This video was created as part of the web companion to the monograph Directions for Directing. Theatre and Method, written by Avra Sidiropoulou, and published by Routledge in September 2018. The book lays out contemporary concepts of directing practice and examines specific techniques of approaching scripts, actors, and the stage. Addressed to both young and experienced directors, but also to the broader community of theatre practitioners, scholars, and dedicated theatre goers, the book sheds light on the director’s multiplicity of roles throughout the life of a play – from the moment of its conception to opening night – and explores the director’s processes of inspiration, interpretation, communication, and leadership. The companion website explores the work of international practitioners of different backgrounds who operate within various institutions, companies, and budgets, providing readers with a wide range of perspectives and methodologies.

This video is from a workshop which brought together performer Miranda Manasiadis and choreographer Malia Johnston. The workshop took place at Footnote Dance and Deirdre Tarrant Studios in Wellington, New Zealand, in May 2017, in preparation for the work on Phaedra I—a solo multimedia performance piece by Avra Sidiropoulou, based on the myth of Phaedra and Hippolytus. Miranda and Malia worked with a number of challenges that Avra had set up in order to explore different possibilities of embodying Phaedra today.