Week 12
As we get towards the end of the rehearsal period, we get to ‘the runs’. No, that’s not the panic-stricken actors’ response to an impending opening night, but to a period when we start putting everything together, rather like a jigsaw puzzle.
For the last three months we’ve been working at fleshing out the characters, building convincing relationships between them, tracing their emotional journeys from beginning to end of the play, shaping the story, making sure the climaxes come at the right time.. Now it’s time to draw all those threads together, to see the picture as a whole.
Many actors – and even more directors – seem to forget what a play is actually there for. It’s not there to make the actor look good, or to feed the director’s ego: it’s there to entertain the audience. And, in order to do that, you have to draw them into your world, to make them believe what they’re seeing on the stage.
Think of it. There you are, sitting surrounded by other people, looking at a stage. You can see some of the stage lighting. You know that the pillars flanking the ballroom are actually made of polystyrene. You recognise the aristocratic Lord at the centre of the action: you were down the pub with him last weekend..
But, somehow, we’ve got to make you see a 19th Century ballroom, with a real-life drama being acted out in it. A marriage about to fail, a young woman about to destroy her life, a despised woman acting nobly, young bloods being oh so witty. Most of all, we’ve got to make you care what happens.
When kids in a pantomime audience shout out ‘Behind you!’, it’s because they care. They genuinely want to warn the hero/heroine that they’re in danger. It’s not so easy once those kids have grown up.
But that’s what we’ve got to achieve. We’ve got to spin a web and lure the audience into it. We’ve got to create an illusion. And the slightest error will destroy that illusion.
So, for the last two weeks, rehearsals are conducted under performance conditions. No prompts, no stoppages – and no excuses.
Yes, it’ll be all right on the night. Because we’ve made sure it’s already all right two weeks before we open.
.
As we get towards the end of the rehearsal period, we get to ‘the runs’. No, that’s not the panic-stricken actors’ response to an impending opening night, but to a period when we start putting everything together, rather like a jigsaw puzzle.
For the last three months we’ve been working at fleshing out the characters, building convincing relationships between them, tracing their emotional journeys from beginning to end of the play, shaping the story, making sure the climaxes come at the right time.. Now it’s time to draw all those threads together, to see the picture as a whole.
Many actors – and even more directors – seem to forget what a play is actually there for. It’s not there to make the actor look good, or to feed the director’s ego: it’s there to entertain the audience. And, in order to do that, you have to draw them into your world, to make them believe what they’re seeing on the stage.
Think of it. There you are, sitting surrounded by other people, looking at a stage. You can see some of the stage lighting. You know that the pillars flanking the ballroom are actually made of polystyrene. You recognise the aristocratic Lord at the centre of the action: you were down the pub with him last weekend..
But, somehow, we’ve got to make you see a 19th Century ballroom, with a real-life drama being acted out in it. A marriage about to fail, a young woman about to destroy her life, a despised woman acting nobly, young bloods being oh so witty. Most of all, we’ve got to make you care what happens.
When kids in a pantomime audience shout out ‘Behind you!’, it’s because they care. They genuinely want to warn the hero/heroine that they’re in danger. It’s not so easy once those kids have grown up.
But that’s what we’ve got to achieve. We’ve got to spin a web and lure the audience into it. We’ve got to create an illusion. And the slightest error will destroy that illusion.
So, for the last two weeks, rehearsals are conducted under performance conditions. No prompts, no stoppages – and no excuses.
Yes, it’ll be all right on the night. Because we’ve made sure it’s already all right two weeks before we open.
.
posted by oxford theatre guild at 2:18 PM
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