Daily Archives: October 13, 2015

Today in directing class I surprised everyone by asking them to bring a box of crayons and lots of scrap paper to class. We were going to color. A group of clever students who had taken this course last year from a different instructor were skeptical and asked me when the play “analysis” was going to be due. They were expecting me to hand them the rubric that would demand some thirty page document with footnote after footnote, fact after fact, research tripping on reasearch. They asked when is the “beat sheet” due? When do I need to turn in my verbs? When do I turn in my list of all possible character traits with 3 quotes each made more substantial and meaty by footnotes. Don’t I need to write an essay on every tea cup, tree, bench, and bible in the play? What’s the deadline for the tome that lays out the play’s arc, the character’s through-line, the dramatic journey, the conflict, the climax and the denouement? Why must a directing analysis be prepared as if it is intended for an English teacher? Is the goal to get a good grade or to have a workable, prepared, flexible springboard to meet the actors? Read more →

Every year, I print out the “ol’ character analysis” and the “ol’ directing analysis” and attach a little white form to indicate how many copies I need, interest in stapling, and opinion of double-siding to the packet and place it in the bin in the copy room early in the morning before any inquisition is called as to the necessity of stretching the budget of an entire county to