Listen Actively Understand the director’s vision and motivations. Empathy helps turn tension into collaboration. Focus on the Bigger Picture Keep the overall goals in mind and see how your contributions fit into the director’s plan. Compromise Creatively Explore solutions that blend both perspectives without sacrificing creativity. Present Solutions Offer constructive alternatives rather than just highlighting problems. Respect Roles Acknowledge the director’s leadership and your creative expertise to work together. Maintain Open Communication Keep discussions ongoing and ask for regular feedback to ensure alignment.

I have found that people tend to give more opportunities to artists who appear passionate about their ideas. I worked with one director who always appeared to second guess his designers, but in reality, he was playing devil’s advocate to see how strongly the designers felt about their own ideas. If you are able to express yourself in a humble but confident way, you will find that more often than not people will give your idea a shot.

The director has final say when the choice is artistic. However, sometimes a director thinks something is just an artistic choice when it is also a safety choice or a 'physics wins' thing. Where the specific artistic vision cannot be solved in the time and budget left to the project and a compromise must be found, performer/crew/audience safety should be the common ground. As a director I rely on the rest of the team to keep safety in mind so I can focus on keeping an artistic whole. I WANT them to point out when artistic choices might be a safety issue so we can find solutions. As a designer, I have found artistic clashes to be a problem when the director has forgotten I am keeping safety a primary goal so they can focus on the artistic.

This not something I ever figured out. The only times in my career that “clash” would apply were situations where the director’s tech week jitters got out of hand and they began demanding ill-conceived “solutions” to non-existent “problems.” I considered it part of my responsibilities to reassure them all was well & the show we’d created was sound. I did not make any changes, the shows turned out fine, and none of them ever hired me ever again. 🤷🏻♀️

I will ask questions to try to pull as much out of each actor as possible so if there's a difference between the way we see the character developing, I love to see where the actor is coming from then work on evolving the character to where we both feel is best. I rarely deal with such issues though as I hand pick my casts from a pool of seasoned professionals knowing each actors abilities and their professionalism before casting them. If I'm working with ametures or novices it's a must though, otherwise they will never learn how to properly develop any character as once you learn the process, it's much easier to do the same for future roles.

At Shakespeare & Company, I learned an effective method for resolving conflicts. The approach involves four steps: Describe the situation objectively (e.g., "This happened") without assigning blame or emotion. Share your perspective, how you interpreted the situation (e.g., "I imagined...") to clarify your understanding. Express your feelings. Acknowledge your emotions in response to the situation (e.g., "This made me feel...") to foster empathy. Make a request and offer something to improve the situation (e.g., "I’d like you to do/not do this" and "From my side, I’ll do..."). This approach helps address artistic clashes with directors during rehearsals by fostering clarity, understanding, and collaboration to find common ground.

As a creative writer and actor, I make it a priority to immerse myself in the director's vision, striving to understand the reasoning behind their choices. I most times seek clarity through thoughtful questions, ensuring I fully grasp their perspective. Also, to fostering open communication, I aim to cultivate a collaborative approach that nurtures trust and strengthens teamwork, even while having moments of disagreement.