Directors, Directing & Plays: What is Job of a Theater Director?

How to read, discover, and understand what's going on a play, how to use rehearsals to discover what the playwright intends, is a huge topic. I'm not an expert, but I know one thing -- the text, the playwright's words, are not "just words" for communicating pre-conceived emotions, thoughts, or intentions. The thoughts and intentions are IN the line (see Patsy Rodenburg's Speaking Shakespeare for more about this).

When trying to understand a play, a director and actor are on the right path IF they stick to, adhere, and look nowhere else other than the playwright's words.

If a director goes "off the reservation," off the text, and -- worse -- if they choose to do it, then you've got an incompetent director, and you have to make a choice: 1) leave the show or 2) stay and do the best job you can, but understand (as Zoe Caldwell did) that the play will never be what it is meant to be, you'll be forced to work in ways that will slow your growth as an actor, and you won't be able to do your best work.

For example, I played the Husband in a show where the text was:

Wife: How many do you want me to slaughter for the wedding?
Husband: As many as the Lord said.
Wife: How many did He say?
Husband: I think I heard Him say ten. That is, if He spoke Polish. If He didn't, I don't know what He said.
Wife: Ten cows? How many people do you expect to come?!

During one rehearsal, this accidentally came out because the actress playing the Wife came in too soon:

Wife: How many do you want me to slaughter for the wedding?
Husband: As many as the Lord said.
Wife: How many did He say?
Husband: I think I heard Him say ten.
Wife: Ten cows? How many people do you expect to come?!
Husband: That is, if He spoke Polish. If He didn't, I don't know what He said.

After, the director intoned that if this, or anything else like it, happened during rehearsal or performance, then this is what should happen during rehearsal & performance.

The director explained that if an actor at any time feels an impulse to speak, they should do so, and the other actor should just keep talking over the other actor even if it means the line gets lost for the audience. Of course, the change became a permanent part of the show, and this changed the play (at least a small part of it).

Why is this bad (in case it's not obvious)? Hamlet, as usual, explains it all:

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to
you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,
as many of your players do, I had as lief the
town-crier spoke my lines.
.
.
.
And let those that play
your clowns speak no more than is set down for them;
for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to
set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh
too; though, in the mean time, some necessary
question of the play be then to be considered:
that's villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition
in the fool that uses it. (Hamlet, 3,.3)

Patsy Rodenburg, in Speaking Shakespeare, explains why Hamlet is so insistent on his advice to the players, and why players and directors should consider EVERY play to have such high stakes:

Remember how important the play within the play is to Hamlet. He needs the performance to be strong and truthful to expose his uncle's guilt. It matters that the play is acted well. It is not a casual piece of entertainment: it is a carefully planned tool.

it is a carefully planned tool . . . speak no more than is set down for them . . .

While this isn't all there is to directing, Hamlet's advice is the critical starting point: understand the words, trust them, and then get out of the way:

Our job is not to get in the way of the playwright's words. We're in big trouble when you hear actors talk about themselves as 'artists.' We're more like priestesses and priests. We take the word from the playwright to the populace. If you don't get in the way too much, the audience will understand exactly what the playwright wants them to know. If you start bringing your own life into it -- saying, "Oh, my God, if I dug deeply enough, I can remember a time when I was so hurt...blah, blah, blah.' That's fine. Write your own play. (Zoë Caldwell, I Will Be Cleopatra: An Actress's Journey)

To see what can be accomplished by sticking with Zoë Caldwell's advice, I give you -- Medea:

Shout !t Out! Tell us what You Th!nk!

Shout !t Out! Results: