Director Andrew Roblyer to Host First-Ever 14-Hour Live Directing Marathon

Houston-based director Andrew Roblyer will attempt a theatrical first: twelve consecutive live directing sessions across a fourteen-hour marathon, each built from scratch in front of a live audience. The event, titled Director's Cut: The Marathon, is a high-stakes endurance experiment designed to reveal and challenge the directing process in real time. Every hour, a new group of two or three Houston actors joins Roblyer onstage. The audience selects one of three possible four-minute scenes - comedy, drama, classical text, or new work - and Roblyer must shape the entire approach on the spot. No rehearsal. No repeated concepts. No safety net.

Director’s Cut: The Marathon will take place on January 24, 2026, at Studio 101 at Spring Street Studios. Directed by Andrew Roblyer and featuring rotating ensembles of Houston actors, the event spans 12 shows over 14 hours.

This format has no known precedent in the theatre world. It is part performance, part stress test, and part masterclass. Roblyer is recognized for his open-access educational project Deconstructing Directing, which challenges the secrecy traditionally surrounding directorial work. Director's Cut: The Marathon raises the stakes by taking the craft out of the rehearsal room and into full public view. Across twelve iterations, audiences witness how a director analyzes text instantly, collaborates with new actors under pressure, adjusts for genre, and makes substantive choices in minutes. "This is the work audiences never get to see," says Roblyer. "Directing shapes everything onstage, but it's almost always invisible. The Marathon turns the process itself into the event."