Directors, Let Your Designers Design

(Photo: The People’s Theatre)

by Chris Peterson, OnStage Blog Founder

Almost every director mistakes leadership for control.

I know I have.

I’ve walked into design meetings with too many answers. I’ve overexplained, overprescribed, and left little room for anyone else to create. I’ve treated a design conversation like I was there to hand out instructions instead of begin a collaboration. Nothing felt surprising. It felt managed.

If you’re directing a show and have designers helping build its world, remember that their job is not to execute the production sitting in your head. They are not there to color in your idea. They are artists, collaborators, and often people seeing parts of the story you are too close to notice.

Yes, the director has to lead. You are responsible for the storytelling, tone, pacing, and world the audience enters. But leading does not mean dictating every fabric choice, shadow, cue, platform, or shade of blue because “this scene is sad.”

That kind of direction usually makes the design smaller.

The better work starts when a director can talk about feeling before form. Instead of saying, “I want her in a red coat,” try, “I want her entrance dangerous.” Let the costume designer decide what that means. Instead of saying, “Put a window stage left,” try, “I want the audience trapped, but still watched.” Let the scenic designer explore it.

Specificity is helpful. Micromanaging is not.

Too many directors bring designers in after the “real” interpretation has already happened. Designers are dramaturgs too. They ask questions about power, memory, environment, and tension. They notice patterns. They challenge assumptions. They can help you understand the play better if you stop treating them like the last stop before tech week.

Some of my best meetings came when I stopped trying to control the final image and started describing the need underneath it. Then I shut up long enough for someone else to respond.

A good designer will not always give you what you asked for. Sometimes they will give you the thing you actually meant.

Collaborate like you mean it. Come prepared, but not closed off. Have a point of view, but don’t confuse that with ownership over every detail. Say “I don’t know” when you don’t know. Be clear about the show’s emotional life, but flexible about the shape it takes.

When a designer brings you something bold or risky, don’t shrink it into the version in your head.

Lean in.

They may be showing you what your production needed all along.