You might be asking yourself: 'How can two people direct one show?' We, (Duncan and Lexi) have been privileged to work together over many years, in different roles both as co-stars and as actor and director.

 

Duncan has directed a number of shows in and around Canberra, mostly for Everyman Theatre. One of these was Shakespeare’s Richard III at the Canberra Theatre Centre, a production that required vast quantities of fake blood and vast quantities of bleach for the white costumes after each performance! Most notably, we have starred in The Seven Year Itch and The Crucible together and Duncan has directed Lexi in Alan Seymour’s The One Day of the Year in 2008 and in Christopher Hampton’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses for Canberra Repertory in 2009. We’ve always worked well with each other and have sought out opportunities to collaborate further since.

 

Lexi had a period overseas and was fortunate to experience a range of directorial styles. From Max Stafford Clark to Michael Attenborough, Lexi learnt a wealth of methods to guide a cast through the storm of a play season. Much of what we have done has been in the English style of Peter Hall and John Barton. Indeed, the company began with Peter Hall’s obligatory three days of Shakespeare technique training and we used much of his Shakespeare’s Advice to the Players, Barton’s Playing Shakespeare and Cicely Berry’s Text in Action.

 

The combination of seasoned director (Duncan) and professional actor (Lexi) makes a pretty good duo. Lots of actors describe directors with epithets like ‘she is an actor's director’ or ‘she’s a designer's director’ or - the least preferred one – ‘she is NOT an actor's director’. These titles are a quick way of letting colleagues know how much experience the director has working with actors, how much empathy, and how much engagement you will or will not get from your director. We hope the combination of Duncan and Lexi creates the ultimate actor's director duo! 

 

Dr Duncan Driver & Lexi Sekuless