horrible acting scenario - what would you do?
Wed, 8 June 2005, 01:38 pmWalter Plinge13 posts in thread
horrible acting scenario - what would you do?
Wed, 8 June 2005, 01:38 pmIn my experience as an actor, there's nothing worse than one of your castmates forgetting their lines - and I know that I'm a regular offender. It happens, and I think getting out of one of these situations is one of the skills that separates a good actor from a great one.
What do you think should be done in this situation? Two actors are on stage, someone goes blank and in the confusion a page of dialogue gets skipped. The page is important - a lot of what happens in the rest of the play relies on the dialogue that was missed.
Should the actors attempt to reintroduce the dialogue at an appropriate point down the track, potentially saving the story but running the risk of spoiling a second scene? Or should they ignore the error and concentrate on making the rest of their performance go according to script?
This situation happened to me last week, and we made a decision to reintroduce the dialogue at a particular point in the following scene. It obviously wasn't perfect, probably spoilt the flow of the second scene, and our deliveries were not as good as they ordinarily would have been, but at least the rest of the story made more sense.
Ever since then, I've been wondering whether we did the right thing or not, and I'd value some feedback about this in case it ever happens to me again. What do you think?
What do you think should be done in this situation? Two actors are on stage, someone goes blank and in the confusion a page of dialogue gets skipped. The page is important - a lot of what happens in the rest of the play relies on the dialogue that was missed.
Should the actors attempt to reintroduce the dialogue at an appropriate point down the track, potentially saving the story but running the risk of spoiling a second scene? Or should they ignore the error and concentrate on making the rest of their performance go according to script?
This situation happened to me last week, and we made a decision to reintroduce the dialogue at a particular point in the following scene. It obviously wasn't perfect, probably spoilt the flow of the second scene, and our deliveries were not as good as they ordinarily would have been, but at least the rest of the story made more sense.
Ever since then, I've been wondering whether we did the right thing or not, and I'd value some feedback about this in case it ever happens to me again. What do you think?
Re: horrible acting scenario - what would you do?
Wed, 8 June 2005, 09:28 pmI've just finished my first show after quite a while and I am relieved to say that we didn't have too many missed lines at all during the run!
I did remember a play performed quite a few years ago where my co-actor said a line which missed nearly all my dialogue for the scene. He suddenly looked at me in shock as he realised what he had done, but I made an ad-lib which gave him his original missed line and we got back on track. The audience didn't spot it but there was relief all round at the interval.
I suppose that, if the missed dialogue is crucial to the later action, then you should try and get it in somewhere as early as possible. If you can work around it, then do that.
By the way, I've read your response to the reviewer of your show and I think you have shown great objectivity. Best for the future.
Johno
I did remember a play performed quite a few years ago where my co-actor said a line which missed nearly all my dialogue for the scene. He suddenly looked at me in shock as he realised what he had done, but I made an ad-lib which gave him his original missed line and we got back on track. The audience didn't spot it but there was relief all round at the interval.
I suppose that, if the missed dialogue is crucial to the later action, then you should try and get it in somewhere as early as possible. If you can work around it, then do that.
By the way, I've read your response to the reviewer of your show and I think you have shown great objectivity. Best for the future.
Johno
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