A better direction

This thesis interrogates the figure of the autocratic director by tracing the patterns by which they become autocratic, and contextualizing each pattern in order to establish the notion that directors always exist in relationships to their context. Directors, I argue, are always co-laboring, co-training and co-creating with the rest of their companies. The research draws from historical documents, contemporary feminist theory, and theatre studies literature, in order to analyze case studies from productions directed at the University of Texas at Austin