by Patricia Rockwell

Created on: January 14, 2009

I cannot imagine anything quite so challenging or creative or thoroughly exciting as having the opportunity to direct a musical (well, maybe being President). Assuming you have volunteered or have been asked or have discovered it's part of your job to direct a musical, you can do it. I did for over ten years and I loved every minute of it!

During my days as an educational theater director I had the pleasure of putting on stage such favorites as Man of La Mancha, West Side Story, Finian's Rainbow, 1776, Once Upon a Mattress, and many others. I went into my life as a musical (and a general theater) director with an extensive background in educational theatre, but throughout my long experience in the theater as both director and actor, I have met many directors who have had no official training and were still marvelous directors.

What do most musical directors do? Well, I have seen a great deal of variation regarding how directors (even good directors) approach directing a musical. However, I would say most all of them do the following: 1) become familiar with the musical, 2) plan how you will stage the musical , 3) hold auditions and cast the musical, 4) rehearse the musical in an organized fashion, 5) perform the musical.

Let's take each step in order. First, a director should immerse him or herself in the story and the sound of the musical. I would read the script while listening to the music and imagine each scene as I read it. Keep in mind, a musical takes place on stagenot in a movie. I don't think a director can know the musical too well. A good director should almost memorize all the lines; certainly, a good musical director has all the songs memorized. To this day, I can sing most all the lyrics of all the songs in all the musicals I directedeven though I produced them over 30 years ago. Another thing a good director does is look at photographs and videos of other productions of the musicaleither stage or screen. Doing this doesn't mean the director will necessarily copy that production; maybe it means the director doesn't like certain things about that production and will avoid them in his or her production.

Second, the director plans how to stage the musical. This includes a variety of things. The director must first develop an overall concept or vision for the musical that will pervade everything he or she does. Maybe the director envisions this version of the musical as a protest or maybe as a dream. However the director sees the musical, that image

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