AHDS Collections

Designing Shakespeare Collection - Audio Interview Clip

- Conflicts with Director

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Designing Shakespeare Collection - Conflicts with Director
Filename	:	DS_JT_au14.mov
Description	:	Question: What happens when you have different ideas about the play from the director, how do you resolve that sort of tensions? Answer: If it?s somebody that I don?t know very well then it?s much harder to fight your ground, you know. And if it?s somebody you don?t know very well, it?s a sign that maybe you won?t want to work with them that much longer. Because, you know, I mean unfortunately a director is still kind of King or Queen in this, you know in our culture, and so if they totally, if you have a difference of opinion with a director on something, and you don?t have a solid relationship with them, you are likely to lose the battle, you know, frankly, in my experience. But, if it?s something terribly important and if you are collaborating with people that you are, to some extent, they are soul mates, you do have similar beliefs then you are not going to disagree with them all the time. In mean otherwise, that, that, I can?t imagine collaborating with people for long on that basis of disagreement, so when I have disagreed strongly about something it?s usually been a sign that person and I, you know, don?t really see eye to eye generally. Or, if it?s something I feel really strongly about, I just get very, if it?s someone I know well and I just think they are wrong, then I?ll get, I?ll just get very stubborn and there are different ways of doing that. I mean there are different ways of, and usually that when you are on stage, it?s usually when they see something and it?s shocking and I can only think of a recent example, the Twelfth Night I just did with two young men playing Viola and Sebastian, who I?d given silk wigs to, and they were quite shocking kind of wigs, they weren?t what anyone was expecting and I was asked to cut them. But I was asked to cut them because the director had got so used to seeing these two young men in rehearsals just looking how they were, and he said, ?but it?s terrible to cover up what they look like?. He?d sort of never quite imagined they?d be in wigs, even though we?d talked about it. He said, ?look, they look so nice, they look so strange in these wigs?, but of course the wigs was the one thing that made them look like twins and everyone got used to it after a few days and I just had arguments and said ?No, I?m not changing it because it?s right. I know it?s right and we know from audience reaction that it?s working. It?s just strange to you, you know?. And there have been a few of those. There was a mirror that a producer insisted that I put on the back wall of a play, a West End production of Steaming which was a new play by Nell Dunn set in a Turkish bath, where the producer had, you know, there was a large plunge pool like a small swimming pool on stage and the producer said ?well, no-one in the stalls can see it? and I said ?of course not, you can?t actually rake water, you know [laughs] it?s just to do with where they?re sitting, sorry?. ?Well, we?ll have to put a mirror on the back wall, you know, so they can see the girls in the pool naked?. I said ?no, I?m sorry, but that?s an issue for me. That?s voyeuristic, that?s not what this production is about at all. It?s just a naturalistic, you know, if there is nudity it happens only because it would be that a woman takes her clothes off at this point and dries with a towel. It?s, you know, none of that?. He ordered a mirror and brought it into the theatre, and hung it up and I walked out. And actually what I did was go to the cinema next door in Panton Street for a couple of hours and I came back and they had taken it down again. So, you know, there are different, you kind of, if you really believe strongly that something is a wrong decision then I think it?s a question of by any means necessary to get rid of it and that varies.
Source	:	DS_06_06_02 (mini DV tape)
Format	:	Quicktime Progressive (video)
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	:	4 minutes 04.00 seconds