Once eloquent on paper, a playwright has license to be stammering or dumb. Some writers become so wound up in their material that they find their own plays inexplicable. Flexibility of mind and a desire to render human experience in theatrical form drive the best directors. If the work isn't fed by the director's search for meaning, the production made will be a rarefied aesthetic object with no value. Good directors read the newspaper.
Good directors are also introspective.
Since they assume responsibility for communicating the necessities of the play to all involved, good directors must acknowledge their own inadequacies when communication breaks down. The alternate route, finding then shifting blame, doesn't work. Directing will daily confront you with your human shortcomings, and you must embrace the challenge of self-evolution. Someone once told me that a director needs to have healthy ego. You will be required to see four productions as part of the coursework for this class.