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Welcome back, everyone.

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The focus of today's session is vision.

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One of the many jobs of the director
is to develop a concept

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for a production of a play.

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Since each director has a unique style
and perspective,

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every production is original.

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In today's session, we'll explore
how a director's vision is imagined,

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communicated,
and incorporated into a production.

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A director's vision is subjective.

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It comes from how he or she sees
and understands the world and interprets

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a particular play.

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Director Julie Taymor drew inspiration
from places and traditions

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around the world

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to develop her vision for the Broadway
production of The Lion King.

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A Producer provides resources

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and support for a director to achieve her
vision.

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Let's watch Julie's interview with

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Disney Theatrical Productions
President and Producer Thomas Schumacher.

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You know, the thing that, as a director,

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and sometimes director-designer, is
you're always looking for the abstraction,

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the ideograph abstraction
of what the whole is.

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And it's very simple

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in The Lion King, it's the circle,

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it's the Circle of Life.

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It's the sun, it's Mufasa's head,
it's the circle.

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The success of the movie is its humanity.

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It's not that they're animals,
it's that they're humans in animal guise.

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So the notion of combining the human
and the animal came early.

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Then the mask was the solution.

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The double-event mask,
where you would never hide the performer.

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Vision combines inspiration
and imagination

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to create a cohesive
interpretation of a play,

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so that all parts
of a production work together

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to tell a single story on stage.

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One tool for developing a director's
vision is research.

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Through investigating
the context of the play,

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its time period, setting,
story, and influences.

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A director will begin to have ideas
about how the play will appear on stage.

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Many directors gather specific images
during their research process

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to create a vision.

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Let's look at some of the images
Julie Taymor might have used to inspire

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her vision for The Lion King.

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Words can often be associated
with images, so

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get some paper and
jot down your observations.

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Challenge yourself and list impressions
and feelings.

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These can be literal,
but try to be abstract.

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For example,
if you see an image of the sun,

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you can write down
circle, or heat, or day.

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Let your imagination roam.

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What adjectives or phrases would you use

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to describe these images to a friend?

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How do they make you feel?

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What colors stand out?

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What shapes and patterns are repeated?

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Now look at your list.

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The observations you made can serve
as the foundation

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for your directorial vision.

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One way directors

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communicate their vision to their creative
teams is through a vision board.

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A collage of words,
images, colors, and textures

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that inspire them
and shape their ideas for production.

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Pretend that someone is
buying you some clothes but

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doesn't know what you like
or what store to go to.

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Preparing a vision board with images
that represent

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your style could give the buyer
a better idea of what colors, fabrics,

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or accessories
inspire your outfits and a good shot

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at filling your closet with clothes
you will actually want to wear.

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A director's
vision board works in a similar way.

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It represents a cohesive vision
for a production,

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but it allows creative team
members and actors some room to interpret

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and collaborate
on the vision's execution on stage.

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Associate Director John Stefanik

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is responsible
for communicating Julie Taymor's vision

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when he mounts new productions of
The Lion King around the world.

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Well, primarily my job is

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to take care of
and preserve The Lion King

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and to teach new productions to the world,
all over the world, of the show.

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So, primarily,
I go around all over the world

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and cast the show and maintain it.

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So that's,
that's really at the essence of it.

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The wonderful thing about The Lion King
is it's about so many

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different elements, but at the core of it
it's about Africa,

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and it's about this one very simple story,
and it's about Simba.

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And I think that

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when we remember that
that's what the goal of the show is all the time.

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It really helps to
keep us all on the same track.

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I put together

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an example of a vision board for
Julie Taymor's production of The Lion King.

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Julie's vision
included the central image of the circle,

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the concept of the double event,
in which the human actor

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and the animal character are visible.

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A color palette of sun-baked earth tones

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and design elements
from all around the world.

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Here's a word cloud,

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with the circle being the most prominent.

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A collage of images from around the world,

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and a color and texture palette.

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If I were to direct a production,
I'd come up with my own ideas

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and then create a vision board
to share my inspiration

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and vision with my creative team.

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We've looked at some of the tools
for developing

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and communicating a director's vision
for the production of a play.

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Now it's your turn to create a vision
for The Lion King Junior,

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using word clouds, image collages, and color
and texture palettes.

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Use the examples we talked about
as inspiration for your process,

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but come up with
your own creative ideas.