I have started to rework Hamlet in my head as a possible production for the 2010 season. I stopped on the 2008 possibility because I didn't want to do a large scale with excellent principals but shakier acting lower down in the production. My thoughts are working on the idea of what is the smallest cast one can do Hamlet with. One obviously needs a Hamlet but it seems to me that every other part can be doubled or tripled up so that is what I am investigating. I am also working out whether the two actresses playing Ophelia and Gertrude could play male parts elsewhere - in which case couldn't more of the parts be played by women. Alternatively though why not have an all male cast as per Shakespeare's day?
I have also been thinking about "Coriolanus" because one of my favourite actors said he was interested in playing the lead. I remember seeing Ian Richardson play the part in a RSC production at Stratford or the Aldwych many moons ago in tanned body make up and a blonde wig. I think he was killed by a shield press of body length shields and being totally surrounded. Is it "Coriolanus" where Olivier was killed atop an arch several feet above the stage? He allowed himself to fall forward off the arch and two actors had to catch his ankles so he swung upside down in the archway. I think this is a story told by the young Edward Petherbridge who said it was a heavy responsibility to catch the greatest English stage actor of his and probably all time. Olivier refused a safety harness.
Saturday, 27 December 2008
Three quarter profile
I tried to explain to the beautiful Julie one night backstage on "The Wind in the Willows" about three quarter profile. Trying to do it in the semi darkness of the studio was a mistake as conversing in whispers is difficult enough but Julie didn't have the slightest idea what I was on about. The strange thing was that at the next performance she shifted her position onstage in relation to me and achieved the effect I was after. I put it down to the fact that she may have not understood the theatrical jargon I was using but applied her dancer's mind to what I had identified as a problem and arrived at the solution.
Acting in a small stage makes inexperienced actors play too much to the other actors rather than to the audience. In film or television the camera would be situated so that the audience can see the actor's face. However in the theatre the audience is static in their seats and it is the actor who has to be careful to include them.
In the scene referred to in the first paragraph I was downstage of the slim svelte Julie. It was lovely getting the full effect of her performance and a more selfish actor would have settled for Julie pushing herself up against him and looking directly into his eyes. However this saintly older actor wanted the audience to see her as well. The advice goes: "If you can't see the audience, they can't see you". Some actors are timid and will actually avoid the audience at all costs and sometimes achieve this effect by turning their back on the audience or hiding upstage of larger bulkier actors like yours truly. The trick is to cheat the body position so it feels like you are standing toe to toe but to cheat the downstage foot down and out, thereby opening up the body. This is called three quarter profile and means the majority of the audience can see more of your face than just a sharp profile. Julie obviously worked out the solution because she is a dancer and opening out the body is a phrase that dancers must have in their vocabulary. Anyway the scene as the car salesman confronted Badger worked successfully every time and got big laughs because Julie's physical reaction of dejection was so comical. However I think my suggestion also made it clearer viewing for more of the audience.
Acting in a small stage makes inexperienced actors play too much to the other actors rather than to the audience. In film or television the camera would be situated so that the audience can see the actor's face. However in the theatre the audience is static in their seats and it is the actor who has to be careful to include them.
In the scene referred to in the first paragraph I was downstage of the slim svelte Julie. It was lovely getting the full effect of her performance and a more selfish actor would have settled for Julie pushing herself up against him and looking directly into his eyes. However this saintly older actor wanted the audience to see her as well. The advice goes: "If you can't see the audience, they can't see you". Some actors are timid and will actually avoid the audience at all costs and sometimes achieve this effect by turning their back on the audience or hiding upstage of larger bulkier actors like yours truly. The trick is to cheat the body position so it feels like you are standing toe to toe but to cheat the downstage foot down and out, thereby opening up the body. This is called three quarter profile and means the majority of the audience can see more of your face than just a sharp profile. Julie obviously worked out the solution because she is a dancer and opening out the body is a phrase that dancers must have in their vocabulary. Anyway the scene as the car salesman confronted Badger worked successfully every time and got big laughs because Julie's physical reaction of dejection was so comical. However I think my suggestion also made it clearer viewing for more of the audience.
Monday, 15 December 2008
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Theatrical customs
In preparation for Badger in "Wind in the Willows" at the Havant Arts Centre, I was called upon to explain to a young actor why we don't whistle in the theatre. I am not particularly superstitious except when I am in the theatre. One of the reasons given for the birth of this particular superstition was that early stage-hands in the London theatres, especially Drury Lane, were often hired from a nautical background. In early theatrical work, a lot of effects were achieved by ropes, pulleys and hoists and to this day the lighting grids, etc, are referred to as rigging. We talk about "rigging the lights" for example. Therefore, the hiring of sailors, both merchant and navy, was a logical source for the skilled work needed in the theatres of those days. The control of work done in the rigging of sailing ships, and transferred to the theatres, was exercised by whistles. A whistling actor could therefore be seen as interfering with the smooth running of the backstage effects and would actively be discouraged by stage management and crew. (Note again that backstage workers and management are referred to as "crew" - another nautical reference). There has always been a bit of a divide between "techies" (technical crew) and "luvvies" (actors), mainly because the latter believe the theatre was created for them and the former believe they do all the real hard work to enable the latter to 'ponce about' on stage. I can imagine the discouragement given to the whistling actor being reinforced by large and heavy objects falling from above - hopefully but not necessarily missing the errant actor.
Actors wish each other to "break a leg" before each performance. This sounds rather malicious but is in fact meant well. A leg, in this case, applied to a drop curtain controlled by ropes (see above) and the stage manager. This small curtain would be raised and lowered at the curtain call in response to the applause of the audience. It was hard work and the wish was that the small curtain would break so tumultuous would have been the applause. It is just a way of wishing that another actor does so well he or she is subjected tyo the fulsome approval of the audience.
David Penrose, playing the Chief Weasel in "Wind in the Willows", came up with a witty variation on the "break a leg" phrase when he wished Toad (Mark Wakeman) to "break a grenouille". I laughed uproariously as I am wont to do at David's utterances!
Actors wish each other to "break a leg" before each performance. This sounds rather malicious but is in fact meant well. A leg, in this case, applied to a drop curtain controlled by ropes (see above) and the stage manager. This small curtain would be raised and lowered at the curtain call in response to the applause of the audience. It was hard work and the wish was that the small curtain would break so tumultuous would have been the applause. It is just a way of wishing that another actor does so well he or she is subjected tyo the fulsome approval of the audience.
David Penrose, playing the Chief Weasel in "Wind in the Willows", came up with a witty variation on the "break a leg" phrase when he wished Toad (Mark Wakeman) to "break a grenouille". I laughed uproariously as I am wont to do at David's utterances!
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