The Lines in Rehearsal

Directing Rehearsal Exercise:

Are you rehearsing a play with affective stage directions?

Pick a set of affective stage directions out of the script that you think are particularly important to the overall mood, tone, or feel of the play.

Ask your actors or designers to close their eyes as you read them the stage directions aloud.

Now ask everyone to come up with a gesture that they feel expresses those stage directions.

Have everyone open their eyes and go around sharing their gestures with each other. Notice if there are any gestures that are similar.

Having seen everyone’s gestures, ask the group if anyone sees any patterns in the way this particular group of people responded to these affective stage directions. Can anyone put that into words?

As the director, it’s your job to take this collection of responses and try to see what the points of agreement are; that is what your specific production team brings to these lines between the lines.

If there are any responses that truly go against your vision for these moments, then that is a useful moment for discussion! You might have to use your own affective associations to explain what you’re thinking.

Finally, see how this shared, nonverbal understanding shows in performance and modify as you see fit!