Hello, my name is Mr. Burt and welcome to your drama lesson.

Now this is the first of five lessons looking at understanding the roles and responsibilities of the creative team.

And in this lesson, we're going to start with looking at the role of the director.

But before we get going, let's just make sure we've got the right agreement for our lesson.

So in this lesson you will need an exercise book or some paper and a pencil or a pen.

So make sure you've got that equipment before we get going.

So this is the rundown of our lesson today.

We're going to start off by looking at the keywords we need to succeed in our lesson.

Then we're going to look at the role of the director and we're going to start writing your director's vision.

You're then going to pitch your production to me before we finish with a quiz.

So let's start with the key words we need to succeed in our lesson.

The first key word is the director.

Now the director is the person who has overall creative responsibility for the creation of a piece of theatre.

We're also going to need the word naturalism.

Now naturalism is a genre theatre which is focused on creating strong characters and telling character led stories.

And finally we're going to be creating a directorial vision.

Now a directorial vision is the creative concept the director creates based on how they want the performance to look.

Before we get going, let's just have a quick check on some of those key words.

So what is the role of the director in a theatre production? You tell me now.

That's right.

The director is the person who has overall creative responsibility for the creation of a piece of theatre.

So the role of the director in a theatre production has three main roles.

They begin with the directorial vision, to which then they need to communicate that to everyone.

Firstly, through the design and their role then becomes about overseeing the design.

And then it's about rehearsing the actors.

So it starts with the directorial vision.

Now the directorial vision is the creative force behind the production.

It's things like what they want the audience to feel at the end of the production, how they want it to feel as an experience to be watching, how they want it to look, how they want it to sound, the ideas for the costumes, the ideas of the set.

It's about bringing all those ideas together into a vision which then needs to be communicated to everyone else in the production.

It's a bit like creating a manual for the production.

So once they've got the directorial vision, the idea, they need to communicate that.

The first group they need to to is the designers.

So the next job becomes about overseeing the design.

Here they need to talk to the set designers, the lighting designers, the costume designers, the sound designers, any the music they need.

Anything else that they need theatrically-wise to create the production.

They need to talk to them, communicate their ideas so that then the designers can go away with that brief and start making what they think is going to be appropriate for the production.

But that role doesn't just end there with the designers.

The designers need to keep coming back to the director, checking that they are on track with their work, making sure that everything fits the directorial vision and that will happen right up until the end.

Their final job, which is the one that we're most familiar with, is rehearsing with the actors.

Now for that bit, the director there is in the room, the rehearsal room, with the actors, giving them feedback, helping them to achieve what they what they want to do in the performance.

But it starts well before that.

The director needs to have some idea of how they want the performance to be created.

So they've got to think about how the characters are going to be performed.

The character backgrounds, the interpretation of the characters, the motivation of the characters.

This needs to be discussed with the actors at the very beginning so the actors then can go away and do their job, which is to create that character, do their research and then come together with the director in the rehearsal room to continue to improve their performance until they feel that their performance is achieving what they set out in the directorial vision.

So if we go back to the directorial vision, that document, that manuscript, that manual for the production really is the most important part of it because it's from that, that everything else is created.

So before we move on, let's just check our understanding of the role of the director.

One of the key roles of the director is to create that directorial vision.

But is this statement true or false? The director has to communicate their vision clearly to everyone else in the production team.

Tell me now, is that true or false? Yes, it's true.

It's critical that the directorial vision is clear, it's easy to understand and it can be communicated well to everyone who's involved in the production team.

Now we're going to create our own directorial vision.

Now the first step would be selecting a play.

Now I've selected a play for us and the play is called, "Little Miss Burden" by Matilda Ibini.

Now the play's themes are coming of age and disability.

And the play is set in a family home in East London during the 1990s.

And there are three central characters, Little Miss, Big Sis and Little Sis.

The plot of the play is this, Little Miss lives with a rare genetic disorder called limb-girdle muscular dystrophy and lives with two sisters, Big Sis and Little Sis.

The sisters are funny, exciting and really enjoy being with each other.

And so the story explores what it means to grow up with specifically a physical impairment and what it means to grow up as the only person in your family with a disability.

The plot is about how the three sisters come to terms and understands this the disability and how to live with it as together, they form a girl band.

Now, having decided on a play, we need to then go to step two which is deciding on a focus.

Now every play has two purposes to entertain and educate.

So in terms of entertainment, a play needs to be exciting and engaging and interesting to an audience, but also needs to have an educational element to a play.

Also needs to teach the audience something either about themselves or the world around them.

So this brings us up to our next task which is to decide on a focus for our performance.

And I want you to answer these two questions.

Why would an audience find this play entertaining? And what are the audience going to learn about from this play? So pause the video now, answer these two questions and resume once you've finished.

So how did you find that task? It's really important that every play, every production has a focus which is both on entertainment, why an audience would want to be there, and education, what are the audience going to learn from being there? So having selected a play and a focus for that play we need to now decide on a style for that play.

Now our style in this case is going to be naturalism and it has a quick rundown of what naturalism style looks like.

The plots are focused on character development and the timeframe for the play is very short.

Maybe one day, no more than two.

And the play happens in one or two locations.

And so the set, costumes, sound and lighting can all be very detailed and realistic, as are the characters.

The characters are realistic and believable.

The acting needs to be naturalistic so that we as an audience can really believe that they are those characters.

And so the actor's aim is to understand the character and get the audience to empathise with them.

So this brings us up to our next task, which is about deciding the style and how are you going to create a naturalistic performance of this play? So I'd like you to do is I'd like you to write a bullet point list on how you are going to make your production naturalistic.

Here are some questions to help you with that.

What are the play's location and timeframe? What is the set costume and lighting going to be like? What are the characters like? And how are the audience going to emotionally connect with the central characters? So pause the video now, make a bullet point list on how are you going to make the production naturalistic using these questions as a guide and resume once you finished.

So how did that activity go? Have you made the production as naturalistic as possible? Have a little look at your bullet point list.

Have you really considered the timeframe and the locations or the performance? What about the set and the design of the lighting or the costumes? What about the your initial interpretations of the character? When we're thinking about naturalism everything needs to be realistic and believable.

So once we've decided on the play and on the focus and on the style, then we can start to move to step four which is the initial designs for set, costume and lighting.

So this is where I'd like us to do for our next task.

It's under the headings of set, costume and lighting, is to write down some ideas.

So we've set, write down some ideas of how you want the set to look and draw a simple sketch for your ideas on how that scene would look.

I'd like you to have a go at some costume design.

So write down some ideas of what you'd want the costumes to look like and then draw a simple sketch for how you think the main characters costume would look.

And then to have some ideas for lighting as well.

So write down some ideas of what kind of atmosphere you'd like to create with your lighting and then write down a list of main colours you'd use in the production.

Remember, these are some quite simple sketches and initial ideas.

It is something for the designers then to take away and work with.

So pause the video now, have a go at having some simple ideas for the set costumes and lighting and resume once you've finished.

How have you found that task? Remember, with the set designer and the costume designer the lighting designer, you are not the lighting designer or the costume designer or the set designer.

What you are doing is setting out your initial ideas as director so that then when you sit down and have a meeting with those designers they can then take your ideas and make them into a reality.

So are your ideas clear enough to be able to communicate your thoughts but perhaps you don't need to go into so much detail and if you have huge complex drawing.

Excellent, we are really building up our directorial vision having chosen the play and the focus and the style, and having some ideas of what the set and the costumes and lighting will look like, it's now time to look at step five, developing some ideas for characterization.

Now these are the ideas that the actors will then use to create their performance of your play.

But characterization is a process, the process that we go from absolutely nothing to a complete finished character.

And it starts off with these three words, given circumstances, interpretation and motivation.

Now the given circumstances are all that basic information that the author gives us about the character.

Then we use that information, as actors, to create our own interpretation based on how the character is feeling and what has happened to the character.

And then finally we use that interpretation to create the characters motivation.

Now, remember the motivation is the reason why the actor is there, the character is there.

What are they doing on stage and why they are doing it.

Before we move on, let's just check her understanding of those three words.

So match the keywords with their definitions.

Well, let's see if you've got those right.

So the given circumstances are the basic information about a character often given to us by the author of the play.

That leads us then into interpretation which is using information to create your own ideas for the character.

We look at the information that the author has given us and we use that to then create our own ideas of how the character is feeling and thinking.

And then that takes us onto the next word which is motivation.

Why a character does something on stage.

And we use our own ideas from the interpretation to give us the motivation for the character.

So this takes us up to our next task which is developing your central character.

And what I want you to do is I want you to write a list of all the things you know about the central character from the plot outline I gave you and the work you've done on them since and then write a list of questions or things you'd like to know about the central character.

Here is a table which you could use to help you form your answers.

So in the first box I want you to write down everything that you know about the character.

And in the second box, write down the questions that you'd like to ask the character.

So pause the video now, complete the task and resume once you've finished.

How has that task gone for you? Remember, it's a bit like the set design and the costume design and the lighting design.

These are your initial ideas, your initial thoughts on how you would like your character to be performed.

You are then going to take these notes to the actors and they're going to do their job of then interpreting your ideas as well as looking at the texts afresh with their eyes and creating their performance.

So perhaps review your notes, have a think about what you've created so far.

Is it a clear, broad understanding of the character that you want to communicate to your actors? So having created those characters, that completes our directorial vision.

And so we need to move on to step six which is preparing for your pitch.

Now in a moment I'm going to interview you about your directorial vision.

But before we do that I want you to review your work that you've done in all the tasks so far.

So pause the video now, spend a few moments reviewing your answers to get ready for your interview and resume once you finished.

So now let's move on to step seven, the pitch.

I'm going to interview you and I'm going to ask you a series of questions and I want you to answer the questions using the notes you have created.

Hello there, I believe you you're a director and you've come here today to pitch to me a production of "Little Miss Burden" which sounds like a really exciting and engaging play and I'd be interested to know what your thoughts are.

So I've got some questions.

First of all, what are the names of those central characters of the performance and what is the play about? Okay, thank you.

My next question then concerns about why an audience would want to come and see this.

So why would an audience want to come and see your production? What would entertain them and what would they come away with from the production having learned? Now I understand your production is going to be a really naturalistic one.

So just tell me now what emotional connection, as an audience member, might I make with your central character? Now finally, just give me some ideas, just some initial ideas of your set, costume and lighting designs.

Excellent, well done.

That sounds like a really interesting production and I think I'd really liked to employ you to direct that.

Well done.

So let's finish up our lesson by putting these seven stages of creating a directorial vision into the correct order.

Do that now, please.

So let's just see if you got that in the right order.

It starts with selecting a play, deciding a focus and deciding on a style.

Then it moves on to creating some initial ideas for set costumes and lights and developing the characters and then finishes with preparing and making the pitch.

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