Being reactive onstage

[breakinglight11]

It occurs to me as I go through Love's Labor's Lost that the most difficult draining thing for me to do is spend a long time onstage doing nothing but focusing and reacting. Having actions and interactions and speaking lines is a lot less mentally demanding for me than staying in the moment reactively. It is especially tough for me to do so in this show, where my character is a bit thin and no personality for him suggests itself to me naturally. I know having to do a lot of that tends to be disliked more the greater the experience of the actor-- I can't remember who said it, but I remember readibg some older theater actor like Richard Burton or somebody said that the ideal role was one with the highest ratio of being the center of attention to time spent onstage. I think I'm starting to agree with that.

I think I must resolve in my future theatrical writing to make characters have to spend as little time as possible onstage when theyre not doing anything. Just to show mercy on them. To Think of Nothing kind of violates this, I guess, but I think all eight characters stay involved enough all the time that the times when they are observing or reacting isn't too onerous. Or at least their characterizations are well enough defined to better inform how they should be behaving at thosr times. Actors in TToN, care to weigh in on your experience with this? Was it tough or easy to be reactive in that show?

Comments

[katiescarlett29.livejournal.com]

In TToN there was a lot of difficult reacting happening for the Graces, I think, and me in particular, because it took me a long time to feel I had a handle on the character. But once I had the whole "I am detached and analyzing you and I have all the answers and lots of patience to help you find them" thing down, I sort of got the hang of it.

I think the combination of it being a short play with very well-fleshed-out characters (and having you there to explain things and supplement the text with your understanding of them) helped a LOT with the reaction thing.

Also, I don't think you'll get a single cohesive answer to this question you're asking.

I miss TToN :) I was reading over the script again the other day. It made me really happy!

[morethings5.livejournal.com]

I think that the combination of having a strong character and having a character defined completely in relation to another character saved me from ever being bored onstage (which is how I conceptualize the experience you're talking about, I think). I always knew how Palamon felt about the other characters and how he should be expressing that. Also you blocked the show tightly enough that I always had something to do. I've definitely had moments in other shows where I kind of felt like I was standing in one place for a long time and my character didn't have much to contribute to whatever else was going on.

[nennivian.livejournal.com]

I think that TTON pulled off stage times beautifully, considering that everyone was on stage for the whole show. The constant presence was necessary, I think, to the dynamic of the show as well as the plot. Not to mention that the action and dialogue were quite well distributed throughout the cast. I got off easy as far as reacting goes, I think, because for the first half of the show I'm essentially a non-person anyway, so if I reacted at all it was almost in pantomime. In the second half, I _was_ emotion, so reacting was very easy and clear. Also, reacting is what I do. I've been in a lot of plays and only a handful of times have I played a central character. I'm so experienced at reacting with smaller roles and background characters, that it's not really a burden to me anymore (if I do say so myself).

[darkoni]

I don't think you could send the characters off stage in your play. They need to be there. If they left the stage, they would be out of the main character's thoughts. He is wrapped up in his thoughts, so they need to be present.

[breakinglight11.livejournal.com]

Yeah, after conversations I had with you about your headspace during the show you guys were the ones I was wondering most about.

The fact that you say "I am detached and analyzing you and I have all the answers and lots of patience to help you find them" makes me smile, because it shows how well you came to understand the part, even if you didn't feel like you did at first.

I miss the show too. :-)

[breakinglight11.livejournal.com]

Yes, "being bored onstage" really is the notion that I'm talking about. It pleases me to hear you say both that you got such a strong sense of the character and that you felt the show was tightly blocked-- both of those things I was working really hard to establish. Also, you remind me of how lucky I was to have actors as good as you all, because you were capable of getting enough into character to stay in the moment all the time.

[breakinglight11.livejournal.com]

No, you're right, in TToN they must be on at all times. In future projects with different demands, however, I might want to take this into consideration.

[breakinglight11.livejournal.com]

Selene IS an interesting case with this, as she develops a person with thoughts and feelings over the course of the show. You did an amazing job portraying that journey. And I'm glad to hear you that say you thought things were well-distributed, it was an effect I was going for.

[offside7.livejournal.com]

...So... did the video ever make it online? ^_^;; Just curious!

[katiescarlett29.livejournal.com]

In the end, it turned out that I needed to have this breakthrough to understand that about Thalia. I literally couldn't have done it without you!