Hook, Line and Sinker

I was watching a video of a talk with famous actor Ethan Hawke. He claimed that acting and directing are the same - they’re both interpretive art where you take great writing and share it. He went on to discuss the ‘messiness’ of actors and that a director who has been one will understand their motivations better.

Now, I’m not necessarily a huge Hawke fan. Aside from a few 90s films when I was a kid, I haven't seen much of his stuff. But something about what he said rang true and I think it’s why I take directing a play pretty seriously. 

I initially came to the theatre to sing. I was one of those 12 year olds who sang their whole Disney repertoire for their family for the two hour drive to Sydney on family outings. I think they were more desperate than me to find an outlet for my ‘talent.’

And singing earnt me some awesome lead roles in community theatre at a young age. I played Minnie Fay in Hello Dolly at 14 and Johanna in Sweeney Todd at 19 - something unheard of these days.

But it wasn’t the singing that pulled me back to theatre after having children and a couple of years hiatus. 

Even through song, I had always paid close attention to the lyrics - the words carefully placed together to cast a story, reeling in an audience with each pause, each flick of an eye, each baited breath. An actor’s ability to become the angler of words is an enticing experience - to lure them in through the art of great writing can be profound.

But not every play has great writing. 

Over my 30 years I’ve read, watched and even played in some very average plays where characters are one dimensional and plot lines spool dismally towards the bottom of a choppy river.

This is where the director must meet the actor. I believe the director must choose the play. 

Great writing doesn’t have to leap off the page, it can glide and dart, finning through the story until its power is revealed. And that initial read, late at night, huddled in bed, can change a director’s world. The WORDS should sing. They should undulate in the waves of your imagination, tempting.

This I have experienced as both an actor and director. And I guess that’s what Hawke meant. If you can feel the writing as an actor and know what it is to plunge into that role, those words, those things left unsaid, then you can direct. You can guide your actors where they need to go and you can leave them alone when they don’t need you. 

It’s the sport of catch and release.

The difference between actor and director, though, lies in the responsibility. 

As an actor, you are the worm, the rod and the reel. You have to do the work. Whether the lure is natural, where the role is much like yourself and you can tap into parts of your own life, or artificial and you need to step out of yourself to reach places you never wish to visit again, the job of catching the fish is yours.

The director is the chef. Waiting patiently to gut, scale and fillet your catch. They know the meal they want to create, it has been drawn up in their mind since that first read. 

But a good director doesn’t try to make salmon out of sardines. 

A good director holds the line. They might even wade in the water with the actors. They make sure they have everything they need to strike. 

Hawke’s right, actors can be messy. They can be anxious, they can be demanding, they can be difficult. But a good director knows that anxious means eager, demanding means rigorous, difficult means exacting. Because they’ve been there. They’ve felt it all and understand, like Hawke said, that performance is a “collaborative medium.”

Playing Eliza Doolittle taught me how to move from teen brat to empathic young woman, much like the boarding house girls I directed in So Much To Tell You.

Playing Lindy Chamberlain taught me the gruelling reality of a parent living in unprecedented circumstances, much like the Franks and Van Daans I directed in The Diary of Anne Frank. 

Words bear weight.

They can drift and jig, but they should sink. Deeply. After all, that is the point of what we do - we tell stories to affect others. 

My passion for acting has never waned. I love learning lines in the mindset of someone else - hooking a voice, a posture, a new reality. It’s fun to land a good role and know you’ve done a good job.

But I find directing much more personal. 

You choose the script that casts the words that you long to hear. You inspire the set, lighting, sound, costumes and mise en scene. And you have the privilege of assisting those actors to trawl the oceans for that prized game so you can serve the perfect dish. 

Acting and directing might not be exactly the same, but I do agree that actors make good directors. 

As for my next fishing trip? 

Something might have caught me.

Hook, line and sinker.