<P> 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 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 . </P> <P> 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 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 . </P> <P> The French regisseur 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 . </P> <P> 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 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). </P>

When did the position of the director become a part of the theater