Friday, February 10, 2012

From The Director's Notebook v.4

Friday, February 10
11:30 AM

My apologies for being unable to post in the last few months, but my production schedule has been pretty hectic. Having been totally invested in B*tch, I did not have the opportunity to post as frequently as I would have liked. I imagine that those are the benefits to Twitter and Facebook. You don't have to write a lot—an update will suffice.

Currently I am working on a very cool production of Alice In Wonderland. The production is Off-Broadway at The Historic Players Theatre, and features a newly interpreted script and score by writing team Sgouros and Bell. This is the world premiere production of the musical, which features an all percussion score!

I have been fortunate to be collaborating with a large amount of artists lately, an experience which is crucial for all young directors. On Alice, I have been working with the composer and the librettist whom are both extremely keen on input and involvement. The same goes with my other collaborator, Sean Pomposello. Sean wrote B*tch and together we have been developing a new play entitled Barbicide, a noirish reflection of the Sweeny Todd myth set in 1960s Queens. To learn more about Barbicide, watch the talk balk between Sean and I.



The key to a collaboration is the level of involvement. A director should never make a bottom line. When collaborating, it is our job to guide the piece into the best possible production.

In theatre, there are a lot of opportunities to collaborate. You collaborate with actors, technicians and designers amongst others. Recently I have been able to collaborate with businesses, corporations and product lines as well.

As a director, the relationships built are equally as important in conjunction to the plays you develop. While it sounds like something you may hear in theatre school, it is a highly valuable piece of advice. It may be difficult at the outset to find collaborators you see eye to eye with, but then again not all relationships need to be on the same page in order to thrive. I am lucky to be involved with artists who share similar values as my own.

Creatives are out there, in all fields, seeking people to partner with and develop great work. Theatre allows for a fusion of many cultures and relationships. For me, I enjoy developing work with a group of people in highly varying worlds. The end result is magnificent for an audience.

Keep an eye out for future (and more frequent) posts and be sure to check out our new blog series, The Playwrights Pad.


-Christian

The director's notebook is a blog Christian Amato started through theatre projected in order to allow people to see how a younger director approaches his work.

No comments:

Post a Comment