Comments on: Defensive Driving On Stage

By: Bill Aitken

Bill Aitken — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:32:43 +0000

I hear actors talk about problems like this all the time. As a director when an actor comes up to me makes the statement “Im having a problem with (filll in the blank…entrance…food… drinking…a prop>) I tell them just deal with it it the way you would in real life. You dont go through life thinking ahead that about every move you make or item you interact with. Just deal with it in a honest and true fashion and the audience will pick up on that. Its when every small little interaction with props , entrances food and drinking is prethought out that we catch the actor acting becuase he is so in his head thinking about those problems in stead of just listening to his fellow actors and trying to achive a simple goal.

By: Dave Bayles

Dave Bayles — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:34:16 +0000

I sure ther are hundreds of incidents that can be related to this article. here is my take. During our run of Dearly departed, we had one actor who started developing a “frog” voice because of all the yelling he had to do in character. He would sometimes start to cough and have difficulty getting his lines out particularly during the ending funeral scene. Another actor came up with a plan on his own. The next time our hero started to lose his voice, in charcter the other actor handed our hero a “flask” to take a swig from. The blast of cool water in the flask was just what the actor needed to keep his voice. Keep up the great articles Ty, love em all.

By: Laura & Mike Clark

Laura & Mike Clark — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:07:22 +0000

I recently ran props for The Wizard of Oz for a high school production, and the hourglass I created broke in half (where the two bottles joined together) during a rehearsal. I asked the actress playing the witch what she’d do if that happened during a show. She didn’t know, so I suggested rehashing her line (as Miss Gulch) from earlier in the play “That’s the last time I buy an hourglass from a charity bazaar.” Mike