Lose Yourself in the Flow

When I am writing or working on making a film, I often experience the phenomenon of missing time, usually associated with alien abduction. (There are those aliens again!) But the one activity I have always lost myself in, while still being acutely aware of (the) time, has been directing theatre productions.

Tapping into the flow state for directing has been very important. Before retiring, I would find myself teaching all day, sometimes three classes back to back, 75 minutes at a time. After grabbing a quick dinner and having a brief break, I would need to return to the theatre for rehearsal. Fortunately, the very act of directing would energize me. Forget I had been “performing” (teaching) all day; shaping a stage production tapped into my physical and mental energy reserves, and I was doing what I have long felt was my calling.

Simultaneously, I was aware of time, for two reasons. First, I didn’t want to waste my actors’ time and knew they had other lives, with evening activities or (god forbid!) studying. And second, as an experienced director, I knew how much time I had between that first read-through and opening night, and what I needed to accomplish in the time allotted. So I did frequently look at my watch for both the microcosmic reason (when did tonight’’s rehearsal end?)and the macrocosmic one (how much more can I do to move the show closer to being seen by an audience?).

Now I just need to get back into directing in retirement!