La preparación del director. Siete ensayos sobre teatro y arte.

by Anne Bogart

La preparación del director es una disección fascinante y estimulante del reto que supone la dirección teatral. Anne Bogart se expresa con un enorme conocimiento del coraje que requiere crear Arte en mayúsculas, ahondando en cada una de las siete áreas que identificó, en un primer momento, como impedimentos pero, a su vez, como herramientas potenciales de la creación artística.

Genres: Theatre, Nonfiction, Essays, Art, Plays, Drama, School

Paperback

First published May 24, 2001

About the author

Anne Bogart is the Artistic Director of SITI Company, which she founded with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. She is a Professor at Columbia University where she runs the Graduate Directing Program. Works with SITI include Café Variations, Trojan Women, American Document, Antigone, Under Construction, Freshwater, Who Do You Think You Are, Radio Macbeth, Hotel Cassiopeia, Death and the Ploughman, La Dispute, Score, bobrauschenbergamerica, Room, War of the Worlds, Cabin Pressure, War of the Worlds: The Radio Play, Alice’s Adventures, Culture of Desire, Bob, Going, Going, Gone, Small Lives/Big Dreams, The Medium, Noel Coward’s Hay Fever and Private Lives, August Strindberg’s Miss Julie, and Charles Mee’s Orestes. She is the author of four books: A Director Prepares, The Viewpoints Book, And Then, You Act and Conversations with Anne.

Reviews

[Patrick Grizzard · Rating 5 out of 5]

While it does contain practical advice for directors, I would recommend this book to any performer or artist. One of the recurring themes is embracing doubt, uncertainty, and resistance and learning to work with and through those forces. Anne Bogart is a genius and I expect this is a book I'll be returning to again and again (along with Mamet's True and False) when I need a reminder that being an artist is *fucking hard* and making work with integrity often requires, above all else, courage.

[Colin Bruce Anthes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anne Bogart has a way of stealing all the good ideas about art one almost manages to have, and articulating them better than one could ever hope to. She's just wonderful.
I often return to her writings. There is always a different section that happens to be just what I need to work on in the moment. This time round it was: "The enemy of art is asumption."

[yago · Rating 3 out of 5]

a lot of the writing in this felt too heady and in its own way to clearly get certain points across but there were a lot of great insights (many of which intrinsically known that are nice to be re-articulated from a different lens and reminded of). where i would normally be more interested by personal experience than in more formal research, i actually found the opposite to be true in reading this.

[Vinnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't just a book for directors. It's a book for artists and anyone who does anything creative. Anne examines the act of creation in seven essays, each of which examines a vital element of creativity. She doesn't give very many clear answers, but that's not what a book about creativity should do. Instead, she illuminates and elucidates the central aspects of the creative process, and in doing so, inspires the reader to new avenues of creativity.

[Chuck O'Connor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bogart needs to stick to sharing her experiences in an encouraging way, not argue by analogy to biology, neurology or physics. When she is encouraging the reader based on her personal journey there is insight, but when she tries to systemize this experience with theoretical rigor she advances sophistry rather than knowledge. I don't recommend this to people who are seeking working knowledge, but those who need a little pep talk, it is okay.

[Luke Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Although there were interesting factoids and great pieces of advice, I was expecting Bogart's collection of essays to involve more on directing craft than personal experience.

LGBTQ+ rep includes Bogart, who is queer and married to a woman.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

so strongly written - i understand people's comments about thinking this was going to be more of a practical, hands-on guide on how to direct a play but i think they are missing the forest for the trees - a director's job is to ask questions, to generate interest ... and it's juvenile to think this can achieved solely through thinking about the material production aspects like set, props, lights, costumes, etc...!

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was assigned to read this for a class, but I found it to be really insightful. I think the advice that Bogart offers can be applied to more than just theater, but to any of life's endeavors. Particularly of course, to where the arts are concerned. If you're in the process of creating something, whether that's writing a book or starting a company, read this book. There's a lot of good advice about facing your fears and the ways in which we hold ourselves back.

[Col]

read for school

[Nina Kopko · Rating 5 out of 5]

aulas.

[Tabby H · Rating 5 out of 5]

will be rereading this many a times

[Felicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fundamentally inspiring and excitement inducing. A true piece of art allowing conditions for the creation of true art to emerge.

[gabrielė · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Art, like life, is understood through experience, not explanations. As theatre artists, we cannot create an experience for an audience; rather, our job is to set up the circumstances in which an experience might occur."

"The enemy of art is assumption: the assumption that you know what you are doing, the assumption that you know how to walk and how to talk, the assumption that what you 'mean' will mean the same thing to those who receive it. The instant you make an assumption about who the audience is or what the moment is, that moment will be asleep."

"Inside every good play lives a question. A great play asks big questions that endure through time."

"When I reach for a play on the shelf, I know that inside the book is a spore: a sleeping question waiting for my attention. Reading the play, I touch the question with my own sensibilities. I know that it has touched me when the question responds and provokes thought and personal associations – when it haunts me."

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Out of the almost uncontrollable chaos of life, I could create a place of beauty and a sense of community. In the most terrible depths of doubt and difficulty, I found encouragement and inspiration in collaborating with others. We have been able to create an atmosphere of grace, intensity and love. I have created a refuge for myself, for actors and for audiences through the metaphor that is theatre."

Some really valuable thoughts on art and theatre making. The most useful parts for me were those grounded in experience and story. Articulated much of what is beautiful about theatre making for me (see above).

[Kyle · Rating 1 out of 5]

The back of this book says the contents are "a handbook, a manifesto, and a bible." It turned out to be mostly a manifesto, sometimes a bible, and not at all a handbook.

It was vague, grating, and, ultimately, a waste of my time.

I don't doubt Bogart's prowess and knowledge: there are moments of stunning revelation in this book. Unfortunately, they are completely lost on anyone looking for a real handbook on how to prepare for directing a play.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bogart's life in theatre and around world provides plenty of material to reflect upon as the director enters the auditorium as rehearsal begins. Knowing what to do and how "it" will be done is a balancing act that gets succinctly summarized in what appears to be the prototypical listicle. Perhaps each chapter has some relation to Shakespeare ol' chestnut, Seven Age of Man?

[Fluffy Singler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I teach with this book every semester, whether I am teaching community education in theatre or whether I am teaching a beginning theatre class. It is lively and from personal experience and in that way, it also imparts what the stakes are in theatre.

[Greg Heaton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first college textbook I've reread. The Bullshit Alarm went off several times, but there's some interesting ideas in there amid all all the psuedo-spiritual stuff.

[Megan L. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not worth $50.

[Karen Jean Martinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rereading this today for class. So inspiring.

[Jorge · Rating 5 out of 5]

En este ensayo, Anne Bogart analiza, desde su amplia experiencia y bagaje artístico, conceptos que ella considera esenciales en el arte, a través de reflexiones a medio camino entre lo conceptual y lo práctico y experiencias y anécdotas propias. Es curioso leer cómo ve el transfondo en algunas: observa la idea tras la historia, y la introduce, asimila e interioriza en su sistema de pensamiento artístico. Es un libro fácil de leer, que remueve e inspira, muy poroso en sus ideas.

QUE NO TE ENGAÑE EL TÍTULO, no es un libro para directores de escena, es un libro-manual para cualquiera que quiera hacer arte, el arte sacro del que habla Peter Brook en El espacio vacío (otro ensayo Esencial para cualquiera del gremio actoral), y no arte mortal o muerto.

La obra está dividida en siete ensayos: Memoria, violencia, erotismo, miedo, estereotipo, vergüenza y resistencia, además de una introducción y un prólogo magníficos.

Hay tantas cosas que me han llamado la atención, trataré de aludir algunas:

- En los tres primeros ensayos, los títulos que les dan nombre no parecen hacer referencia directa a lo que expone. Memoria, violencia y erotismo, esperas algo distinto.

En memoria, habla de la historia, de una memoria raíz, de lo que somos, se pregunta: ¿qué es la cultura? ¿De dónde vengo? Estudia la herencia como una herramienta esencial en la creación artística.

En violencia, trata dos tipos de ésta: la metafísica, que podríamos llamar la violencia de la decisión: en escena, hay infinitas posibilidades y se ha de concretar, eliminar todo lo que no se quiera, erradicar potencialidades, concretar; y la violencia física o psicológica hacia el otro: el arte de la dirección como una imposición, una obligación del actor de desechar su idea, y aceptar la del director. Hay que medir esta violencia, justificarla bien.

En erotismo, habla del papel de la atracción, ya sea emocional, sensual, física, psicológica, espiritual o metafísica, en el acto creativo. Analiza la energía atractiva que tiene una obra de arte.

- En el estereotipo, considera éste como base, en vez de verlo como algo banal y rechazarlo, lo ve como tierra sobre la que plantar, lo acoge. A mi juicio, estoy totalmente de acuerdo: el estereotipo debería servir al artista, tal como lo hacen los arquetipos, máscaras y mitos.

- Al igual que Peter Brook en El espacio vacío, ve la dualidad integradora y le da importancia: ideal frente al mercado/supervivencia, la preparación previa al montaje frente a desecharlo todo en el ensayo, hay que estar siempre y nunca listo, prepararse-dejar de prepararse, debe haber momentos fijados cuidadosamente y algo incontrolable, la comodidad de la mesa de estudio frente a la incomodidad del ensayo, el (des)-equilibrio. EL PAPEL DEL DIRECTOR es saber cuándo hay que usar cada una de las herramientas, CUÁNDO es el momento.

- El miedo, según Anne, abre canales, abre a lo desconocido, permite abrirse a la aparición de la intuición, y desarrollarla. El miedo es necesario en el proceso artístico, hay que convivir con él, forma parte del proceso: se observa, admite y asimila, de distintas formas. El objetivo es ponerlo de nuestro lado, pues nos pone en contacto con cosas que desde el control y la tranquilidad no aparecen.

- En la vergüenza, distingue dos tipos: una vergüenza superficial, relacionada con nuestro ego, "frívola", esa se trabaja en la vida, en el día a día. Ella se centra en un segundo tipo, una vergüenza "existencial, profunda", que alude a lo más esencial de uno mismo, a lo que somos: una vergüenza de descubrir quienes somos, que aparece cuando exponemos lo verdaderamente íntimo.
Esta vergüenza es un chivato, un termómetro o semáforo: ojo del director que no padece esta vergüenza, pues si no te expones, no hay comunicación profunda. Está asociada a una honestidad y compromiso con el arte: ha de aparecer, aunque no quieras que aparezca, pues alude a tu intimidad social, moral, sexual...

- La resistencia, según Anne Bogart, consiste, por una parte, en volcar la discordancia, la impaciencia diaria, cotidiana, en el proceso artístico, invertir las vicisitudes del mundo mercantilizado y capitalista en ESTÍMULOS creativos: la resistencia aumenta y magnifica el esfuerzo, confrontar un OBSTÁCULO requiere y fomenta la creatividad e intuición.

- Hay un eco, que plasma especialmente en el último ensayo: Resistencia, de "hazlo ya, con las condiciones que tengas, como puedas, pero hazlo". Esto es esencial en el proceso artístico, no esperes a que las condiciones sean las propicias, las ideales, simplemente hazlo. Me resuenan las palabras de algún maestro: "Shakespeare cometía errores dramatúrgicos, continuamente. Los errores que cometía en una obra, los solucionaba en la siguiente"

[Carolina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Com este livro aprendi:
A importância da memória e do auto-conhecimento na criação artística. É fundamental estar conectado com as suas próprias raízes e história pessoal para ter a segurança necessária no processo creativo e produzir arte com alguma relevância e intensidade.
A violência, o rigor e a determinação têm um papel fundamental no processo criativo.

"To decide is an act of violence, yet decisiveness and cruelty are a part of the collaborative process that the theatre offers. Decisions give birth to limitations which in turn ask for a creative use of the imagination. (...) To be cruel is ultimately an act of generosity in the collaborative process. 'Ideas are cheap' we always say in the heat of a rehearsal. Ideas come and go but what is important is the commitment to a choice and to its clarity and comunativeness. It is not about the right idea or even the right decision, rather it is about the quality of decisiveness."

Um espectáculo deve, logo de início, apanhar o público de surpresa com algo intrigante, que tanto poderá prendê-lo (arte estática) ou induzi-lo à acção (arte quinéctica).
- A importância da tensão entre forças que, ao mesmo tempo, se opõem e se atraem na construção das cenas.
- Não revelar tudo ao público para mantê-lo interessado e suster a relação, tensão e atenção entre o público e o espectáculo.

"Art, like life, is understood through experience, not explanations. As theatre artists, we cannot create an experience for an audience; rather, our job is to set up the circumstances in which an experience might occur. [...]we all, audience and artists alike, have to allow for a little personal desorientation to pave the way for experience."

O trabalho de um artista não deve ser julgado pelo que traz de novo mas sim pela forma como lida com a tradição que herdou. A originalidade está na forma como interagimos com a tradição.
A insegurança e a vulnerabilidade são terreno fértil para criar arte impactante e cativante. Em momentos em que nos sintamos perdidos é bom concentrarmo-nos em detalhes ou em coisas próximas do que procuramos para abrir espaço na nossa mente para a criatividade fluir.
"It is possible to turn the irritating mass of daily frustrations into fuel for beautiful expression."

[Tom Colgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is food for an artist's soul.

Having only previously read one book on the subject of directing: The Director's Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre, the impression I had of the style of such books was that they were hands-on, practical manuals for the work of directing plays. Bogart offers a totally different approach here. Her message is one of exploration, as Mitchell's could be said to be, but she evangelises with the other side of the brain. The structure of the book directly calls on the big ideas that underpin art, and this filters through into the details of her writing too.

I think Bogart allows the reader space to interpret her words, whilst maintaining absolute clarity in what she's saying. That is this book's brilliance. When making notes on this book, I kept coming back to the seven elements that she uses to divide the book. I kept returning to the sentence "Theatre is..." and filling in the blank with whichever chapter title I was on. It always seemed to work. It always made sense. The thoughts that spiralled from each short sentence are testament to the deft writing.

This is a book I need to keep nearby, and refer to often. It is definitely not a practical, direct-by-numbers handbook. What it is, is an important provocation to those who want to drive their own creative work. I don't even think it's power is exclusively to be used by directors - her work transcends discipline and speaks to the wider spectrum of those who make art (maybe with a particular emphasis on those working in theatre).

Overall, brilliant. I can't wait to look into Bogart's other work, and refer back to this one often.

[Cammy]

I thought this would be more of a guidebook on how to direct, but it's more of a musing of the purpose of art and theatre specifically. Which definitely wasn't bad. She said a lot of really helpful things, especially about originality, of which she wrote:

"In his essay, "Tradition and the Individual Talent" T.S. Eliot suggest that an artist work should be judged not by its novelty or newness, but rather by how the artist handles the tradition he or she inherits. Historically, he wrote, the concept of originality referred to the transformation of tradition through an interaction with it as opposed to the creation of something brand new. More recently, the art world became obsessed with innovation."

As someone who worries about my ideas being original pretty much all of the time, this was really great framing that I can hopefully take into the future with me no matter what the project.

There are also a lot of great nuggets, although I'm not sure I was smart enough for all of them. There's a part where she talks about a play she did about vaudeville that includes blackface (including Black actors in blackface) because it would be historically accurate. I get why she included it, but the way she describes it as "exorcising" the past and being a very emotional moment for the Black actors... I don't know. I'm sure the play was great, but I feel like something like that is best left for Black artists to handle on their own.

[Bryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only give one star because the title is misleading. This is more of a autobiography than it is a guide to the craft and storytelling. You might learn something if you value that type of approach and have the patience to sit through it. She can state the obvious, "I believe culture is a shared experience and is constantly shifting. Ideas, in fact, are the most contagious aspects of human culture." Yeah, dude. That's culture.
I was hoping she would get right into how to tastefully handle these seven topics, how they relate to the audience, characters, and their wider importance to the human experience.

[Dominique Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Director Prepares by Anne Bogart was one the first of the three books that I have read and I have got to say that this may be one of my favorite books that I have read recently. The learnings in this text are told from the perspective of a director, but they can be applied into many different mediums and aspects of life. As I was reading this, I thought of several different projects over the years where I could have applied the concepts or my thought process applied it instinctively. Overall it was a very thought provoking read

[Aili · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my world, there are two kinds of good books on directing: Those that challenge me, and those that affirm me. This one does both. So many things, I found myself nodding along and saying, "Oh, I do that! How amazing that Anne Bogart does that, too!" and other things, I thought, "Hm...should definitely try that," or "I hadn't looked at it that way before."

I'll definitely be rereading this one every few years. Lots of good reminders.

[Vainilla Icecream · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maravilloso. Anne Bogart elige 7 conceptos y los desmenuza, para volverlos a construir, y explicar cuál es el trabajo del director/a teatral. Recomiendo a cualquier aspirante a director/a y/o actor/actriz leerlo. Tenía ganas de marcar y anotar cada página (y así lo he hecho). E incluso si no tienes intención alguna de crear arte, pero te fascina de alguna manera, vale la pena leerlo. Sinceramente, me ha dado ganas de seguir haciendo teatro.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has some really powerful and thought-provoking tools for a director to use. I especially liked the essays on Memory, Violence, and Terror. Bogart points out how these things can be used by the director to create a stronger presence and production, and the importance of the director. I thought the last couple of essays were a little repetitive of the earlier chapters, but overall the book provided good insights into how to be an effective director.

[Julian Munds · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the finest books on theatre I have ever read. Her book is short, practical, and doesn't rely on complex metaphors, complex semi-pseudo-scholastic speak; it is just a book about creation, doing the work while not relying on obtuse psychosocial abuse like the American Method, and completing it. Just marvelous. Everyone should read it.