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.