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Then, one night when the wise old owl should have been roosting (among the ivy that grows up to the theatre’s roof), fast asleep after a hard night’s hunting, he found himself wide-awake and thinking. Perhaps his restlessness was caused by an especially tough vole that he had tried to swallow (for, sometimes, even entries on the Amdram bulletin board can be difficult to swallow). Whatever it was, he raised all of his eyelids, heaved a sorry sigh of resignation, blinked his eyes again, took up his pen and began to scribble.

This time, the lazy old raptor simply lifted his column from a long answer he once gave to a question on the bulletin board from someone called Louise. He relished his use of this method, because, not only was it far easier than writing something original, but it gave him an excuse to reminisce and, more importantly, to give a plug for his special human friend’s book about directing plays. This is how he altered the old answer:-

Here is a rule for all Theatre: MATERIAL IS EVERYTHING!!

Checking over my Theatre CV, I see that I’ve directed more than eighty productions of all types, in all sorts of different situations. Because we have pursued an itinerant lifestyle – moved around by all the different pressures of life and work – I see that my productions (many also as Designer, etc., but only one – when young – as Actor/Director), have been done a selection of different sorts of managing company.

Very early on – shortly after I earned my first theatre qualification – I was involved for a while in a professional repertory company, doing a different play every fortnight, so we really had no time to mess about. Our Director would announce the next sequence of plays and we would get on with planning their production and promotion. No room for any prima donnas in that situation.

With a family to support, however, I had to abandon my theatrical ambitions in favour of a reliable income. Sure, there were periods when I ran touring professional companies and even times when I directed and wrote for the occasional fat fee in theatre and TV, but mostly I got my rocks off with amateur companies. Read the book to learn that I regard Time given freely as infinitely more valuable than paid time. Every sort of them depends on honest working people paying their hard-earned money to watch, not only once, but over and over again, in increasing numbers. To do this, they have to enjoy what they see – to be stimulated and entertained by it, every time.

Two of these amateur groups I formed and ran myself, so I got to choose the plays we did. Naturally, I applied the above rules (in one, we worked together long enough and with enough production frequency, so we could do one for them. one for us, one for them and so on and, bless ‘em, eventually our Audience came to both sorts) BUT… in both groups I LISTENED! I begged and pleaded for other people’s ideas and reviewed the plays they suggested very seriously with a view to including them in our programme. If I rejected them, I told the donor why; usually it was a problem with casting or staging, but often I would have to explain why I thought the play was bloody awful.

Sometimes, I’ve been working as a guest director for established groups, when I’ve had to accept the chosen play or reject the production.

With two… sorry, with THREE groups where I’ve been around for a reasonable length of time, I’ve had to first “win my spurs” – I’ve had to earn my reputation all over again. Nobody is in the least bit interested in one’s stories of past glories, which simply make people nervous. Often they don’t believe them or, if they do, their telling makes the old luvies nervous – they feel threatened. Grab any job you can get, do it well, and eventually you’ll get a production. Quite often, this will be a low-budget minor production for Audiences of group-members. Make your first one STICK!!

That might be the only time you get to choose the play. For full-blown productions in the main theatre, there is so much expense and prestige put at risk that the management (committee or whatever) cannot afford to take any risks. They’ll have to trust you an awful lot before they’ll accept your play-recommendation, and I don’t blame them.

Usually, they work with a clearly-announced system of play-selection with which you have to live. Perhaps they will allow people to nominate plays for consideration under their system. So be it, nothing will be gained from arguing.

With one very proud old group in England, I did a bit of workshop organization and teaching (including little productions with spare people in strange places) while I waited until the new season’s plays were announced and grabbed by the established directors, and one – by Colin Welland – was unclaimed, so I thrust myself forward for it AND GOT IT! Because the production was well-disciplined, I incurred the favour of the Theatre Manager who had whinged for months about poor onstage, offstage and backstage organization. This also went well with my cast and crew. Wish we could have stayed there, but, again, we had to move on like gipsies.

Usually, there is some way of choosing or at least recommending the play of your choice. Be sure of your choice, know all about it, make sure that it is feasible within the group’s resources, and be prepared to speak out in favour and defence of your play.

You’ll either get a reputation for whining on about a particular play or eventually they’ll do it. It’s worth that risk.

The first requisite, in my experience, is for the director to be utterly in love with – to be BESOTTED with – the play. As stated, MATERIAL IS EVERYTHING!!

Having completed all that writing, the old owl – Oscar’s grandson – checked over what he had written and realised, to his horror, that he had edited out the plug for his special human friend’s book about directing plays. “Dammit ter hell!” he muttered, and went to sleep.

Jonah was a very experience director, teacher and writer who sadly passed away in February 2006. He was also the author of the highly successful “Playmaker – The Craft of Directing Plays (The Way I Seen It)”.