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Two Directors, One Direction

Posted by DCA Theater on October 22, 2010 in July-December 2010 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Sideshow Theatre

by Karie Miller, Outreach Coordinator for Sideshow Theatre Company and director-of-sorts of Strangerland

If I’m the director-of-sorts, it’s only because I spend the most time on the outside. When it comes to developing the performance moment to moment, I am still a member of a team.  When time got scarce and we needed to create many things all at once, groups would work on their own or I turned to Mike Steele (aforementioned “Stuff Guy” of Strangerland) and asked him to step in and coach parts of the play. Those moments where we divide up the play and work separately eventually turned into a dialogue where we work together…and have now become a partnership.

Don’t get me wrong: it’s sometimes been really frustrating to have two directors. After I did some preliminary work with the lover scene, I asked Mike to work with them to clarify the story and find the dialogue.  As as result, he developed it into a lovely scene. His style worked in a way mine was not working, and I had a moment of jealousy when I didn’t get to work more on that part of the play.

When we started this crunch week, Mike would voice an idea or vice versa and we would disagree and I would get really sensitive about him rightfully voicing his opinion. I was getting weirdly territorial. For the sake of the project, I tried to keep things moving forward without taking anything too personally, but I couldn’t shake the defensiveness I felt when talking through things with him.

We’d all love to think that collaboration is sunshine and puppies but sometimes things get tense. And that’s not how I wanted to finish out the week.  I went back to one of the best devising books I’ve found yet, The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre (Routledge, 2009). Frantic Assembly Co-Artistic directors Scott Graham and Steve Hoggett have this to say about the two-director system:

“The important thing each of us had to learn was that a question about your idea is not simply a challenge. It is another opportunity for you to put it across, to clarify your intention…if someone you trust and respect shares their idea with you, they do it for a reason. It is because they need to, because they want to and because they trust you.”
(The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre, Routledge, 2009)

I carried idea that into the rehearsal room with me last night and tried embrace and enjoy the atmosphere of trust we had established.  It’s not about who’s right or wrong or best when you’re collaborating in this way. You have to constantly challenge each other to find the game, up the game, and play the game, regardless of ego. I’m embarrassed to admit that the game got to me this week. But I’m thrilled to say that I came out of it intact and with that much more clarity in our working relationship and in the piece! We had an wonderful first run-through last night, much smoother than any other scripted work I’ve ever been a part of.  It’s all coming together in a way I never could have imagined!  See you Monday!