Hauser Frank - Notes on Directing: 130 Lessons in Leadership from the Directors Chair

by Frank Hauser and Russell Reich

Notes on Directing might just as well have been called 130 Secrets of Managing Extremely Difficult Peopledeserves to earn at least a million dollars if not a Nobel Peace Prize.

T HE W ALL S TREET J OURNAL

the most sensible and practical work on directing on the bookshelf. One cannot help but ask, Why didnt I think of that? or Where was this book when I started my career? This book has such wonderful insights it will benefit anyone interested in directing or play going in general. Summing up: Essential.

C HOICE

a highly usefulthoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking look at the directing process Equally insightful for directors and actors, whether experienced or novice, this slim volume is essential for all performing arts/theater collections.

L IBRARY J OURNAL in a starred review

Libraries and bookshops are full of tomes on stage and film direction, but none are quite like Notes on Directingprovocativewitty refreshing. The authors are erudite but never pretentious; their shared point of view is supremely humane; their prose has a lucidity, even elegance, that is unknown among contemporary American how-to books

T HEATREMANIA

an indispensable resourcea straightforward glimpse into the art of playmaking.

B ACKSTAGE

At last! A book [that] doesnt have to be big to be beautiful or weighty to be significant likely to find itself in very many directors essential reading lists.

UK T HEATRE W EB

This book is a gemwitty and full of insight. It should be compulsory reading for every aspiring director.

D AME J UDI D ENCH

Shamelessly dogmatic and practical, this book offers the serious, time-tested elements of craft that are readily applied yet too often neglected. Its bold, audacious and refreshing. Dont go to rehearsal without it.

D IRECTOR M OISS K AUFMAN

This book is full of wonderful insights, expressed in a simple and straightforward way. It would benefit anyone interested in directing.

D IRECTOR J ERRY Z AKS

This book is filled with smart, useful, thoughtful advice, born of years of service to an elusive craft. How rare it is for two of our own to talk so shrewdly, candidly and succinctly about the process of making a production. I learned a lot from this remarkably straightforward book, and I debated with it. It is invaluable.

D IRECTOR M ARK L AMOS

The fundamentals that no director or actor can afford to ignore.

A CTOR R UPERT G RAVES

Recommended by:

T HE E DUCATIONAL T HEATRE A SSOCIATION (EdTA)

A MERICAN A SSOCIATION OF C OMMUNITY T HEATERS (AACT)

T HE D RAMA B OOKSHOP, New York

T HEATREBOOKS, Toronto

Bestselling alternate title

S TAGE N S CREEN B OOK C LUB

2018 by Russell Reich. Printed and bound in the United States of America. All rights reserved. First printing 2003.

Published by RCR Creative Press.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval systemexcept by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine, newspaper, or on the webwithout written permission from the publisher. For more information, please contact RCR Creative Press at www.notesondirecting.com

Although the authors and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and completeness of information contained in this book, we assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any inconsistencies herein. Any slights to people, places, or organizations are unintentional.

Interior design by Pneuma Books, LLC.

LCCN: 2018949232

Publishers Cataloging-In-Publication Data

(Prepared by The Donohue Group, Inc.)

Names: Hauser, Frank, 1922-2007. | Reich, Russell, 1963

Title: Notes on directing : 130 lessons in leadership from the directors chair / Frank Hauser [and] Russell Reich.

Description: Second edition. | [A new edition]. | New York : RCR Creative Press, [2018] | Series: Notes on-- ; [1] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: ISBN 9781937295028

Subjects: LCSH: TheaterProduction and directionHandbooks, manuals, etc. | Leadership--Handbooks, manuals, etc.

Classification: LCC PN2053 .H33 2018 | DDC 792.02/33--dc23

IN MEMORY OF B ILL S TILES

H uman beings have been performing at least since our cave-dwelling ancestors enacted the hunt before the rest of the tribe. And yet, those who have studied theatre or filmespecially those with an interest in directingknow how rare it is to get time-tested, craftsman-like guidance on what to watch out for, when to intervene, and how to avoid common mistakes.

Throughout my own schooling and apprenticeship as a young director, I was hungry for such fundamental principles and solid advice. Aristotle and Stanislavski had done their part, but who, I wondered, were the current standard-bearers? Who, if anyone, could give reliable counsel on actors tendencies and behaviors, common audience perceptions, or effective interventions to familiar rehearsal conundrums or performance crises? Who, in short, knew the rules?

Then I met Frank Hauser.

It was the late 1980s. I had just graduated from college, quit a job to which I was ill suited at a bank on Wall Street, and set off for London in search of a directing career.

There was Frank, one of my teachers, a scarecrow of a man with a scratchy voice, a quick wit, and a penchant for impish puns and gentle teasing. His rumpled garb and folksy manner belied his considerable achievements; during his nearly fifty-year career, he ran the professional theatre at Oxford University, directed numerous productions in London and New York, and taught or directed many who were or would later become royalty of the British stage, including Alec Guinness, Richard Burton, Judi Dench, and Ian McKellen.

Around the time we met, Frank was at the coda of his career with three productions running simultaneously in the West End. After completing our class work in London, Frank invited me to Chichester, a festival theatre town in southern England where I apprenticed as his assistant director on a production of A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt.

One day before beginning rehearsal, a surprise. Frank handed me a collection of twelve neatly typewritten pages, the first of which modestly stated his subject: Notes on Directing.

You might find these helpful, he said.

The Notes were the great gift of his collected wisdom, gathered over his distinguished career and polished to a sharp edge. Distributed informally to friends and students, Franks