 Never directed a show before? Get “volunteered” into a bigger role than you expected? Pioneer Drama carries many good books to help even the most novice director. But before you can walk the walk, you have to be able to talk the talk, so let’s at least introduce the top ten terms (with a few bonus words thrown in!) every director must know. 1. Upstage means away from the audience, closer to the back of the stage. Downstage is towards the audience. A helpful way to remember this is to think about the origin of these terms: older theatres had the audience sit on a flat surface and instead the stage was raked (slanted) to provide better visibility to the audience. The raised portion was toward the back of the stage and actors had to walk uphill or upstage. The lower elevation closer to the audience was downhill or downstage. 2. Focus means two different things. First, focus is where the audience and actors are looking. The audience will follow the actor’s eyes if they are focused on the person who is speaking. Focus also refers to an actor’s internal focus: is he in character or is the actor just waiting to say his line? If he’s not listening to what is being said onstage, he’s not focusing. 3. Stage Right and Stage Left. These directions are from the actor’s perspective, not the audience’s. If you tell an actor to cross stage right, he should go to his right, not the audience’s. It takes some getting used to; as a director you have to call things backwards to your perspective. 4. Blocking means to establish the places the actors move and position themselves. A director can do this beforehand or choose to work with the actors on it after a few. Personally, I prefer to save rehearsal time and figure out the blocking myself before rehearsals start. If something doesn’t work, I can always change it in rehearsal. Of course, if an actor asks to try something different, I’m happy to try it. If the stage is on the same level as the audience, be careful with any blocking that has the actor lie or kneel down—make sure the person in the last row can see them. 5. The Stage Picture, or Visual Composition, is what you create with your blocking. Have you placed the performers in a balanced way? Actors standing in a line does not often create an interesting stage picture. Use the whole stage. Remember too the use of levels: some sitting, some standing, etc. Think about adding platforms or small steps. Watch rehearsals from all parts of your auditorium — front, back, sides — to see what your audience will see. 6. Upstaging – when an actor grabs the focus for himself when the focus is supposed to be on someone else. For instance, an actor might move upstage of another actor, forcing that actor to turn his back to the audience in order to address him. Don’t let him. 7. Stage Business: This is what the actors are doing while they’re performing, whether or not they’re delivering lines. You don’t want them just standing there. They could be drinking a soda, dusting, doing their nails, playing with their hair. Whatever the stage business, it should be consistent with their characters and not upstaging the other actors. 8. Pacing: the speed at which the play moves forward. If it’s too fast, the audience will miss a lot of the dialogue and become frustrated. If it’s too slow and the actors have pauses between lines, your audience will be bored. Vary the pace of the show and make sure any pause is an intentional one. Don’t let the actors pause before saying their lines if there’s no point to it. Tell them to listen to normal speech, in which we speak almost on top of one another. This is called dovetailing, and done properly, the audience doesn’t miss a word. 9. Stumble Through The play is done beginning to end, but the actors are allowed to stop and call for a line if they forget. Tell them no apologies are necessary—just stop, stay in character and call “Line.” Once they’ve been given the line, the play resumes. 10. Run Through The play is done beginning to end, and none of the actors may stop if they forget their lines. Somehow, it has to keep going. It’s a good way for the director to see what and who needs work. For a complete dictionary of theatre terms, see the newly revised and updated Theatre Talk. | 
