All role cheat sheets
Cheat sheet: director
Your first week as director
Set the vision, set the room, protect everyone's time.
What the job is, in the glossaryIf you're new
- Week one is about trust. How you run the read through tells the company what the next six weeks will feel like.
- Your stage manager is your partner, not your assistant. Meet them before anyone else walks in.EmersonUNI
If you're a pro
- Checklists for the first meetings, the first rehearsal and the habits that cost you the room.Pull-Tight
- New play? The playwright relationship starts now, not at the first preview.Playwrights Realm
Talk to these people first
- The producer. Budget, venue limits, dates, who you can hire, and the full licence terms.Pull-Tight
- Your stage manager. Share the concept, confirm the exact script edition, and agree on breaks, prompting, visitors and a daily check-in.EmersonUNI
- Designers and the props master. Hold a production meeting early. Share why you are doing this show and settle the big practical questions before anything gets built.UCF
- The playwright, on a new play. Agree early how you will talk about the script.Playwrights Realm
Do
- Read the script at least three times before day one. Map the French scenes, the arcs, and every prop, costume and tech need.
- Run a first rehearsal that inspires: introductions, your honest vision, designers showing their work, and actors reading to each other rather than racing.
- Start and end on time. Call only the actors you need. Build in breaks and warm-ups.
- Protect physical and emotional safety from the first hour.
- Come with blocking ideas and the rehearsal furniture sorted, then leave room for what the actors find.
Don't
- Never announce or stage a show before the rights are signed, and never cut lines or change a character without written permission.AACT
- Do not cast without checking real schedule conflicts, and do not promise roles before auditions.
- Do not treat crew worse than actors, or call the whole cast for a two-person scene.
- No line readings, no lost temper.
What to bring
- Your director's book: the script with floor plans, scene breakdowns, blocking ideas and early design notes.
- Visual references for the read-through: costume, set and prop images.
- A first-day agenda, a draft rehearsal schedule, any company agreement, pencils and shoes you can move in.Pull-Tight
Other roles
How-tos for the same show
Tech week, hour by hourPaper tech to previews: who comes, what gets done, how long, and when to move on.Build a prompt bookWhat goes in the book, in what order, and how it runs tech and every show.School, community, pro and UK theatreWho calls the show, what the rules are and what everything is called, side by side.
Sources
Written in my own words from handbooks, guides and rulebooks I read for this suite. Tags beside each point show where it comes from.