Why Are Stage Directions Important

You lot open up a play to page one, and the showtime thing that comes vehement at you is a whole swathe of italics, a writer ranting at y'all about the lighting in Brooklyn in the summertime of '73, in-depth descriptions of a library or simply "They cross the Andes": the indomitable OG of wild phase directions from Peter Shaffer's 1964 play The Imperial Hunt of the Sun. What are these italicised commands? And how can yous, every bit an aspiring player, make sense of them? Carve up the wheat from the chaff? The Tenessee Williams from Eugene Ionesco? The answers are contained below, so read on to uncover the mysteries and intricacies of stage directions in theatrical productions!

Updated 4th October, 2022.

What are Stage Directions?

Phase directions are instructions in a play for technical aspects of the product, such as lighting, audio, costume, scenery or props and, most chiefly, the movement of actors onstage. It is the phase directions that tell you what a graphic symbol looks similar, where they travel in the space and what the infinite looks and sounds like.

Stage directions give you vital information for the activeness and relationships betwixt people, things and places within a text. They also give you an insight into the playwright and how they approach their work. Shakespeare was famously very light on the phase directions, his only credited one is 'Exit phase left, pursued by a bear'! This is because he was acting in or directing his ain pieces and didn't need to write down the stage directions. Tennessee Williams, on the other hand, was incredibly descriptive, outrageously prescriptive and wrote genuine essay-length stage directions! Each writer has their own manner, and it is your job equally the actor to know what these instructions mean and how to make them work for you on phase.

Types of Phase Directions

Dissimilar types of stage directions volition give yous different types of information. Sometimes, it'south purely for the ease of blocking a scene—working out where the actors stand and how they'll move effectually the space. Other times, it's more descriptive of the world of the play, assuasive you to conduct assay as to how you might bring words off the page and into life. One thing to keep in heed is that while you'll likely read every give-and-take written downwardly in the script, not all stage directions may be relevant to yous directly. Sometimes, they'll exist of more utilize to the director, blueprint team or the dramaturg. By learning the different types of stage directions, you lot'll become a amend sense of what the author was trying to convey in writing them downwards, and how they may help yous in your performance.

The Nuts of Movement Directions

You may take heard of the idea of "stage left" or "centre stage". These are actual terms used in the theatre to draw the various positions on the stage. They are always given from the actors perspective—upstage being towards the back of the auditorium and downstage towards the audition. Left and right correspond to the player looking out at the audience. Information technology can exist a little confusing at first, but with practice it becomes second nature. Run across this helpful diagram below:

Stage Directions

So now when yous read the stage directions from Look Back in Anger by John Osborne and read the following in Act one: "(He walks C., behind Cliff, and stands, looking down at his caput.)", you know that y'all have to movement from where y'all finished you final line to middle stage and peer downwardly at the other role player sitting in the chair! Like shooting fish in a barrel, right?

One of import variation of this convention is the employ of "prompt side" (P) and "opposite prompt (side)" (OP), which are alternating names for stage-left and stage-right. More a staple in British theatre, they refer to the "prompt corner" traditionally occupied by the phase manager to the left side of the stage—a nook where actor's could be safely prompted if they forgot their identify in a play. Prompt corners are even so common features in modern theatres, although their placement to stage-left is not always guaranteed. However, many actors and directors favour P and OP as they eliminate the sometimes-confusion of having to clarify which person's left or right is being spoken about.

Scenic Phase Directions

The opening stage directions to Ibsen'south Hedda Gabler looks like this:

"In the dorsum, a broad doorway with defunction drawn back, leading into a smaller room decorated in the aforementioned way equally the drawing-room. In the right-hand wall of the front room, a folding door leading out to the hall. In the opposite wall, on the left, a glass door, also with curtains drawn dorsum. Through the panes can be seen part of a veranda outside, and trees covered with autumn foliage."

This is some specific work, hither, am I correct? Ibsen knows exactly how he wants the stage to look and fifty-fifty now, decades after his passing, the stage for this play nearly ever looks the same. Here is a picture of a production at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, directed by Amanda Gaughan in 2015:

Stage Directions Henrik Ibsen

You can see that Ibsen'southward phase directions from hundreds of years ago have been brought faithfully to life in this production.

That being said, you also can see the directors and designers of these shows, creatively interpreting these instructions to accommodate their own spaces and their own visions of the production. They may not have the entrances and exits in the right spots and will take to slightly suit Ibsen'southward plan to make it work. When stage directions are this specific, however, the production of them tends to be very shut to the description provided. The globe the playwright sets up is more often than non integral to the characters on the stage and needs to be treated as such.

Of course, some directors will wait at a page'due south worth of description of a room and say: "Let's cross this out, team: our production of Virginia Woolf takes place on a moon base!" This is perfectly fair, provided that the new staging reflects the original intention and vision of the author'south words. However, some authors/their estates are famous for having productions follow phase directions to a tee—some even threaten legal action for any unsanctioned deviations. Samuel Beckett'southward estate is famous for their pursuit of companies who think his (many) descriptions tin exist scribbled out and re-interpreted.

Costume and Character

A big element for any character onstage is their appearance. It is what lets us know who they are and how they see themselves in the earth. Sometimes a playwright will requite a full character description along with a costuming ane that gives you a consummate picture of who this person is. In John Osbourne's Look Dorsum in Anger , the protagonist Jimmy is described as follows:

"Jimmy is a tall, thin swain most twenty-five, wearing a very worn tweed jacket and flannels. Clouds of smoke make full the room from the pipe he is smoking. He is a disconcerting mixture of sincerity and cheerful malice, of tenderness and freebooting cruelty; restless, importunate, total of pride, a combination which alienates the sensitive and insensitive akin. Blistering honesty, or credible honesty, like his, makes few friends. To many he may seem sensitive to the point of vulgarity. To others, he is but a loudmouth."

Now obviously, as the actor playing Jimmy, it would be difficult to play all of these aspects at the aforementioned time. However, if I was going to audience for the part, I would try and wear clothing that was similar to the description here. It gives you vital information: the character is working class, he is full of pent upward energy and he smokes. That is someone who is very different from, say, the character clarification for James Bond—"A handsome man, in an immaculate adjust, with a glint in his middle and a pistol in his jacket." And you wouldn't want to get your audience preparation dislocated i way or the other!

This is as well why I e'er tell new actors that they must read the entire play! You must e'er read the full play, because the stage directions amongst many other things give you such wonderful and concrete ideas most your grapheme—how they run across themselves in the world and how the world around them reacts to their presence. Note the mode that the simple character clarification of Jimmy gives usa more clues about him than the dress in his wardrobe: T he pipage could exist seen as an accessory to the outfit. But why does he smoke it? What does that propose well-nigh the graphic symbol's mental country or propensity for bad habits? Why is his jacket worn? Why non buy a new one?

costume for actors

Audio, Lighting and Technical Aspects

The final technical aspect of stage directions are audio, lighting and other technical directions. These are not as of import to actors as the other aspects above or below, but they are worth keeping in mind. A sound or a lighting effect tin can affect your functioning significantly; when reading a play or doing preparation for an audition, always keep these notes in mind as a gunshot happening offstage in the middle of your monologue will probably be something yous demand to react to!

Performance Directions

Alongside these technical stage directions that deal with the practical aspects of putting on a show, playwrights volition also include performative stage directions. These are often single word actions in parentheses that indicate how the playwright thinks the line should exist delivered. These can completely alter the significant or subtext of a line. Examples include:

Gavin: I'm a golfer. I play golf game.
Melissa: What else exercise y'all do?
Gavin: (smile) I don't sympathise what you mean.

From Party Time by Harold Pinter. Or endeavour Medvedenko from Checkov'due south The Seagull:

Medvedenko: Why? (Thoughtfully.) I don't empathise… Your health is skilful, your father may non be rich, but he has all he needs. My life's far harder than yours. I make twenty-three roubles a month, that'due south all, not counting pension deductions, and I don't get round wearing black.

Or this interchange from Noel Coward'southward Shadow Play:

Martha: How much do you mind?
Vicky: Mind what?
She takes the dressing-gown off the bed and goes into the bathroom, leaving the door open.
Martha: (firmly) Virtually Simon and Sibyl.
Vicky: Heart-broken, dear— (She laughs.) Yous mustn't be deceived by my gay frivolity, it's really only masking desperation and defeat and despair—
Martha: (helping herself to a cigarette) You're extremely irritating.

Yous tin can see in all of these small excerpts how much these parentheticals add to or change the class of the activeness. Smiling while saying "I don't understand what you mean" adds in a swathe of subtext that wouldn't be there otherwise. Only peradventure one of the most of import performance directions is…

Pause.

Trounce.

Silence.

A moment.

…any of the above. In which somethinghappens that is neither said nor performed with activity, but is nonetheless very important. Far too many actors, when starting out, see the give-and-take "pause" in their scripts and retrieve: "This is the part where I'll stop for a moment. If it'due south a "long break" I might start on a mental grocery list…"Ask yourselfwhythe author has put a pause in that moment. What moment of significance passed? What's changed in your graphic symbol's objective, their arroyo to the scene or the power dynamic? Everything happens in those moments, even if nothing is physically going on.

Stage Directions The Seagull

How Much Attention Should I Pay to Stage Directions?

Fair question. It'due south something of a divisive issue for actors, specially when information technology comes to performance stage directions. Below, we are going to outline ii prevailing schools of thought on the subject:

#ane "Honour Everything" Approach

Exactly as it sounds. This approach says: if the script tells yous to cry on the fifth line of Act ii, you weep on the fifth line of Act 2 come hell or loftier water! It is the claiming of the piece of work for y'all, the role player, to bring your emotional vulnerability and bring it to life on cue! The writer has given yous everything y'all need to do this and information technology is upwards to y'all to become inside the given circumstances of the character and execute their emotional journeying every bit specified in the work, to the alphabetic character!

#2 Arthur Miller doesn't own your choices….

The counterpoint to this is, every bit a wonderful teacher from Steppenwolf told me, is: "Arthur Miller doesn't own your choices! He's dead. He own't coming back!" The vibe here being: if you are non feeling information technology, practise not get in happen but because the script says so. You must bring your own unique vision and interpretation of the office to bring information technology to life. If you attempt to generate an emotional state on cue, information technology will experience forced and fake to an audience rendering the moment invalid.

I recall I ascribe to a tertiary way, which is: sometimes, you just cannot make it happen. It might exist difficult to feel complete joy on stage at night if you have suffered a death in the family during the day. You might discover it easier to cry some nights rather than others. What I volition say is that the text should exist treated with great respect and seriousness. You should attempt to perform everything that is written in there; however, if yous are unable to, or if a different choice occurs on a line that is more genuine for you, then go with it!

The person who is actually at that place to assist in these moments is your director. The manager has the power to be able to say yep or no to sticking to these performative stage directions in a script, and you should consult with them before making any decisions either fashion. If yous are auditioning for the role, I would encourage you to trust your gut, get with what feels right and be prepared to change your interpretation one time you lot are in the audience room if required!

Conclusion

There you accept it! Phase directions de-mystified! They can get a lot more esoteric than the examples listed here. I was in one case in a production of Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl which featured a stage direction of: " He builds a house out of string in front of her " which was a technical challenge to accomplish let me tell you! Nonetheless, for the vast majority of the time, stage directions serve as fantastically detailed indicators of character, environment and relationships between your graphic symbol and the residuum of their globe in any given slice. Hopefully this commodity has helped you understand the nuts of stage directions. And if you would like to practice putting stage directions into action, why not sign upwardly for our Online Scene Order below!