rigour

Spent last week working on the new play as well as doing a bit of prep for Dream and some very tentative prep for Arabian Nights. Then on Friday I went to the Young Vic for a workshop on directing new writing with Lyndsey Turner – lovely, rigourous and fierce in equal measure. Actually more lovely than anything else, but also fiercely rigourous.

Left me feeling much more dramaturgically tooled up – which has already come in handy with my own play – but intellectually a bit unfit. Have decided to get match fit on the old analytical rigour front – I think directing new plays is much more demanding in that sense. Or maybe I’m just quite a lazy director and have got too used to relying on instinct,  predominantly working on plays by dead writers who can’t argue back.

So here’s to rigour, precision, craft and analytical ability – they are to be my watchwords for the week. Now I must grapple with the fairies in Dream – we’re doing them with puppets, made from paper…or maybe I have not sufficiently and rigourously investigated all the other alternatives. Hmmm…