An Unexpected Party
No matter how scared you may be some times you have to simply accept that there isn’t a good counter argument and you need to make something.
Where the need is greatest. The help is nearest.
We live in a time of radical pushback against the idea of expertise.
Not just that the person in front of you isn't an expert but that experts don't exist in general.
There’s Pansies, that’s for Thoughts
A massive hurdle in being a performer of Shakespeare is preconceptions.
Yours and others.
These plays, and roles, and even you as a performer are all preexisting when you walk into the process on day one. The easiest thing to do is pull those preconceptions out of the box, say the words in order and go home.
I don't get paid enough for that. The compensation comes in making something for me or the audience that I haven't tried before or that I haven't seen before.
So the most important thing to do before running headlong into these hurdles is to get down to actual facts.
I Believe I have Developed Another Theory
I believe that the best performances come from measured and calibrated dynamics.Playing each scene at a energy/intensity of 10 and then at a 1, setting the possibilities, and then the team makes the decision for where one plays the final product from there.Or in a show like the Collyer Brothers - what Langley's arc looks like.
Tis a Gentle Man Here
Hey Christina. Hey Kate.
I’ve been conversing with the two of you in my head for a couple of weeks. Turns out I did a show. Turns out neither of you showed up to boss me around, so I had to wing it.
Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you
Live performance is a system of interlocking skills honed individually and together over time like any other muscle-building, and then deployed all at once. It is almost always desired that the edges of that displayed set of skills are folded under and invisible to the uninitiated, and, on the highest level, even to fellow initiates. So as one progresses, craft becomes more and more opaque. The skilled stop understanding how and why they do it and the very best seem to require no effort at all.