Artisitic Principles 2010

This started out my desire to blog.

This started off as a speech to give my cast at the read through for All's Well That Ends Well (which I did) but I decided to put it here and expand on it. :) I highly suggest all my artist friends sit down and do this - it's amazing to put it in words and formalize thinking :)

I believe that acting is the art of behaving truthfully in imaginary circumstances. As a director, I will never ask you to do anything more, although I may ask you to behave truthfully a little louder or a little faster.

I believe that the truth of all theatre is found in relationships - the relationship between the actor and the character, the relationship between character and character, the relationship between character and audience, and the relationship between actor and audience.

I believe the art of all theatre is truthfully telling the story through these relationships. I believe that my job as director is to create a safe place to build and explore these relationships. I believe the key to doing this involves the word play - even when it gets rough, it is still what we love.

I believe that the truth of storytelling requires knowing what you are saying and why you are saying it every moment and in every word. I believe that then and only then can we build a truthful relationship with the audience.

I believe that poetry, rhetoric and verse give us clues to find these truths, but they are not the full story.

I believe that theatre can change the world. I believe that we are living historians who have a need, a desire, and a right to show the world what it is, what it could be, what beauty is, what ugliness is, what the universal truths of our generation are, what past generations were, and what future generations will be.

And finally I believe that we have the best job in the world. I believe that we are here because we share a joy, love and passion for this work and that joy, love and passion will only help strengthen all of these relationships.