百老汇升起新锐阳光女导演

    你现场导演时有什么特别的领导技巧吗？

    嗯，我有个信条，我叫它“全能的肯定。”排练时，我总试着肯定别人的想法。如果某人想尝试新东西，我会说：“那我们就试试吧”，我想让排练现场成为伟大想法的实验室。因为我发现，最好的点子总是会以某种方式自动呈现在你眼前，而我从来不在乎，那个最好的想法是不是来自我自己。

    根据自己的经验，我对领导方式的体会是，有时后，当你试图控制某件事情的时候，就会收得太紧，反而扼杀了它的生长。

    这和我想的完全不一样，我以为导演都是剧场的独裁者。

    人们对老派百老汇导演和编舞的老一套印象就是，他们总是大吼大叫，还会把演员骂哭。但我从不相信，一定要咄咄逼人才能成功。实际上，我记得看到过一个说法：伟大导演的工作就是让自己基本消失。如果每个人都觉得凭自己就可以做好，做到发自内心，导演就成功了。

    你是不是有时也得满场奔波，扮演救火队员的角色？

    那时我们在洛杉矶做《摇滚年代》的开发制作，能出岔子的地方都出了岔子，喝凉水都塞牙缝那种。我们排练的房子老是停电。本来灯光和提示都已经完成编码了，一停电就都没了。

    而且，就在同一个星期，两个舞蹈演员进了急诊室，舞台经理离开了，道具经理撞车了。

    你是怎样渡过难关的？

    我想我们只能尽力去做。失去某个雇员就得想办法找人顶替他。如果需要新的发电机，那就弄一个来。如果某个舞蹈演员要离开，那就让替补上场。时时刻刻记得自己最终的目标就好。

    当然，那幕音乐剧改变了我的职业生涯。这是我最享受现场戏剧表演的地方：首演之夜终将来临，那时总有一种魔力使得一切各就各位。我想我有一种信心，所有遇到的问题最终总会得到解决。我知道，首演之夜来临时，某种更宏大的力量便会接管一切，一切将无比美妙。

    Do you use a particular leadership tactic while directing?

    Well, I believe in something that I call 'the almighty yes.' I try to use the word 'yes' a lot when we're rehearsing. If someone wants to try something, I generally say, 'let's try it,' and let our rehearsal space be a playground for great ideas. Because I find that the best idea in the room has a way of being obvious, and I'm not concerned about the best idea in the room being mine, you know?

    I think I've learned through my own experience, with leadership, that sometimes when you're trying to control something, you're holding it too tight and it can't really grow.

    That totally goes against the image I have in my mind of directors being little dictators.

    I think there's this kind of school of thought when we think of those old-time Broadway directors and choreographers who made actors cry and who yelled. But I guess I've just never believed that you have to be aggressive to create a great team. In fact, I remember once reading that a great director's job is to almost be invisible. So that if everyone feels that they're making realizations on their own and it's all coming from within, then the director has really done the job correctly.

    Don't you also have to run around putting out crazy fires?

    So during "Rock of Ages," when we were in Los Angeles doing developmental productions, everything that could go wrong went wrong. The power kept going off in the building. So we would program lights and cues, and then we would lose all of them.

    That same week, we had two dancers go to the emergency room and I lost my stage manager and the prop manager crashed his truck.

    How did you get through it?

    I think we just dealt with whatever we could at the moment. When you lose an employee, you deal with it. If you have to get a new power generator, bring it to the theater. If a dancer needs to be out, bring in an understudy. Moment by moment, keep your eye on the prize.

    And of course, that show ended up changing my career. Because this is my favorite thing about doing live theater: you're always going to have opening night and there is a power where everything ends up workingout. So I think I have a certain kind of confidence that any problem that might come up will have a solution. And I know that when we get to opening night,something greater than us is going to take over and it's going to be magical.