Collaboration is fun. For LOSERS! Ha ha ha....

by guest-blogger Abe Goldfarb

Oh, do the barbed wit-bombs ever cease their fearsomely amusing daisy-cutting? It would seem improbable. And so do we segue neatly into a discussion of the auteur theory. As I mentioned in a recent post, I'm directing Titus Andronicus this fall, and I've come over all...consumed. You see, having sat in the audience for countless productions of it, always eager and optimistic, always crushed as I realised some clever-clogs with a Master's D. thought somewhere along the line that making it into a cartoon would be really funny and risky and modern and shut the fuck up, I have a fairly comprehensive vision of what every second of every scene in the play is going to look, sound and play like.

Which is all to the good, surely. If, that is, you subscribe to the auteur theory.

I'm of a reasonably old school when it comes to directing: that every inch of the production must be touched and guided by the director. Essentially, I ask all who work with me to do what I say, and then, by virtue of their undoubted talent and intelligence (why else would I cast/hire them?), make it better as only they can. The lighting should look the way I want it to. The sound should be exactly right for me, exactly as I said it should. No department should work independent of me for too long. The thing should be blocked in one or two nights, if possible. It should all be worked out beforehand. I hate nothing more than the idea of spending days and days "exploring" the blocking of a scene, doing little exercises to draw the meaning out as one would extract a delicious poison from a ripe, candied snakebite. The shape and purpose of every scene must be clear at the outset. We're not having a class, we're creating a show. I need to know how it all plays before I walk into the room.

Of course, actors are sensitive, beautiful, thoughtful and intuitive people (after all, I'm one of them). But no production I've ever worked on has ever succeeded on the notion that handing the reins to the actors yields results. One trick I've never mastered is making people think the brilliance behind a particular choice was their idea.

I've just realized that the whooshing sound hitting my ears is my own suicide.

This must all seem awful to any casual observer, and I can't see why anyone reading this would be compelled to work with me. But for all of this, I think there lies within it the true spirit of collaboration. It's simply that it can't be a democracy. A benevolent dictatorship will do nicely. Once once has laid down strict guidelines, then it's time to play. I love nothing more than seeing people nail something and then really work it. But I can't start the process as a search.

This is surely a limitation on my part, in some fashion. I have compulsive behaviors, I am a perfectionist and a control freak. It has to be tied to that somehow. Perhaps I'm not as expansionist and experimental a director as I am an actor (I'm certainly much more indulgent when I'm a gun-for-hire; perhaps it's telling that I think of actors as guns-for-hire). I'm not certain quite what I'm trying to get at here. It's all ex tempore. I do know that the actors I directed last summer had as much fun with me as I did with them. Mind you, I'm not of the opinion that the director is infallible. If I'm wrong, I do prefer people argue the case with me. They'll win quickly.

Is this all an apologia for knowing exactly what I want? Perhaps, perhaps not.

But I do know I'm hungry. And so I leave it to you. What do all of YOU think when it comes to the delicious matter of fascism in the rehearsal room? Do you prefer a director who gets what he wants and only then allows for fun and games? Or do you enjoy a democratic system?

I want a sandwich. Yes, I desire a sandwich.

Comments

[philucifer]

Man, you must've hated me on Jonestown, then.

Can't wait to see Titus, though.

Philucifer

[Abe]

Actually, Jonestown was a unique case in which the synergy between performers, script and director proved quite fortuitous enough to carry the day. In addition, you created an awful lot of good vibes, which is exactly what the project needed, and steered us toward the correct tone(s) required for it. I imagine that if we were doing it as a full production and you had maintained the strategy, I'd have torn my hair out.

Still, you are quite pretty, and that doesn't count for nothing.