Thursday, June 12

Letter to a young director, part one

I had a nice coffee with a nice, smart young director last week. He, like so many of us, wondered what he should be doing next, how to get to that next rung. Its a darn good question.

We had a good discussion. in short, I know he's doing everything he could be doing: he's creating his own work, he is working with writers he likes, he is assisting, he is connecting with theater companies.

So, what else is a young director to do? Or in other words, what's your job when you are not actually directing a play?

I think I'll spend some time delving into this, but here are the major points I'll be exploring.

Those Fellowships
There are few things out there for the director - there's LCTDL (lincoln center theater directors lab), Drama League, TCG/NEA, etc.
When I first got back into theater, I applied to LCTDL, and I'll explain why and what that did for me, as well as give some application advice.

Directing New Plays
Tim Sanford's advice: find your writer
or my gloss on that: "Find your writers"


Interviews

The interview you have today is not for the job tomorrow. It is for the job in a year, or two, or even five.

agents
You want an agent, and you feel like you need one. But what does an agent really do for a director?

I'll spend the next couple of posts diving into this stuff. And again, it's just my advice.

2 comments:

Ian R. Crawford said...

Thank you so much for writing this post, and hopefully for extrapolating on it soon.
It ain't easy doin this work and as much as I try I always feel like im not doing enough. Looking forward to your two cents.

Ian R. Crawford said...

Thank you so much for writing these posts, and for the posts to come. I am always working hard to reach that next step but so frequently feel like its never enough. Looking forward to hearing your advice.

Ian

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