Directing Pinter or Experiences of a Student Director
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Authors
Stoltman, Joseph A.
Issue Date
1991
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Theater -- Directing
Alternative Title
Abstract
I started my career in the theatre, as a lot of people do, as an actor. In my
freshman year in high school, I was dragged to the auditions for the fall play
by a friend of mine. I had never had a desire to participate in the theatre
before, and I cannot recall exactly why I let my friend talk me into
auditioning. Nevertheless, audition I did, and I got my first role. After that, I
was hooked. I tried out for every play and got a role every time. I almost lost
my after school job a couple of times because of my rather limited availability.
This passion continued on into college. I tried out for plays and got into
them here, also. In addition to my acting, I also got a job in the scene shop,
where I began to build my technical skills. I was exposed to a number of
different facets of technical theatre, anything from building the sets, to
hanging the lights, to building props, and even managing the house for one
show.
The one thing I had never tried was directing. There were a couple of
reasons for this. First of all, there never seemed to be a great amount of
opportunities to direct here. Most quarters there was a mainstage production
going on. and when there wasn't a mainstage, there were older students that
wanted to direct. I realize now, however, that this excuse was exactly that; an
excuse. In reality I was terrified of the thought of being in charge of all the
people that I would need to put up a production. I was afraid that I would do
the wrong thing and send the production crashing into flames, or worst yet, I
was afraid that my "vision" for the production would be foolish or
uninteresting. I then took the Directing I class in the spring of my junior
year, and what a relief that was! I found that I knew more about blocking and
movements than I thought I did, and I found that my interpretations of the
various scripts were as interesting or offbeat as any ones'. I was able to practice
and hone these skills, and thus produce the confidence that I needed to direct
a full scale production.
After the class, I decided that I would like to direct a full scale production.
I found that it was a different kind of thrill than acting was. It was electrifying
to be in charge of all facets of a production, and I craved the thrill more I then
looked into the possibilities of doing it for my S.I.P., and the entire
department was behind it. I then had to choose the play. I first had to decide
what I what to deal with in terms of themes. I have always found myself
drawn to the examination of the relationships between members of the
opposite sex. As a matter of fact, my final project for directing class dealt with
that subject exclusively. This time, however, I was more interested with
dealing with the sexuality of the situation rather than the purely emotional
ramification that are implicit with a male-female relationships. That's not to
say that I didn't want to deal with the emotions, but rather I wanted to deal
with the direct impact of physical sexuality on the emotions. Along with this,
I also wanted to deal with the competitive factor that I have found is intrinsic
in all relationships, whether it is same sex or opposite sex. Because of these
criterion, and others which I will go into later, I came up with Harold Pinter's
The Lover.
Description
iii, 104 p.
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