These are some of the questions you get asked as you build a theater company. And here are Beau's answers.
Seattle is drowning in theater companies, why do we need another one?
The real answer is "we" as a collective city, art community, whatever, really didn't need another theater company, for sure. Confrontational grew out of a relationship I developed with my producer, Baron Von Oldenburg. We put up Proof together, and by the time it opened, Confrontational existed to reflect the fact that we were going to keep at it. I have great respect for a number of other theater companies in the city, but when I want to do a show, one I'm passionate about, odds are I just wanna do it, not go through the submission process of putting it up via another theater company, more than a year from now.
As a secondary answer, I was thrilled on more than one occasion to have audience members tell folks involved with our shows, "I don't like plays. I liked this play." A theater professional in Seattle told me that it is a shortcoming of Seattle theater that many shows, particularly on the fringe level, are put on by theater people for theater people, which is a pretty narrow target demographic, in my opinion. Plays (more than musicals, for example) have lost the wide appeal they had during the days of Greek Drama and Shakespeare and Vaudeville. While it is not part of Confrontational's mission to directly address these factors, it's something we keep in mind when we put together upcoming shows.
How does one become a director?
Partly, the answer to this is the same as how do you become a novelist or a painter? You just go out and do it, no one is stopping you. On the other hand, unlike writing a novel, where all you need is an imagination and a keyboard, with theater you usually need a place, a cast, and so on.
So, the short answer is: Rik Deskin. I went from not having done theater in several years, to being in two plays to directing before the end of a single year. I did a Shakespeare in the park show for Rik, then his Eclectic Theater Company started managing the Odd Duck Studio space, and I'd always wanted to direct The Dumb Waiter. He had a slot to fill, so he was willing to let me take a shot at it. After that, I did some more shows for Eclectic, and then went off to find my own way. I've been thrilled to return to the space Rik manages to direct plays I've put on myself.
If you want to direct and don't want to completely start on your own, look to join a short play festival like On The Board's 12 minutes or less, the 14/48 festival, or the catch-all Annex cabaret, Spin the Bottle. Find a short script, or create one, that you want to do and go put it on. Then, seriously, you can call yourself a director. That's it.
What does a director do?
On the "fringe" which means pseudo or borderline professional theater (rather than Seattle Rep, ACT, 5th Ave, etc), generally a director does a lot of his or her own producing. In the truest sense, the director tells the actors what to do along the way to putting on a play. That's it. They tell the actors, or help the actors to figure out, how to say their lines, where to go and what they're doing when they say them. The rest of the time, the production staff, lights, sound, costumes, set, etc, all answer to the director to make sure the show has a cohesive vision.
The further down the budget scale you go, the more the director does, in that you may (these are personal examples): Hang lights, operate the board, design the set, build the set, paint the set, take tickets, sell drinks, design the poster, design the program, buy costumes, buy props, and you get the idea. Also, unlike professional level theater, odds are actors are used to, or are willing to, help out with a lot of this stuff as well.
How do you pick plays?
You discover them, or someone else discovers them. I've had wonderful success asking actors what show they would crawl over a dead relative to get to do. It's a fun question, many actors have an immediate answer, and it means I get to discover what people are really passionate about.
I went to the Seattle central library and went through innumerable scripts. Some of the plays I read were ones I knew I wanted to do, including Two Rooms and Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, which we're doing in 2013.
Other plays, including at least one we're doing in 2014, come as recommendations or passion projects for other people. I read Manuscript while killing time at Elliott Bay Books, and just that fast, I got a feeling in my gut, and I knew I was ready to crawl over a relative to get to do it. Another script we're doing next year not only fits thematically with Manuscript, but also will be fulfilling a dream that an actor has been carrying for the better part of a decade. I love when people are excited, you get much better work out of them, so starting from the point of having a play that someone is really passionate about, and then finding that I can share their passion for it, and we can do something awesome together...that's part of what gets me up in the mornings, now.
Seattle is drowning in theater companies, why do we need another one?
The real answer is "we" as a collective city, art community, whatever, really didn't need another theater company, for sure. Confrontational grew out of a relationship I developed with my producer, Baron Von Oldenburg. We put up Proof together, and by the time it opened, Confrontational existed to reflect the fact that we were going to keep at it. I have great respect for a number of other theater companies in the city, but when I want to do a show, one I'm passionate about, odds are I just wanna do it, not go through the submission process of putting it up via another theater company, more than a year from now.
As a secondary answer, I was thrilled on more than one occasion to have audience members tell folks involved with our shows, "I don't like plays. I liked this play." A theater professional in Seattle told me that it is a shortcoming of Seattle theater that many shows, particularly on the fringe level, are put on by theater people for theater people, which is a pretty narrow target demographic, in my opinion. Plays (more than musicals, for example) have lost the wide appeal they had during the days of Greek Drama and Shakespeare and Vaudeville. While it is not part of Confrontational's mission to directly address these factors, it's something we keep in mind when we put together upcoming shows.
How does one become a director?
Partly, the answer to this is the same as how do you become a novelist or a painter? You just go out and do it, no one is stopping you. On the other hand, unlike writing a novel, where all you need is an imagination and a keyboard, with theater you usually need a place, a cast, and so on.
So, the short answer is: Rik Deskin. I went from not having done theater in several years, to being in two plays to directing before the end of a single year. I did a Shakespeare in the park show for Rik, then his Eclectic Theater Company started managing the Odd Duck Studio space, and I'd always wanted to direct The Dumb Waiter. He had a slot to fill, so he was willing to let me take a shot at it. After that, I did some more shows for Eclectic, and then went off to find my own way. I've been thrilled to return to the space Rik manages to direct plays I've put on myself.
If you want to direct and don't want to completely start on your own, look to join a short play festival like On The Board's 12 minutes or less, the 14/48 festival, or the catch-all Annex cabaret, Spin the Bottle. Find a short script, or create one, that you want to do and go put it on. Then, seriously, you can call yourself a director. That's it.
What does a director do?
On the "fringe" which means pseudo or borderline professional theater (rather than Seattle Rep, ACT, 5th Ave, etc), generally a director does a lot of his or her own producing. In the truest sense, the director tells the actors what to do along the way to putting on a play. That's it. They tell the actors, or help the actors to figure out, how to say their lines, where to go and what they're doing when they say them. The rest of the time, the production staff, lights, sound, costumes, set, etc, all answer to the director to make sure the show has a cohesive vision.
The further down the budget scale you go, the more the director does, in that you may (these are personal examples): Hang lights, operate the board, design the set, build the set, paint the set, take tickets, sell drinks, design the poster, design the program, buy costumes, buy props, and you get the idea. Also, unlike professional level theater, odds are actors are used to, or are willing to, help out with a lot of this stuff as well.
How do you pick plays?
You discover them, or someone else discovers them. I've had wonderful success asking actors what show they would crawl over a dead relative to get to do. It's a fun question, many actors have an immediate answer, and it means I get to discover what people are really passionate about.
I went to the Seattle central library and went through innumerable scripts. Some of the plays I read were ones I knew I wanted to do, including Two Rooms and Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, which we're doing in 2013.
Other plays, including at least one we're doing in 2014, come as recommendations or passion projects for other people. I read Manuscript while killing time at Elliott Bay Books, and just that fast, I got a feeling in my gut, and I knew I was ready to crawl over a relative to get to do it. Another script we're doing next year not only fits thematically with Manuscript, but also will be fulfilling a dream that an actor has been carrying for the better part of a decade. I love when people are excited, you get much better work out of them, so starting from the point of having a play that someone is really passionate about, and then finding that I can share their passion for it, and we can do something awesome together...that's part of what gets me up in the mornings, now.
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