tenacity & imagination

I've never found 2 directors who have the same story of how they began their theatre careers. I find this fact of a director's life to be exhilarating: It means each director has to invent his own life and his own career, to find his own unique way of scaling the castle walls. This process is made bearable by the fact that directors probably have more control over their careers than anyone else in the theatre. With perseverance and the ability to fast-talk some actors and designers, the young director can usually get a production started... Getting a start for the young director thus requires tenacity and imagination more than anything else.
- John Dillon

Apprentice with gifted and experienced people.
- Jospeh Chaikin

...Too many directors do not understand literary strucuture. They want to conceptualize a play before they understand what it means; this does not allow the play to speak for itself...Barring financial necessities, a director must make a personal connection with each play he directs or the experience will be empty, meaningless...The director must incorporate all of the arts into his work...He must be intuitive and remain vulnerable while leading a production team and cast. I think a good director realizes that his job is basically collaborative.
- Mark Lamos (who directed the 1st two professional Shakespeare productions I ever saw: Much Ado About Nothing & A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Shakespeare Theatre Company.)

Do everything else first. A director "becomes..." He or she should act, stage manage, try writing, a little design, and primarily "hang out" with as many different first-class persons as is humanly possible. Because the director is the conduit through which so many kinds of information are passed, he or she has to feel comforable with all kinds of different processes. Directing is the last thing you think about, or, often, even do.
- Jack O'Brien

...get as broad an education as possible. Read the great works and study art history. Do some acting, and experience concerts, ballets, and sporting events. Apprentice yourself to a working director.
- Nagle Jackson

Keep in mind that there is no way to reflect life unless you have one. In short, live. -- David Chambers