ABSTRACT
The cast, staff and crew of live theatre work together toward a common goal: a good performance. Theatre is necessarily a group effort in professional, amateur and educational theatre. It is a collaborative effort. However, it is never a group effort of vague fellow committee members, but of associated autocrats: a playwright, a producer, a director, a stage manager, designers and, above all, actors. Each accommodates the other and may overlap others in function when necessary, considering the variety of differing conditions for each show and every kind and level of theatre. But each autocrat assumes distinct responsibilities and accepts them completely: The producer is the overall manager who has responsibility for obtaining the personnel and resources to make theatre happen. The actors must serve as the most essential dramatic medium, without whom no theatrical ideas or emotions can be communicated to an audience. The director must interpret the playwright’s script through the media of actors and designers.
