Day Seven at the LCT Directors Lab

A light day a Lincoln Center. I attended a workshop on "scene transitions" by yet another London-based director who shared techniques she learned from the UK director Neil Bartlett. The presumption behind her workshop was that everything that happens on stage should be significant and that scene transitions are a powerful opportunity not only for storytelling, but to inject the director's interpretation of a play into the production.

I liked her distinction between the "top" of a play, by which she meant the narrative, and the "bottom" of the play, by which she meant its themes. One can use transitions to support either or both. We did exercises and discussed all of the elements of a play that can be addressed in a transition, as well as all the tools one might use to get there.

I took another look at the "Ramp".

In the evening, a number of us attended The Sound and the Fury at New York Theatre Workshop, developed by Elevator Repair Service. Then we went to a kind of theatre open-mic in Tribecca sponsored by one of the members. Finally, there were about five of us who socialized late into the night.

Now that the first week is done, I observe that the Lab is most importantly about learning more about one's self than it is about gathering information about directing. The social element is intense, and I think this is where the most growth is really occurring, for those who are open to it. Shakespeare said our job is to hold the mirror up to nature, which Peter Brook interpreted as "human beings within human life being reflected." When the context is the creation of that mirror, every interaction with another practitioner is a chance to look in the mirror.