A Guide to Directing

The director on a show is responsible for a wide range of tasks, including (but not limited to) picking the show, coming up with the creative vision, auditioning, rehearsing the cast, acting as one of the welfare contacts for all members of the company, supporting the designers through the design process of the show, and curating all elements of the show as they come together in show week. The role takes a lot of work, commitment and creativity, but it’s also one of the most rewarding roles to do when everything comes together.

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Whilst every show needs to be handled differently (depending on venue, text, cast, crew and your own directorial vision), the following steps with hopefully show a little bit of what the process of directing a show in Oxford is like.

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(NB: throughout the following when I refer to ‘plays’, I include all forms of staged theatre including dance, musicals and opera, as well as straight plays.)