In relation to a theatre performance, stage directions are one of the most important means by which the authors of dramatic texts can convey the non-spoken events on stage. In contrast to character speeches, stage directions are in most cases not vocally realised by the actors on stage. They become perceptible in their transformed form - conveyed by the production - in the stage, costume and lighting design as well as in technical processes, choreographies and other physical actions of the stage personnel. 

Precisely because the literary-dramatic text cannot determine the exact manner of its transformation into the performance medium, it is always open to new approaches and actualisations. This is not the only reason why it is problematic to limit the status of stage directions to an 'instructional act'. The degree of obligation of the information in this textual space is indeterminate.

Text by Serge Honegger: Excerpt from the study «Lenkung und Ablenkung» (Control and Deflection), Schwabe-Verlag Basel, 2019, p. 11 and 19