Directing: A Mirror to Solo Performance Provocation, Collaboration and Proxy Audience

Solo performance is a challenging, immediate and exhilarating form of theatre. Its popularity in the field of westernised contemporary theatre is evidenced in the increasing programming of solo performances at international festivals and in commercial theatres. However, whilst there is considerable analysis of the genre of solo performance there is little examination of the relationship between director and solo performer in the rehearsal room. Prior research has focused on the theoretical or on the practical, but rarely have the two approaches actively engaged with each other. This thesis contributes a much-needed analysis of directing practice in this area, and an integration of theory and practice that offers tangible approaches in the rehearsal room. In what ways can the director best serve the solo performer to create a theatrical experience that can hold the audience's attention, imagination and memory?

Solo performance is characterised by a heightened presence in both performer and audience, incited by a minimalism that abandons the theatrical premise of artifice and turns to primary storytelling. The rehearsal room relationship between director and solo performer also shares these qualities, heightened and focused by the one-one engagements. Directing in this context contrasts from that of a multi-cast, with distinctly different dynamics arising from an artistic collaboration between two people, rather than with many. This thesis considers how the director is placed as a flexible paradigm as proxy audience and as a bidirectional-mirroring device in the rehearsal process – situating the director as an articulated reflection to the transforming solo performer. I analyse this unique partnership and focus primarily on strategies that directors use to create effective solo performance.

This thesis is comprised of 80% critical writing and 20% for the creative/practice-based research project. I examine the particular qualities of solo performance as a genre; its theatrical origins, function and purpose, the scope of styles and forms and its potential for political and social meaning. However, my focus is on the rehearsal room processes, working predominantly with a director, rather than an analysis of the end product - the performance. I interview practitioners in the field about their rehearsal room experiences, across the spectrum of styles and forms of solo performance. My theoretical framework is centred on Practice as Research (PaR). In order to scrutinise the relationship between director and solo performer I have gained access to the rehearsal room as both director/practitioner and researcher. The PaR component of this thesis includes the analysis of the experimental rehearsal process and performance of PocaHAUNTus - a new autobiographical solo play. In addition I draw on a body of retrospective work – re-examining my direction of five solo performances that occurred prior to this thesis. Production journals, rehearsal and performance footage, interviews, communications and photographs evidence all components.

My research question is not simply “Does a solo performer need a director?” Instead, my research pursues how the relationship between the two might be negotiated, asking: “In what ways can the director best serve the solo performer?” The research examines the fundamental challenges of the genre, namely: the delineation of multiple characters by a single performer, immediacy of the audience relationship to the lone performer, stage geography and scenographic choices. The research also identifies and refines practical strategies to accommodate the intensity of working one-on-one. At its best, the director-solo performer relationship is a vibrant and supportive partnership but because of its intimacy, it is often also a complex and challenging engagement. The contribution of this thesis and its originality is in a PaR model that utilises my past experience of directing solo performance, expands on this foundation through the collection of extensive interview material from a diverse range of significant directors and performers of solo work, and then pursues a new creative laboratory where I test key approaches to directing solo performance.