Week 1: "The Art of Stage Directions"
Assuming that you have done already read your play and conducted an Active analysis of it, breakdown all events, figured out all details and now you are ready to start working on your blocking and choreography.
Stage Directions
As you begin to work on a scene, take note of the playwright’s comments and any stage directions but with a caveat: In many older versions of plays the stage directions are not even suggestions from the playwright but rather were put in the script by editors to help readers picture the play more clearly. Often they were actually the subtext of behavior, blocking, and other physical choices made by the director and actors in the first professional productions. Sometimes they are put in a later edition of the play by the playwright, who was a part of this premiere production of the play and may have worked closely with the director. However, subsequent directors and actors do not feel beholden to these stage directions. Many directors and actors believe they must only follow those physical actions written in the actual lines. In fact, there is currently a big dispute about the creative solutions in the stage directions: Are they, in fact, the intellectual property of that director, just as the original scenic design is the intellectual property of the original scenic designer? Most directors would not want to copy the staging of an earlier production but would want to invent their own.
On the other hand, some playwrights, like Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller, have very detailed character notes and stage directions that do not come from earlier productions. Many directors also find that you need to follow Samuel Beckett’s directions precisely, as they orchestrate the text like a complex piece of music (also if you stray too far from them you may be sued by his estate). Other playwrights, like Naomi Iizuka, have wonderfully evocative stage directions; Iizuka enjoys hers being interpreted differently by each creative team, such as in the Polaroid Stories stage direction, “She turns into a star.” Some playwrights have few stage directions and expect the actors to find their own blocking and interpretation of the script without detailed character notes. Pinter, for example, writes in many pauses that create the rhythm of the text but does not indicate exactly what the actor does in them. Shakespeare and the French classical playwright Molière write key action and directions about time and place into the dialogue of the character’s spoken lines.
Tasks Assignment
Exercise 1:
Listing the Active Facts
Purpose: To get a sense of what physical behavior for each character is called for by the playwright.
Guidelines: Make a list of the active facts of the scene:
- What active facts, physical behaviors do the stage directions indicate?
- What active facts do the lines suggest?
Examples:
In Streetcar Blanche says, “I keep my papers mostly in this tin box!” and the stage directions say, “[She opens it].” So the character’s line suggests that she does something with the box. The actor could try to open it, as the stage directions suggest, or try something else. In any event, it is all about you choosing, experimenting, selecting, and fulfilling a purposeful action, psychophysically. In Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters, Olga says, “Enough, Masha. Enough, my darling.” (Kulygin enters.) Kulygin. (troubled) “It’s all right, let her cry.” In this case, the actress playing Masha has to uncover how to cry precisely on cue and the director had best give her all the help he can with staging choices and pacing.
Exercise 2:
The “Three Wheres”
Guidelines: First understand some basics of the “three wheres” of the scene for your character and any other characters involved, and then create the ground plan.
Identifying the “Three Wheres”
For the scene:
Where #1 (Where from): Where does the character come from when you enter?
Where #2 Where does the scene take place?
Where #3 (Where to): Where does the character go when exit?
For each of these you should identify:
1. Is it indoors or outdoors?
2. Is it public or private?
3. Whose space is it?
4. Write some adjectives to describe the location.
5. What is the mood and atmosphere of the place?
6. What is each character’s comfort level in this space?
Then decide how these factors shape the layout of the stage or performance space.
Complete the exercises and submit Your assignment via the submission form on your account. In conclusion, write an essay about your discoveries and thoughts in free form (500 words).
Deadline: November 28, 2025
NOTE
The Director’s Creative Journal
Developing more awareness and understanding is a key to successful directing. One tool that can be very helpful in this process is a creative journal. You can write notes for classes and rehearsals, creative observations, discoveries and other details in it. If you write in enough detail, you can go back and draw on these resources later for various characters and plays. Throughout this course, we will suggest reflection journals on specific topics.
Studying Materials
Stage directions uncovered : the author's voice in modern English drama by Erin Nelson
The Active Analysis Method as an instrument of modern theatre by Andrey Smolko
