Theatre Director Research Paper

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A theatre director is someone who overlooks the running of a performance. They rarely perform alongside the cast. They have the visionary idea of how the show should be and they make it become that image. They are responsible for how everything appears the sets, costumes and props. No training is required to become a theatre director, pretty much anyone with an understanding of the role and the play can do it. They need to be able to have good communication skills and an understanding of the arts. A director must be motivating; it’s the job of the director to encourage his or her actors to become the character. They need to help them understand what the character wants; this is done through a variety of techniques. Alongside directing the …show more content…

This has happened over many years and today we have so many different techniques to practice. When plays first started to come about it was rare for someone to just be the director. Often people were known as an actor-manager. This meant that they would perform alongside the cast, being the lead actor, but they also directed the imagery and how it came across to the audience. They oversaw everything. There are many directors in history that changed theatre. From 1750 to 1850, the manager/director or actor/manager/director came into prominence. People who helped shape the need for a director at this time. Developing public interest the development of scenery and scene shifting, and the focus on production on play …show more content…

Edmund Kean was an English actor, regarded in his time as the greatest ever. He was known for being a tragedy actor, always playing the villain in Shakespeare’s plays.He first appeared on stage at the age of four playing cupid. His mother was an actor and performing was all he had known from a young age. He didn’t have a disciplined childhood and was often left a stray, so it’s seemed as his passion for villainous roles stemmed from this. As an actor Kean focused on his own strong and chaotic personality and on sudden transitions of voice and facial expression. Bringing aspects of himself to the characters. He never improvised his performances always understood and fulfilled the characters role. It was refreshing for the audience and he was extremely famous for his performance. His character skills were limited as he usually was unsuccessful at parts needing the character to have nobility, affection, or comic talent. His most well known performance was for Shakespeare’s Othello. He threw away years of traditional acting breaking the pattern, bringing in emotional realism. Kean remained an admired actor but slowly became unfavourable as person as he soon got too caught up in the fame and fear of becoming nothing. He eventually turned to alcohol and died eight years

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