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Chapter 2 - Directors

Organisation, Authorship, and Social Production

from Part I - Theatre Makers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2024

Jen Harvie
Affiliation:
Queen Mary University of London
Dan Rebellato
Affiliation:
Royal Holloway, University of London
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Summary

This chapter presents a history of directorial practice in the post-war British theatre to argue that directors have been able to assert their authority over the sector thanks to their operation at the intersections of art and finance, organisation and creativity. This analysis of the work of directing owes a great deal to Ric Knowles’s development of ‘materialist semiotics’, and to Stuart Hall’s readings of the politics of cultural production and reception. The chapter extends Knowles’s and Hall’s insights into theatre production through three parallel accounts of theatre directing in the post-war period. These focus on the managerial and administrative position of the Artistic Director (key examples include Michael Buffong, Stephen Daldry, Peter Hall, Paulette Randall); ‘auteur’ directors who create theatrical ‘performance texts’ (Joan Littlewood, Simon McBurney, Katie Mitchell, Emma Rice), and directors whose artistry is to be found in social production, the shaping of relations between people in public space (Geraldine Connor, Jenny Sealey, Lois Weaver). Through this analysis of a wide range of directorial practices, the chapter aims to concretise the multiple forces and interests that govern the theatre sector, and thereby expose the social relations that shape its creative practices, and the political interests that govern them.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Directors
  • Edited by Jen Harvie, Queen Mary University of London, Dan Rebellato, Royal Holloway, University of London
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre since 1945
  • Online publication: 14 March 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108377850.005
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  • Directors
  • Edited by Jen Harvie, Queen Mary University of London, Dan Rebellato, Royal Holloway, University of London
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre since 1945
  • Online publication: 14 March 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108377850.005
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Directors
  • Edited by Jen Harvie, Queen Mary University of London, Dan Rebellato, Royal Holloway, University of London
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre since 1945
  • Online publication: 14 March 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108377850.005
Available formats
×