First Reading.
A Director's Method for Entering a Play
You read the play. You felt something. But when you sat down to prepare - for a rehearsal, for a pitch, for a class you teach - you discovered you had no method for turning that response into decisions.
This three-week workshop gives you that method.
"You read the play. You have a response to it. What you do not yet have is a method for turning that response into decisions that hold up in the rehearsal room."
NIPAI · Core Principle
The gap between intuition and method
Most people who love theatre read plays well. They notice language, sense atmosphere, feel the weight of a scene. The problem is that this produces responses without foundations - and you cannot rehearse an impression.
01
You feel it but cannot explain it
You finish the scene and know whether something is working. But when someone asks why, or what a director would need to do to produce that effect, you are left with impressions. Impressions are not decisions.
02
You enter the room without a method
A director who arrives without decisions is not open - they are absent. Their actors will fill the vacuum, and the production will become something other than what the director had not yet formed.
03
You cannot communicate what you see
You cannot give an actor your impression of their character. What you can give them is a conflict they are inside, a set of given circumstances that create pressure, a clear event they are causing or being affected by.
Three weeks, one scene, one complete analytical cycle
You work on one scene from Ibsen's A Doll's House. Each week: a written lecture from NIPAI faculty, a written assignment, individual written feedback from your tutor. The three weeks form a single argument - from structural reading to documented directing intention.
01
Week one
What the text holds
The First Professional Reading: Separating Response from Structure
Lecture
The tools of structural analysis: central event, conflict, given circumstances. How to distinguish what the text establishes from what you bring to it. Why the difference matters in a rehearsal room.
Assignment
Identify the central event, the conflict, three to five given circumstances, and what changes by the end of the scene. Argue each claim with reference to the text.
Individual written feedback returned within 3-4 working days. Directional, not evaluative - the tutor identifies where your reading is structurally precise and where it needs to go further.
02
Week two
From analysis to decisions
The Director's Questions: Translating Structure into Action
Lecture
What directing questions are and how they differ from questions about the play. The working hypothesis as an operational tool. Action as the basic unit the director works in - transitive, testable, communicable.
Assignment
Three directing questions that must be answered before rehearsal. A working hypothesis for the scene. One specific rehearsal instruction connected to your hypothesis.
Feedback focuses on coherence: whether your directing questions follow from your structural analysis, whether your hypothesis is operational rather than descriptive.
03
Week three
The first document
Writing Like a Director: The Concept Document as Working Tool
Lecture
What a concept document is - and what it is not. The difference between writing close to the work and writing above it. Spatial and rhythmic thinking on paper, before the room exists.
Assignment
A working document for the scene: structural core, working hypothesis, key directing decisions, one spatial or rhythmic idea, one open question. The synthesis of all three weeks.
Final feedback is summative: development across all three assignments, your analytical strengths, and - where genuine - a recommendation for continued development at NIPAI.
What you walk away with
Three weeks of structured work produces concrete, usable outputs - not just knowledge, but documents that belong to you.
01
Three lectures from NIPAI faculty
Approximately 10,000–12,000 words total, written in NIPAI's methodological framework. Not generic content from textbooks - material built on 25 years of teaching professional directing.
03
Three working documents of your own
A structural analysis, a set of directing questions with working hypothesis, and a scene concept document. Together, a micro-version of the analytical process used in NIPAI's year-long directing programmes.
05
Certificate of Participation from NIPAI, Berlin
Issued upon submission of all three assignments. Records the workshop title, dates, learning hours (~16–19 hours), tutor's name, and completion of all assessed work.
02
Three rounds of individual written feedback
Approximately 1,000–1,600 words of feedback written specifically for your work, by your tutor. A professional response to your particular analysis, your particular blind spots, your particular strengths.
04
A repeatable method
The method you practise on this scene transfers to any text. Event, conflict, given circumstances, directing questions, working hypothesis: these tools work on Chekhov, on Shakespeare, on a new play, on your own material.
06
A clear picture of where you stand
The final feedback tells you honestly what your analysis reveals about your current practice - where you are already thinking like a director, and what structured work would most accelerate your development.
Three weeks. One scene.
One complete pass through the method.
This workshop does not make you a director in three weeks. Nothing does. What it gives you is one complete pass through the beginning of a method - from structural reading to documented intention - with a professional eye on your work at each stage.
If you engage with the work seriously, by the end you will have applied a structured analytical framework to a scene independently, made the transition from analysis to directing intention, and produced a working document that could function in a real rehearsal context.
The method belongs to you after that. What you do with it is your work.
What this course is:
A structured first encounter with a director's analytical method
Three rounds of individual feedback on your specific work
A repeatable process you can apply to any text
An honest assessment of where your practice currently stands
Compatible with any working schedule
Who this workshop is for
You do not need directing experience. You need a serious relationship with theatre and a willingness to write in English. The workshop is designed for practitioners at the beginning of a directing path - or wanting to formalise a practice already underway.
01
Actors noticing the production beyond their role
You have been watching staging, pacing, ensemble dynamics. You sense there is a craft here you want to understand. You are not yet ready for a 12-month programme, but you want to begin.
02
Directors working on instinct who want a system
You already direct. You know how to enter the rehearsal room with instinct. Now you want a method that is repeatable - something that works across different texts, different companies, different conditions.
03
Teachers who direct student productions
You direct as part of your work and want formal methodology and a documented professional development activity. The certificate and the working documents from this workshop are usable in professional contexts.
04
Choreographers and movement practitioners
You understand bodies in space. Now you want tools for text, conflict, and scene logic. The transition from physical material to dramatic structure is the threshold this workshop addresses.
05
Dramaturgs and theatre-makers
You work closely with text and production concepts, often alongside directors. Understanding the director's analytical process from the inside changes how you contribute to it.
06
Practitioners anywhere in the world
The workshop is fully remote and fully asynchronous. No time zone requirement. No travel. No equipment beyond a computer and the ability to read and write in English. It works alongside any professional schedule.
Format and how it works
The workshop is built around one operational principle: individual written feedback on your individual work. Everything else follows from that.
Delivery
By email, Monday morning each week
Submissions
By Sunday, end of each week
Feedback returned
Within 3–4 working days
Total workload
~16–19 hours across 3 weeks
What this workshop does not include:
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No live video sessions or Zoom calls
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No recorded video lectures or screencasts
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No group discussion board or forum
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No peer review or participant interaction
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No group messaging or chat
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No real-time requirements of any kind
A starting point, not a destination
This course is the first step in NIPAI's professional development pathway. Graduates can continue into longer programmes - each building on the last.
First Reading
3-week course · One scene · Method introduction
You Are Here
The Director and the Play
3-month module · One full play · Professional play analysis
Theatre Directing for Beginners
12-month certificate · Director's Book · Individual mentorship
Advanced Theatre Directing Diploma
18-month diploma · Graduation production · Full methodology
Graduates of First Reading who continue into longer NIPAI programmes may discuss tuition alignment individually during admissions. Partial financial support is available for some programmes.
See funding opportunities →
About NIPAI
The New International Performing Arts Institute is a private professional training institute established in Berlin in 2000. For over 25 years, NIPAI has prepared practitioners for the international performing arts field through practice-based, methodology-driven programmes.
25+
Years of operation
25+
Countries represented
Berlin
Germany · Since 2000