A Short History of Stage Directing with Richard Schechner

Join world-renown performance theorist, theater director and author Richard Schechner for an enlightening lecture on the history of stage directing.

Modern Euro-American directing started with the practice of the Saxe-Meiningen theatre company (1866-1890), sponsored by its reigning duke, George II, whose operative stage manager, Ludwig Chronegk, was the first European director in the modern sense. Similar activities occurred at about the same time in Iran, but there was no link between the two practices. This lecture focuses on Europe and the USA. Schechner will discuss/analyze some of the ideas and practices of Konstantin Stanislavsky, Gordon Craig, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Bertolt Brecht-Erwin Piscator, Peter Brook,  Antonin Artaud, The Living Theatre, Jerzy Grotowski, Tadeusz Kantor, Robert Wilson, Richard Foreman, The Builders Association,  Elevator Repair Service, Lee Breuer-Mabou Mines, Anne Bogart, and Rachel Chavkin. He will outline key themes and their exemplars: realism-naturalism, expressionism-bio-mechanics, visual theatre, movement theatre, “poor theatre”, environmental theatre, and experimental theatre on Broadway. The lecture will be illustrated by slides.

The lecture will be hosted in the Fine Arts Building, room 249.