Ask My Friends – Directing

Edward Coffield was one of the first people at Webster I really looked up to. He was funny, nice and very smart. He was a professor of mine at Webster University and the Production Manager at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. At the time I knew little about his ambitions to direct, although he had been directing around town a fair amount. Since then he has gone on to direct many more shows in St. Louis and even nominated for a Kevin Kline Award for his outstanding direction of Door to Door. He has worked as the La Jolla Playhouse, the Alley Theatre and many other theatres across the country. It is an honor for me to have someone I respect so much writing a guest posting. I asked Edward to write about directing and how he got into it.

“But what I really want to do is direct.”

This expression has of course taken on a slight wink with people who work in the theatre, but I never intended to direct, I swear I didn’t.

I always wanted to produce. Like many of us in the theatre I have a small, delicate, fragile ego, so when at the age of seven I suddenly understood billing and realized the producer’s name goes at the top of the marquee – well, my sights were set on producing.

Over the years, I have done a lot of things in the biz. I was a stage manger for a long time and then moved into production management. Along the way I have produced various things. Most recently I had the great pleasure of producing The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later for The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. I have loved all these jobs, and they have served me well.

So how did I become a director?

Originally, I started out getting hired to re-mount shows that I had been the PSM for. Technically, I suppose, that was not directing, but it was a foot in the door. At some point someone hired me to direct a show that I had not been attached to before. I cannot say I didn’t know what I was doing -- but I will say that I have learned a great deal since then. I was lucky enough to direct in theatres with big hearts but low profiles, where I could fall on my face and the theatre world at large would never know.

At this point, I have been fortunate to direct many shows for numerous theatre companies. With no formal training as a director, I have learned a great deal by absorption – learning by doing. I also have spent thousands of hours in rehearsal watching some amazing director’s work. That has been a wonderful gift.

My successes have been great, and the failures have provided even greater lessons. I used to panic about the fact that I simply don’t understand how actors do their craft. I admire them, I adore them and I am in awe of them, but I cannot make them better actors. I am honest about that and recommend that if they need help with acting, they go get a coach. My job is to tell the story.

I seem to have a good sense for casting, and that is another gift I do not take for granted. Like many of us, I had a brief stint in front of the footlights. As I recall, I was on stage in a bunny costume, and even at the age of six, I knew the other bunny was a better actor!

I have spent a great deal of my directing career helming musicals and comedies, two genres I adore. I have already discovered that directors can be pigeon-holed, just like actors. If a producer knows you understand comedy, you are not going to get an offer to direct The Normal Heart. I seem to intellectually and emotionally understand comedy. I don’t take that skill for granted -- ever. I am a funny person, but I am not convinced that makes me able to direct comedies.

As for musicals, I was raised on them, and I believe -- as Mr. Laurents espouses -- it has to be in your bones. When most children were playing cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians, I was playing Hello, Dolly and South Pacific!

Last summer, I directed my first drama for a wonderful theatre company in St. Louis called The Orange Girls. They had invited me to direct Donald Margulies’ play Collected Stories, an intense two-hander with great roles for two actresses. I found it challenging in a totally different way. There are about three laughs in the script, and I knew how to handle those. But riding to “the dark side” was tremendous and scary and gratifying. I found that all those comedies I had directed had taught me a lot about drama -- drama is about timing in the same way that comedy is.

I have learned so much from other directors (thank you to Mr. Woolf, Mr. Barnes, Ms. Gregg, Mr. Mason), but the utmost surprise is what I have learned from the directing students who have assisted me (Shelley, Nick, Kaitlyn et al). They have been superior guides. I was always a very good storyteller, and as my friends and colleagues will tell you, I am not afraid to embellish. But I have learned from these student directors how to be a student of directing.

Now I have learned how to read a play. More importantly, I have learned how to research a play. I also have learned at what point to set all the research aside and tell the story. The director’s job is simply to tell the story with gusto, heart and tempo.

In the last year, directing for me has clicked, and I have become comfortable with it. This of course has made me understand that I have only just begun. Directing is a skill that builds over time and a craft that always offers new lessons. I am very lucky.”