What qualities does a good director (for theatre) have?

Answer 1

First and formost, communication and leadership skills. I have seen directors with great skill at setting tone of a play or to get a particular look, but lose everything because they cannot keep everybody involved informed about what to do and when to do it.

Theatre is a team project and the director is the project leader. The director has to remember this. Leadership skills are more important than artistic skills in this area. A person with both would be an even better director.

Next up, organization skills. Lots of people have no idea of how much work a director actually has. They think it is a person who sits in a chair and tells the actors what to do. A director is the brain that starts everything and keeps it going (although a good stage manager is key in this point). Organizing auditions, rehearsals, set design, costume and prop design, along with about a thousand other tasks in a very finite schedule leading up to opening night and the closing night takes a lot of work, planning, and organization.

Answer 2

First and foremost, a director has to have a strong personal vision of theatre and what it can/should be. He or she needs to know what a good production looks like, sounds like, and FEELS like, and must be able to engineer all of those elements.

A director is 100% responsible for every single thing that the audience sees and hears in the theatre.

A director should be familiar with the following:

1) Acting, and the actor's process;
2) Technical theatre (lights, scenic design, sound, costumes, etc); enough to communicate with designers;
3) Textual analysis

There's a lot more to it, of course...but those are the first few that spring to mind.

Answer 3

Leadership and organization are very important, but I would suggest that passion, drive, the ability to listen, and the ability to translate an idea into action are just as important.

Answer 4

I recommend Willaim Ball's book "A Sense of Direction."

I've been directing for a couple of decades and I still use it as reference/inspiration.