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• Hi Rishi
  
  I really enjoyed reading your comments, and I share your unease regarding the itinerant lifestyle of a director, as well as your reflections on how the industry is changing for better and for worse with changes in values/working practises.
  
  I suppose to clarify RE: the outside eye, this is a generalisation. I absolutely agree with your definition of directing, but I think a major reason to have a director is as a representative of the audience in the rehearsal room. You are literally the outside eye on a production - watching how it is shaped on the stage, how all the elements come together. I don't mean that eye to be cold, calculating or in any way superior/distanced. We are absolutely enablers, but that authority comes from seeing the bigger picture, and so we are 'outside' of the performance. As you say - it's our 'vision'.
  
  We must surely be nuts....
  
  Good luck to you too - I look forward to doing battle with you (or perhaps just sharing a hearty 'well done!' when I get to see your work).
  
  Best wishes,
  
  Hannah

  

  Hannah Drake , Director , 21/02/11 , 499 AP

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• Most certainly is a funny world trying to get paid to make art. Especially in the world of film and theatre directing. I wrote a small article about my experiences of it for a new London publication I'm involved with, Gorilla Film Magazine.
  
  http://gorillafilmmagazine.com/wordpress/2010/10/18/21000-in-debt-unemployed-homeless-and-making-films/
  
  We've just started out and although our focus is primarily films we are keen to have articles by all creative types about their experiences and particularly about how they are dealing with things practically. If you'd be interested in writing for us, or maybe us reveiwing one of your plays get in touch,
  
  Tom .... tomdalling@gorillafilmmagazine.com

  

  Tom Dalling , Editor , 21/02/11 , 467 AP

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• Dear Hannah:
  
  I would introduce myself, but that would make my profile page redundant.
  
  You seem like a wonderful person, and it is unfortunate that we will have to engage each other in regular knife fights to find work. I find it depressing that theatre professionals must work unpaid to prove their mettle in an industry that has no guarantees and no security. I don’t believe it should be this way – there are theatre professionals that succeed around the world in non-cannibalistic models. The theatre is, at its heart, a collaboration of individuals. However, the industry is straying away from that basic value in its production paradigms. Contributing factors are: a departure from the repertory system; bigger budgets justified by bigger “visions” (recent Spiderman debacle); far too many “theatre professionals”; – the list goes on and is often discussed.
  
  One of the problems that plague the theatre industry is our complicit acceptance of the itinerant lifestyle that comes with a theatre career. Most directors will agree that we go where the job takes us. Directors arrive at communities they are unfamiliar with, put up productions and are ready (and encouraged) to move on the moment they are done. Should productions staged by itinerant directors be expected to resonate with local communities? How can a theatre expect a committed audience when theatres aren’t committed to their own artists, and artists aren’t expected to commit to their theatres? Of course, this isn’t the only issue with the industry, but I’ll refrain for brevity’s sake. I should probably be writing job applications right now or planning an imaginary production – at least the one in my head comes with a pay, albeit fantasy money.
  
  I disagree with your point that a director is an “outside eye”. The director is the individual who brings the production together, who mediates, criticizes, improves, challenges, plans, trusts, counsels, but most of all, enables. It is difficult to analogize, but I believe the director’s task lies in the grey area between the cast and outside it, within and without, internal and external. As such, directors maintain a version of Said's ‘flexible positional authority’ with the cast/crew – allowing a series of relationships to exist between themselves and the cast/crew, without ever losing the upper hand.
  
  All directors share a necessity to express themselves through the stage. Writers live on through a page, visual artists leave a tangible mark on their media, and filmmakers light up the screen, while directors only ever really earn a reputation. Directors risk their vision every time the lights go up, but we trust the people we work with, have confidence in what we create, and have faith in the audiences we attract. Apparently, we’re also willing to risk our livelihoods, relationships, health, and the roofs over our heads.
  
  Good luck to you, I’m sure it has something to do with success.
  
  Best Wishes,
  
  Rishi
  

  

  rishichat , Assistant , 20/02/11 , 771 AP

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