Understudy went on

Well, it was a lot of fun! It certainly makes performing exciting when you know you'll only get this one chance! I was really nervous right up until I got to the site, and then it got a little better when I ran a few scenes with Hannah and Michele. Joseph gave me a fist pound, Elissa gave me a back rub, and Bill ran lines with me. Right before I was about to go on, I asked Michele, "why does it feel like right before a space shuttle launch?" Because it's exciting, of course. I started my first line, and just went from there. I was pleased with how things went. Everyone was great, reminding me about blocking and entrances, and letting me do the lines the way I wanted to. That takes a lot of skill, and I'm really proud to be a part of it. The curtian call I think was the most messy, since I hadn't ever rehearsed it, but Hannah was very helpful and didn't seem to mind too much.

Recently I've been thinking a lot about the collaborative nature of theatre, and acting, specifically. When I am putting together a part and looking at a text at first, I am using my own interpretations of the characters and themes. But the bottom line is that the task of creating the world of the play onstage is shared with all the people involved. I'm realizing more and more that an actor's job is not simply to act but to interact. Maybe this seems obvious, because after all most plays are made up of dialogue. But after spending so much time thinking about objectives and obstacles and themes, etc, it can be easy to overlook the simple goal of the line: to affect someone else. You must beleivably interact with the other characters onstage.

And Seagull is such a beautiful play to illustrate the importance of interaction. Take the play-within-a-play scene in Act one. All the characters onstage have relationships to each other, and objectives that they have to pursue. If they are all paying attention and are "in the moment," the simplest action by one character becomes a chain-reaction affecting all the characters onstage, just as intricate and meaningful as a ballet.

If you've seen the play before, or even if you haven't, come tomorrow night and spend a little time watching the "off-focus" areas of the stage. You'll find that the drama going on beyond the dialogue is just as rich and interesting as the "focus" of the scene. I know from experience that staying focused on stage is no simple task. You are faced with creating depth and spontaneity out of actions and lines that you have heard over and over again for months up until this point.
What is so amazing is to be onstage with so many people focused in this way. It's a rush, because you're not sure what exactly is going to happen, but the focus that you see in each of the other player's actions and expressions makes you feel safe, in a sense, that they will work with you, that they won't leave you out to hang.

But don't take my word for it. Come out and judge for yourself.

-Chris