Episode 7: “The Role of a Director”
Dante talks with Abigail, who recently was Assistant Director for the national tour of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” musical. They talk about who a director is and how actors and directors work together to tell a story.
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[MUSIC]
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[INTRO]
DANTE
Dante’s Acting Adventures!
[THEME MUSIC]
Hey everybody! It’s me, Dante! Welcome to episode seven of my podcast. Today I’m excited to welcome my guest, Abigail. Abigail was the assistant director of the musical “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, the national tour! How amazing is that? Abigail’s favorite dessert is-
ABIGAIL
Brownies.
DANTE
And when she’s not working for the theater, she likes too-
ABIGAIL
Get a coffee and go to target.
DANTE
Let’s get into it!
[MUSIC FADES]
Hello Abigail and welcome to my podcast today. How are you doing?
ABIGAIL
I’m doing great. I’m so excited to be here with you Dante.
DANTE
I’m excited to have you. Thanks for being here. You mentioned earlier that you like brownies and I have to say, I think I’m more of a chocolate chip cookie kind of person.
ABIGAIL
I do love a chocolate chip cookie. You know what I love is a chocolate chip cookie in a brownie. Have you ever had that before?
DANTE
Woah, I’ve never had that before.
ABIGAIL
They’re delicious, you should try one.
DANTE
Well, enough about desserts. I have a question that I’m really curious to ask you today.
ABIGAIL
Great. Ask away.
DANTE
My first question is, who is a director?
[SOUND EFFECT]
ABIGAIL
That’s a really good question. A director is responsible for shaping the artistic vision of the play. That’s a lot of big words, but basically that means that they read the script, and then they get to decide what its meaning is and how it will be represented to the audience that gets to watch it.
DANTE
Wow. Sounds kind of stressful. The director really has a lot to worry about.
ABIGAIL
Yeah, the director is kind of the captain of the ship.
DANTE
Oh, that’s a good way to put it.
ABIGAIL
Yeah.
DANTE
Well that kind of leads me to my next question. Why is having a director important in theater?
[SOUND EFFECT]
ABIGAIL
Well, a director is really important in theater because they’re the person who’s making sure that all these amazing elements of a play or a musical can come together as a cohesive whole. Basically they’re there to make sure the story makes sense and is impactful for the audience.
DANTE
Wow. That’s pretty interesting.
ABIGAIL
Yeah.
DANTE
Well, what do directors do in a rehearsal room?
[SOUND EFFECT]
ABIGAIL
That’s a really great question, and it kind of changes over time in a rehearsal process. First the directors often lead the rehearsal and they set the blocking for the scenes in the show. Have you learned what blocking means yet?
DANTE
Yeah! I did learn what blocking means. My guest for episode three, Jasmine, and I talked all about it. Check this out!
ABIGAIL
Great!
[CLIP FROM EPISODE 3 “ACTING FOR THE STAGE”]
JASMINE
Element four for acting for the stage, is blocking and cheating out.
DANTE
Woah.
JASMINE
Yeah, so these are two new terms. But blocking is the movement of actors in a play or musical. The director helps tell the actors where to move and when to move to create the story.
ABIGAIL
Jasmine had the perfect definition for what blocking is, and that is exactly what the director does.
DANTE
Hey, thanks!
ABIGAIL
Yeah! Well, a little later in the process, that’s when the actors start to do full run-throughs of the play or musical, and that’s when the director takes a lot of notes for the actors. This isn’t because they are doing anything wrong, it’s just to make sure that all of those moments and beats in the show are really clean and clear, so that the audience can understand everything.
DANTE
So, it’s kind of like the director can see what the actors are doing better than the actors can tell what they’re doing. So the director just helps the actors along.
ABIGAIL
That’s exactly right Dante. The director is supposed to kind of be the outside eyes for the actors and a huge help to the actors too.
DANTE
That makes sense. So you said that later on in the rehearsal process, the director has to start putting all the elements of theater together. Tell me more about that.
ABIGAIL
Yeah, after the actors and the director work in the rehearsal room for a long time and finish blocking the show, they move into a process called tech rehearsals and dress rehearsals. Since the director oversees all the different technical and design elements of the show, like the sound design, and the lighting, and the costume design, the director then gets involved in some of that in tech rehearsals. Do you know what a tech rehearsal is?
DANTE
No, I don’t. What is it?
[SOUND EFFECT]
ABIGAIL
Yeah, a tech rehearsal is a period that focuses on only the technical elements of the show. Like how we focus on the actors and getting the blocking down in the rehearsal room; once we move into a tech rehearsal, it becomes all about the technical elements of the show. Like the lighting or sound or the stage crew moving big set pieces, stuff of that nature.
DANTE
Woah, those sound like they could get pretty long and pretty boring.
ABIGAIL
It can be especially boring for the actors to sit there during a tech rehearsal, but the director really appreciates when an actor sits still during those rehearsals because those rehearsals aren’t usually for the actors. They’re really for everyone else like the stage crew and the costume designers and any of the technicians involved in the process. Those are their rehearsals. So, that’s when the director is also writing down a lot of notes for the actors to make sure we’re getting ready to open the show.
DANTE
Wow, there are so many parts that make theater possible. That’s so cool! A tech rehearsal. Alright let’s keep on moving. My next question for you is, what is your favorite part of directing?
[SOUND EFFECT]
ABIGAIL
Well, my favorite part of directing is probably working together with the actors to make the story exciting to watch. I love when actors like you, Dante, bring their own ideas to rehearsals about who their character is and what they’re fighting for. It’s much more fun to work together than to tell an actor what to do because they don’t have any ideas about who their character should be, you know?
DANTE
So, you’re saying that actors and directors can work together to tell a story. Oh hey, I also heard that you were the assistant director of the national tour of the musical, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. How was that experience?
ABIGAIL
It was amazing. I got to go out there for three weeks and I was the assistant director, so the director I worked with, he’s been doing this musical for seventeen years.
DANTE
Woah, that’s a long time!
ABIGAIL
That is a long time and he knows everything about this musical, which was really fun to watch. He’s been doing it for so long, so you know, it’s the directors job to really know everything about the play or the musical and since he’s been doing it for so long, he really could answer any question the actors had about their characters or the story because he had been doing it for so long. It was really magical to watch.
DANTE
Woah, it would be really cool to be that good of a director one day.
ABIGAIL
Yeah, he was like a “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” expert.
DANTE
That’s so cool! Well, actually I think I have one more question for you today. How do you know if you want to become a director?
[SOUND EFFECT]
ABIGAIL
That’s a really good question. I think I knew I wanted to be a director when I would read plays in school and get really really excited about what the deeper meaning of the play is, and wanting to share that with an audience.
DANTE
Huh. I think maybe I might want to be a director one day.
ABIGAIL
Dante, I think you’d be an amazing director.
DATNE
Hey thanks!
ABIGAIL
You’re welcome!
DANTE
Well that’s all the questions I have for you today, but before we leave, would you mind helping me with one fun-fact on today’s episode?
ABIGAIL
You got it, boss.
[FUN-FACT MUSIC]
DANTE
Well I was wondering if for today’s fun-fact, you would tell us a little bit more about what a national tour is.
ABIGAIL
I’d love to. Because the Grinch is a national tour, that means it will be presented across various locations in the United States of America. National tours are pretty cool because it brings broadway quality shows to theaters near you. So, like here in Utah, if you live in Utah, we have the Eccles theater in Salt Lake City that brings productions and different tours through so we can see broadway shows in Utah, instead of always having to fly out to New York.
DANTE
Woah, that’s pretty cool.
ABIGAIL
Yeah.
DANTE
What were some of the shows that you saw here in Salt Lake City that were on tour?
ABIGAIL
The first broadway show I saw was here on tour in Salt Lake City, and that was Wicked the musical.
DANTE
No way. You saw Wicked, the musical?
ABIGAIL
I did, in its prime.
DANTE
Wow. That’s really cool! Well thanks so much for coming onto my podcast this week Abigail and for talking to us all about the role of a director.
ABIGAIL
Absolutely! Thanks for inviting me, Dante. I think you’re going to be a great director some day.
DANTE
Thanks so much!
[THEME MUSIC]
A big thanks to Abigail for joining me on my podcast this week, and talking all about directors. Tune in next time for episode eight! See you soon!