By Actors Singers & Dancers, Production Team, The Director's Corner, Working in Theatre & Film

Hey guys! Welcome back to the director’s corner. My name is Mallory and I’m here to teach you about all things directing. 

In this series, I teach you the fundamentals of directing as I have learned them at my University and through personal experience. Along with that, we interview directors that work directly in the theatre and film industry to hear all about their techniques and advice for young directors. 

Today we are going to be talking about working with an actor. 

Working with actors is the most known part of directing, but honestly is just a small part of everything you do as a director. That being said- it’s important you know how to get the best performance out of your actor.

Today I’m going to share with you three tips in regards to working with an actor.

  1. Teach your actors.
    • You should know the script better than anyone else in the room. Before you start blocking your actors, you need to teach them about the story. You can’t have actors onstage who don’t understand what the story is, how to tell it, and why it’s important. As a director, you are not there to necessarily tell them how to move or how to be, but you are there to make sure they understand the story and how to translate that to the stage or in a film.
  2. Listen to your actors.
    • Just because you need to know the script inside and out, doesn’t mean your actors won’t have opinions, ideas, and even great ideas. It’s so important to listen to your actors for a myriad of reasons. Some of those including:
      1. They might have great ideas that can contribute strongly to the show.
      2. They will trust you more if they feel heard.
      3. If you want people to listen to you, you need to listen to them.
    • There will be times when your actors offer ideas or have things they want to try that you don’t like. Let them try it. If it truly doesn’t work, they will either recognize that, or you will be able to guide them to a stronger decision. 
  3. Admit you don’t know everything.
    • There is no room in the rehearsal room for pride. Whether you be an actor, director, or designer, it’s important to recognize you may not always be right. We will talk more about this in a future video, but a way you can make sure pride isn’t getting in the way of your creative process is recognizing that all ideas are good ideas, and that it’s okay to be wrong.
    • Rachel Chavkin, director of Hadestown said, “I stick with a choice until there’s a better choice.” When your producer, director, actor, designer, or whoever it may be, presents what may be a better choice, make sure you have the humility to try it out. Often our pride even gets in the way of our own good ideas, because we don’t like to admit we may not have gotten it right from the start. But when we recognize that it’s a process, we can use our actors for all the strengths they have and collaborate to create the best product possible.

There’s a lot more we could get into about working with actors, but these tips should help you be in a good place in the room with your actors.

As one final bonus tip, watch Video 2: Know Your Story. Knowing your story will help you gain confidence in the rehearsal room and strongly aid your communication with actors. 

Thank you so much for watching, and I’ll see you again in two weeks! Make sure you’re subscribed and that you check out all of the content at JSK stories. See you later!