Subdue and subtle.
Wild and maniac. I can be so off-the-wall crazy at times, but usually in private settings. Get me performing for real and the mind starts to think. I think too much when I do act. I really do. I worry aboiut saying every word just right. I worry about phrasing. I worry about pauses. I worry about inflection. An actor's craft is a lonely profession. Really is. The old days, would have a tape recorder. The kind you had to pause and then guess at rewind and start again. You would do your lines, listen to yourself. Analyze. Finding a partner to run lines with is a luxury. There is only so much a person can do, settled into a recliner, leaning back on pillows in the bed, pacing around the living room sprouting your words. And when you learn your lines, you are just doing your lines...with a cursory glance at the other actors part. The real challenge comes when you have to learn your cues, and then also listen to what the other performer is actually saying. Combine that with putting one-foot-in-front-of-another and picking up a prop or opening a door or drinking some strange substance from a glass...whew! I;m sitting here now, a week before our first scheduled read thru of the Ole and Lena Christmas Show. I have read the script nearly everyday since receiving it the past month, just getting familiar with the part. Happily, there is a bit of room for improv -- other people STILL have to know what you are doing on stage -- and one can adapt the lines to your own rhythms as well as business on the stage. There's songs. I will admit that I am not a singer. I can sell a song and have fun with a song, but to sit back and admirer me jumping around the scale-of-notes ain't gonna happen. Acting is a tough business. You have to learn lines. You have to develop character. You have to keep it interesting. Night after Night. Job after Job.
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AuthorThis BLOG will be my personal exploration into the World of Performance Art. Follow me as I return to an Adventure started in the sixties to be An Actor! Categories
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