I'm working on Ole right now. That caricature of Scandinavian virtues. The clown prince of Iceland. The Lefsa of a Lutefisk Nation.
Sven and Ole are clowns. Buffoons. Laurel & Hardy? Gleason and Carney? Fred and Barney? Or, in reality, Joel and Mark. Staging a play IS hard work. You have to learn the words. But you also have to place them with actions, as well as responses, to what's happening on stage. Plus we have songs (I'm no singer, really) and fre-wheeling doofus dance steps. Yes, there's room for improv, but when doing broad comedy, you have to worry constantly about pace...timing. But the Voice! Do I do the accent heavy. The dats and dis and yas and uffdahs abound. Or do I retain as much of my own voice as possible -- I am, afterall, a Minnesotan and have my own unqiue way of saying and phrasing words. Which is the other part of Voice. Saying the words correctly, the inflections proper, the emphasis a-okay. All these little things that go into the ultimate performance. Somehow, everything does come together and the countdown starts and when you get down to the last weekend, or the last day, you don't want it to end. Happily, Ole and Lena's Christmas Adventure may be a yearly gig. And there is a sequel in the works...The Big Apple Adventure! We got a great director, versed in burlesque, which is right around the corner form vaudeville, which is what Ole and Lena truly IS -- caricature, broad-band comedy, watercooler humor, mindless entertainment with a little seltzer-in-your-pants. Uff-da!
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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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