Stage Directions: How Much To Use and Director's Reactions

ON WRITING - by G.L. Horton

JL writes on ICWP-L@LISTS.NETSPACE.ORG: "I worked with a dramaturg on a new play this summer and now I've sent it out. A director contacted me and told me he finds the play very interesting (whatever that means) but that I have too many stage directions in the play and he thought few directors would consider it for that reason. I put in stage directions as I write to help me see the action of the play and the development of my characters. The dramaturg never commented that there were too many directions, though. At the end of the process, I can very easily drop the stage directions because I am fascinated by the visions others see with/in my words--I don't want them messing around with the dialogue, of course.

"My question is how do you deal with stage directions? Why do you deal with them in what ever way you do? And what responses have you had from directors regarding stage directions? Since this is such an obvious playwright's challenge, I suppose it's been addressed on the list before. Forgive me if I'm trodding old ground, but it is new for me. Thanks to any who can share."

The Actors List has been kicking this one around. Readers appreciate extensive descriptions, it helps them visualize. Many directors are snotty about them-- many have been trained to black them out, so that the author's vision doesn't interfere with the creativity of the designers, actors, and esp The Director's Vision. Some actors are grateful to have them, but don't necessarily follow them. Others follow them slavishly, which may result in an inspired embodiment of the author's vision, or in a wooden fake.

You've got to do what you think best, and take your chances.

I don't use 'em, except in some cases where (for instance) a line is to a character other than the one the speaking character has been talking to, and would result in a cold reading mix up--- there I note (to MATT). But I don't think my use is normative. I spare them b/c 1) I hate to type 2) I hate to waste paper/trees and 3) b/c when I read through a script I am attending to the sound pattern, not the visuals, and any words that are not part of the dialog count as distractions from my aural experience. This works fine with Shakespeare-- he puts the visuals in his dialog: "Do you bite your thumb at me?" "She swoons to see them bleed"-- but I admit to missing a lot in some of the moderns.

When I direct I lay out a set on a chessboard, and move pieces around, forcing myself to visualize. It gives me a headache, visualization, but though it's not part of the usual way my mind works -- which is aural "stream of consciousness" with abstract ideas occurring rather in the form of kinetic vectors -- I can call on it when necessary, and I have quite intense and detailed visual memory for aesthetic things like paintings and architecture-- and choreography. (9/15/04)

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