers witnessing an event. They are they accused being blamed for the Lead's Woes. They are the conspirators and officials here to Judge the man and his sanity.

With only a few more days of rehearsal left, I sit and watch this tale that we have woven. It sends shivers down my spine and I have been a fan of the script for years. In just a few days, I resign my post and ownership of the show. My work will be done. It will then be in the hands of the cast, stage manager and the audience.

http://www.theatre.asn.au/production/2009/sixteen_words_for_water_garrick_wa