how do you evaluate a director's work?

Interesting to read your paragraph above, Muzz, and relate it to another director I trust and respect, Grahame Gavin, former director of Barking Gecko. Pretty well the first time he directed me, in a play we called 'Dolphin Talk' which ended up being hugely successful and touring the world, I would also agree with your statement 'he guided my performance and shaped the play'...and yet because it was devised from scratch I would disagree with all your other examples: He couldn't know the script because there wasn't one; there was no real concept of blocking worked out and it constantly changed as the play evolved; character-wise he had no pre-conceptions and it largely came from the actors' research and improvisation; he had a vague idea of what he wanted for the set, but he was given one that was recycled from a previous show and only slightly resembled what he had in mind; he freely admitted his vision of the play was only part-formed around two narrative ideas he'd had, but didn't yet know how to marry them together. He'd often set us tasks to workshop and improvise without really knowing how or if they'd fit in, simply to see if it would inspire some new ideas for him. He hadn't even been responsible for casting me, and was not aware of some of the skills I would bring to the work which would strongly influence the eventual style of the play. And to top it off, we started with virtually no material yet knew we had an audience in 3 weeks, play ready or not. I imagine many of you might be relating these traits to all the terrible directors you've known in the past! And yet at no time did I ever feel like we had no Captain; I believed in the process because he believed in it and he inspired trust in us all; it was an exciting and challenging time which taught me an immense amount and influenced much of my subsequent career. The play toured to about eight festivals in three countries, was picked up by several other companies, and was revived several times over the next ten years. I ended up doing almost 200 performances, and directed a foreign production. More than that, I then had an 18 year association with Grahame over about 30 plays (some of which would gain similar success), where he continued to inspire me and earn my trust. THAT'S a good director. Cheers, Craig ~<8>-/====\---------