I think this is not so dissimilar to how any director would. I tend to work on physicality in the morning and look at scenes and text in the afternoon. The big difference might be that I encourage actors to think of the physical as integral to character and story. Often, I get the sense from working as a movement director on other productions, that the movement sessions can often be seen as that time the supply teacher comes in, and you get a break from proper lessons! I need my performers to understand that every moment of physicality will have the same weight as text and that each will inform the other.

The afternoons of the first week of rehearsal usually looks at the structure of the play and discussions are mostly geared to supporting the writer make fixes and changes while breaking that text down into manageable units. This helps the actors think about the work in logical beats. It helps understanding and learning. After that we try to get scenes up on their feet. In recent years I have felt that the financial pinch has meant less rehearsal time, and this has had an impact upon the time discussing text. This is a dangerous precedent and one I will fight to address.

I encourage actors to do their homework and whatever their personal approach needs but it might not be shared with the group in rehearsal. The rehearsal room is where we build together and there is little time for anything that does not push the project forward.

Text will still be analysed, and the depth of complexity unearthed but each actor is different in their approach to character. I encourage performers to offer sketch versions of scenes. Just like the physicality, I don’t want actors aiming to get things perfect first time and then beating themselves up when it doesn’t happen.

I think it really helps when an actor can learn their script as soon as possible. I am not asking them to do this before rehearsals as they are not being paid but the benefits of being able to explore text on your feet becomes apparent and this links the potential of telling the story through movement and words very quickly.