12 Shows. 14 Hours. One Director. No Safety net.

Director’s Cut: The Marathon is an all-day, twelve-show live directing event that demonstrates what directing can look like when rehearsal leadership is transparent, collaborative, and rooted in emotional intelligence. Over fourteen hours, director Andrew Roblyer works with rotating ensembles of Houston actors to build a new four-minute scene each hour. At the start of every session, the audience chooses which of three possible scenes—comedy, drama, classical text, or new work—will be directed in real time.

The format reveals the parts of directing that are normally hidden: how a director reads a scene quickly, identifies its engine, collaborates with actors, and makes practical choices about pacing, relationship, and tone. Because nothing is prepared in advance, each session becomes its own experiment in clarity, communication, and adaptability. Patterns emerge across the day, illustrating how directing is not mysterious inspiration but a repeatable practice that changes depending on the ensemble, the text, and the conditions of the room.

This marathon builds on the version of Director’s Cut Roblyer toured to four fringe festivals across the country, expanding the form into a larger demonstration of process under sustained pressure. The event also marks the public release of new chapters of Deconstructing Directing which offer a structural rethinking of directing pedagogy for community, educational, and early-career environments.

Audience members can attend single shows, multiple hours throughout the day, or follow the entire fourteen-hour arc in person or via livestream.

1. A Theatrical First While theatre marathons and 24-hour play festivals exist, a continuous 14-hour live directing marathon has never been documented in theatre history. This is an unprecedented endurance event where a single director publicly tests their craft against the clock, twelve times in a row.

2. Invisible Labor Made Visible Directing is arguably the most critical yet least understood role in theatre because the work happens behind closed doors. Director’s Cut: The Marathon removes the privacy of the rehearsal room, allowing the public to witness exactly how artistic decisions are made, how actors are guided, and how a scene is built from scratch.

3. A New Model for Training This event challenges the "visionary genius" myth of directing. By demonstrating that directing is a repeatable, learnable practice rooted in specific tools (facilitation, emotional intelligence, and shared language), the marathon proposes a more transparent and equitable model for training the next generation of directors.

4. Houston as an Innovation Hub Featuring a rotating cast of 25+ local actors, this event highlights the depth and agility of Houston’s theatre community. It positions the city not just as a tour stop, but as a laboratory for experimental, boundary-pushing performance work.

Andrew Roblyer (they/he) is a Houston-based theatre director, educator, and the creator of Deconstructing Directing, a framework that reexamines how directors are trained and how rehearsal rooms can function with greater clarity, emotional intelligence, and shared power. Their work centers on upstream theatre ecosystems: community, educational, and early-career environments where most directors begin but where structured training is rare.

Roblyer holds an MFA in Theatre (Directing) from Randolph College, where their research focused on transparent, repeatable, teachable directing practice that views kindness as strategic . Their live-directing format, Director’s Cut, has toured to four fringe festivals across the country, developing a reputation for real-time clarity, adaptability, and strong ensemble collaboration. Through directing, teaching, and the continued expansion of Deconstructing Directing, Roblyer’s work aims to reshape how directors learn, lead, and support the artists in the room.

Deconstructing Directing is a practice-based framework that rethinks how directors are trained and supported, particularly in community, educational, and early-career environments where structured directing education is often limited or inconsistent. Built around clarity, emotional intelligence, and transparent rehearsal practice, it outlines concrete tools for facilitating scenes, shaping process, and managing the interpersonal dynamics that influence performance.

The project includes written chapters, video demonstrations, live-directing events, and practical resources that break the craft into accessible, repeatable skills. With the release of Act 3, Act 4, and Side Act 1 in January 2026, Deconstructing Directing continues its effort to provide directors with a more equitable, sustainable, and clearly articulated model for learning and leading in the rehearsal room.