Directors, Let Your Designers Design

(Photo: The People’s Theatre)

by Chris Peterson, OnStage Blog Founder

I’ve done this.

I’ve gone into design meetings thinking I was being prepared when really I had already decided too much. I’d walk in knowing exactly what I wanted the set to look like, which meant the designer wasn’t getting much of a chance to design anything.

Sometimes I was basically asking them to make the picture in my head real.

That isn’t really collaboration.

If you’re directing a show, your designers are not there to finish your homework. They’re artists, and if you hired good ones, they are probably going to see things in the play that you missed.

Directors are supposed to have a point of view. I believe that. You should know what story you’re telling and what kind of world you want to create. But I think some directors hear that and assume it means they should have every answer before anyone else enters the room.

I used to do that more than I realized.

What helped me was learning to talk less about what something should look like and more about what I wanted it to do.

If I tell a costume designer that I want a character in a red coat, I’ve already made the choice for them. If I say I want that entrance to feel dangerous, now we have something to talk about.

Maybe the answer is red. Maybe it isn’t.

The same goes for scenic design. If I’ve already decided there needs to be a window stage left, then I’m not really asking the designer to solve anything. I’m just asking them to put a window stage left.

And honestly, that’s not much fun for anybody.

Designers can also help you understand the play, which I think directors forget sometimes. They’re not just there after you’ve finished all of the important thinking. A good designer may ask one question that sends you back into the script and makes you rethink a scene you thought you had figured out.

Some of the best design meetings I’ve had were the ones where I knew what I wanted the audience to feel but had no idea what the actual answer was yet.

That gave the designer room to do their job. It also meant I had to shut up sometimes, which is harder than it sounds.

You’re still the director. If something doesn’t work for the production, say so. If a choice feels wrong, talk about it. But don’t reject something just because it wasn’t the version you saw in your head.

A designer may not give you exactly what you asked for. Sometimes that’s a good thing.