DIRECTOR'S NOTEBOOK:

HL: 20% SL: 35%

Definitions

The director of a play text

A director is responsible for the staging of the play. He or she interprets the play text and identifies his or her directorial intentions regarding how the play will be presented and the impact he or she wishes to have on a particular audience. The director works with actors and a production team to stage the play, transforming ideas into action.

The director’s notebook

The director’s notebook is a document developed by the director prior to rehearsals and any

meetings with the performers or production team. It is a record of the director’s personal process of exploring, interpreting and responding to the play. The director references productions he or she has experienced as a spectator and explains how other directors have used elements of performance and production to create tension, emotion, atmosphere and/or meaning. The notebook presents the director’s intentions and an idea of what impact he or she wants the play to have on an audience supported by a range of performance and production ideas. The director begins to think about how particular moments may be staged and how elements of performance and production will be used to create tension, emotion, atmosphere and/or meaning in order to have a particular impact on themaudience.

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Formal requirements of the task

Each student submits for assessment:

• a director’s notebook (20 pages maximum) which includes:

  • the student’s research into the published play text, its relevant contexts and the ideas presented in the entire play

  • the student’s artistic responses and explorations of the entire play text as a director

  • the student’s experience as a spectator of live theatre performances that have influenced, inspired or informed them and an explanation of how directors have created moments of tension, emotion, atmosphere or meaning

  • the student’s presentation of their final directorial intentions and the intended impact of these on an audience

  • the student’s ideas regarding the staging of two specific moments from the play and how these would create the desired impact on an audience

  • a list of all sources cited.

The size and format of pages submitted for assessment is not prescribed to enable students to be creative with how they record and present their work. Submitted materials are assessed on screen and students must ensure that their work is clear and legible when presented in a digital, on-screen format. To ensure that examiners are able to gain an overall and legible impression of each page without excessive scrolling, students are recommended to use common page sizes (such as legal, A4 or folio). Overcrowded or illegible materials may result in examiners being unable to interpret and understand the intentions of the work.

The procedure for submitting the assessment materials can be found in the Handbook of procedures for the Diploma Programme. Students are required to indicate the number of pages used when the materials are submitted (put number of pages of your DN on your cover page). Where the submitted materials exceed the prescribed page limit examiners are instructed to base their assessment solely on the first 20 pages.

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Steps

1. Familiarize yourself with the entire process before you begin, starting with the: Director's Notebook table of contents:

   1. The play text, its context and the ideas presented in the entire play

   2. My artistic responses, creative ideas and explorations for the entire play prior to the forming of directorial intentions

   3. My own experiences of live theatre as a spectator and how directors use performance and production elements

   4. My directorial intentions for the entire play and the intended impact on an audience

2. Choose a published play text that you have not previously studied, which you are interested in exploring as a director.

• 1. ***You are not permitted to edit, make additions or alterations to the text.

  2. However, you do not need to set your version of the play within the original practice or style for which it was originally intended.

  3. You may work with play texts written in any language. HOWEVER, Any descriptions of plot or direct quotations must be translated into English.

3. Research and record the cultural and/or theoretical CONTEXT of the play and identify the IDEAS the playwright may be addressing and how these are presented.

4. Explore the entire play and record your own ideas, explorations and responses prior to forming your directorial intentions

5. Write about live theatre performances you have experienced as a spectator that have influenced, inspired or informed you as a director. Explain how these productions have created moments of tension, emotion, atmosphere and/or meaning. The live theatre performances cannot be productions of the same play text you are studying for the assessment task.

6. Write and assemble your director's notebook using the above table of contents and assessing your own quality of work using the rubrics

• 1. The Director's Notebook should be 20 pages MAXIMUM. There is no lower limit.

  2. The table of contents does not count in your 20 pages

  3. You should use a combination of creative ideas, presented in both words and visuals, along with detailed ideas and explanations.

  4. Write in first person

  5. Be precise and specific when discussing performance and production elements

  6. Use subject specific terminology to help you be precise

  7. Use relevant illustrations, annotated text, charts, mind maps, visuals, diagrams, designs, etc. You must annotate these and appropriately reference them to acknowledge the source. This includes referencing any of your own illustrations or photographs.

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Summary

Students at HL and SL independently choose a published play text, read the text and record their personal responses. They then:

• research and record the cultural and/or theoretical context of the play and identify ideas the playwright may be addressing and how these are presented

• explore the entire play and record their own ideas, explorations and responses prior to forming their directorial intentions

• reference live theatre performances they have experienced as a spectator that have influenced, inspired or informed them as directors. They explain how directors of these productions have created moments of tension, emotion, atmosphere and/or meaning. The live theatre performances must not be productions of the same play text selected for study in this assessment task.

• explain their directorial intention(s) and intended impact on audience for the entire play supported by production and performance ideas

• explain how they will stage two particular moments of the play; these can be moments of tension, emotion, atmosphere or which communicate the meaning(s) of the play; they must demonstrate an understanding of how performance and production elements function together to create these moments

• • 1. How I would stage two moments of the play