AHDS Collections

Designing Shakespeare Collection - Audio Interview Clip

- David Thacker Collaboration

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Designing Shakespeare Collection - David Thacker Collaboration
Filename	:	DS_SK_au06.mov
Description	:	Question: You worked an awful lot with the same director, David Thacker, how do you approach the collaborative process, how does that work? Answer: Well, I think I described it earlier with David being incredibly kind with Shakespeare with me in going through the script. It got less like that as we got on, in mean obviously, you know, I knew how to read Shakespeare by the time I'd done my third or fourth production and I guess with David it was one of, he would trust that I had read the script, and other directors as well, you know, and I knew what was involved in each scene, I would make lists and that kind of thing, and the collaboration tends to come I think when you go back in with your ideas and you do little thumb, I always think thumbnail sketches and thumbnail models are quite good, little tiny models just rough models, because directors and including David, was not good at interpreting two-dimensional to three dimensions and I think that was always very helpful for him to see where entrances and exits, or how much space he was always, David was always preoccupied by how much freedom of space actors could have on stage. You know, if an actor wanted to run across stage without being hindered by ten pieces of furniture or fifteen staircases in the way, he would want that, that would be his priority, this sense of freedom for an actor. I always remember that thing that Peter Brook wrote in The Empty Space, that an actor two foot up in the air commands so much more space around them than an actor flat on the floor, you know, so if you could bring levels in, I always thought that was quite important. So in terms of collaboration, I would be aware of that, talk to David about those values that I know he shared and I shared. So I think if you have the same sense of values with a Director to start with, you are on a good footing. You might, I had, you know, Graham Watkins as a director who was very preoccupied with the visual side of it, I always felt much more uncomfortable because I felt I was having to cram the stage with lots of visual stuff which I didn't necessarily feel was necessary, right, looked right or felt right necessarily, but he loved it, you know. I think sometimes perhaps because it is a way that a Director can get away with things a bit more perhaps, you know, if everyone is looking at a set and balloons going off or whatever, window dressing.
Source	:	DS_18_06_02 INT-06 (mini DV tape)
Format	:	Quicktime Progressive (audio)
Type	:	Resource Audio
Rights	:	This clip may be used for educational purposes only, any commercial use of this material requires permission from the copyright holders. Misuse or misrepresentation may result in legal action. Copyright holder: Christie Carson, COMPH, Royal Holloway University of London.
Length	:	2 minutes 13.16 seconds