Notes on Directing (review)

Notes on Directing is not a how-to book; rather, it provides the contemporary director with a collection of concise, practical, and entertaining remarks on what authors Frank Hauser and Russell Reich think every good director should know. Their goal is to create a book that both assists the new director and acts "as a helpful stimulant to experienced practitioners open to considering new perspectives or ways of working" (xxv). The text itself consists of a series of notes, comments, and observations that British director Frank Hauser had compiled, describing "how he went about bringing a story to life" (xix). During his impressive career as a professional director, Hauser has worked with celebrated actors Alec Guinness, Richard Burton, Ian McKellen, Judi Dench, and Kevin Spacey, to name but a few. Russell Reich, Hauser's American friend and collaborator, compiled and adapted these notes to form the backbone of Notes on Directing. Reich augments these with his own personal reflections and experiences as a professional director in New York. The result of this collaboration is an admirable reference resource and a practical manual of directing.

Notes on Directing is a well-organized text that provides easy access to all of its information. It is structured in ten sections, each consisting of short notes offering practical solutions to problems commonly experienced by a director. The notes cover the entire spectrum of a director's work: understanding the script, the director's role, casting, first read-through, rehearsal rules, building blocks, talking to actors, getting a laugh, elements of staging, and last tips. It contains four useful appendices, and an acting exercise, "The What Game." It also includes a suggested reading list which could afford to be much more comprehensive.

This text does not attempt to anticipate every problem that might arise for a director; instead, it deals only with those deemed most important by the authors. They acknowledge up front that their assertions and insights are not dogmatic truth, and encourage the reader "to struggle with them, debate them, hate them even" (xx). Each note deals specifically with an aspect of the director's work. Some provide exercises for the director, such as "Express the core of the play in as few words as possible" (6), or admonitions like "Don't expect to have all the answers" (11), "It is not about you" (14), and "Please, PLEASE be decisive" (45). They also address technical aspects: "Imbalance adds interest" (61), "Respect the power of music" (65), and "Acting solutions are always better then technical solutions" (66). Since the majority of a director's work is with actors, it is fitting that a quarter of the text explores how directors talk with actors. It delves into the actor-director relationship with notes that cover "Know your actors" (46), "Every actor has a tell" (35), and "Discussion about character is best done piecemeal, as the work demands" (34). This book provides an excellent starting point for a director and is comparable in its approach to Between Director and Actor: Strategies for Effective Performance by Mandy Rees and John Staniunas. The major difference is that the latter provides a more precise and thorough exploration of giving notes within the actor-director relationship during rehearsal, while Notes on Directing broadly covers the entire spectrum of the director's work.

Each note in Notes on Directing is followed by a short explanation expanding upon the theory of the note. Part of the commentary following the "Please, PLEASE be decisive" note is, "As the director you have three weapons: Yes, No, and I don't know. Use them. Don't dither, you can always change your mind later . . . what they do mind is the two-minute agonizing when all the actor has asked is, Do I get up now" (45). This assertive quality is deliberate on the part of the authors as they argue that it is "better, we thought, to overshoot and provoke than...