The Art of Directing - the Birth

THE ART OF DIRECTING - THE BIRTH: A brief Literature Review

Most definitions of directing as an art do not capture the full essence of the art and craft as it applies to the stage and screen, hence defining directing as an art becomes greatly difficult. Directing is considered as the art of coordinating all the activities that ultimately lead to the production of a play by many scholars, such as Dean and Carra, 1980; Umukoro, 2002; Brocket and Ball, 2004; Felner and Orenstein 2006 and Felner 2013, and the super human who provides a unified artistic interpretation of a particular play for a particular audience as the director. The art of directing “lies in making decisions about how to use all the means available to create a compelling theatrical encounter” observe Felner and Orenstein (2006:216).  All these definitions have considered just one aspect of the art of directing, which is play production for the stage.  

Though the art of directing was born on stage Directing as an art transcends play production on stage. It exists in live performance arts/events, radio, television and film. The medium may change, the primary role of the director however does not change. Babalola (1990) observe that “they are driven by a common purpose - pursuing the ultimate concept and vision for the production.” He went on to say that  “Therefore, directing as an art can be summed up as the process of coordinating all the human, technological, artistic and sometimes financial elements of a production, be it in theatre, mass media or performance arts/events.”

Directing is considered to be relatively one of the youngest and most likely the most demanding arts of the theatre.  The Choregus in the Greek dramatic festivals who was a business manager and who also trained the chorus is believed to be the closest to a director in western dramatic production history by Dean and Carra (1980:21). Wickham Glynne (1992) and Brocket and Hildy (2010) - examples of many theatre historians who believe that the playwright in the Greek theatre trained the chorus and superintended rehearsals as against the Choregus.  However, Felner and Orenstein (2006:217-8) assert  that these roles, along with those of the Roman theatre’s actor-managers, Medieval theatre’s pageant masters, Elizabethan theatre’s Leading men, etc, were organizational roles rather than “visionary or interpretive ones” as that of the director is.  

The consideration of directing to be relatively one of the youngest arts of the theatre did not stop at the Western theatrical traditions. In performance theatrical traditions across Africa, Asia and Latin America, according to the laid down conventions of the specific performance, training the neophytes and coordinating the total performance is done by the lead performers, who are often chief priest or narrators. The African Festival Theatres such as Egungun or New Yam Festivals, Japanese Kabuki theatre, Indian Khatakali where the conventions of visual and aural aesthetics are strictly adhered to by generations of performers portrays this. It was during the contemporary times when the artistic directors were employed to coordinate festivals, carnivals etc. that directing as an art in itself came into existence.

The birth of the modern director was in Europe in the late eighteenth century. The rise in experiments towards a unified production, the movement in the direction of realism and interest in scientific exploration of cause and effect in the dramas of Henrik Ibsen and other pioneers of realism brought this on. The evolution of the art of directing and the shaping of the role of the modern director is a cause that several theatre and artistic figures of the time contributed greatly to.  

Notable names whose consistent works and experiments paved way for the art of directing include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), Georg II, The Duke of Saxe-Meiningen (1826-1914), Richard Wagner (1813-1883), Andre Antoine (1858-1943), Constantin Stanislavski (1863 1938) and Erwin Piscator (1893-1966).