[cross-posted at www.JeremysGreenRoom.com]
Notes are often given to directors and writers. A lot of the time in these notes sessions I find myself saying “what is the problem we’re trying to solve”. This is because a lot of times notes are given as solutions and a lot of times, for whatever reason, the solution is flawed. But that doesn’t negate the underlying problem.
Notes are very useful because they offer multiple perspectives, and they keep you from that problem of not being able to see the forrest for the trees. But writers usually come up with the best solutions for their scripts, and directors usually come up with the best solutions for their productions. I think it is usually preferable to simply present the problem and let the person in charge of that department ask for help, or give them the space to figure out their own solution.
It is for this reason that I hate the term “notes”. To me, “notes” makes it sound like the person giving the note is telling the person receiving the note what to do. I prefer the term “thoughts” which, to me, is more about one person sharing some ideas with another.
Thoughts are also often given from the director to the actors. I often phrase my thoughts to the actors in the form of a question such as: “such and such moment is feeling overly angry to me, is there a gentler way to do it?” or “can you hold off on moving that prop until after your line?” or “when you ask John the question about such and such can you really ask him the question?”
This, to me, is similar to presenting the problem rather than the solution. I know that the actor is dealing with dozens of things that I may not even be aware of. My job is to react honestly to what I see, try to figure out why the actors are doing what they’re doing (given what we have created in rehearsal), and try to find a way in to getting an actor to deliver a result that will put the play over better. And the actor and I will have to find that together. My job is not “to tell the actor what to do”. I’m not so interested in dictating a result, as much as I am in discovering a process to present the play. I want my actors to have a map of their show that both they and I understand. If the map is sound, then there may be multiple ways deliver a moment, but the trajectory from point a to point b will always be in accordance with the guidelines we discovered in rehearsal.
I once had an assistant who had just assisted another director whom I respect very much and whom I consider to be relatively similar to myself in terms of aesthetic and experience. The assistant was shocked that I did it this way, because the other director was the complete opposite.
There’s no right answer. In fact, if I discovered that my questions weren’t working for a given actor, I would certainly stop in that instance. But in my opinion the director’s job is to figure out what the actors need, and help them get it. After all, they’re the ones who have to go out there every night and deliver.
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