Musicality and transformative mise-en-scène: Ten principles for teaching theatre directing as composition

Abstract

In this article I investigate how my own directorial influences are infiltrated and disseminated in the teaching of theatre directing. My own studies and background in music composition have shaped the way I direct and teach, allowing musicalisation to provide an additional semiotic dimension in directing. Here, I offer notes for the director as composer and propose a ten-part approach to teaching theatre directing as composition, employing musicalisation and transformative mise-en-scène as the two main axes of the students’ pedagogical journey. The study will explore a series of exercises associated with each one of the ten parts and present a review of various directing strategies juxtaposed with appropriate contemporary case studies. Critical perceptions of the theatre directing landscape have shifted substantially in recent years, as can be seen in Radosavljevic’s work on the heterarchical director (2019) and Sidiropoulou’s work on rethinking authority, creativity and authorship (2020). Thus, the ten principles will introduce essential aspects of the work of prominent directors related to musicality and transformative mise-en-scène, such as tacit knowledge/forensic analysis (Katie Mitchell), musicalisation (Eugenio Barba, Rebecca Frecknall), musical knowledge (Yaël Farber), performative scenography and its relationship to musicalisation (Robert Lepage), sharpness and pace (Clint Dyer), playfulness (Emma Rice) and compositional freedom within a structure (Ivo van Hove).