Directors and Directing

In the second half of the 19th century technical developments allowed for greater opportunities for staging and production. The 19th and 20th centuries also saw huge changes in theories about acting including Stanislavski and Brecht. Playwrights like Shaw and Ibsen were writing plays that were examining social issues and demanded a less melodramatic means of storytelling. All these new movements necessitated a new approach to staging. 

As the century progressed directors across Europe like Max Reinhardt, Erwin Piscator, Harley Granville Barker and Tyrone Guthrie refined the role of director delivering unique interpretations of great plays and by the middle of the 20th century the director was established. It was in the 1960s that the director, somewhat controversially became the name above the play and Peter Brook’s King Lear, Peter Hall’s Hamlet or Trevor Nunn’s Macbeth became an acceptable title. Since then the director has been a powerful figure and today we have directorial re-imaginings of plays from Shakespeare to Chekhov as well as directors running their own seasons in the West End.