Watch the listener

I was impressed by a Sky Arts 1 television production of "In the Company of Actors". It was the transfer of a Sydney Theatre company production of "Hedda Gabler" with Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The programme was an interesting look at the rehearsal process and would make a terrific Club Night for the Bench Theatre. Robyn Nevin, the STC Artistic Director, directed both the original production and the transfer to America. She made a number of telling comments about being pedantic about the script, about listening to the rhythm of the lines and insisting that the actors adhere to the words in the text. She also commented that when the books were down she would inevitably watch the actors listening on stage rather than the actors speaking. She found that their concentration and reactions in responding to the speeches were telling and uplifting.
In amateur acting actors without words to say sometimes see themselves as lesser roles as a consequence. I can remember at one workshop two actresses playing Gwendolen and Cecily in "Importance of Being Earnest" (not the ones in the final production I hasten to add) trying very hard not to impinge on the scene or the speeches of the young men, who are given all the words. I had to point out that these two young women were the whole reason for the scene and for the young men's speeches. Their reactions were paramount and of far greater importance than what the young men were saying. Actors sometimes need reminding to ask themselves why the writer wanted them on stage in this particular scene. Sometimes their presence is why the scene was written and that their reaction makes or breaks the scene. This is easier to understand if you are the lead character but are not given words in a particular scene. However this can be equally true of a smaller role and an ill-judged or badly thought out reaction can ruin a scene.