All about the Directors Notebook, led by Helen Leblique

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Remember Helen Leblique from the Royal Shakespeare Company that I said I worked with in TAPS? She came to our school to talk us through how she approaches the directors notebook as she is a trained professional director. We got to learn some amazing tips and look at actual directing notebooks that she has worked from in the past so we got an idea of what we should include in our directors notebook when we get to it.

1. Read the play through in a quiet place away from distractions
When reading through the play you should make notes on your first impressions. You should always questions things too such as 
  • why has the author written the play?
  • what's the purpose?
  • why does a character do and say certain things
  • what is promising about the play
  • what is dangerous about the play
2. Research 
Research is key as it is where ideas will start flowing. The things you should research are;
  • parts of the play you don't understand
  • other productions of the same play which have been produced - never steal ideas though, the whole point of researching is that you create your own ideas
  • the title - why was it chosen? what does it mean? 
  • the author - their past experiences, their humour
  • locations in the play - do they have any cultural references?
  • characters - what their names mean, their history before the play
  • the context of the play - time it was written, time of period in which it is set
  • images relating to any aspect of the script
3. The Design
Your design will be based around many aspects of the script.
  • what type of play is it? - a comedy, romantic, thriller 
  • is it day or night?
  • do any artists or paintings relate to parts of the script? - objects, colours, symbols
  • are there any specific moments in the play which will need to be emphasised? how will you do this? - lighting?
You need to think about how you are going to stage your play also.
  • pros arch
  • thrust
  • in the round
  • traverse 
  • Site specific 
Your choice of stage is crucial. In the thrust, in the round and traverse stages, people in the audience can see other members of the audience and their reactions which gives a more intimate feeling and sense of community which means the audience feel more engaged. 
4. You will be left with so many ideas so you need to narrow them down and pick out your favourite ideas. Don't chuck away the other research and ideas you had though as you may need them if you come to direct another performance. You may also want to come back to some ideas.

5. Think about your pitch
  • why do you want to produce this play now?
  • why am i the best person to direct this play?
  • what do i want the audience to take away from the performance?
  • who is the audience?
  • why is the environment a good place to stage the play?
6. Think about the blurb
The blurb is used for marketing and also allows you to think of how to tie everything together and see if the storyline makes sense. The blurb does many other things;
  • gives a sense of what the performance is about in around two sentences.
  • makes your performance seem tempting
  • helps you have clarity
  • ending the blurb on a question/cliffhanger will allow you to leave the reader thinking about what will happen in the performance. It will persuade them to watch it.
7. Write a scene by scene summary of the play
By writing out a scene summary it will raise questions which will ultimately lead to further research. 
  • give each scene a title
  • make a list of the scene settings
  • know the timings (morning, night). a timeline will help with this
  • scene sketch of set with lighting and furniture
8. Work on the scene changes
  • lighting
  • will any furniture move?
  • will there be sound?
  • what will the entrances and exits be like?
9. Create a character plot to know which characters on which scene

10. Think about character information
  • facts
  • what other characters say about them
  • impressions
  • what they want overall in each scene and in the overall play
11. Create ideas for rehearsals 
  • what are the back stories of each character? has that influenced what their motives are in the performance? 
  • have any events happened off-stage? does this effect a characters mood or appearance when they re-enter? 
These are the types of things you can play around with in rehearsals.

12. Analyse if you believe your characters doing certain things or being in certain places. Is it believable? If not why? Change it! If you're stuck look up theatre practitioners and go back to theory.


We then did a game with Helen in which we read a script but the person reading had to go to another character, touch them on the shoulder and speak directly to them. This activity helped understand who a character should be speaking to. 


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