David Blumfield

David Blumfield teaches drama at the University of Aberystwyth.  He works with the community theatre at the Arts Centre and has run Castaways for almost 20 years.   I met up with David at the RAFA Club in Aberystwyth, after his production of Mapping the Soul by Lucy Gough.

More on David http://www.castawaytheatre.com/

David Blumfield

Saturday, May 28^th 9pm

Aberystwyth, Wales

Can you tell us a bit about Castaways and your current production?

Castaways is the alternative community theatre. There are two community theatres in the [Aberystwyth] Arts Centre. One group tends to do more the musicals and comedies, we tend to do more… the off the boards kind of stuff!  In 1999 the community company was thriving. We commissioned Lucy [Gough] to write a play for us.  Most directors can only have small casts and most writers have to write for small casts because there just isn’t the budget to cover a cast of 25.  She thought it would be a brilliant idea to write a community play and it was staged this time in 2001 at the Arts Centre. It was very successful, so the 20^th anniversary of Castaway came around this year and I thought it the most fitting play to do.  It’s a fascinating play.  Its rather like a trifle, you have a taste off the top and think, hmm that’s interesting, and then you go a bit deeper and its something else, then a bit deeper and the play tends to go like that and takes you to extremes.  It’s a fairy tale for grownups, its got all these wild and wonderful characters and all of a sudden be completely contemporary, like with the mobile phone and texting from the grave.  It’s definitely a director’s play.

What is the philosophy or ethos behind Castaways as a community theatre group?

The ethos of Castaways first of all is inclusivity.  The class is run at the Arts Centre, they are not auditioned.  It’s inclusive, regardless of experience or ability.   That’s the main ethos behind Castaways.  It’s right across the board, we have students and trained actors as well.  The other part of the ethos is for a community company to do work that most community theatres would avoid.  We’ve done work by Caryl Churchill, Harold Pinter, Sarah Kane… for a community group to do plays like that, the difficult, challenging plays?!

Who or what inspires you?

Rock and roll!  I take a lot of inspiration from music. Hence the use of the band in the play, the whole time, I was encouraging them, ‘go metal-er, metal-er.   Alice Cooper, Rush, a lot of guitar based rock. We did the Ubu Plays, by the French absurdist and set it to a background of heavy metal and rock.  You’re unlikely to see a show I’ve directed that doesn’t have any music.

Dream projects?

I am a very keen football fan, my club is in the West Midlands, near Birmingham, and I’m a bit obsessed with them.  Dream project would be set in their grounds, probably something about football and Alice Cooper.  Anything about football or rock and roll that includes my club would be a dream project.

Is the director dead?

Noooooo…. Noooooo.   Directing is a bit like cooking, you keep adding new ingredients, herbs, seasonings and it might be too much so you reduce the sauce.  The director is not dead.  Actors need leadership. However a director is not a dictator.  The actor has got enough to worry about.  If you’re playing Hamlet, you’ve got a lot to think about!  It needs someone to worry about everything else, it needs the vision, the images to be in someone else’s head to create the picture.

Nancy Baker

Nancy Baker is originally from San Francisco, California.  She is a theatre director and lives in Los Angeles.  She doesn’t own a TV or a microwave.  It’s not so much that she’s an earth avenger, technology just escapes her.  

I caught up with Nancy on Skype.

Nancy Baker

Friday, May 13 2011

Los Angeles 3pm

Bristol 11pm

What are you working on at the moment?

I was approached by a medical organization to have actors put on scenarios. They’ve asked me to put that together and its… all a bit experimental in the corporate world.  Theatrically, I’m looking at places out of a LA, to do this play, sending out proposals and such.  It’s a play I’ve done before so just working on finding space and money.  We’re always looking for money.

What’s the play?

It’s called Dear Mrs Baker, and oddly enough, its about my mom.  About the guys in Vietnam who wrote her letters, there were more than 50 of them.  The play takes their writing and creates this dual world, of this San Francisco house with Vietnam surroundings.

Why were the soldiers writing to your mom?

She is an interesting women.   She’s pretty conservative.  She didn’t like all the protesters and thought that was very disloyal.  She met my dad at a USO dance, so what does that tell you?!   There was a man in 1965 that wrote an Op -Ed piece to the local paper saying,

Soldier: While you guys are protesting, we are dying for the right to protest. 

My mom was so embarrassed by the protesters that she wrote him a letter saying,

Mom:  Not all of us feel this way. I don’t really have much to offer you.  Here are some cookies.

He shared the cookies.   Those guys sent thank you notes and then it snowballed from there.  She wrote to these guys for five years.  And when they came home, they’d go through San Francisco and my dad would collect them from their base and my mom would throw a big welcome home party.  The Vietnam Memorial Wall’s 30^th anniversary is in two years.  Were trying to get the play up in other places, so that it will easily go to DC. 

What would you say is your directing style?

Hmmm…laughing. Outcome specialist.  I was an actor for 30 years and I definitely have an acting/Meisner approach.  I like it to be a very collective process, in a way, but I also believe in steering a ship and have it reach an ultimate, visual conclusion. I don’t tend to be too autocratic but the vision is the vision.   Stubbornly chill.

What is it like being a theatre director in Los Angeles, the land of film and tv?

Lonely.  Its interesting because you’ll be at a theatre event and someone asks what you’ve done, you tell them, and they turn around and say,

Someone: Well darling, you haven’t really don’t anything have you?! 

Nancy:  Hmm.  I thought the Kennedy Center was pretty impressive! 

It’s a funky dynamic of doing theatre in a non- theatre town.  What’s particurlarly frustrating for me is, theatre actors have tread boards, versus on camera where its all very minor, small and intimate.  The camera does so much for you.   That doesn’t play to the 50^th row of a theatre where you have to be big, without losing that intimacy.  A lot of actors in LA aren’t theatre trained and have more difficulty with that.

Who or what inspires you?

What, would be fear.  I’m really inspired by people working and struggling and the moment right before they make it.  It makes me want to keep doing it.  It makes me curious to the work being the most important thing. The people who are really still hungry.   I'm inspired by people’s hunger and motivated by fear.  There you go!

What type of theatre are you drawn to?

Original theatre, the classics, fluff, social commentaries. Any art that makes someone think and feel is successful.  As a director, if I’m reading a play and half way through it hasn’t made me care, I move on.

What are the challenging aspects of making theatre during our current economic times?

Theatre is expensive.  The devil is in the details.  Space is expensive, electricity is expensive, printing.  It makes theatre owners less willing to risk and makes theatre companies have to struggle so much more to get stuff made.  There are funds but you have a lot of people competing for those. A lot of film actors try and throw together a show because they want to be seen, an agent wont show up, but they want to say they’ve been in something, because at least they’re working.  That has value.  That's WHY they look for those funds. You have to get creative about how you are going to fund something.

Dream projects?

It would be at the Gate Theatre in Dublin with Anthony Hopkins, Marcia Gay Harden and Daniel Day Lewis.

Final question.  Is the director dead?

Every symphony needs a conductor.   Every ship needs someone steering it.  Theatre is ultimately a lovely, visual piece and in order to do that I think you have to step outside and have someone minding the vision.   Actors, if they’re doing their job properly are to close to see, so for me, it’s not possible to do a successful piece without a director.

Thanks Nancy for sharing your thoughts!

"I will say nothing to an actor that cannot be translated into action." Elia Kazan

"The essence of the stage is concentration and penetration. Of the screen action, movement, sweep."  Elia Kazan

Sam Ellis

Sam Ellis, is originally from Vancouver, Canada and lives in Bristol, England.  He is a film and theatre director who has had a few different lives, traveling the globe from Vancouver Island, to Germany, and Scotland.  He is an alum of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Sam Ellis

Saturday, May 7^th 2011

Clifton, Bristol 1:30pm

What are you working on at the moment?

I am working with the Bristol Acting Academy, and directing their showcase.  It’s a bit teaching and directing. I’m really enjoying enthusing people, seeing new talent, and encouraging that talent. Because I have a family, having a steady income is more of what I’ve been focusing on.

How did you get into directing?

I was a policeman for three years, before going to drama school.  I started doing corporate role-plays as a police officer and working with a corporate company, when the director of that company left.  I said I’d fill in until they found a proper director.  I was still there after four years making films for the Crown Prosecution Service and Lord Chancellor's Department, dealing with crews and big budgets.  I became a director by default.  I found it very fulfilling, to get actors together and tell a story.

What do you look for in an actor?

Courage.   Courage, to be open and honest. To give it a go and not worry too much if they succeed or fail.   Integrity.  I certainly wouldn’t be looking for ego.  An actor’s ego gets in the way of  the work.  Generosity is very important when working in a team.  The ability, to tell a beautiful lie, truthfully.

How does your work as a director and actor inform you as a teacher of acting students?

I encourage and help them feel safe, so that they’re in a safe place to explore.  I’m not necessarily out for results. I’m after a sense of ownership from the actor, because ultimately, from there, comes a sense of truth.  I feel that theatre really is an actor’s medium, I think you’re there to help the actor find the truth in the scene. That truth is what's important to an audience rather than any obvious director's input. Good theatre direction should almost go unnoticed.

Who or what inspires you?

Frank Capra.  It’s a Wonderful Life, for it's story telling.  I love anything by the Cohen Brothers, Tim Burton.  People that have a quirky take on things.  Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman.  [Steven]  Spielberg, who I’ve been lucky to work with on Saving Private Ryan.  I was inspired being on the film set, and as the actor thinking ‘oh I’ve got three hours before I shoot this thing’  and then looking at the director whose thinking ‘I’ve got three hours to solve this thing’  It’s a lot of troubleshooting, problem solving, as opposed to the actor who is trying to conserve his energy for the scene.  So watching that, and watching him work very closely with his crew, was hugely inspiring. There was no ego.  He was completely open to the expertise of his team.  That made me realise, that what you do as a director, is you facilitate a creative team.   To bring out the best in each of those members of the team, that’s what the job is!

Dream Projects?

I was an actor for 20 years and have been a director for 9.   My aspiration really, is to continue making money doing what I love.  As a kid, I had this fantasy novel, that if I had the money, I’d like to make it into a film.   I always hope when I read a script or screenplay that it will excite and inspire me.  So I hope I keep getting inspired.

Final question.  Is the director dead?

Theatre is an actor’s medium and it should be an actor’s medium. A good actor has the ability to almost self-direct, an innate ability to understand what’s needed and get up and do it.  But if you have a group of actors, trying to direct by committee, then that’s doomed really.  You need someone to facilitate the process and to buffer the actor from the theatre management.  Free the actor to be creative.  Film is very much a director’s and editor’s medium.  A director is very well alive and kicking in film.  I’ve seen performances created in the editing room.  The shots, what you are getting the audience to look at, that’s all from the director’s point of view.  Without a director, film wouldn’t happen. I think the director is most definitely not dead, they are needed in both fields but for different reasons.

Thanks Sam for sharing your thoughts!

“Conscious preparation leads to unconscious inspiration”.  Stanislavsky.

The Fantastic Four- BOVTS Graduating Directors

This week I had the pleasure of meeting up with the graduating students of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School Directing Course.  It is an excellent program, that offers four special and talented individuals the opportunity to develop and hone their craft.  Their final projects, called Directors’ Cuts opens this Tuesday 3^rd May and runs to 28^th of May at the Alma Tavern in Clifton, Bristol.

For more info on their shows and how to get tickets please visit;

http://www.almataverntheatre.co.uk/theatreWhatsOn.php

The Fantastic Four

Anna Girvan from Newcastle, UK

Matt Grinter from Bristol, UK

Ed Stambollouian from Kent, UK

Emel Yilmaz from Istanbul, Turkey

You can follow all the directors and their news on twitter@BOVTSDirectors

The Fantastic Four Interview:  Anna Girvan, Matt Grinter, Edward Stambollouian, Emel Yilmaz

Thursday, April 28^th 2011

The Arts House Café, 4pm

Stokes Croft, Bristol

You are all currently preparing for your final projects, what plays have you chosen to do and why?

Matt: I’ve chosen Orphans, a play by Dennis Kelly.  It came after a lot of frantic reading over weekends. I ended up at Ed’s house crying I haven’t got a play!  and he gave me this one to read. It was just so engrossing, captivating and drew me in ‘till the end and I just thought this is the one I want to do.

Emel: I am directing Country Music by Simon Stephens.  One of the big reasons why I am doing this play is because I love the story.  I read loads of plays and I think the story of Jamie Carris, who is the main character in the play, is much closer to my heart, my kind of approach and style in theatre.

Ed: I am directing The Aliens by Annie Baker, which is a new American play and had its premiere at the Bush Theatre in London.  This is going to be its first UK revival.   Like Emel, I read a lot of plays before choosing our Alma’s.  This was the first play that made me, laugh a lot and made me cry… a little.

Roar of laughter.

Anna:  Come on big man!

Ed:  Man tears, man tears! It just made me smile and smile and the minute I put it down I wanted to read it again. 

Anna:  I’m directing Contractions by Mike Bartlett. When choosing for the Alma, which is quite a small space you have to think in terms of time restraints and small cast. I  came across Mike’s work, first done at the Royal Court, and like any good book you don’t want to put it down.  It made me laugh and I like the sort of dark, surreal twist of things.  

What are the positives and negatives about being a student during our current economic climate?

Matt:  The positive is that you’re a student!  The negatives are to go into a world that’s unsure at the best of times and at the moment, is terrifying.  The good thing about being a student is you really get to figure out your game plan.  Its tough for everyone and being at the being of your career, its always going to be tough.

Ed:  Training as young directors at the start of our career, more than anything, its given us the confidence in our own practice to go out and make work in the real world.  For me, I think this year has given me the confidence to walk into a rehearsal room and say I’m the director, I know what I’m doing, here we go!   Yes, it’s a difficult time to be a student, but it’s important to have that confidence in yourself and your own ability and that’s what Bristol has given me.

Anna:  And I think as a director its quite interesting listening to talks from Peter Hall,  who just kind of fell into it, before directors were even a big thing.  It was just through friends of friends in Cambridge, hey want to work on something by some guy Samuel Beckett and it just doesn’t seem to happen anymore, through these circles of friends. Hopefully this is what this helps to do as well, create these networks that are oh so important nowadays. It’s not necessarily like you’ve got the one step ahead for having training but it does give you that confidence.  Its give you the experience of working on tours, small scale, large scale, you may have not gotten otherwise.

Matt:  Yeah, I think that’s it.  If you can create something that people want to see, you’ll always get an audience. Its not about going and finding jobs necessarily, its about creating something, you can create from, like we have with Edible [Theatre] in Bristol and like the group we have here.

Emel:  Previously I was doing theatre and drama much more like facillating workshops and I was never able to specifically identify myself as a director.   Now I can quite confidently email a playwright and say I’m a director can I work with you!  That type of confidence and seeing yourself in your occupation… has been brilliant.  I just love being a student as well.

Anna:  I just can’t stop being a student!

My next question was going be about what you will take from the BOVTS directing course into your professional career and it sounds like confidence has been key for all of you.  What else will you take away from it?

Matt: It’s definitely people as well.  When auditioning for these shows, we said to everyone, come an audition even if you don’t think you are right for the part.  These are auditions for our next 5 shows!   These are the people we are going to be working with in the future.  And… friends for life.

All:  Awww!

You all seem to really connect as a group. What are some of the dynamics between you?  I hear you’re taking your shows to London together? 

Matt:  Yeah, we do seem to work quite well together.

Ed: Sometimes!

Emel:  Always love and hate relationship between me and Ed.  But we love each other.

Knowing smiles all around.

Ed: It’s been a bit different for us this year, because one of our directors called Selma, who was from Iceland, had family issues and had to go back.  So Anna, who did the course last year, has come back for the Alma season.  It’s been the three of us for a while and we bonded quite well.  Now its nice having Anna here from the viewpoint of a year outside drama school.  We’ve worked quite well together.  You mentioned our London run,  I don’t think it’s something the directors have done before together or at least not for some time. Because of our relationship, we decided to do it together.

Murmurs of agreement from all.

Emel:  Using this time, rather then competing but supporting each other as directors, is quite refreshing and I think everyone is enjoying that.

Matt:  Yeah, even you two. Gestures towards Emel and Ed.

Ed:  It’s nice to hear you say that!

Emel:  As I said, love and hate!

Ed:  It’s not a competition.

Emel:  Jokingly.  It will be!

Matt:  We're all pitching for one spot in the Brewery in September and we’ve all gone up for things at the same time, it’s always been a friendly banter. 

Ed:  There are so many people out there going for the same job, the same work, there is no point in us competing with each other. If one of us were to get something, it’s FANTASTIC.

Anna:  Half my jobs I’ve gotten because the directors had dropped out!  If you couldn’t do something, with your contacts, you can say hey, I know this director that would be perfect for it and you know they’ll do the same for you.  We’re all in it together. The more connections we can make, the more theatre we can make.  

Matt:  Definitely, definitely.  I don’t think we would’ve been able to get to Trafalgar Studios, if it wasn’t for the four of us.

Who inspires you?

Matt:  Ed.

Laughter. 

Ed’s the big man here!

Emel:  The one to watch!

Ed:  Awesome.  That’s the end of the interview.

Matt:  Who inspires you Ed?

Ed:   One of the reasons I first got into theatre was because of my father.   He is actually, not in theatre at all, but he is hands down, the best storyteller you will ever meet. He’s Armenian, so he comes from that tradition of storytelling and he just tells a brilliant story.  All through my childhood, I heard these fantastic stories and thats what got me into it.  In terms of professional inspiration, it comes from a wide range of different artists.   

Emel:  It is hard to pinpoint one thing or person, there are so many.

Matt:  For me it’s Antonin Geller. He has the career I would love to have. I’d love to do what he did within film and theatre. He was one of the most inspirational people I’ve ever met.  Very, very in touch, particularly in film, that makes the art form, seem like the secretary in the job.  He was able to stay true to what it was and made some of the most beautiful films and wrote the most beautiful plays of recent years.

Anna:  Companies that try and do theatre in different places other than the theatre.  That excites me. Storytelling in an unexpected way, people that want to push the boundaries. People like Katie Mitchell, who really made a female name for directors.  It was all your Peter Halls and Pinters and now Josie Rourke is taking over the Donmar [Warehouse]!  You’ve got female directors taking over huge spaces. Also, people who aren’t afraid of being the most unpopular person and be very much in their niche and say that's my style, I’m not trying to please everyone just to get a job.  Those types of people are very inspiring.

Emel: Going back to my background, I did community theatre and worked with Augosto Boal.  He inspires me a lot, in terms of storytelling, characters and how important characters are to storytelling.  He spent all his life using theatre as a tool for change.

Dream projects?

Matt:  There is a book that I have adapted, called The Otherwise Girl and I am hoping to make it into a feature length film.  I would love to work with my theatre company Edible Theatre and take shows from Bristol and successfully transfer them to the London fringe scene. My greater goals are projects rather than venues or jobs, but really, I just want to make a decent living doing all this stuff.

Ed:  I’d like to work at creating a new theatre space, don’t know where that would be, but that’s something that excites me a lot.  Programming new work and creating a space for artists as well as making my own work and directing.   Since I was eleven, I’ve had a dream of doing Titus Andronicus in a huge tent at Glastonbury. Beirut are going to do the soundtrack, circus performers and loads of fake blood! A multi-million pound project!

Anna: I agree with Matt that I'd like to just be able to make a stable living off directing theatre alone! I have always wanted to go back to Newcastle and set up a green theatre, in an old library on the edge of Heaton Park. It would be a hub for local arts and be very eco friendly (i.e. no touring companies from miles away, no/only disabled car park, bike racks, recycled sets, energy saving lighting, solar powered, recycled paper programmes and leaflets, only local bar snacks and drinks etc.   I'd love to direct a version if The Highwayman, a poem by Alfed Noyes, which I loved as a child.  I'd love to take it around the country to schools and towns in an old gypsy wagon with a troupe of talented actor-musicians bringing this poem to life through creating the sounds, smells, textures and images that it stirs in my mind when I read it.

Emel:  My doable dream project would be producing and directing my own writing and improving that way.  I would quite like to translate new writing from England into Turkish and produce it in Turkey.  There are so many good playwrights in England, that need to be celebrated more widely.  My big, big, dream job would be to be artistic director of the National Theatre.  As a woman and as a Turkish woman it would bring a different quality to it.  I really want to direct a play at the National Theatre!

Final question.  Is the director dead?

Ed:  I don't think the director is dead or dying but the role of director is evolving. Collaborative and company based work is starting to take more of a place in the mainstream. I think the hierarchy of director as god is a dead concept and the most exciting work for me is created when a director challenges the actors to lead the creative process.

Anna: The director is quite a new addition to the theatre and it has been changing its identity and definition ever since. There are so many more of us now and a lot more theatre happening as a result. We use the fact that we all have different approaches to theatre to our benefit and work together with other directors to create all sorts of different theatre and learn from one another. The director now is not just a young man educated at Cambridge that happens to know people who work at Stratford, though there are those lucky few, we now need CVs and references and 'internships' 'work experience' and 'placements' to prove that we are willing to work our guts out for nothing to make us a good director. We have more pressure in that respect but I think that so long the directors of today realise this and realise that the most important part of making theatre is to enjoy it, then the director will keep on thriving and evolving, as the theatre scene does itself.

Matt:  The director is not dead!  Theatre is the new rock and roll and although the roll of the director is developing and evolving it will always be an essential part of the creation process.

More on ANNA:

www.annagirvandirector.co.uk

www.juncturetheatre.co.uk

More on ED:

Ed just been involved in setting up a new fringe theatre IPhone app, Theatre Ninjas.  

http://www.theatreninjas.co.uk/

Follow Ed on twitter@edstambo

Also, please help the gang raise funds to transfer their Bristol shows to London!

http://www.wefund.co.uk/project/bovts-directors-cuts   

“Rehearsals are divided in two stages; the first stage is one of experiment when the cast helps the director. The second stage is creating the performance when the director helps the cast.”  Stanislavski

“Humans are capable of seeing themselves in the act of seeing, of thinking their emotions, of being moved by their thoughts. They can see themselves here and imagine themselves there; they can see themselves today and imagine themselves tomorrow.”

Augusto Boal

“But only if I believe that my directing talents will improve the material I'd be working on. I want to make sure I don't sacrifice beautiful material on the altar of my direction.”

Andre Braugher

Maria Pendolino

Maria Pendolino is originally from Buffalo, NY.  She currently lives in NYC and is co-founder of Almost Knew Theatre Company.  As well as being a director, Maria is a hardworking producer and an ace performer.  She will be flying out to Colombia in the next few weeks to shoot a role for an upcoming television show.  But before she heads south, catch her in NY for her show Typed Out, on April 29^th and May 2^nd  

More on Maria:

www.mariapendolino.com

www.almostknewtheatre.com

Maria Pendolino

Saturday, April 23 2011

New York City 9am

UK 2pm

Maria and I catch up on Skype.

What are you working on at the moment?

Right now, I am directing a cabaret, Typed Out-- A Cabaret of Missed Opportunities.  I found a cast of people, who all have resonated with the idea of being typed out of auditions, not being the right size, shape or ethnicity.   We selected songs from the musical theatre cannon that are all very, inappropriate.  An opportunity to perform a song for an audience, where you wouldn’t normally be seen in that role for whatever reason but a great opportunity to explore material that’s new to you as a performer.  We have a cast of 8, and we’re doing legit, classic musical theatre, from My Fair Lady, right through to the recent musical Next to Normal.  The whole cannon is represented in the show.

What is your earliest theatrical memory?

When I was about 6 years old, the Chorus Line movie came out, and I watched it all the time.  We have a very lovely theatre in Buffalo, called Shea’s Performing Arts Center, a huge, old grand theatre, built in the early 1900’s. The touring production of Chorus Line came to Buffalo and my dad got tickets. He and I sat in the front row of the balcony and I remember putting my elbows on the rung of the balcony and my chin in my hands and watching.  That was the first show I ever saw on stage and pretty much, when I got the buzz.

Who or what inspires you?

I’m inspired by great music.  Performers.  People, who when you see on stage or talking about their craft, you just get goose bumps. When you see a performer who is 100% invested in what their doing, so grounded and connected to their material, it makes me want to do it all the more.  It makes me want to be part of the shape and fabric of theatre.  That’s what so cool about theatre compared to cinema as a medium, there’s a tradition.  You’re standing on the same stage that someone else stood, the audience is sitting in a seat where someone else sat and for some reason, it feels as if you’re all connected.  There’s a thru line, a thread that connects everyone that is part of the theatrical world.  I love that when you bring directors and actors together, you are bringing a vision to life, that is fed with, and connected to, everything that came before.

How does your work as a performer inform your directing style?

It informs my style in that I know how I like to be spoken to.  I like to receive direction that is useful and still allows me to inform it with my own opinions and abilities.  When I’m speaking to my actors, I like to make sure that my vision is given to them in a way that they can digest it and still bring something of themselves to it.  I’m not the type of director that likes to give line readings or ultimatums or directives.  If it’s not in the form of a question, it’s at least with the opportunity for the actor to bring something else to the table, along with what I’ve asked for.

Is there anything that troubles you about the NYC theatre scene?

I think sometimes its difficult for new work to truly get seen.  The commercial, Off Broadway model is very challenging, to get enough money, to put on a run long enough to get a lot of audience and industry people to come see it.  You’ve got your top tier commercial venture Broadway shows, and the tier below that commercial Off Broadway and below that you have such a huge, huge raft of productions, companies and people working, the Off Off model.  It is so expensive to produce.  Renting the venue and being able to rehearse and rehearse well, not just necessarily in someone’s living room, but in a theatre space, where it’s conducive to movement and finding moments.  People are so challenged from a financial standpoint, that you get wonderful, wonderful theatre being produced for a weekend only or 2-3 performances only.  It’s hard to ask an actor to sign up, fully embody a character and learn a full script for only three performances. You can only begin to discover things as the audience reacts to it.  Once you finally have an audience in the room, something else comes alive in the play and to only have 3 performances to experience that and then you’re done, I find can be unsatisfying.  So I’d say the one thing that troubles me in NY, is the financial component of trying to produce, it isn’t just for art and art alone, it is a business. You try producing in a way, that doesn’t bankrupt you but creates something of quality.

Dream Projects?

I would love to direct a contemporary musical, something by Ahrens & Flaherty. There are new musical composers that are writing great things that have come out of the NYU writing program, a lot of great, cool material that have its roots in pop rock and contemporary musical theatre.  All of the young writers who grew up listening to Jason Robert Brown and Michael John LaChusia, with a different type of view.  I would love to direct a real full-scale musical, with an orchestra, a cast of dancers, a choreographer, the whole nine yards.

Final question.  Is the director dead?

I don’t think the director is dead.  I think people sometimes think you don’t need one. Laughter.  Even if you are performing a monologue or a song by yourself, it’s always a great idea to have someone that’s outside of you being a mirror. That outside person there, watching to see if what you’re attempting to do is actually landing. The director is a very integral part of anything we do in a theatrical medium and good directors know how to bring the best out of actors.  So I think the director is still alive. Somewhere out there…

Thanks Maria for your thoughts!

Happy Easter everyone!  I am glad to have resurrected Maria from the pool of stupendously talented directors I’ve had the privilege to work with in the past.  

Enjoy your Sunday everyone, and for my readers in the UK, enjoy this summertime weather!!

“When you stand on the stage you must have a sense that you are addressing the whole world, and that what you say is so important the whole world must listen.” Stella Adlerwww.almostknewtheatre.com

Simon Muriel

Simon Muriel works in television and lives in Bristol.  He is currently hovering between Location Director and Producing Director roles and has worked on programs such as My Mum’s Gay Wedding for BBC 2 to Warship for Channel 5.

Simon Muriel

Saturday, April 16th 2011

The Bristolian, 1pm

What are you working on at the moment?

Well, right now I’m working on a slate of documentaries for a corporate client in the field of Solar Technology. I do this work through the www.thefoundcollective.com in between broadcast documentary projects but I guess you’re more interested in my tv work?

I’ve just finished a location directing role on a new 3 x 1hr series for ITV on homelessness (airing on ITV1 in early May). In the UK there is a government run scheme known as ‘supported lodging’ in which volunteers are encouraged to offer a spare room in their house to someone who is homeless. It’s a pretty bold ‘big society’ attempt to reintegrate people who have had a really tough time back into the mainstream society. This being ITV, we followed four well-known figures as they opened their doors to lodgers who really needed their help. Needless to say there were plenty of challenging situations and delicate storylines to navigate as an objective obs doc location director.

Can you expand on what a location director is?

This kind of film-making requires a real ‘fly on the wall’ approach and the best way to achieve that is with as few crew members as possible, so in this instance by  ‘location director’ I really mean ‘self-shooting location director’ ie taking on the role of camera, sound and directing all at once as a kind of one man band. Of course in obs doc ‘directing’ is a passive thing. You don’t direct the action, you just film it in a certain way, from certain angles etc, so that it can be cut together to form a narrative. The skill of location directing/self-shooting in obs doc is to capture the truth of a situation (often a very emotionally intimate situation) as though you weren’t there. It is sometimes much harder than it sounds.

How did you get started in television?

I left university with a degree in English and Latin, That didn’t really leave me with much of a defined career path. I always enjoyed the documentary form and always dreamed of working in the industry and when I heard that there was the chance of some work experience in San Francisco (a uni friend’s dad owned a production company there) I leapt at it. I worked as a production assistant for a few years and began to learn the ropes as a cameraman. At film school in Sydney I consolidated all that experience and have been freelancing in reality and ob doc genres since I returned to the UK in 2004. I continue to live by / in fear of that time honoured freelancer’s mantra: ‘You’re only as good as your last job’!

Who or what inspires you?

I’m inspired by loads of fantastic documentary directors. I love watching films that have an eye for the small things in life, those incidental moments that can be so revealing like with Nicolas Philibert’s ‘Etre Et Avoir’. I also have a great respect and admiration for investigative filmmakers who really lift the lid on issues like Errol Morris in ‘the Fog of War’ and Nick Broomfield.

For the most part though, I’m inspired by the people I film. The nature of this kind of work is that you are often filming fascinating characters doing extraordinary things. I have a great respect for people who really grab life by the balls and make the best out of their situation.

You worked on a program in Afghanistan. What was that like?

That was a series called Air Force Afghanistan, following the RAF in Kandahar, the main airbase in Afghanistan. It was a series for FIVE, so it was not exactly high journalism but I think it shed quite a fresh light on our perception of what life is really like in a modern warzone.

There was plenty of high drama and kinetic action but it was often the more mundane aspects of life in a warzone that proved the most revealing. Like when the crew of the Hercules we were following on a sortie to Kabul got out of the plane at the airbase there and excitedly hurried over to the Thai take away to pick up a curry. As tracer from enemy fire filled the night sky on the return journey, the radio chatter was just about how many raw chillies they’d all eaten. Incongruous but true.

That was the first of my jobs with the services and I came away with a renewed respect and admiration for the work they do in such extreme circumstances and the manner in which they do it. I have to say that it made for fertile obs doc ground too. Everywhere you look there are fascinating characters doing extraordinary things.

So when you’re filming like that are you looking for themes or for the story to develop on its own?

What you’ll do in a situation like that is latch on to your character first, you’ll look for the person who is at the heart of a story who has that spark of personality, something interesting about them that will make them watchable on screen. You then plan your shoot so that you are with them on a day that they are likely to be at the heart of an interesting situation. The hope is that you can follow the story as unobtrusively as possible with that character playing the lead role in a naturally unfolding drama. Themes tend to come out more in the editing process.

Any technical differences when shooting an observation doc versus a more structured narrative?

You have no control in obs doc. Directing the action goes against the very nature of the form. I like the kind of directing where the action is playing out in front of you and you’re figuring out how you’re going to film it without getting in the way, being completely unobtrusive and not affecting the story yet covering it in a way that’s dramatic. You tend as a result to shoot obs doc in a much simpler, more practical style. Keep the lens wide so that everything is in focus as much as possible, grab your cut aways when you can when there is less action.

In other genres of course the role of the director is very different and it is all about having total control over a situation. Then you have plenty of time to get as creative as you can on the shoot. Covering the action from several different angles, often repeating the action over and over again to accommodate this.

Have you ever had a situation where your work has been censored in any way?

Chuckles.  Not sure if censored is the right word, but one series I assistant produced never actually went to air.  It was a film for Channel 4 about a 40 year old guy from Putney who suffered from well… lets just say it was a form of sexual addiction! It was around the time of the Channel 4 Big Brother fiasco and I think they understandably wanted to avoid any further controversy. It’s a good film actually but I guess there are some taboos that even television isn’t yet ready to break…?!

Dream projects?

I am really passionate about obs doc. Although it can be exhausting work, and completely all encompassing, there is no more rewarding an experience than to capture drama as it plays out in real life and craft that into a narrative in the edit. The series I’ve really been pushing recently but hasn’t quite happened—YET, is an access doc following the Gurkhas. A series following a band of young men from selection (where they’re whittled down from 27,000 to 200 in the Nepalese foothills) through training in Yorkshire to deployment in theatres of war with the British Army. It would be a real privilege to film and make for fascinating viewing I think.

Final question.  Is the director dead?

I don’t think the director is dead at all. In the world we’ve been talking about, the opportunities are all around you. Budgets may be being cut for programming but that opens up new opportunities for the multi-skilled. Cameras and edit suites are affordable and anyone can go out there and have a go at making their own films. It’s not just self-shooting location directors who are taking advantage of this new trend. Have you heard of the new kid on the block now, the ultimate one man/woman band who not only produces and directs but also cuts their own films: the “Preditor” or  producer/editor?

There are plenty of people who would argue that TV is being constantly dumbed down but it is really a case of supplying the demand. There is a lot of rubbish out there for sure but equally there have never been so many great documentaries being made.  And at least, with all that rubbish around there are lots of opportunities for new directors to cut their teeth and learn by their mistakes. The responsibility lies with the commissioners to keep commissioning the ideas that people want to watch. As long as they do that, there’ll be no shortage of directors ready to make those films.

Thanks Simon for sharing your thoughts!

"In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director." Alfred Hitchcock

"Every cut is a lie. It's never that way. Those two shots were never next to each other in time that way. But you're telling a lie in order to tell the truth."  Wolf Koenig

Andrew Dawson

Andrew Dawson is a performance artist.  He has directed and choreographed for the theatre and opera.  He has worked on several creative endeavors with companies such as Aardman Animations, Red Cape Theatre, and the Metropolitan Opera. His production of The Idiot Colony won Fringe First and Total Theatre Award Winner, Edinburgh 2008.

More on Andrew Dawson:

http://www.andrewdawson.info/

Andrew Dawson

Friday, April 1, 2011

London, UK 9:45am

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m touring and developing The Articulate Hand.  I got the grant from the Wellcome Trust, to create a lecture performance demonstration, about hand impairment.  I hope to be taking it to the World Science Festival in June. This year, I will expand the show to a bigger piece that will tour in America next year.  I’m also choreographing A Midsummer Nights Dream by Benjamin Britten, for the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg.   That opens in July.

Who or what inspires you?

Robert Lepage.  Particularly, when I saw The Dragons’ Trilogy many years ago. Also Peter Brook, in terms of theatre.  In dance, Merce Cunningham.  I spend a lot of time being inspired by art.  Visual art.  That makes a bigger impact on me. People like William Kentridge and Anish Kapoor.  The sculptor David Smith, Antony Gormley.  Douglas Gordon.  Henry Moore, Andrew Wyeth.  Films, David Lynch.   Particularly, a film called The Straight Story, where he wasn’t all weird and wacky, but just about a guy traveling across America on a lawn mower.  I thought that very inspiring and the sort of film that looks like a painting.

In The Idiot Colony, we follow three women in a mental asylum in post WW2 England.  The production was visually stunning and very visceral.  (I saw it twice!)  What drew you to that subject matter?

The three girls, from Red Cape Theatre that created the piece, came to me with a whole file of testimonies and research on mental asylums, where women in the 50’s were locked up for no good reason.   They’d had an illegitimate baby.   They’d had a relationship with a black man or stole money. Not real mental health issues, but were locked up for the rest of their lives, practically forgotten about.  I found the testimonies very moving.   I like that theatre can be a reflection on real life and give us a different perspective.  We found that the hairdressers in the institutions, that came from the outside, were the people that got the closest to the patients.  Because they’re allowed to touch their heads.  Because the hairdressers could make that contact with them, the patients talked to them more than to the doctors, so in a way they found they got more therapy there.  I found that whole thing completely amazing. 

Can you tell us a bit about your work as a performer and how that, if at all, informs your work as a director?

I don’t see myself a practical director. I discovered performing, not acting, and I always wanted to correct my own work.  So I was always, sort of, developing this visual style, wanting to tell my own stories.   That informed me as a director, because I see it from the performer’s point of view.  I’m always trying to create those pictures with them.   I find myself more as the collaborator, than as a director.  The phrase director, just sounds like you’re pointing, telling people what to do, which I know directors don’t do.  But there is something in the word, that feels like your above everybody, where its more you’re in the mix.  You just happen not to be in it.

In the age of rapid social media connection, do you feel that theatre makers have to catch up or somehow adapt to what seems to be the shorter attention spans of audiences today?

I think yes, they do.  We all need to try to keep in step with things that are moving.  I heard the other day on the radio, that teachers are using the fact that kids have mobile phones in the classroom, to find out information on their phones.  Rather than trying to ban the phones, they are trying to use it.  Sometimes that works, sometimes that’s not going to work, and the same is true with theatre.  We have to embrace modern social technologies. In some ways it’s fantastic, it helps us spread the word.  Decide to do a workshop or performance?  Put it on facebook, and you know that 400 people already know about it.  You haven’t had to spend anything on advertising.  You can make a short film, put it on you tube, and if you’re lucky, people will discover it.   For the fact that you’ve got that outlet for work is fantastic, of course it doesn’t necessarily make it better work.  It’s a bit like the invention of the pencil.  It meant everyone could have a pencil but it doesn’t make everyone into an artist.  So it depends what you do with it.  Yes, we have to absolutely embrace it.  I haven’t quite got to twitter yet, but I might have to.  In terms of people’s attention spans, we still have to work at slowing people down. People are very happy to go the opposite.  You get your fast and furious blockbuster movies but people will still want to go on retreats and do yoga. There’s room to embrace and expand with it.

In the light of, recent arts funding cuts, what advice would you give a young director  or choreographer starting out on their career?

Be honest about their work.  Be honest about the way they approach funding.  The Arts Council has been cut, but they’ve also given a lot and upped their money to organisations and new people.  There are other places to get money.  The thing about getting funding, is that you have to have, genuinely, a good idea.    Funding bodies aren’t stupid.  They’ll spot a good idea when you’ve got one.   You might apply four or five times and fail, but you get the idea of how to tick the boxes.  I’ve always gotten funding for projects I really believed in.  I think in the first 3 lines you can smell it.  In terms of making work, be truly honest and genuine.  And to start.  It’s hard without money, but because of facebook and you tube, you can start to get your work out there.  If you don’t do anything, then nothing will happen.

Dream projects?

One would be to make an installation.   To make a theatrical type of installation.  I love the change of rhythm an audience member has to go through.  Rather than turn up for a show at 8, see the show, then leave.  Installations mean you can spend 5 minutes or 3 hrs depending on the work.   That interests me, to meet the audience in a different way, and that you can create work and not have to be there. The other dream project would be to put together a group of 6 or 7 actors, a little company and do a show.

Final question.  Is the director dead?

No, I don’t think the director’s dead.  I think there are more and more exciting young directors appearing.  There’s always the thrill of live theatre.  Even if we televise it or live stream it.  There has to be people out there, looking at other people, guiding and creating stories and pictures.  That role will always exist and that’s very exciting.   You need to have leaders and followers in every situation and in a way the director, maybe that’s all he is, is a leader and an instigator. Sometimes we feel lost and need some directing.

Thanks Andy for sharing your thoughts!

And for your patience!  Had some technical difficulties this week and will now refer to Andy as Magneto in future posts. 

 

"You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive." Merce Cunningham