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39-700: Joshua Lockwood Logan III (October 5, 1908 – July 12, 1988) was an American theatre and film director , playwright and screenwriter , and actor. He shared a Pulitzer Prize for co-writing the musical South Pacific and was involved in writing other musicals. Logan was born in Texarkana , Texas , the son of Susan (née Nabors) and Joshua Lockwood Logan. When he was three years old, his father committed suicide. Logan, his mother, and his younger sister, Mary Lee, then moved to his maternal grandparents' home in Mansfield, Louisiana , which Logan used 40 years later as

78-578: A Little Girl (1960), his first theatre flop in some years, running for only 16 performances. In Hollywood he did the movie adaptation of Fanny (1961). In 1961, he was a member of the jury at the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival . Logan continued to alternate Broadway and Hollywood for the rest of the 1960s. He did the Broadway musicals All American (1962, 86 performances) and Mr. President (1962–1963, 265 performances), and Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright (1962–1963, 33 performances), then made

117-674: A comedian, dancer/singer and musician. They traveled in a jeep with their musical instruments and other equipment carried in a quarter ton trailer that would be converted into a stage. They broadcast their show through a public address system using the jeep's battery. Each show lasted an average of 45 minutes and troupes could be combined into nine or 18 man shows for larger shows. The jeep show troops carried easily transportable musical instruments such as guitars, saxophones, banjos, accordions and drums. The troupe presented songs, skit, jokes, dancing, and pantomime Rooney recalled his first show being between two Sherman tanks three miles from

156-512: A director with Paul Osborn's On Borrowed Time (1938), which ran for 321 performances. He followed it with the musical I Married an Angel (1938–39), which ran for 331 performances. He directed Knickerbocker Holiday (1938), Stars in Your Eyes (1939), Osborn's Morning's at Seven (1939–40), Two For the Show (1940), and Higher and Higher (1940, 84 performances). None of these

195-411: A graduate programme based on the premise that directors are autodidacts who need as many opportunities to direct as possible. Under Fowler, graduate student directors would stage between five and ten productions during their three-year residencies, with each production receiving detailed critiques. As with many other professions in the performing arts, theatre directors would often learn their skills "on

234-462: A second Oscar nomination for Best Director. He did the movie version of South Pacific (1958). Logan went back to Broadway and directed Blue Denim (1958, 166 performances) and the hugely popular The World of Suzie Wong (1958–1960, 508 performances). He produced Epitaph for George Dillon (1958). Logan returned to Hollywood with Tall Story (1960), which introduced Jane Fonda to movie audiences. Back on Broadway, he directed There Was

273-483: A show has opened (premiered before a regular audience), theatre directors are generally considered to have fulfilled their function. From that point forward the stage manager is left in charge of all essential concerns. Jeep Show A Jeep Show was a Western Front European Theatre of Operations initiative to bring entertainment to rapidly advancing American troops. During the Second World War

312-459: A son, Thomas Heggen Logan. In 2019, Jane Fonda , who starred in Logan's 1960 film Tall Story , claimed both she and Logan were in love with lead actor Anthony Perkins at the time of filming, causing tension during an already difficult shoot. Theatre director If the production is a new piece of writing or a (new) translation of a play, the director may also work with the playwright or

351-469: A translator. In contemporary theatre, after the playwright , the director is generally the principle visionary, making decisions on the artistic conception and interpretation of the play and its staging. Different directors occupy different places of authority and responsibility, depending on the structure and philosophy of individual theatre companies. Directors use a wide variety of techniques, philosophies, and levels of collaboration. In ancient Greece ,

390-463: Is also sometimes used to mean a stage director, most commonly in ballet . A more common term for theatre director in French is metteur en scène . Post World War II , the actor-manager slowly started to disappear, and directing become a fully fledged artistic activity within the theatre profession. The director originating artistic vision and concept, and realizing the staging of a production, became

429-735: Is an art form that has grown with the development of theatre theory and theatre practice. With the emergence of new trends in theatre, so too have directors adopted new methodologies and engaged in new practices. Interpretation of the drama, by the late twentieth century, had become central to the director's work. Relativism and psychoanalytic theory influenced the work of innovative directors such as Peter Brook , Ingmar Bergman , Peter Stein , and Giorgio Strehler . Kimberly Senior, director of Disgraced on Broadway, explains her role as director by saying “I get to take things that were previously in one dimension and put them into three dimensions using my imagination and intellect and people skills.” Once

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468-704: The United Service Organizations and Army's Special Services brought entertainment to American servicemen and women in both the United States and overseas from isolated outposts to military bases near the front lines. However, in late 1944 the American military was advancing through Western Europe so fast that entertainment units could not keep up with them. Major Joshua Logan then an officer in Special Services noted that

507-666: The Yale School of Drama produced a number of pioneering directors with D.F.A. (Doctor of Fine Arts) and M.F.A. degrees in Drama (rather than English) who contributed to the expansion of professional resident theaters in the 1960s and 1970s. In the early days such programmes typically led to the staging of one major thesis production in the third (final) year. At the University of California, Irvine , Keith Fowler (a Yale D.F.A. and ex-producer of two LORT companies) led for many years

546-667: The 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for co-writing South Pacific . The show earned him a Tony Award for Best Director. Despite his contributions to the musical, The New York Times originally omitted his name as co-author, and the Pulitzer Prize committee initially awarded the prize to only Rodgers and Hammerstein. Although the mistakes were corrected, Logan wrote in his autobiography: "I knew then why people fight so hard to have their names in proper type. It's not just ego or 'the principle of

585-662: The 1952 musical Wish You Were Here . After the show was not initially successful, Logan quickly wrote 54 new pages of material, and by the ninth performance, the show looked new. In its fourth week of release, the show sold out, and continued to offer sell-out performances for the next two years. He had another success with Picnic (1953–1954), the play by William Inge , which went for 477 performances. Krasna's Kind Sir (1953–54) lasted 166 performances, and Fanny (1953–1954) which Logan co-wrote, co-produced and directed, ran 888 performances. When director John Ford became sick, Logan reluctantly returned to Hollywood to complete

624-462: The 1970s psychiatrist Ronald R. Fieve treated with lithium , and the two appeared on TV talk shows extolling its virtues. Logan was married briefly (1939–1940) to actress Barbara O'Neil . After the couple divorced, he was married to Nedda Harrigan from 1945 until his death from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) in New York City in 1988; they had a daughter, Susan Harrigan Logan, and

663-643: The 1977 nightclub revue Musical Moments, featuring Logan's most popular Broadway numbers. He published Movie Stars, Real People, and Me in 1978. In 1979, he produced Larry Cohen 's Trick on Broadway. He directed Horowitz and Mrs. Washington (1980), which ran for six performances. From 1983 to 1986, he taught theater at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. He was also responsible for bringing Carol Channing to Broadway in Lend an Ear! . Logan experienced mood fluctuations for many years, which in

702-643: The Army and when in Europe organized " jeep shows " of entertainers serving as soldiers doing their shows near the front lines. When the war concluded, he was discharged with the rank of captain and returned to Broadway . He married his second wife, actress Nedda Harrigan , in 1945; Logan's previous marriage, to actress Barbara O'Neil , a colleague of his at the University Players in the 1930s, had ended in divorce. Logan's directing career resumed with

741-616: The Stage: From Naturalism to Growtowski , and Will's The Director in a Changing Theatre (1976). Because of the relatively late emergence of theatre directing as a performing arts profession when compared with for instance acting or musicianship, a rise of professional vocational training programmes in directing can be seen mostly in the second half of the 20th century. Most European countries nowadays know some form of professional directing training, usually at drama schools or conservatoires , or at universities. In Britain,

780-576: The advancing G.I.s were "never in one place long enough to see a show". He was credited with coming up with the idea of small quick moving entertainment units to entertain at rapid notice called "jeep shows". A jeep show consisted of three unarmed soldier entertainers, often including a serving soldier who had been a well known celebrity from Broadway , Hollywood , the Golden Age of Radio or club entertainment such as Mickey Rooney , Bobby Breen and Red Buttons . The small troupe usually comprised

819-454: The birthplace of European drama, the writer bore principal responsibility for the staging of his plays. Actors were generally semi-professionals, and the director oversaw the mounting of plays from the writing process all the way through to their performance, often acting in them too, as Aeschylus for example did. The author-director would also train the chorus , sometimes compose the music, and supervise every aspect of production. The fact that

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858-563: The director was called didaskalos , the Greek word for "teacher," indicates that the work of these early directors combined instructing their performers with staging their work. In medieval times, the complexity of vernacular religious drama, with its large scale mystery plays that often included crowd scenes, processions and elaborate effects, gave the role of director (or stage manager or pageant master ) considerable importance. A miniature by Jean Fouquet from 1460 (pictured) bears one of

897-504: The earliest depictions of a director at work. Holding a prompt book, the central figure directs, with the aid of a long stick, the proceedings of the staging of a dramatization of the Martyrdom of Saint Apollonia . According to Fouquet, the director's tasks included overseeing the erecting of a stage and scenery (there were no permanent, purpose-built theatre structures at this time, and performances of vernacular drama mostly took place in

936-467: The film Ensign Pulver (1964). After Ready When You Are, C.B.! (1964–1965, 80 performances), he did the movies of Lerner and Loewe 's Camelot (1967) and Paint Your Wagon (1969). Back on Broadway, he did Look to the Lilies (1970, 31 performances). Logan's 1976 autobiography Josh: My Up-and-Down, In-and-Out Life gives a frank account of his bipolar disorder . He appeared with his wife in

975-582: The filming of Mister Roberts (1955). It was a success commercially and critically. Logan directed the film adaptation of his own Picnic (1955), for which Logan received an Oscar nomination. Bus Stop (1956) with Marilyn Monroe , his next movie, was another hit. Logan returned to Broadway, directing Middle of the Night by Paddy Chayefsky , which ran 477 performances. He visited Japan to direct Marlon Brando in Sayonara (1957), which earned him

1014-696: The job"; to this purpose, theatres often employ trainee assistant directors or have in-house education schemes to train young theatre directors. Examples are the Royal National Theatre in London , which frequently organizes short directing courses, or the Orange Tree Theatre and the Donmar Warehouse on London's West End , which both employ resident assistant directors on a one-year basis for training purposes. Directing

1053-502: The musical Annie Get Your Gun (1946–49), which ran for 1,147 performances. He followed it with Anita Loos ' Happy Birthday (1948, 563 performances), and Norman Krasna 's John Loves Mary (1948–49, 423 performances). Logan's golden run continued with Mister Roberts (1948–1951) which he co-wrote as well as directed; it ran for 1157 performances and earned him a Tony Award. Then he directed and co-wrote South Pacific (1949–54), which went for 1,925 performances. Logan shared

1092-432: The norm rather than the exception. Great forces in the emancipation of theatre directing as a profession were notable 20th-century theatre directors like Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko , Vsevolod Meyerhold , Yevgeny Vakhtangov , Michael Chekhov , Yuri Lyubimov (Russia), Orson Welles , Peter Brook , Peter Hall (Britain), Bertolt Brecht (Germany), Giorgio Strehler , and Franco Zeffirelli (Italy). A cautionary note

1131-412: The open air), casting and directing the actors (which included fining them for those that infringed rules), and addressing the audience at the beginning of each performance and after each intermission. From Renaissance times up until the 19th century, the role of director was often carried by the actor-manager . This would usually be a senior actor in a troupe who took the responsibility for choosing

1170-623: The rehearsals of Konstantin Stanislavski , and Logan left school without a diploma. Logan began his Broadway career as an actor in Carry Nation in 1932. He was also in I Was Waiting for You (1933). He then spent time in London, where he staged two productions and directed a touring revival of Camille . He also worked as an assistant stage manager. Back on Broadway he staged It's You I Want (1935) and To See Ourselves (1935) and

1209-543: The repertoire of work, staging it and managing the company. This was the case for instance with Commedia dell'Arte companies and English actor-managers like Colley Cibber and David Garrick . The modern theatre director can be said to have originated in the staging of elaborate spectacles of the Meininger Company under George II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen . The management of large numbers of extras and complex stagecraft matters necessitated an individual to take on

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1248-634: The role of overall coordinator. This gave rise to the role of the director in modern theatre, and Germany would provide a platform for a generation of emerging visionary theatre directors, such as Erwin Piscator and Max Reinhardt . Simultaneously, Constantin Stanislavski , principally an actor-manager, would set up the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia and similarly emancipate the role of the director as artistic visionary. The French regisseur

1287-523: The setting for his play The Wisteria Trees . Logan's mother remarried six years after his father's death and he then attended Culver Military Academy in Culver , Indiana , where his stepfather served on the staff as a teacher. At school, he experienced his first drama class and felt at home. After his high school graduation he attended Princeton University , here he was active in the Triangle Club,

1326-413: The thing,' it's possibly another job or a better salary. It's reassurance. My name had been so minimized that I lived through years of having people praise South Pacific in my presence without knowing I had had anything to do with it." Logan wrote, produced and directed The Wisteria Tree (1950), an adaptation of The Cherry Orchard , which was a minor success. Logan cowrote, coproduced, and directed

1365-536: The tradition that theatre directors emerge from degree courses (usually in English literature) at the Oxbridge universities has meant that for a long time, professional vocational training did not take place at drama schools or performing arts colleges, although an increase in training programmes for theatre directors can be witnessed since the 1970s and 1980s. In American universities, the seminal directing program at

1404-486: The university’s venerable musical theatre troupe. Moreover, he was involved with the intercollegiate summer stock company, known as the University Players , with fellow student James Stewart and also non-students Henry Fonda and Margaret Sullavan . During his senior year, he served as president of the Princeton Triangle Club . Before his graduation, he won a scholarship to travel to Moscow to observe

1443-551: Was a break-out success but his revival of Charley's Aunt (1940–41) went for 233 performances, and the Hart-Rodgers musical By Jupiter (1942–43) with Ray Bolger went for 427 performances. In 1942, Logan was drafted by the U.S. Army . During his service in World War II , he acted as a public-relations and intelligence officer . Logan was selected to become an assistant director of Irving Berlin 's This Is

1482-473: Was introduced by the famed director Sir Tyrone Guthrie who said "the only way to learn how to direct a play, is ... to get a group of actors simple enough to allow you to let you direct them, and direct." A number of seminal works on directing and directors include Toby Cole and Helen Krich's 1972 Directors on Directing: A Sourcebook of the Modern Theatre , Edward Braun's 1982 book The Director and

1521-582: Was stage manager for Most of the Game (1935). He staged Hell Freezes Over (1935–36) and returned to acting with A Room in Red and White (1936). He went to Hollywood where he did some dialogue directing on The Garden of Allah (1936), History Is Made at Night (1937), and Suez (1938). Logan was given the chance to co-direct the feature film I Met My Love Again (1938) for Walter Wanger . Logan returned to Broadway where he had his first major success as

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