Who Reads Them?: Performing Stage Directions in New Play Development

Abstract: This Note explores the role of stage directions in new play development, with a focus on the reading of them and how that affects the development process. The practice and use of the stage directions reader are considered through data gained from a survey, interviews with theatre artists, and existing literature. After briefly exploring the background of stage directions, the Note examines their use in new play development, with a particular focus on the practice of performing them in a developmental reading. The author—a theatre artist and educator with fifteen years’ experience working in new play development as an actor, administrator, and observer—proposes that stage directions must be actively included in the play development process through the embodiment of an actor reading them.