There is a magical thing that happens when a person gets on stage. People look at them. There are two types of people who are drawn to this magic, those that wish to be seen and those that wish to hide. Great theatre happens when you allow yourself to be seen though the influences of your character’s truth. It’s a subtle distinction to “Pretending” to be someone else. It’s deeper, and ultimately it’s easier. Often the fear of being on stage has left people with bad habits and affectations that they perceive as “ACTING”. I call this lying. I don’t want to catch you lying. I want to catch you telling the truth. Veritas. Rosemary Doyle has been acting, directing and creating theatre for 44 years. Her approaches to character have been honed over these years, and are designed to quickly enable people to start “being” on stage, which is infinitely more interesting to watch. During this class the student will bring a monologue they are working on, and we will explore developing it to it’s full potential.
In life if you are not listening to someone who is talking to you, it becomes apparent fairly quickly, because you start to answer them with words that make no sense. In a play you are given the dialogue in advance, and the playwright has assured that the things you say will “GO” with what was said before. So people take the easy route and just “Learn their lines”And wait for their “cue”. Unfortunately, we the audience, can tell that you are not listening, your fellow actor can tell that you are not listening. Since you are acting away in a bubble you may think you are amazing because you are saying everything exactly how you planned it. The audience will be uncomfortable because the scene is continuing but something is wrong. The scene just falls flat. It’s boring. The audience stops listening and falls asleep, and I don’t blame them as you are emotionally and physically making no sense.
Allowing others into your space, acknowledging them, sharing the stage, listening, reacting, this I call Generosity, and it takes practice and awareness.
