in person
with John Markland
July 20th - september 7th
The foundation of director and actor is trust, every possibility relies upon this one thing. A director must have vision as an actor must have truth, and together they must have Authentic Play. There is often a language gap between the two, one in living inside the other is watching. The Director’s Lab is the bridge: eight weeks to close that gap, post by post, until the director’s translation of story into vision and the actor’s translation of character into an authentic journey become one shared language.
This is hands-on… technically and emotionally. You will not point a finger and say, “we need to see you crying by the time you get here.” You will learn to ask, to understand what each step toward that vulnerable place costs and means. And you will learn the room itself: how a camera sees, how light feels, how to carry your voice and your vision off the page and into a story an audience can’t look away from. We work with the professionalism of any film or TV set. The tools apply to life as they do to art.
Week One: Trust & the Language Gap. Director and actor each step into the other’s process of translation of the script, and the collaboration of play opens.
Week Two: Voice & Vision into Story. We must all believe it’s real. We find how to say, to translate, what you want into something an actor can live. (Guest Speaker - Producer.)
Week Three: The Emotional Map. A deeper understanding of intention, motivation, and the inner map an actor navigates. Priceless, and most often missing, in the director’s vocabulary.
Week Four: Rehearsal as Discovery. There is often little or no rehearsal time. We practice simple, effective methods for cultivating the trust and emotional language that elevate every minute you get.
Week Five: The Camera Speaks. (Guest Directors of Photography) Hands-on, how-tos across different cameras and bodies, what each one sees, how it shapes the frame, and how to speak to it with intention.
Week Six: Painting with Light. (Guest lighting designer) on creating emotion with light. How shadow and source carry feeling, and how to direct the unseen so it serves the story.
Week Seven: Blocking, Shooting, Adjusting. We put it together as if on set, guiding each scene with intention, vision, and collaborative curiosity, interpreting, and inventing together.
Week Eight: The Whole. Final scenes. Vision and truth, no longer two languages but one, work that has moved beyond a performance and into an experience.
This is an intensive focused on how to lead a set with the technical fluency of a craftsperson and the emotional fluency of an artist. Space is limited, please register as soon as you can.