Bruce’s route into theatre directing began at drama school. Starting out as an actor, he then began his own small scale company of few like minded friends and peers from the Guilford School of Acting where he had studied. This group then began to mount work on a small scale and Bruce started his directing journey when approached by his housemate who asked him to direct Frank McGuiness' Someone Who'll Watch Over Me at Guildford. This production, financed by countless hours of shelf stacking in Tesco and beset by problems when venues or programmers tried to pull the show, then used the money from each run of performances to invest in its next mounting, treating this as an investment in future careers. The show went to Edinburgh with the Guildford profits and the Edinburgh cash was spent on a London transfer. The whole process took around 18 months; this not including the time spent working in the supermarket, and taught Bruce a massive amount about theatre directing and the creating of work. He has since gone on become a staff director at the National Theatre working with the likes of Howard Davies, Deborah Warner and Sir Richard Eyre.
Bruce: Work hard, harder than anyone else, so that you know that you will be the person with the most drive to achieve. Get outside advice from people you respect, trust and have a knowledge of the industry as their insights are invaluable. Get them to see your work and ask their opinions.
It is important to marketing your show well, especially at the Fringe. I usefully lived near Edinburgh when I was growing up and had made great friends with the local bus company drivers on football trips when I was young. Using this connection, I packed buses from my home town full of family and friends, sent them to the show and sold out the first week. We could then flyer on the Royal Mile with Sold Out on our publicity which helped us sell out the second week. When we transferred back to London, we did it as a one-night, free show and invited everyone we could from the theatre community, whilst it cost us money we gained a profile and recognition we wouldn't have got otherwise. After we'd done this came the ‘problem second album' stage of my career, proving that the first show wasn't a fluke and doing work of a high, if not higher, standard again and consistently.
After directing work myself I then found it useful to get further experience by being an assistant director for those already established in the industry. The most important thing to take into a rehearsal room with you when assistant directing is an openness to other people's work, you may not agree with things but keep that quiet, take the director to one side later on and explain your reasons for the disagreement. In my experience directors are more than happy to explain why they have made the decision and it will help you marry up yours and their visions for the piece. Make notes meticulously when you are working as an assistant so you can see the similarities and differences in your working practice. The differences can help you add to your palate whilst the similarities reassure you that what you were doing was OK. A good assistant director is able to anticipate what their director will need so prepare as thoroughly for assisting as you would if you were the director and you'll be able to see things before they arrive. Being well prepared also demonstrates your commitment to the project. As an assistant I found it useful to attend the show two or three times per week and then write a detailed show report for the director, this is hard work but you have to graft to get to where you want to be.
Next, and importantly, as a director is the delicate ways of working with actors. You must have a respect for actors as what they do is hard and revealing which can leave them vulnerable. Always have a solution for your actors - don't just say that's wrong. Try and have a range of solutions, something I call the rule of three - having 3 possible ways of resolving the problem; all three may be rejected but it gives people options. Notes are difficult too and I would recommend never over doing them. Always review your notes before relating them to the actors, sit down somewhere quiet the morning after the show with a cup of coffee and choose the notes that will remedy several problems and that give the actors a link or connection to make too as this will help.
Key things to remember are to use your instinct; you will work out very quickly if people like you doing things in a certain way. Be patient and don't panic - if you panic you don't think clearly and can often miss an obvious solution. This also applies to the director's persona and it is crucial to maintain a professional relationship with your actors, especially if they are friends too. Find the right job; don't just settle for what comes around first, as everything you do says something about what you. Watch a much as you can and, most importantly, if you want to be a director, get experience directing. Theatre companies now are interested in people who have the talent, will thrive in the supportive environment they offer and have the potential to mount work at the highest level.
Image courtesy of Creative First.
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