Friday 6/6 Bartlett Sher was our guest-du-jour. What a treat! He's spent alot of time at Lincoln Center this year, directing the impossible-to-get-a-ticket-for revival of South Pacific. He won a Tony Award for best director this year for the show. But he didn't know that yet when he sat down to talk to us at the lab. Sher is himself an alumni of the LCT Directors Lab, having passed through it the very first year. So it was somewhat of a homecoming for him. He was jet-lagged but not fatigued, his mind racing with thoughts on directing. He said many, many things. I tried to keep up with notes, but sometimes it was just more interesting to watch him formulate his ideas rather than keeping my face in a notebook. Here are some things he said.
"I always tell directors when I speak to them these four keys to success: do alot of work, see alot of work, stay out of debt, and get out of New York."
The room gasped when he said this. For one thing, most of us in the room are up to our eyeballs in debt, so that was a little disappointing. But "get out of New York"!? This prompted a big discussion about the virtues and pitfalls of plodding along with a career in the most expensive city in the country. Sher said "I guarantee you that if you are in some small city somewhere making the most fantastic, phenomenal theater, New York is going to find you." Hmm. He may be right. His own path certainly proves that point. He took up a job as an assistant director with Garland Wright at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. From there, Bart directed shows all over the country, and even worked as an assistant to Sir Peter Hall for two shows so he could learn more about directing Shakespeare. Sher has an insatiable appetite for knowledge and has studied the masters, both living and dead. He talked at great length about the influence of Giorgio Strehler. He extensively studied the work of Tadeus Kantor, and was obsessed with V.E. Meyerhold, going so far as to stage one of his shows exactly by using his notes. For Sher, he wanted to know the entire history of theater up to his time, so he could really understand the tradition that he was carrying forth.
The next provocative statement Sher made was "First we throw out all the British!" There were a handful of Brits in the room, and their objections were vocal but genial. But he makes a good point, and that is that we must find our own voices as artists - as American artists. We have to believe more in ourselves and invest more in our identity as a country.
About directing Sher said, "Directing is an interpreting art form, not a creative art form." We are there to serve the play. The writer is really the creator. (This stands in exact opposition to a statement made by Anna Shapiro the following evening at the lab.) The real task is to "create as many possibilities as possible to contact the work."
"Directing involves design, analysis, space and movement, communication, leadership, rhythm."
"[a play] is an arc of action over time."
"Read John Barton for Shakespeare."
"PRACTICE!"
Sher talked about the usefulness of floorplans. "I'm doing an expressionist painting even when I'm directing an Edward Albee play." He appealed to us to learn about the masters: Craig, Appia, Meyerhold.
"Work on more than one thing at a time. You must be layered in your approach."
"I look at my theater as a front for a subversive organization."
"Everything is site specific!" (Semiotics)
That's pretty much all I wrote down. Like I said, this is a charismatic, captivating man. One of the big lessons I will take away from the lab is the passion that all great directors bring, not only in the rehearsal room, but in their life - all the time. Thank you Bart!
