To Prompt or Not to Prompt
Fri, 19 Nov 1999, 11:40 amLabrug18 posts in thread
To Prompt or Not to Prompt
Fri, 19 Nov 1999, 11:40 amI have never liked prompting. Ihave been in very few shows that have used such a device. The only time I welcomed a prompt was when it was used as a comical occurance throughout the show - Prompt walks on stage and bashes actor who can't get his lines right, etc.
I have recently be distracted by many things occuring in my life and recently dropped a line on stage. Fair enough, my cue line was missed or not given, but that really is not excuse. I should have been paying enough attention to the dialogue to realise what had happened. As it was, there was an uncomfortable pause before a whispered voice jolted my memory and feed me my line.
My first reaction was to quickly pick-up where'd I had left off, but I was resentful that I had needed prompt, then I mental-bashed myself for being so distracted.
It was later, after the show that I realised that I had become lazy by the very fact that there was a prompt there. I have missed cues before in other plays but have always been able to improvise a quick come-back and get myself back on track. In these shows, we had not prompt and we knew we had to rely on ourselves.
Can it be that the knowledge that a prompt is present (stage left) will encourage laziness in the performers?
Jeff "Missed" Watkins
I have recently be distracted by many things occuring in my life and recently dropped a line on stage. Fair enough, my cue line was missed or not given, but that really is not excuse. I should have been paying enough attention to the dialogue to realise what had happened. As it was, there was an uncomfortable pause before a whispered voice jolted my memory and feed me my line.
My first reaction was to quickly pick-up where'd I had left off, but I was resentful that I had needed prompt, then I mental-bashed myself for being so distracted.
It was later, after the show that I realised that I had become lazy by the very fact that there was a prompt there. I have missed cues before in other plays but have always been able to improvise a quick come-back and get myself back on track. In these shows, we had not prompt and we knew we had to rely on ourselves.
Can it be that the knowledge that a prompt is present (stage left) will encourage laziness in the performers?
Jeff "Missed" Watkins
RE: To Prompt or Not to Prompt
Thu, 17 Feb 2000, 09:38 amWalter Plinge
A prompt can be of great use not just to the actors but spare a thought for the lighting people who need the actors actually to say the word that cues a lighting change. Admittedly it is artistically more elegant not to need one but we live in an imperfect world. In a situation where whole paragraphs and indeed dare one say it, whole pages full of cues get dropped it is rough on the actors but the prompt people can go grey and get tendonitis flipping through the script to find where the play has gone and the lighting situation is just as bad!
Better perhaps to keep things on track as far as possible even though it may be aesthetically unappealing
Better perhaps to keep things on track as far as possible even though it may be aesthetically unappealing
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