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: learn lines Promptly
Tue, 14 June 2005, 02:44 pmWalter Plinge
Hi guys
I agree that I hate hearing lines being prompted from the wings. What I don't agree with is the idea that it reminds you of school plays. Not all school plays are really awful pathetic little pieces of drama done by students not wanting to be up on stage. The guys who haven't learnt their lines because they are not interested. The school is just doing a "little play" so that the parents can come and see little Johnny on stage.
I am not sure when the last time that a lot of people went to see a school play was but I tend to think it is about time that some people did. My school doesn't use a prompt and we haven't done so for the last 20 years. I am very proud of the work that my students do and I know that I am certainly not the only drama teacher that thinks that. '
Maybe it is about time that we stopped remembering back to what it was like 30 yrs ago and stopped running down the idea of the school play. It is without question , at times, better than some amateur theatre.
Kerri
I agree that I hate hearing lines being prompted from the wings. What I don't agree with is the idea that it reminds you of school plays. Not all school plays are really awful pathetic little pieces of drama done by students not wanting to be up on stage. The guys who haven't learnt their lines because they are not interested. The school is just doing a "little play" so that the parents can come and see little Johnny on stage.
I am not sure when the last time that a lot of people went to see a school play was but I tend to think it is about time that some people did. My school doesn't use a prompt and we haven't done so for the last 20 years. I am very proud of the work that my students do and I know that I am certainly not the only drama teacher that thinks that. '
Maybe it is about time that we stopped remembering back to what it was like 30 yrs ago and stopped running down the idea of the school play. It is without question , at times, better than some amateur theatre.
Kerri
- ···
- ···
- ···
- ···
- ···