What is a Director - Exercise

Aim of Task: The aim of this task is for students to have their first experience directing.

Description of Task: After making groups of 4, we were assigned a certain set of "steps" that 3 actors had to follow in a scene. The fourth person assumed the role of the director. Some directors chose to be strict and authoritative while others chose to include the other member's of the group ideas. Our director was Vincent, and the other two actors where Arshia and Nashua.

Vincent came out with a great scene for the group: a bathroom without any walls. Vincent decided to take the "dictator" role as a director so he made up most of the story. Although, we gave him ideas of how to solve some problems in the story. In the end, we came up with a very funny story about people having misunderstandings inside the bathroom without walls.

Reflection: Having a dictator director sounds worst than it actually is. I think it made the storyline more congruent and logical for everyone. It makes the expressions and attitudes of the authors more "homogeneous." I think it can help a lot to make the story more understandable.

I will like to work with a more open kind of director as well to see how working with him will be different and compare each of them.

Conclusion: I now understand better why a director is needed when preparing a play. He helps keep the ideas of the actors consistent and moderates everything to produce better art.

I now know having a very authoritative director has a lot of advantages. I don't think that, when doing teamwork in my other classes, being "bossy" is good, though. In other subjects it is better to incorporate everyone's ideas to make them feel motivated and efficient. I'm really looking forward to have my first experience as a director (perhaps as a democratic one).