Director’s fear and self-cultivation

Several directors’ testimonies indicate the necessity to care for actors.¹ Nevertheless, today not even the most basic psychology is included in the curriculum for directors, not to mention leadership or coaching know-how. In the performing arts, supportive and encouraging personal development of actors is not considered to be part of a director’s training. However, in a challenging rehearsal situation, the actor–director relationship is sensitive, and personal ego can be frightened. Nevertheless, the director typically must come up with the final solution; this is fundamental for every leader, whether in a creative or business field. The challenge is that directors can only achieve their goals via other people, guiding and encouraging them wisely. Part of this is taking responsibility.

A script-based and director-led rehearsal can be more complicated than devising and evolving a mutual craft, as it is overloaded with different objects of attention for an actor and a director alike. A confrontation between actors and directors could arise as anxiety could affect both. Fear is often behind personal hesitations about the ability to develop the product to the best possible quality. If not balanced emotionally, the director can unconsciously oppress the actors to get the desired result. In turn, such pressure on actors can provoke a defensiveness from them, and conflict can arise from this confrontation. Alongside this, actors may be unwilling to cooperate if they do not trust the effectiveness of the director’s creative solution (Tohver, 2022). Likewise, if the actor’s or the director’s self-esteem and self-confidence are extraordinarily high or low, this correspondingly hinders collaboration. In the case of high self-esteem, suggestions and criticism may meet a defensive attitude and fail to produce any results. Similarly, an actor with low confidence can be hesitant about discussing their personal artistic vision and, therefore, will not be entirely engaged in the creative process, while a director with low confidence may be hesitant to suggest unusual solutions. Primarily involved in self-assertion, the actors’ or the director’s focus may shift from their primary goal of doing to evaluating personal performance. The ensemble’s creativity will be blocked, and the team may become nervous and tense instead of being excited about new creative discoveries.

In my desire to improve my directing craft, I realised that to implement more intriguing staging choices, I first have to help actors overcome any hesitation towards what seem to be challenging creative propositions. Secondly, I recognised that uncertainties are unconscious manifestations of personal fear as opposed to being grounded on different relationships within the ensemble. I realised that alongside being the artistic leader, I also needed to be supportive of the actor in every way. This recalled ‘executive leadership coaching’. In fact, the similarities between theatre directing and coaching become apparent when the concept of directing is understood as giving directions.² The director can and should be trained to balance a demanding rehearsal situation.

The psychologist and author Daniel Goleman (2017) outlined six distinct business leadership styles, each of which springs from different components of emotional intelligence. Every style has a distinct effect on the working environment and performance of a company. These can be compared to directing styles. Unfortunately, the theatre director and researcher Robert Marsden (2021) does not detect similar methods in directing, correlated to leadership styles which are driven by the conscious self-development of all team members. However, to become a selfless leader and establish a profound exchange in the creative process, the director’s initial self-cultivating training becomes essential.

Leadership, coaching, and directing

Leadership scholars indicate that the process of executive coaching for business leadership entails a conversion of a leader from a ‘false self’ (trapped in fear, greed, resentment, and a distortion of reality) to a ‘real self’ (steeped in forgiveness, acceptance, gratitude, compassion, and integrity) (Fry and Sadler Nisiewicz, 2013; Delbecq, 2010).³ At the same time, Allen and Fry (2019) foreground that executive leaders go as far as to perceive a spiritual aspect in their work and seek to develop this facet of their lives, which a coach can support. Via such coaching, the leader clarifies their purpose, becomes selfless and orientated to serving others; they focus on doing instead of evaluating and perceiving a common goal within a greater ethical perspective. Here, cultivation is based on leaders’ self-examination, facilitated by an external coach. Tatiana Bachkirova (2022), a professor of coaching psychology, outlines a theory of individual development grounded in the knowledge of the self from psychology, philosophy, and other disciplines. Her approach is practical, since, in an era of materialism, a desire for more personal fulfilment has emerged in the context of growing social consciousness in business and society. Individual development results in the leader experiencing a sense of commitment, connection, and transcendence.

Director as coach

While coaching has proven its effectiveness in leadership, similar approaches in directing are absent. However, theatre director and educator Stephen Aaron’s (1986) claim about the need for a director’s supportive function for the actor relates to renowned coach Peter Bluckert’s (2005) notion of leadership coaching and coach self-cultivation. He explains that coaches must operate across the full range of tasks that come their way in work with leaders. The highest goal of the coach’s personal growth is interpersonal effectiveness, a non-judgemental attitude, and connectedness, which enable building trust and developing a communion with a client.

Directors’ training should educate them in artistic leadership so that they can become balanced individuals with a harmonious personality, ready to lead the ensemble. It should also cultivate their ability to become a profoundly supportive coach who can nurture actors to take creative risks. As the demands on contemporary performing methods grow, the director’s versatile self-development becomes vital in them becoming competent to support the actors. Naturally, the movement towards the bodymind in performing arts also encompasses perceptual techniques as tools from outside the craft.

My quality of directing rose significantly after I started a daily self-cultivation practice. This incorporated teamwork and personal coaching practice, knowledge of consciousness behaviour, and exercising perceptual and physical yoga. This training extended my awareness, creativity, precision in craft, ability to come up with better analytical explanations, and to monitor and reflect on situations and relationships. It also alleviated my ego and sharpened my intuition by heightening my sensorial receptivity. Today, I can better perceive the actor’s inner actions and the general tempo of the show and process my impulses to create a productive atmosphere in both rehearsal and performance.

Polygon Theatre, Singing Green, 2020. Text by K. Koppelmaa, edited and directed by Tamur Tohver. Siim Maaten as Professor.

Self-cultivation in director’s training

My search to enhance the actor–director exchange in rehearsals resulted in developing an idiosyncratic practice called ‘Zero Zone praxis’ (Tohver, 2022). This fuses Stanislavskian craft and perceptual yoga practices, designed and facilitated according to coaching principles. Its attentive awareness and disciplinary techniques provide the director with pedagogic frameworks and approaches to inform their relationship with the actor during rehearsal. This mutual training also improves the actor’s ability to prevent stage fright, as well as to reflect, detach, and re-focus, if needed, at the time of performance, and perform in a state of higher consciousness (Meyer-Dinkgräfe, 2005).

In my experience, training exercises in Stanislavskian craft, self-developmental coaching methods, and yoga are deeply interwoven. In terms of enriching the director’s training, they both arise from and complement each other. Over time, changes inevitably appear in a director’s personality, habitual thinking patterns, perceptual skills, and emotional behaviour. Inspiration is then supported through increased concentration, and creativity is released. While a variety of definitions of self-cultivation have already been suggested, director and transdisciplinary researcher Matteo Bonfitto’s conceptualisation is particularly useful:

Self-cultivation is perceived … by … perceptual lapidation – attention – ethics. Fluidity, inventive cognition and … suspension of judgment … can lead … to a personal transformation of the participants of these practices. (Bonfitto, 2019, 6)

Bodymind techniques, included in director training, create a fused wisdom, as in the case of meditation or yogic breathing exercises. Repeating proper internal behaviour can be learnt through recognising and registering specific steps (as in, for example, how to concentrate). Consciously systematising these actions develops such perceptual behaviour into techniques that would be used immediately in a complicated situation. Self-cultivation thereby results in a practical capacity supported by intellectual leadership knowledge. The confidence emerging from practice alleviates fear of external or internal evaluation (‘am I good enough?’) and promotes emotional balance to take artistic risks. It prepares the director to lead actors into deeper detail without subjective emotional influence and stimulates complex staging solutions. Simultaneously, such preparation increases flexibility, not by reducing quality but by facilitating shifting viewpoints for the director’s concept or an adjusted work path instead of escalating confrontation in the ensemble. This develops a secure rehearsal flow: a dynamic, guided, and trusted space with a profound focus on continuous activity and a concrete goal (within a set timeline). A self-cultivated director is constantly one step ahead of the production process.

Cultivating directing

Like executive coaching, the aim of the director’s cultivation through personal training is preventive: the awareness of one’s internal capacity is unlocked and powered by tools outside theatre craft. Implementing coaching qualities into directing could be called ‘cultivating directing’, a synonym for coaching leadership in entrepreneurship, which aims to build solid relationships and address the unique necessities of every team member. Cultivating directing is a method where the director, in addition to preparing, rehearsing, and composing the artistic outcome, supports the actor’s potential with appropriate techniques.

The understanding that guiding someone else means that the guide has already traversed the paths to which they lead others can have an impact on the current approach in the performing arts and unleash a new era in directing practice.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tamur Tohver

Tamur Tohver is an academic teacher for multiple performing art genres, a researcher and a self-cultivation coach. He is a Manchester Metropolitan University PhD candidate and the author of Silent Listening Is Easier (2003). Tamur has given workshops internationally, taught in UK, US, and Estonian universities, and created productions with his Polygon Theatre Company, broadcasting, and film companies.

Notes

1 Brennan, 2020; Caird, 2013; Mitchell, 2008; collection from directors’ feedback in Merlin, 2016; Stanislavski, 2005.

2 The English language also provides the same word for a leader in both fields, namely ‘director’.

3 The origins of executive coaching date back to the 1980s. John Whitmore pioneered methods from sports coaching into the business world and coined the term ‘performance coaching’. In terms of leading the theatre ensemble, many of the skills mentioned here are pointed out by Caird (2013) and Mitchell (2008) as being useful for the director.