Everybody's Shakespeare
First off, my friend James has been here for a week, so I totally lost track of the internets. I am trying to catch up, but don't know how far I'll get. Anyway, one of the things we always do when he visits in the summer is see every outdoor Shakespeare production we can. We've got (at least) two companies in Seattle, GreenStage and Wooden O, and this year we saw Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, and Othello in three days.
Yes. That is a lot of Shakespeare.
Ever since I got back into acting about a year ago (two whole productions!), going to plays has become more interesting. In the sense that I am contemplating whether I can work for X company, and get to see people I've worked with in another context. The best was seeing my Oberon as Bat Boy, but there were three BLT alums in the shows this weekend. I got to see Starcat and Lysander fight as Tybalt and Benvolio, so that was surreal.
Anyway, it got me thinking. I would like to do more Shakespeare. Beyond that, I'd love to do more acting. I want to see what I can do before I inevitably decide I suck. But I lost several acting years in there, doing another (perfectly worthy) things, and now I wonder. I loved playing Puck. I'm a Puck-type, I guess you'd say. I'm not a leading lady. Neither am I a character actress. Right now, I'm a 31-year-old who's less than 5'4" and I wonder how long I can hold out as Puck (or Chicklet or whatever else). Have I lost my chance to play Peter Pan? Should I give up the idea of playing Viola or Jo March or Rosalind or Anne Shirley? It seems like men have a little more leeway in the sexless roles, and maybe when my metabolism changes or something I'll read as more of an adult. But I can see myself getting stuck in this weird place where I'm too old to play kids and too short to play adults.
This is not, obviously, a dire thing in community theater. For one thing, they'll cast me younger as long as they can, because it's not high stakes and it's not on film. But it's interesting to look at the make-up of a cast and try to figure out where I fit as an actor, or where I will fit in the future.
This entry is also posted at http://my-daroga.dreamwidth.org/263461.html. Feel free to comment wherever you want.
Yes. That is a lot of Shakespeare.
Ever since I got back into acting about a year ago (two whole productions!), going to plays has become more interesting. In the sense that I am contemplating whether I can work for X company, and get to see people I've worked with in another context. The best was seeing my Oberon as Bat Boy, but there were three BLT alums in the shows this weekend. I got to see Starcat and Lysander fight as Tybalt and Benvolio, so that was surreal.
Anyway, it got me thinking. I would like to do more Shakespeare. Beyond that, I'd love to do more acting. I want to see what I can do before I inevitably decide I suck. But I lost several acting years in there, doing another (perfectly worthy) things, and now I wonder. I loved playing Puck. I'm a Puck-type, I guess you'd say. I'm not a leading lady. Neither am I a character actress. Right now, I'm a 31-year-old who's less than 5'4" and I wonder how long I can hold out as Puck (or Chicklet or whatever else). Have I lost my chance to play Peter Pan? Should I give up the idea of playing Viola or Jo March or Rosalind or Anne Shirley? It seems like men have a little more leeway in the sexless roles, and maybe when my metabolism changes or something I'll read as more of an adult. But I can see myself getting stuck in this weird place where I'm too old to play kids and too short to play adults.
This is not, obviously, a dire thing in community theater. For one thing, they'll cast me younger as long as they can, because it's not high stakes and it's not on film. But it's interesting to look at the make-up of a cast and try to figure out where I fit as an actor, or where I will fit in the future.
This entry is also posted at http://my-daroga.dreamwidth.org/263461.html. Feel free to comment wherever you want.