A Great Production = Skills of the Director + Skills of the Actor
So much of the great advice in life focus on outcomes rather than process, goals rather than plans & strategies like "buy low, sell high" advice: that's the goal, the idea, but -- how do you do that? How do you figure out how things "really work?"
Well, I have no answer other than it comes with dogged determination and the patience and persistence to acquire the necessary experience.
A Great Production = Skills of the Director + Skills of the Actor is an obvious calculus, but for a long time, I didn't really understand the specifics, but now I'm starting to understand.
What can be frustrating, for both the actor and the director, is that it IS a partnership -- they've got to work with each other, but both have to KNOW how to work, i.e., waking up some morning, without any significant training or experience, and thinking "yes, I'm a director" or "yes, I'm an actor" is about as crazy as waking up some morning, without any significant training or experience, and thinking "yes, I'm a neurosurgeon." "I'm going to find people who need neurosurgery, and then I'm just gonna jump in a do it." Bad idea.
I've written a lot about the skills of a actor, i.e., how to read a script, how to work on text and off of other actors -- these are significant non-trivial skills and it takes determination and patience and persistence to figure this stuff out, and to get better and better at it.
On the other hand, I've never directed (nor do I really want to) -- nor have a ever studied it (though three excellent books are: Backwards & Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays by David Ball; Sense of Direction: Some Observations on the Art of Directing by William Ball; & Reading for the Plot: Design and Intention in Narrative by Peter Brook) -- but I have managed to pick a few things up on my way:
The Skills of A Director
1st) The director needs to know how to read and understand the script to avoid substituting "concepts" and "cool ideas" for the play's inner dramatic logic and what the characters are doing. This is a significant non-trivial skill, and without it the production will almost certainty go off the rails rendering the production (to the audience) incomprehensible & confusing -- it'll lose their complete attention within 5 minutes, or less. Knowing how to read and understand a script also solves a big problem for any director: knowing what they want, i.e., the play tells them.
2nd) Being aware of the challenge that they are communicating with language their understanding of what's happening in a scene or in a moment, but what's happening in a scene or a in a moment is visceral, that reptilian part of the brain deep beneath the neo cortex. In short, they're often communicating to the actors something that almost can't be carried by words. So -- how does a director do this?
I have no idea, but -- no matter what the skills of a director are in this area, what is enormously helpful is that an actor needs to know how to listen!
How to listen
I first discovered this when I auditioned for my first student film (see the Fornetti Productions part of the post), and it came up again in rehearsals for Other People:
While I'm listening -- and this is really just like "moments" in performance -- as I'm listening (just like to my partner on stage), DON'T THINK, just let any feelings, images, impulses come to the fore, and then . . . just act on them. I don't think there is much to think about here -- when given direction, just let it hit me "non-cognitively," hit me emotionally, in my body. Just let it activate whatever it's going to active in me, and don't think too much about it. It's just like performance.
Basically, I just need to better and better let the director's description of what they want activate my instincts and intuitions.
Further Reading About Acting, Theatre & Film . . .
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I would agree with your description of the director's craft. Being a close reader, a sharp observer, and a shrewd diplomat as well as collaborator are all important skills. Much of it is interpretation and explanation, keeping everyone in sync.
But I don't think, at least at its best moments, directing is only communicating or describing a desired effect, emotion or detail of a script. The director may provide this, if he or she is able, to help the other artists make decisions, but it is just as true that the director is discovering things as well.
In the moment, the director is just as viscerally engaged, and responding with the same nerve endings, as the actor. I watch, stay in the moment, and respond to what is happening, while keeping an eye on the larger details. My function is, in fact, to find those alive moments and guard them. Protect them from being drained of their energy. We use language, and rehearsal games, and tricks, and charm if needed, but it's all about finding those moments, and getting them on stage so the audience can share them too.