Vaudeville Rehearsal Day 10 - What does an Assistant Director do, anyway?

Today's video is of a conversation I had with set designer Jonathon Oxlade about his initial points of inspiration. Check it out.

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Already the end of the second week ! ! We are slightly down on the cast today because Julia has alternate commitments and is not rehearsing today. The focus necessarily moves to the scenes in which Julia does not have a significant part.

During this time I took the opportunity to talk with one of the most mysterious figures in professional theatre; the assistant director. What does an assistant director do?

Well, the experience of assistant directors varies broadly from project to project and director to director as to what responsibilities they are given and what role they take on for a production. There are no hard and fast rules for it. In some cases the role is almost strictly 'observational.' That is to say, you assist with watching rehearsal. In other cases, you might be given scenes to work on after the director has laid down the fundamental approach, or there might be a tour that the assistant director will ultimately take responsibility for.

I wouldn't want to over-generalize, especially on recent experience, but the first of the options mentioned above has been the common 'role' for a lot of assistant directors over the years. Young directors often talk about it in terms of a necessary evil to get introduced to the professional industry. I asked Vaudeville's Assistant Director, Stephen Nicolazzo, what his role is.
His response was that Chris and he have never formally defined what his role is. Nevertheless, he feels that it's pretty clear. Turns out that Stephen is not your usual AD. He has been working on the project for over a year, and has also assisted Chris on other projects. So they have an ongoing working relationship. This means that there is a core of trust between Chris and himself. Also, they share an aesthetic, which means he can make recommendations with confidence.

In the first weeks of the rehearsal period he has played a strong dramaturgical role. He feels he's good with writers, so has been working very closely with Lally on the script inside and outside of the rehearsal room. He offers Chris and Lally an analysis of scenes, discussing what the scene's importance to the play is, whether it's fulfiling its objectives, and how it may be tweaked to better do so.

He discusses how the play's arcs are working, looks at the intentions of the characters, and goes through the play word by word with Lally and Chris. He talks about bringing a different 'reading' of the scenes, which can help elucidate how the scene works, and may be built upon to strengthen or enrich it.

I ask him what his role with the actors in the rehearsal room is. He says that he provides Chris with an extra pair of eyes and ears. Because of his deep knowledge of the play he is in a position to nudge or remind Chris of aspects of scenes they have discussed before the rehearsal. These aspects can then be layered into the scene, or help provide the answer to an issue they're working on.

The crucial issue is one of trust. Stephen says that in a previous production Chris had sent him away with work to do with the performers, and had actively worked to give Stephen a 'voice' in the room. The success of these early attempts taught him not to doubt himself, and helped build his confidence.

Of course there is also the issue of gaining the actors' trust. The stage can be an extraordinarily vulnerable place for actors, and they place enormous faith in directors. Because the majority of the cast of Vaudeville haven't worked with Chris or Stephen before, they are naturally wary of trusting Stephen quite yet. But he's working on gaining that respect, and Chris's empowerment of Stephen is vital to that process. No doubt, as the opening looms ever closer, Stephen's role in assisting Chris on the floor in running and working scenes is going to get larger.

Chris and Stephen were introduced through a professional development program at Melbourne Uni's Union House. Seems to me to be a far better model of assistant director-ship, than simply being seconded onto projects, which is often the case.

Next Monday the choreographer's coming in. Can't wait to see how the cast handle that!