A Director Prepares.

So the next show I'm directing starts rehearsing in June. I've technically already started my process because I've been reading scripts and deciding which ones I would like to do. I think I've settled on a night of 4 different shorts. Now is the time to focus on the plays and start breaking them down. I have one little step though that I like to do when I have a bit of time before rehearsals start.

The semester I interned at Intiman in Seattle, I had the pleasure of working under BJ Jones. He's the Artistic Director of Northlight Theater outside of Chicago. As an opening night present, he gave me a copy of Anne Bogart's book A Director Prepares. Every time I start to work on a show (and if I have the time) I like to sit down a re-read it. It reminds me that as an artist, my role is to ask questions of society. It reminds me that as a director, my role is to ask questions of my designers and actors. As a human being, my role is to as questions of myself.

This book keeps me hungry for the work ahead and reminds me that the act of creating is a violent act. Killing ideas that you once held so close in favor of something deeper or more specific. You indeed have to go all Medea and "kill your babies" as an acting teacher once told me.

Do you "dare to suck" in your art?