Quick questions on Director's vision and process: HSC Drama

Hamlet about indecision, about political legitimacy, about grief, about madness. The central question shapes every decision.

A director holds the artistic vision for a production. The director:

A directorial concept is the interpretation the director brings to the play. It might include:

The director casts the production in collaboration with the producer, the artistic director and (in major companies) a casting director. Casting decisions consider:

A typical professional rehearsal runs four to eight weeks. Different directors structure differently, but a common pattern moves through these phases.

The director shapes the cast's performance across rehearsal through:

The director works with each designer in their specialty. Typical interactions:

Several directorial traditions shape contemporary practice:

Major Australian directors of recent decades include John Bell (Bell Shakespeare, founded 1990), Neil Armfield (Belvoir, 1994 to 2010), Robyn Nevin (multiple companies), Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton (STC, 2008 to 2012), Eamon Flack (Belvoir, 2016 to present), Wesley Enoch (Queensland Theatre, 2010 to 2015), Sarah Goodes, Lee Lewis, Kate Champion, Imara Savage and many others. Each works in a distinctive idiom.

The Group Performance is collectively directed by the ensemble, but the directorial vocabulary applies. The Individual Project Performance is rehearsed under a director or teacher. The Critical Analysis Individual Project sometimes engages with directorial process as a research topic.

The play might be set in its original period or transposed. Hamlet set in 1900 Vienna, in 1960s Cuba, in contemporary corporate America, or in its original Elsinore. The setting changes meaning.

What is the play really about, in this production? Hamlet about indecision, about political legitimacy, about grief, about madness. The central question shapes every decision.

Comic, tragic, satirical, ceremonial, naturalistic, stylised. The register shapes design and performance.

Realist, Brechtian, physical, choric, immersive. The form shapes every choice.

Direct address, fourth wall, immersive, site-specific. The relationship shapes spatial decisions.