Intuition / intellect - sex / sensibility

Abstract

In contrast to the vast array of books which deal with the craft of acting and stagemanagement, there seem to be far fewer books which attempt to describe what directors do. The most common contemporary approach seems to be to present a collection of interviews, such as In Contact with the gods? Directors talk theatre (edited by Maria M. Delgado and Paul Heritage, 1996) and On directing (edited by Gabriella Giannachi and Mary Luckhurst, 1999). A possible reason for the dearth of material on directing techniques could be the fact that different directors’ styles and approaches vary drastically. Exceptional directors seem to be characterised more by their personal idiosyncrasies than by their adherence to a specific methodology.