The Creative Process of a Director to Bring Dramatic Literature to Life
College
College of Visual and Performing Arts
Department
Theatre & Dance
Faculty Mentor
Andrew Vorder Bruegge, Ph.D. and Daniel Gordon, M.F.A.
Abstract
A director acts as the decision-making body of a production in any play. A team of designers, a cast of actors, and a crew of technicians come together under the creative concept of a director to bring a play to life. A concept is a director’s personal and creative vision or message that he or she has for a play. It is something that the director hopes to leave with the audience members after they have walked away from the show. The fascinating part about a concept is how do you bring it to life? What decisions do you make in order for the concept to translate? How much creative freedom do you give to the designers and actors, while still holding on to the directorial concept you have? The following presentation will focus on a director’s ability to interpret a script, the creative process it takes to bring those characters to life and to create the environment that they live in, and how the collaboration between actors and designers can morph the concept or vision. In the fall of 2014, I directed a drama, a creative project, called reasons to be pretty, by Neil Labute. My task as a director was to create a three-dimensional world from the script. From proposal, to the auditions, to the production meetings, to rehearsals, to the final dress, every moment contributed to the production of reasons to be pretty.
Start Date
24-4-2015 2:20 PM
The Creative Process of a Director to Bring Dramatic Literature to Life
DiGiorgio Campus Center, Room 114
A director acts as the decision-making body of a production in any play. A team of designers, a cast of actors, and a crew of technicians come together under the creative concept of a director to bring a play to life. A concept is a director’s personal and creative vision or message that he or she has for a play. It is something that the director hopes to leave with the audience members after they have walked away from the show. The fascinating part about a concept is how do you bring it to life? What decisions do you make in order for the concept to translate? How much creative freedom do you give to the designers and actors, while still holding on to the directorial concept you have? The following presentation will focus on a director’s ability to interpret a script, the creative process it takes to bring those characters to life and to create the environment that they live in, and how the collaboration between actors and designers can morph the concept or vision. In the fall of 2014, I directed a drama, a creative project, called reasons to be pretty, by Neil Labute. My task as a director was to create a three-dimensional world from the script. From proposal, to the auditions, to the production meetings, to rehearsals, to the final dress, every moment contributed to the production of reasons to be pretty.
