Peter's Brook letter

from "I Try to Answer a Letter" , The Shifting Point (1987)

"Dear Mr Howe,

Your letter comes out of the blue and puts me on the spot.

You ask how to become a director.

Directors in theatre are self-appointed. An unemployed director is a contradiction in terms, like an unemployed painter – unlike an unemployed actor, who is a victim of circumstances. You become a director by calling yourself a director and you then persuade other people that this is true. So, in a way getting work is a problem that has to be solved with the same skills and resources that you need in rehearsal. I don't know any other way other than convincing people to work with you and getting some work under way – even unpaid – and presenting it to the public – in a cellar, in the back room of a pub, in a hospital ward, in a prison. The energy produced by working is more important than anything else.

So don't let anything stop you from being active., even in the most primitive conditions., rather than wasting time looking for something in better conditions that might not come off. In the end, work attracts work.

Yours sincerely,

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Yeah... that's just about what I'm doing.