Dramatis Personae

Another thing I have found in community theater is the inexplicable phenomenon of people calling each other by their character names. Sometimes this happens when actors have never met each other before, sometimes it happens months after a show closes. It's a pet peeve of mine. I have a name. And it's not Abigail Williams or Corrie Bratter or any other character I've played.



I do find it acceptable when a director is in the middle of giving notes, because he's watching you portray your character, and he wants a certain something from the character, and doesn't necessarily mean the actor.



But once, two months after Steel Magnolias closed, the producer called me "Shelby". I tried to politely tell her that Shelby was my character, not my name.

The worst is when people, and I mean co-actors in the show with you, confuse you the person with your character. When I did The Crucible, castmembers actually asked me if I was sleeping with the actor playing John Proctor. And they called me a whore. REALLY?! That's my character.........If you can't tell the difference between reality and fantasy, between me the person and the character whose lines I'm reading off a page....maybe you should find a new hobby. Sorry to bitch, but it gets my goat. Please don't confuse me with the fictional character I'm portraying onstage for two hours a night.

It's the same as when, watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, someone says, "It's Edward Cullen!!" No. It's not. It's an actor named Robert Pattinson, and he's portraying a character named Cedric Diggory at the moment. Gyuh.


So I guess what I'm saying is, do your friends in your cast a favor and learn their name, and call them that when they're not onstage ;)

Line!

During rehearsals, sometimes we all forget our lines. It happens. It's part of the learning process. There comes a point in the rehearsal procdess when you try, or have, to be off book. And sometimes you need help remembering what you're supposed to say. At such times the correct etiquette for asking the bookholder to tell you your line is to freeze in your position and say:

"Line."

That's not "What the fuck is my line?" or "Oh! Oh! I know it...it's uhm.......What is it?" or the ever popular "Don't tell me....don't tell me...." It's "Line." Pure and simple. Don't look at the bookholder, because then you're breaking character further and it's harder to get back into the emotion of the scene you and your partners have been working on. Then you say your line and go back to the scene.

It is also very nice to thank the bookholder at the end of rehearsal. Not in the middle of your scene. Rehearsal is a time for rehearsing. And that means staying in your character when you're onstage. Which is why you make no fuss about asking for your lines. I know it's embarrassing. I've been there with the forgetting my line. But it's no big deal, and just get back to your acting.

Also, as a bookholder, it sucks to hear all those things up there "Oh ..it's something like....what is it?" No. I'll give you your line when you calmly say "Line." We don't mind telling you. Really. That's why we're on book. But I really don't like babying you by giving you your line unless you ask for it properly. It's just courteous to not make a big fuss and fluster your co-actors, getting them out of character and breaking the energy of the scene.

More importantly, this is a universal request word. Not every stage manager knows when you really want your line, and when you'll push on and fight your way through the scene. Sometimes you're pausing for dramatic effect. Sometimes it's on the tip of your tongue and you'll get it. There's really nothing more frustrating for an actor who's trying her best to fight her way through a scene and not break emotional continuity than for a bookholder to butt in and say, "No, your line is..." It really takes the actors out of their emotional groove.

So for bookholders: Don't give the line unless they say....what is it? Say it with me, "Line."

So. Now we know, and knowing is half the battle.

Second Most Important Lesson

I was doing a production of Barefoot in the Park in 2004 (maybe 2003). And we were blocking a scene where my character is supposed to be seducing her husband. So I asked the director if I could take my shirt off. And he said, "Why?" And I said, "Well because Jane Fonda did in the movie." And he replied,



"If the audience wants to see Jane Fonda they can rent the movie. They're paying to see you."



Wow. That hit me. As an actress, you should never try to copy someone else's performance. If the audience is expecting Jane Fonda in BITP, they should just go watch the movie. Or Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music, or anyone else. They've come to see a live performance, with entirely different actors and an entirely different director on a stage, not a movie set. It won't be the same, it can't be the same, nor should it be the same. That's the beauty of live theater. It's always different from production to production, company to company and even night to night. It's live.

But most importantly: It's you. You, whoever you are, bring so many different qualities to the table than [insert famous actress' name here]. You're not her, and therefore can't portray the character like her. You have different life experiences, are coming at the script from a different place inyour life. And why should you just want to copy? a) Where's the fun in that? b) Where's the growth in that? Oh, you can copy someone famous' performance. Grrrrreeeeat. That doesn't take talent. Be creative. Be yourself.

I can't tell you how many times while I was doing The Crucible, that people told me "Oh, you'll be a great Abigail! You look just like Winona Rider."

Uhm. Wow. Smack in the face much? So I have no talent of my own, I just happen to look like someone who played this character once? Thanks. For nothing. I went on to make the character my own, and politely told those people to eff off. Those are the type of audience members who wouldn't understand the art of theater anyway.

And just for the record...

I'm an actress. With an "ess". I'm a female. I don't dig that PC crap of everyone being actors. I'm a woman, I'll take the female ending of the word thankyouverymuch. I also curtsy when I take my curtain call. Unless I'm wearing pants. Then I bow. Cause a curtsy in pants looks silly.

Corpsing

I just this week discovered the term corpsing, even though I may have done it onstage once or twice in my time.

Corpsing is when you break character onstage and wind up laughing, causing another actor to laugh. Apparently, thanks to Wikipedia, the BBC attributes this to an actor once playing a dead person onstage, but laughed and so obviously showed the audience he was alive. Oopsies.

I thought about posting this topic, because I saw Stephen Colbert break character on his show this week and it cracked me up. For a great audio example of corpsing, check out this clip from the BBC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UvzHkqarPk

Most memorably this happened to me during two closing night performances. I was doing The Hollow in 2002 and an actress onstage with me changed her line to say "Don't you know that's the only way with Edward? Stand on a table and shout! Unbutton your blouse!" The last sentence had been added for my benefit, as an inside joke between us. And I tried to keep it together, but would up covering my laughter in my hands and turning my back to her as I got control of myself again. Yes, the audience noticed.

Another closing night performance this past summer of Lend Me a Tenor had most of us onstage cracking up, and there was no way to hide it. If you've never seen the show, two actors are in blackface make up as part of the central plot. Well closing night one of the actors hugged an actress in the final scene, smearing his make up onto her. When she reeled around to face me, as part of her blocking, she, I and the actress next to me just couldn't keep straight faces. And as I remember we laughed our way through the end of the scene. Most unprofessional, but hysterical. The audience loved it.

Theater 101

So the very first lesson I ever learned in theater when I did Oklahoma! back in 1994 and I was a lowly chorus girl was: Never let the audience see you in costume.

I don't understand why people think it's ok to hang out in the house after a show (and I mean the theater house, not your own living room) in costume chatting with friends. The whole point of being in a show is to portray someone else. It's not you onstage, you're playing another person. And the whole point the audience has come to the show is to see characters, not people they know onstage. (Yes, they've come to see their friend Joe Schmo, but they've come to see their friend act, not be Joe Shmo onstage. Big difference.) So putting on the costume and make up changes you from Joe Schmo into whoever you're playing. So TAKE IT OFF before you go see your friends and family after the performance! The costume and make up and wig create a mystique. They separate the fantasy from reality. So if before a show, or during intermission, the audience sees you in costume, you've completely blown the fantasy world for them.

This is why I ABHORE those closing nights, walk-off-stage-chat-with-the-audience things. And it's why I WILL NOT talk to you before a show if I'm in costume. Also, if I am visiting a friend in a show, I don't want to see her in costume either! Keep it together until afterwards and we'll go out and have a drink and chat. But until then let's all remember why we are in theater in the first place, and separate our characters from ourselves and the imaginary from reality.

Prologue

Hullo All,

Soooooooo I thought I'd delve into the world of blogging; it is the 21st Century and all that. This is really just for me. I've been thinking for a while of starting a theater notebook or dictionary. A place where I can keep definitions of theater terms I come across and don't understand, so I define them and keep them all in one place. And why not keep it online? Yeah, sure why not. No sense in wasting paper.

A little about me. I've been working in (mostly bad) community theater for 16 years now. Every so often I find myself in a gem, where we are all really in the moment and feeling real feelings onstage and it's magic. But mostly, it's laissez faire "oh-its-just-comunity-theater" crap that honest to god working people PAY for. Maybe after 16 years I'm a little jaded and bitter. I'll admit that. It sucks putting real effort into coming up with a character and working my heart out for a show that other people just sort of go through the motions on. But anyway...I digress.

So I thought I'd compile some lessons I've learned over the years. Thoughts. And yes, some definitions of theater terms I've come across.

Aaaaand...places.