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 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 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 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.

The full cast reads the play together. The director discusses the concept and the central questions. Designer presentations may happen.

Detailed scene-by-scene discussion. The text is examined line by line for intentions, subtext, structure. Some directors stay in table work longer (Brecht's Berliner Ensemble was famous for weeks of table work); others move to standing more quickly.

Standing the play. Where everyone moves, when, with what objects. The stage manager records all blocking.