Thespian ponderings
As I've mentioned previously, I'm playing Mary Magdalene in the Good Friday production that's being presented at the church we've been attending. As I've also mentioned, it's been three long years since I've been in a "real" drama. (I've done a couple dinner theater murder mysteries, but they haven't really been something I've been able to sink my teeth into. They've been fun, but they haven't been particularly challenging, even in a comedy aspect.) And as I'm learning my lines, I keep thinking how out of shape I feel acting-wise.
Right now, I feel like I'm only playing one level, and I feel like my reading and presentation are a little stage-y. After months of watching and admiring Jensen's mastery of nuance and subtlety, I'm frustrated with my lack thereof. The thing is, you can't really be "subtle" in stage acting. But you can make it natural, only bigger, if that makes sense. That's why I'd love to see Jensen--an actor who has mastered subtlety and nuance for the camera, particularly in his facial expressions--in a live stage production.
I'm also finding it kind of difficult to make the awkward lines sound natural. Again, something Jensen does extremely well. In my experience, church plays often feel stilted when read, though the ones you get through the publishing houses like Baker's Plays or Samuel French are often really good. I'm not sure where this one is from, but there's a lot of exposition, and it sometimes feels like I'm commentating a baseball game or something. But be that as it may, my point is that I'm always so impressed when Jensen can make the most stylized (a writing choice) or awkward (a writing shortfall) lines sound natural. It's something I need to practice for this production. (*taps chin thoughtfully* Hm . . . now that I think about it, I think I'd like to see Jensen play something Shakespearean. The beautiful language combined with his voice and his presence and attitude . . . oh, yes . . . I think I'd like that very much . . . Anyway . . . )
My favorite part, as is often the case, is my monologue. On a practical level, the beauty of a monologue is that you only have to worry about one person: yourself. You don't have to worry about cue lines or having to cover if another actor forgets an important plot point. (The downside being that you don't get to play off other people when you're doing a monologue.) On a performance level, I can delve more fully into a monologue, savor its chewy goodness. Otoh, by the time I've really got the lines down, I'm usually all cried out. I can't cry on command. *points to Jensen* He does it beautifully. (Though now I'm wondering if he can do it so well because he only has to do it a limited number of times--like what he told Kim about not over-shooting the deathbed monologue or he (Jensen) would be spent. I'd love to talk to him about that, or better yet, observe him at work.) And so often, when I'm in the moment and am moved to tears, it's during a rehearsal. (I'm still rather proud of an actual performance wherein I got sufficiently lost in the part that I was able to work myself into tears.) So I'm not quite sure yet how this one is going to play out. I'll let you know.
On the flip side, there isn't really a whole lot of fun interplay between the characters. It's mostly cue lines to trigger exposition or commentary. It's not actual conversations. I mean, yes, it's conversations, but they're not personal conversations, if you know what I mean. We the actresses are having fun, and it's really hard to keep my internal monologue--what goes through an actor's--or a person's--mind during the course of the action and dialogue--from turning into comedic asides. But the playscript itself doesn't have a lot of personal interaction. At least not for me. Yet.
But it's good to have something I can chew on again. And costumes. And MICS! We'll be mic-ed. I've only been mic-ed once in my life, that I can remember, and that was for The Threepenny Opera, and it was a really neat experience to have my very own mic.
There's also talk of having the script visible to the actors on a computer screen, similar to a teleprompter, which I think is cheating. Of course, I tend to think that any sort of prompting of any kind is cheating (unless it's for children). But in this type of environment, I'm in the minority on that count. And I can see the benefits, so, whatever.
In other news, the forsythia are in bloom.