Advice to Actors

[crboltz]

I was cleaning out some old theatre records and found a set of notes partially typed from the director, and partially notes I took (I'm sure from the directors speech). Anyway, as I thought the notes were particularly inspiring to those who work in theatre, so I'm reproducing them. I suspect (from other notes I'm not including here) that the

Comments

[crboltz]

As I was discussing (in person) with someone about this list... these rules and guides were not written to be true for EVERY show, but for a SPECIFIC show...... and as we discussed this and became rather sure that the notes were Sabin's for The Illusion by Tony Kushner. Note #1 is (in my opinion) very important in the poetic/magical realism styles of theatre .... because often in those works characters spend the first 2/3's of the play saying things that are the exact opposite of what they actually mean -- therefore, ignoring the negative tells the audience the truth. It also often works (though not always) when singing (and yes I can think of both examples and counter-examples -- but I also think singers are more often to over-stress the negative, than under-stress it).