Each director, teacher, and boss I’ve had has fallen into one of those three categories: they inspire me and I’m still working with them, they provided me with stories that begin with “I once had a director who…” or they, well…I don’t really remember the others.
Being a leader is a complex affair. You must simultaneously know what’s best for everyone, communicate it clearly, and know when to lean back and let the work get done. Harold Clurman, in On Directing, sets the bar pretty high for being a director. “The director,” he writes, “must be an organizer, a teacher, a politician, a psychic detective, a lay analyst, a technician, a creative being. Ideally, [they] should know literature (drama), acting, the psychology of the actor, the visual arts, music, history and above all, [they] must understand people.” That’s a platonic ideal if I’ve ever heard one. As a director, I’m continually trying to live up to this ideal of skill and knowledge—if I achieve half these attributes in my lifetime, I’ll be happy.
