Debbie's approach also foregrounded the importance of acknowledging the lived realities that performers bring into the rehearsal room. As she explains, 'We're going to be in a room where we acknowledge the realities of having bodies' (Waugh, 2023, p.131). Rather than treating accessibility as an additional consideration, this philosophy positions it as a fundamental aspect of collaborative practice. It creates space for performers to articulate what they need on any given day, recognising that physical, emotional and cognitive needs are neither fixed nor uniform. This has significantly shaped my own methodology, reinforcing the belief that creating an environment in which people feel seen and supported is not separate from artistic rigour but enables it. By acknowledging that we are all human, with needs that fluctuate throughout a rehearsal process, I have come to understand care as an active rehearsal practice rather than simply an ethical principle.

Further I feel that my practice has developed through the use of play within a rehearsal room, as directors I think we often want to see a linear progression throughout a rehearsal progress, an idea which is far from accurate for many shows. Throughout my own processes this year I employed a variety of methods of play into my rehearsal process, inspired by the work we did with Ned Bennett. Ned demonstrated to us how we can utilise play as a form of investigation and encourage actors to remain playful, rather than making fixed choices too early. One of the most useful methods of Ned’s work was his Points of Concentration, an idea that encouraged performers to constantly return to their given circumstances through embodied exploration. Rather than allowing scenes to become fixed, the shifting points of focus required actors to actively reengage with objectives, relationships and spatial awareness each time the scene was revisited with a new point of concentration introduced. I found this particularly valuable because it resisted the tendency for rehearsals to become mechanical, instead keeping the work alive through continual rediscovery. Even though on the surface this exercise feels rooted in play, it quickly becomes quite analytical and allows us to encourage instinctual responses, to then later be grounded in certainty. I have adopted a similar outlook in my rehearsal rooms, using play to investigate and generate discoveries that can later be refined. I personally find the elements of creativity within play reduces the over intellectualising of acting, which I can find sometimes obstructs interesting choices being made.

Another technique I have developed into my approach, learnt from Ned Bennett, is his use of Headlines and Perspectives. Rather than encouraging actors to arrive at a single interpretation of a character, they prompt continual reassessment, revealing contradictions, shifting allegiances and hidden motivations. The use of the perspectives exercise allows the actors to embody the character without being attached to scene work. This aligns closely with my own belief that directing should create opportunities for enquiry rather than certainty. I was particularly drawn to how embodied this method was in its use. The investigations often occupied an ambiguous space between dance and conflict, creating movement that resisted categorisation while exposing the changing power dynamics between characters. Rather than illustrating emotion, movement became another form of dramaturgical thinking, allowing relationships to be discovered physically before they were articulated verbally. This has had a lasting influence on my own directing practice, particularly in If the Cap Fits You, where movement emerged through exploratory rehearsal as a means of uncovering behaviour, memory and relationship, rather than serving as decorative choreography. Perhaps most significantly, Ned revisits these exercises throughout the rehearsal process rather than treating them as preliminary exploration. Returning to them after scenes have developed prevents performances from becoming habitual, reminding actors to continually question their choices rather than preserve them. This has influenced the way I now structure rehearsals, recognising that investigation should not conclude once blocking has been established but remain an ongoing process until performance. For me, curiosity is therefore not simply the starting point of rehearsal, but the principle that sustains it.