Unit TITLE:
Directing
UNIT AUTHOR:
Shawnda Moss
UNIT Objective:
The students will demonstrate their directing skills by creating a director’s book and directing a one-act play of their choice.
Curriculum Placement:
The Directing Unit is to be used in an advanced-level theatre class with ninety-minute class periods.
Prior Student Experience:
It is expected that students will have experience with acting techniques such as blocking, objectives, and tactics as well as a knowledge of script analysis, interpretation, elements of a well-made play, and basic production design elements.
1994 NATIONAL STANDARDS:
Content Standard 3: Designing and producing by conceptualizing and realizing artistic interpretations for informal or formal productions.
Content Standard 4: Directing by interpreting dramatic texts and organizing and conducting rehearsals for informal or formal productions.
Content Standard 5: Researching by evaluating and synthesizing cultural and historical information to support artistic choices.
Content Standard 2: Acting by developing, communicating, and sustaining characters in improvisations and informal or formal productions.
MAIN CONCEPTS:
script analysis, production design, acting objectives and tactics, director’s concept
Lessons Outline:
LESSON 1:
Introduction to Directing
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their understanding of a director’s criteria by choosing a one-act play to direct.
ASSESSMENT: Students can be assessed through their participation in the discussions, their director’s criteria responses, and their chosen script.
LESSON 2:
Script Analysis
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their ability to take on a director’s point of view by analyzing a script.
ASSESSMENT: Students can be assessed by their responses to their play’s predominant element and brief analysis. They can also be given a score for bringing two copies of their script to class.
LESSON 3:
Director’s Concept
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their ability to create an artistic vision for their play by developing a director’s concept.
ASSESSMENT: Students can be assessed through their participation in the discussions and through their partner spineline statements.
LESSON 4:
Production Management
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their understanding of production management by designing and discussing production elements.
ASSESSMENT: Students can be assessed on their dramatic metaphor/viz presentation and can also be graded on their progress with their poster design and use of practice time during the class.
LESSON 5:
Technical Considerations
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE: Students will establish their technical considerations by designing and displaying their technical production design choices.
ASSESSMENT: Students can be assessed through their mood presentations and their research progress.
LESSON 6:
Creating a Rehearsal Schedule
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their knowledge of rehearsal management by creating a rehearsal schedule and basic blocking for their play.
ASSESSMENT: Students can be assessed through their performance in the directing blocking exercise and their progress in creating a rehearsal schedule and blocking their plays.
LESSON 7:
Working with Actors
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their ability to audition by participating in a cold-reading mock audition. Students will also demonstrate their ability to mark action beats by scoring their script.
ASSESSMENT: Students can be assessed through their Midsummer analysis and participation in the mock auditions and directing exercise.
LESSON 8:
Presentation of Plays
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their synthesis of a director’s preparation by presenting their director’s book.
ASSESSMENT: Students can be assessed through their Director’s Book presentation and their voting sheet.
NOTE:
This unit is written to help students develop a director’s book for a one-act play of their choice. You may need to add a workday in order for the students to complete some of the requirements for their books. Or perhaps you will want to divide a lesson up and give them two half-days to work on their requirements.
It is intended that after the unit is complete, student directors will be chosen to practice and apply what they have learned about directing. This can happen in a student-produced “Night of One-Acts” or some other performing venue. Other students can serve as assistant directors, house managers, technical crew, etc.
TEXT RESOURCES:
The following texts are used in this directing unit:
A Sense of Direction by William Ball; New York: Drama Book Publishers, 1984.
Directing Plays by Stuart Vaughn; New York: Longman Publishing Group, 1993. (my school owned a classroom set of Directing Plays, so each student in the advanced class was able to check out a textbook for the duration of the unit)
DIRECTING
LESSON 1: Introduction to Directing
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE:
Students will demonstrate their understanding of a director’s criteria by choosing a one-act play to direct.
MATERIALS NEEDED:
Directing Plays Textbook (ideally one for each student), copies of the puzzle sheet, a projection of the puzzle answer, a projector, various one-act plays and resources
HOOK: Pass out the attached puzzle sheet to each student. Have them work on answering the puzzle. Encourage them to work together to find the answer. Students can cut up the puzzle pieces if they desire. Once someone figures out the puzzle, or if no one figures it out, place the answer on the overhead
STEP 1:
Transition – Discuss with the class how they worked to answer the puzzle. What techniques did they try? How hard was it? Liken this puzzle to directing: a director takes a whole bunch of pieces of seemingly random parts and it is his/her job to put them together in a beautiful sign (or play).
STEP 2:
Discussion – Pass out the Directing Plays textbooks to the students. Have them turn to page 6 and discuss with them the three essential abilities of a director:
1. Thinking and Preparation: read a play, sift it for its core, find exciting theatrical means to make it speak to audiences.
2. Working with people, Collaboration: get a group of creative people to collaborate and work to realize their vision.
3. Common sense and Hard work: get it done efficiently, on time, within budget, with everything coming together at the opening.
Get the students to think about how these three abilities can be portrayed by a student in an educational setting such as this advanced theatre class: How can you prepare for directing a production? What are tips or advice in working with other people (especially people who might have different opinions and thoughts than you)? How does common sense play into directing?
STEP 3:
Transition – One of the first steps in preparing to direct is to choose which play you want to direct. In some scenarios, the play is chosen long before the director (find some examples of local community or university theatre seasons that are set up before directors are appointed), but in this unit students will be able to choose a one-act play that they will prepare for directing at a student-produced night of one acts. The very first question to ask yourself as a director with a potential script is: “Do I like this play enough to do it?”
STEP 4:
Guided Practice – Go through some play titles that the students will know (perhaps a script that they have studied in class or a local play that has recently performed). Talk with them about what specifically they liked or didn’t like about the play. Could any student direct that show based on the big question: “Do I like this play enough to do it?” Talk with the students about why they need to really, really like the play in order to direct it. Some answers might include: I’ll be spending a lot of time with it, I’ll be dissecting it, I need to feel positive about it so I can convey my enthusiasm about it, I want it to be a success, etc.
STEP 5:
Instruction – Teach the class that they should create a specific list of things that they respond to in a play. You could have students take turns reading aloud the few paragraphs on pages 20-21 to help them understand why they must like the play enough to do it. Also see page 21 in the textbook under the Personal Requirements heading for guidance on how to get students to figure out their own requirements for directing a play.
STEP 6:
Modeling – Share with the class your own personal requirements for directing a play. An example of my personal criteria include (in this order):
· Characters
· Language
· Theme
· Story
· Music
· Spectacle
Some plays I would love to direct would be: Once On This Island, Noises Off! The Tempest, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Trojan Women because they fit into my order of criteria.
STEP 7:
Checking for Understanding – Have each student take out a piece of paper and write down their top three criteria for choosing a play to direct. Ask them to write one or two sentences after each criteria justifying/supporting their order.
STEP 8:
Individual Practice – Give the students the remainder of the class period to peruse the various one-act plays that you have available. Remind them that the play they choose needs to be one that they “like enough to do it!” Tell the students that they need to have the following prepared and brought to class for the next class period:
· Two clean copies of their chosen one-act play that are three-hole punched
· A three-ring binder
· A pencil
ASSESSMENT:
Students can be assessed through their participation in the discussions, their director’s criteria responses, and their chosen script.
PUZZLE
The six puzzle pieces shown below can be combined into a symmetrical “plus” sign.
How can this be done?
PUZZLE ANSWER
DIRECTING
LESSON 2: Script Analysis
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE:
Students will demonstrate their ability to take on a director’s point of view by analyzing a script.
MATERIALS NEEDED:
Directing Plays Textbook, TV and VCR/DVD, cued up film clips of various play scenes, copies of pages 27-30 of Ball’s book: Predominant Element, copies of the Director’s Book Requirements handout, optional: Due Dates Sheet
HOOK:
Show three-four clips from films that are based on plays. Try to find a part of the film that is more than just exposition so that there is some depth and detail involved in the clip. Some possible selections might include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (with Kevin Kline and Michelle Pfeiffer), The Crucible (with Daniel Day Lewis and Winona Ryder), Noises Off! (with Carol Burnett and John Ritter), An Ideal Husband (with Rupert Everett and Julianne Moore). Encourage students to simply watch the film clips for an overall opinion without worrying about following the storyline. The students may want to jot down the title and a few key moments/things that stood out to them from each clip to help them keep the plays straight.
STEP 1:
Transition – Write the following question on the board: Does the play excite you? Have students share their responses to this question from the clips that they saw. Explain that answering this question in the affirmative is the beginning steps to developing a subjective analysis to a play. Be sure that students understand what subjective means: an individual, emotional reaction.
STEP 2:
Discussion – Assuming that every student responded affirmatively to the first question to at least one of the film clips, now move into the next part of the subjective analysis. Next add the following two questions on the board:
· Why does it excite you?
· Is it a good play by your standards (criteria)?
Talk with class about their answers to these questions. Have them share their criteria from last class period and relate it to the clips that they enjoyed today. Remind them that they may each have a different response to these three questions, but that if they can support/justify their answers then they cannot be “wrong”. See page 22 in the textbook for reference on the subjective analysis.
STEP 3:
Instruction – Pass out the copies of pages 27-30 of Ball’s book that go over the Predominant Element of a play. Review with the class the elements of a well-made play from Aristotle’s Poetics:
· Theme
· Plot
· Language
· Character
· Spectacle
· Music
Point out to the students that these elements can cover any style of play or any playwright. Encourage students to determine what story they want to tell; which element is most important to them so they can focus on that element and it’s place in their chosen play. As Ball says on page 30: “Narrowing one’s focus and being specific and creative within limitation leads to the most vivid success. That is why I choose one predominant element and stick to it.”
STEP 4:
Guided Practice – Have students pull out their script copies and three-ring binder. They should turn in one copy of their script to you (you may want to have a large three-ring binder on hand for yourself to put the scripts in) and put the other copy of the script into their binder. This will become their director’s book.
Then have the students take out a half-piece of paper and write their name and their chosen play title on it. Next have them state the predominant element in that play. Then have them write a VERY brief plot synopsis of the play (eight sentences or less).
STEP 5:
Checking for Understanding – Once the students are done with their initial analysis of their play, have the turn to pages 30-32 in the textbook to be sure that they will be able to conduct a more thorough plot structure analysis on their own. Review the plot structure points and explain that students need to constantly look in their script for clues to the various points.
STEP 6:
Instruction – Pass out the Director’s Book Requirements handout. Go briefly over each requirement, but reiterate to students that you will be going over each requirement in detail as you progress through the unit. Also teach them that while you may guide them through the initial phases of creating the foundation of the requirements, you expect them to expand them in detail and type them up for the final director’s book. You may want to also create a “Due Dates” sheet to pass out alongside this handout so that students can see the timeframes they will be dealing with in the unit.
STEP 7:
Individual Practice – If time remains in class, allow the students to begin working on the first three requirements that have already been covered in class: Director’s Criteria, Subjective Analysis, and Play Analysis. They could also write down the royalty information that they need to supply in their books: the playwright, publishing company and contact address, and performance fees.