Via Theatreport - which is a site in Houston for Theatre or Theater or people who like to argue about soul vs. entertainment and the like...
but this bit from"licketysplit" is right on...
"Brushing teeth" is a common daily text we can all understand. We all do it, repeatedly...yet we never do it the same way twice, not ever.
The same can be applied to the process of "playing".
No matter the text. You learn it, you know it and you execute it, but each time should be as fresh as the last and as full of possibility as the next. It is this possibility, this breath of living truth that captivates the audience and keeps them from being bored, no matter the script, no matter the setting.
All you need is circumstance, action, emotion, something to play. Play truthfully, allow for discovery, allow for sensate experience rather than pre-rehearsed fake behavior, and you will succeed in "catching" the spectators.
but then again so is this bit from TDU's own Jmiller:
No really..stop doing crap plays. Sure acting is important...we are lost and swimming in a sea of sh*t when it comes to acting. We get it. That argument doesn't really say jack about the fact that we are doing crap scripts. Take a look at the front of this site. See all the crap? Do you see it? Glaring at you like a big poop stain on your kitchen floor? How can you miss it? Take a look at Texas Rep's season and DON'T DO THAT. That's what we are talking about here.
I'm not saying I'm an expert I've only directed one play,
and acted in handful,
but it seems to me a good script
inspires actors and makes,
if not bad acting harder,
at least good acting easier.
and other than that I'm just gonna keep quiet and go back
to watching the show!
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4 comments:
My two cents. Bad acting can easily destroy the greatest of scripts. I've suffered through more than my fair share of marvelous scripts that are so poorly executed that I wanted to hang myself rather than continue watching. A University of Texas production of King Lear I saw in the early 90s was one of the most painful experiences I've ever endured. The greatest of actors, however, can turn the shittiest soap opera scripts into something worth watching. A great actor can always find the conflict, always make sparks fly, always do something interesting as long as he's got another actor up there with him who's willing make contact and go for the ride. Really, you don't even need a script if you're committed to living some real life onstage. And that's always going to be interesting and cool.
To me the biggest problem with acting isn't scripts. It's actors all so caught up in their method thing that they aren't really paying attention to the single biggest source of artistic inspiration an actor can find: other actors onstage with them. That's what it's all about, the connection between real live human beings, and riding it like a runaway train.
sure, right...
but why start with a bad script when you dont' have to?
when there's beckett, ionesco, rice, albee, lisa d'amour, and charles mee (who is just giving his stuff away), etc...
why, when there are hundreds, if not thousands of good to great scripts out there do people produce bad ones?
if yr going to do a bad script at least make sure it's a new one...
some untested playwright gaining his or her sealegs...
oh yeah, and yr right, in my limited experience it's all about being there with the other actors and responding to them...
everything else is icing on the cake...
did a lot of background work on a character once, only to discover that when he started playing with the other characters he really wasn't much like I thought he was at all...
but by watching how they reacted to him (me) I got a much better sense of who I was supposed to be...
oh yeah,
and if you run out of good scripts do Beckett again...
I swear you didn't get everything out of it last time...
if you think I'm wrong about there being lots of great scripts - maybe you think there are 6 great scripts for theatre - well then build a rep company around doing those 6 shows over and over...
eh...
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