Practice

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Her book, The Directors Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre, outlines the practice she uses when approaching a production as a director into three separate parts; before rehearsals, rehearsals and getting into the theatre. During pre-rehearsals, she remarks that the foundation of all directorial choices lays with identifying the facts and questions within any text, regardless of the form. Mitchell collates facts within a text by making an objective master list of all information she reads about characters, setting, circumstances, events etc. She then makes a list of questions of unclear elements, in which formulates points of research later on within her process, as well as filling empty spaces with imaginative answers. Mitchell is a strong advocate for extensive research into every aspect of the text, including character, author and context. She stipulates a director must have a strong understanding of how time, and most specifically, passing time shapes the creation of each scene. Mitchell firmly believes that utilising passing time as a stimulus, it frees the director from having to make creative decisions before they are actually ready. When analysing the text, Mitchell also creates incredibly detailed character backstories, in which she will continue to develop with the actors in the rehearsals process. 

When approaching the rehearsal process, and working with actors, Mitchell outlines “12 Golden Rules”:

1. Cultivate patience and long term thinking
2. Be consistent
3. Don’t worry about being liked
4. Make the text the mediator of any conflict
5. Don’t automatically blame the actor if something goes wrong.
6. Always apologise (briefly) if you make an error.
7. Don’t use anyone as a kicking stool.
8. Don’t put time pressure on actors, and don’t waste time.
9. Keep an eye on the actors “audience thinking”.
10. Keep clear boundaries between actors' private lives and their work .
11. Avoid last minute instructions.
12. Hold your nerves.

Mitchell also emphasises the importance of vocabulary choices when working with actors. She enjoys the usage of the term “affinities” with actors, as it reminds actors to adopt an objective approach to analysis, rather than moving towards the choices that resonate. It forces the actors to become more specific in their choices, and less self-indulgent. Mitchell also prefers to use the word “practice” rather than “rehearse”, as it encourages actors to continue the discovery process, rather than becoming rigid and robotic. She prefers to use such terms as “clear”, “unclear”, “specific” or “nonspecific”, as they don’t place value on the actors choices like such terms as “good”, “bad”, “right” or “wrong”. Mitchell believes that working on the scenes of the play is 60% of the rehearsal process, and adopts quite an organic process when ‘blocking’, or making the action clear for the audience. She lets it evolve naturally, in response to the actors intentions. Mitchell believes that this prevents inauthentic movement for the actor. When giving feedback to actors, Mitchell always utilises short, simple sentences, and gives praise in equal measure to criticism. In terms of the content of the feedback, she focuses on the following points of discussion: 

1. TIme
2. Place
3. Immediate circumstances
4. Events
5. Intentions
6. Character
7. Relationships. 

If a thought does not fall into one of these categories, Mitchell will consider the importance of the feedback. 

Finally, moving into the theatre and the performance, which focuses on the final elements of production, how to act within dress rehearsals, technical rehearsals and how to analyse and deconstruct work. She begins saying that any director in the stress of the final few weeks need to focus on being stable and secure to ensure clear thought and efficient practice and problem solving. Accept any errors made in the lead up to moving into the theatre and acknowledge that you cannot change them and will need to compromise. Mitchell highlights the importance of paying equal attention to all crew and cast members, making sure a director has organised notes of each element. When working with performers, Mitchell stresses the importance of keeping a space that feels like a rehearsal room and making sure the actors have little new information to absorb as their thinking will have adjusted to audience perspective. Remember to communicate efficiently and no differently than the rehearsals. Performance and moving into the theatre focusses on staying calm, communicating with everyone and evaluation of work in a critical and acceptive manner.

Mitchell's work has evolved and is different to her practice with stylistic elements and individual preferences that developed in her work over time. Mitchell often incorporates her strong feminist views into “ripping apart classic texts”. She has a very firm respect for the classics, including Shakespeare, however does not see the necessity of the heightened theatricality that is often associated with them. Furthermore, a common feature of her work is how actors utilize a naturalistic style of performance. Mitchell’s strong adoration for the Stanislavski approach forces  “her actors to convey a sense of minutely observed and psychologically accurate”, which allows for the audience to feel truly empathic, and recognise themselves in the circumstances of the performance. Another feature of Mitchell’s work is the usage of immersive multimedia. Performers are often directed to use and manipulate cameras to project images onto the screen. This is a purposeful choice by Mitchell as she believes it establishes a more modern sensibility to the classic texts. Mitchell’s production of The Waves, where she established the form of “live cinema”, which bridged how multimedia can be utilised in a theatrical landscape. Movement is highly embedded in Mitchell’s work. Choreographer, Pina Bausch, is a frequent collaborator of Mitchell, in which the pair both hold the opinion that every movement has a dramatic meaning. The pair also believe that “emotional states of characters” are firstly evident through physicality, and consequently, shows the importance of how movements can make for “an engrossing theatrical experience”. Other forms of stagecraft such as settings, costumes and lighting are all highly naturalist. Most of Mitchell’s productions utilise a single set, as she only chooses plays that happen in one place over a fixed period of time. Mitchell’s works always include naturalistic lighting, in order to abide by the theatrical style of realism that is being created.

Overall, when creating a production, Katie Mitchell has nine key steps that are important focuses as a director. She states that all directors should be able to discuss these nine things for a successful show.

1. Performance: You need to be able to talk to the actors to know how to get what you want.
2. Text: You need to be able to analyse any text, whether that be a book, poem or script and turn it into a “concrete score”. A series of facts that can answer most of the questions the actors may ask and aid you in creating the essence of a production.
3. Design (set and costumes): Able to communicate with set designers and look at a bigger picture to see how it supports the actors.
4. Movement (and dance): Know enough about how movement impacts emotion and can represent events. Have a basic knowledge of how to use it and what it can offer you to support your vision.
5. Lighting: Again able to talk about light, how it falls on a stage and how it supports everything. Think of light the same way an artist would think of light on a painting.
6. Sound: Understand the layers that come with music and how subliminal sound can be used to guide emotion of an audience.
7. Music: Able to talk to a composer about the creation of music, entrances and exits and the ability to create effect. 
8. Video: Not necessarily needed in a theatrical production but it is worth considering and having a basic knowledge to see how it could support your performance. 
9. Creative Team: This is the most important element. Directing isn’t done by one person. Your team is your heart.