In the new American Theatre magazine, there’s a great article/interview with Tony Taccone, the very successful director who is also the Artistic Director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

The whole interview is quite nice, but there’s one section that I particularly liked that deals directly with…directing. (That was quite a sentence!)

In this snippet about being a theatre director, he hits on two things that I think are important; working with actors, and the nature of the give-and-take between artist and audience.

One of the things I’ve felt as movies and television have increased in their popularity is that the act of two beings being physically close to each other on stage is much more significant that it ever was. The medium is so hot by its nature, and the other media are so cool. In the theatre we’re invited, challenged, sometimes forced to participate in a rather direct way. It’s a potentially dangerous medium, more so than film.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the movies. But there’s a specific type of courage required of theatre artists. I remember hearing a story about Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces. He had a scene with his father where he had to break down. The director spent some time convincing him of the importance of the scene, and finally he just went ahead…bam, one take, great scene, wonderful job, thanks Jack. But, well, stage actors have to do it eight times a week, for very little money, in front of some very unforgiving and inattentive audiences. It’s important to remember that what we ask of actors is scary. In order for them to explore scary terrain they have to feel safe, they have to feel that you have their back. I regard the first day of rehearsal as my audition. I want to create an atmosphere that makes people intuitively say, “Yes, I can trust this guy. This will be worth giving my blood to. I think this is going to be a good time.”

The rest of the article is very good, also. Give it a read if interested!