9:30-10:50 a.m., Tuesday/Thursday
To identify and begin to develop the knowledge and skills necessary for successful directing.
To investigate and experience the role of the director in the theatrical process.
To identify the dimensions of theatrical style and to consider how they translate into directorial choices.
To consider the artistic, economic, social, and ethical issues involved in choosing and interpreting a play for production.
To define a variety of methods of play analysis and to consider how each contributes to the question “What is this play really about?”
To analyze, sense, and help actors communicate a play’s dynamics implicit in the playwright’s intention and the characters’ superintentions, intentions/relacoms, obstackles, tactics, and expectations.
To develop a working comprehension of the basic tools for directing actors: blocking, pacing, organic composition, picturization, movement, business, vocal delivery, and physicalization.
To sense and help actors communicate a play’s rhythms, its high’s and low’s, its loud’s and soft’s, its “moments,” and its tonalities.
To define “concept” and to begin to explore what is involved in establishing a conceptual throughline for a play.
To adopt a professional, collaborative working style in carrying out directing exercises.
To begin to develop an effective, individual directing style.
Text(s)
Required: Stuart Vaughan, Directing Plays: A Working Professional’s Method (New York: Longman Publishing Group, 1993)
Required: a selected playscript from which scenes will be produced
Other Requirements:
Thorough reading, re-reading, and analysis of scripts from which scenes to be directed are drawn.
Research on a noteworthy actor, director, or designer leading to a Power Point presentation.
Attendance at, or participation in, the MSU Theatre’s production of Arthur Miller’sAll My Sons (7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, October 7‑9; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, October 10) and Jim Leonard’s Anatomy of Gray (7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, November 18-20; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, November 21).
Students must attend the Dallas Theatre Center’s production of Shakespeare’sHenry IV. The production is scheduled for September 10-October 10 at the new Wyly Theatre in the downtown Arts District. A substantial writing assignment analyzing the production from a directorial viewpoint will accompany this experience.
Graded Assignments
There will be several short written assignments and occasional quizzes.
Two tests covering class discussions and experiences, as well as textbook assignments, will be administered.
Each student will deliver a 15-20-minute Power Point presentation on a noteworthy actor, designer, or director. The person chosen should be one who has had a substantial impact on regional, national, or world theatre.
A paper will be required reacting to the Dallas Theatre Center’s production of Henry IV.
Each student will direct two scenes, each 3-7 minutes long—the first drawn from a play studied in class, the second chosen by the student director with the approval of the instructor. Neither scene should require more than two or three actors. The individual directors will be responsible for casting their scenes. If actors are drawn from the class, no class member should be required to perform in more than one scene per round. Because of time constraints, auditions for the scenes will not be held unless a student director elects to arrange private readings. Each scene should be done with workable props and costume items necessary for character development. The props and costumes used need not be authentic, and sound and lighting effects need not be used. The goal is to keep the emphasis on directing and performance and to avoid getting carried away with technical concerns. Makeup will not be used for the scenes. Both scenes should be staged for a proscenium or quasi-proscenium stage environment. For each scene, the director should prepare, both as a tool for rehearsal and as an assignment to be evaluated, an analysis and promptscript including the following:
I. FIRST SECTION OF PROMPTBOOK: The playwright and the play A. Notes on the playwright 1. Dates 2. Background 3. Extent and nature of writing 4. Playwright’s thematic concerns in general and themes explored in the play 5. Playwright’s intention in writing the play (spine of the play) 6. Dramatic style (realistic, theatricalistic, combination of realism and theatricalism) NOTE: Information taken from the Internet is acceptable, but the student director should mark it to indicate points that “speak” to the work being rehearsed and make notes that show that the information has been imbibed and processed. SIMPLY COPYING INFORMATION AND INSERTING IT INTO THE PROMPTBOOK IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. B. Notes on play as related to the scene. 1. Synopsis putting the scene in perspective and illuminating its importance and function in the play as a whole. 2. Images (scripted and/or directorial) 3. Description and analysis of characters in the scene a. Physical characteristics (dress, appearance, grooming, carriage, movement, gesture, mannerisms) b. Psychological characteristics (introvert/extrovert, intelligence, philosophy of life, likes, dislikes, aspirations, fears, phobias) c. Social characteristics (feelings toward, and interactions with, other characters, relacoms) d. Superintentions (spine of each character in the scene) e. Intentions (for the scene being directed) f. Obstacles faced by the characters g. Tactics employed by the characters 4. Special performance problems within the scene and ideas for solving them II. SECOND SECTION OF PROMPTBOOK: Technical aspects A. Props list denoting careful and accurate placement for performance B. Sound effects notes, if necessary (generally, none need be used) C. Costume notes for each character (sketches are also helpful) D. Scaled ground plan of set on ¼” graph paper with explanatory notes (the ground plan for the first scene will be provided) E. Special technical problems within the scene and ideas for surmounting them III. THIRD SECTION OF PROMPTBOOK: Rehearsal notes A. Rehearsal schedule B. Division of scene into beats with notes indicating tactics, obstacles, subtexts, cutbacks, telescoping, hooks, trail-offs, argument enders, builds, climaxes, transitions, discoveries, and moments C. Blocking symbols and notes D. Special interpretations IV. FOURTH SECTION OF PROMPTBOOK: Diary The student director should maintain a rehearsal diary. At the end of each rehearsal, he/she should record the date of the rehearsal. He/she should then record a few statements concerning problems he/she encountered, breakthroughs that were achieved, problems that remained unsolved, and things he/she learned about the process, the actors, or himself/herself. These observations can serve as springboards for class discussion or for an exchange of ideas when the instructor visits rehearsals.
Evaluation
Attendance/participation .......................................................................... 100
0 misses = 100 points
1 miss = 95 points
2 misses = 85 points
3 misses = 75 points
4 misses = 60 points
5 misses = 40 points
More than 5 misses = 0 points
Quizzes and/or short written assignments................................................50
Test 1......................................................................................................................................... 25
Test 2....................................................................................................................................... 125
Rehearsal schedule for Scene 1.......................................................................................... 25
Ground plan for second scene...............................................................................................75
Scene 1 (50 for analysis/promptscript, 100 for performance)....................................... 150
Scene 2 (50 for analysis/promptscript, 100 for performance)....................................... 150
Paper on Dallas Theatre Center’s production of Henry IV............................................. 100
Power Point Presentation (including submission outline)............................................. 100
*Total 1000
Final grade: 895-1000 = A, 795-894 = B, 695-794 = C, 595-694 = D, 0-594 = F
Scale for grading daily work (grades assigned to nearest percentage point):
A (96-100%) B+ (87-89%) C+ (77-79%) D+ (67-69%)
A- (90-95%) B (83-86%) C (73-76%) D (63-66%)
B- (80-82%) C- (70-72%) D- (60-62%)
F (below 60%)
*Note: The instructor reserves the right to adjust or cancel assignments as the course progresses. If, for some reason, assignments administered total somewhat more or fewer than 1,000 points, the method of obtaining the final grade will remain essentially the same: the total points achieved will be divided by the total points possible to obtain a percentage, and a grade will be assigned according to the percentage scale outlined above.
All graded assignments should be submitted on or before the deadline. The instructor reserves the right to reject late assignments. Grade deductions will be applied to late assignments that are accepted.
(1) Students should follow the syllabus to keep track of assignments and should take notes during lectures and discussions. Keeping up with reading and notes is imperative to doing well on quizzes, tests, and directing assignments.
(2) Attendance at class sessions is expected. Upon his/her fifth absence, excused or not, the student may be dropped from the class by the instructor.
(3) The instructor will not be held responsible for recording attendance for a tardy student. The instructor reserves the right to disallow counting a student present who is extremely tardy.
(4) Make-up work may be given if—and only if (a) the student notifies the instructor before the missed class or presents a doctor’s excuse upon returning, and (b) the student takes responsibility for scheduling a make-up test (or other missed graded assignment) with the instructor on the first day of return.
Student Rights and Responsibilities
PRIVACY:
Federal law prohibits the instructor from releasing information about students to certain parties outside of the university without the signed consent of the student. Thus, in almost all cases the instructor will not discuss a student’s academic progress or other matters with his/her parents.
ADAPTATIONS AND ACCOMMODATIONS:
If a student (1) needs course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, (2) has emergency medical information that needs sharing, or (3) requires special accommodations in case the building must be evacuated, he/she should make an appointment with the professor as soon as possible.
CONDUCT:
Classroom behavior that interferes with either the instructor’s ability to conduct the class or the ability of other students to profit from the instruction will result in the instructor’s removing the disruptive student(s) from the class.
PLAGIARISM:
Plagiarism is (1) the use of source material of other persons (either published or unpublished, including the Internet) without following the accepted techniques of giving credit or (2) the submission for credit of work not the individual’s to whom credit is given. If a student in the class is caught plagiarizing, appropriate disciplinary action will be taken. The Student Creed developed and adopted by the MSU Student Government reinforces the discouragement of plagiarism and other unethical behaviors. The first statement of the creed reads, “As an MSU student, I pledge not to lie, cheat, steal, or help anyone else to do so.” Plagiarism is lying, cheating, and stealing.