What it takes...

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Connections week is such a highlight of my year for a whole heap of reasons but one of the main ones is that the intensive nature of it means that there is a tangible and significant journey made during a short amount of time.  The production we have on the Friday bears very little resemblance to what we started with on Monday…the rough cut approximation of the script becomes a developed entity with a shape and a story and a true sense of what it’s about.  It’s a joyous thing indeed…

One of the major developments that occurs is in the realm of characters…I’m fascinated by how actors gradually, imperceptibly at first and then with increasing pace and confidence, lose their own idiosyncrasies, their persona’s, their world view…until we stop watching familiar youth theatre members and watch instead the inhabitants of the world of the play.  It’s really hard to pin down what exactly is responsible for this shift…it’s to do with physicality and voice, it’s to do with understanding and empathy and it’s to do with instinct and thoughtfulness.  The thing is it’s such a balance of all of these things and it’s different for each actor. 

Some actors need to be braver, need to be bolder and to find conviction.  Some need to dial it all back, to understand why their character behaves in a way they wouldn’t.  Sometimes it requires acceptance, that’s the line the writer has chosen and so you make it work…sometimes it takes unrelenting curiosity to pursue the truth no matter how well hidden.

Lots of people have tried to pin down what makes an actor a good actor, and some of them became reasonably famous for it.  I’m no Stanislavsky but this is what I think…the open you are, the more prepared to invest time and thought and patience, the braver you are to reach and explore and discover, the more honest you are in evaluating your work in relation to the company you are performing with, the better your performance.  Common sense really but it works…

There’s been a lot of these qualities on display this week and I’m looking forward to watching the culmination of the work and time so many people have generously invested in the coming performance week…it’s going to be a delight! 

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