Sorry I’ve been out of the picture for a while, true believers, but as some of you know I am at present gainfully employed in a regional theatre production. Happily the theater is close enough to the city that I am able to commute. I also have the pleasure of working with a celebrity, and I am pleased to tell you that he is as nice and friendly and professional as they come. We’re having a great time.
One of the things that I have pondered during the rehearsal process for this show is how often, even in theatre, “it’s not about you.” I have many times heard film and television actors– usually ones that have transitioned from theatrical careers– bemoan the fact that a shooting set is amongst the most hostile settings in which to practice our art. Between the camera and the lighting and the special effects sequences and the army of technicians and crew people it always seems as though the absolute furthest thing from the director’s mind is assisting his or her actors as they attempt to ply their craft. Too often in those very difficult situations all of the responsibility for a performance falls squarely on the actor’s shoulders. Nobody is really there to help you, because, as I’ve already quoted, “it’s not about you.”
This means that you are expected not just to have the highly polished acting skills to go it alone but also the confidence to step right up and deliver when called upon to do so, despite the numerous obstacles that can be counted upon to be present. Whenever I think about how insanely difficult the pursuit of steady film and television work is I have to remind myself that part of the reason is that the industry needs to weed out the folks that just can’t hack it in a stressful environment. An actor that isn’t ready that somehow finds him or herself on a set and unable to deliver the goods could cost a production tens of thousands of dollars in lost productivity. It’s not a risk any producer I’ve ever known has been willing to take.
So how does all this apply to my little play? Well, I’m involved in a pretty ambitious production from a technical perspective– lots of important effects elements that must be mastered. It’s also a big show in terms of length and the amount of different settings required. More than half our entire rehearsal period was spent just on blocking. Because we must establish a rhythm from one scene to the next, lest we lose our audience’s interest due to lag time between scenes, we must drill the transitions over and over again until each scene blends perfectly into the next.
The unfortunate byproduct of all this completely necessary leg work is that very little time is left over for actual exploration of the acting. Worse, the time we have found for this process work is mostly going towards the aforementioned celebrity– as well it should be! His presence is the reason most of our audience will come see us and we want to make sure his scenes really soar. As far as I’m concerned he can have all the rehearsal time he and our director want.
The bad news, however, is that when it comes to the more involved aspects of putting together a performance I am pretty much left to fend for myself. I cannot, for example, depend on getting the time I need in rehearsal to craft any of the highly emotional moments my character endures, such as when I have to cry. I guess I could fake it and then complain loudly that I was never given the resources necessary to succeed, but you know what? When all is said and done it’s my butt up on the stage and if my performance is sub-par I will be the only responsible party. So I do as much of the work as I can during rehearsal and then all of the rest of it I fill in on my own. Honestly, this is not the first time I’ve been down this path, nor will it be the last.
The lesson that I want you, dear reader, to take from all of this is that acting is not magic and you can’t always depend on other people to help you through it. Acting is a process which you must master if you are going to consistently find professional work. I don’t want to scare you– you can do this, I promise you!– but I want you to understand that you can’t approach a professional job as a blank slate eager to be filled in by the contributions of others. You will be expected to arrive on day one as an active collaborator with good ideas of your own, and then you will be further expected to work hard outside of rehearsals to craft the majority of your performance.
Highly trained actors can do this without much fanfare and that is the bottom line. This is how they make it look like magic. If you want to be a professional you need to have this ability. For almost every actor out there this means that you need to be highly trained.
