Escape room

Here is a short post that originally appeared on my Facebook on 11/02/2017 when I was in the middle of the rehearsal process for a show.  This is not, of course, a review which is the focus of this blog but perhaps it tells you something about my perspective on acting and that will inform your reading of my reviews. 

Acting: Shall I compare thee to an escape room?
Acting is like an escape room. You assemble clues. You work in a group. You encounter obstacles. Sometimes you feel like there is no way out. And then you find the keys, you overcome the obstacles and you're free. Free!
Then you try another escape room and it's the same thing all over again. All the old clues are useless. The tricks that worked last time don't work this time. Stuck again!
After a month working on my new show, Quick Bright Things, some doors that were hidden are opening. I've leaned on my companions to unlock other passages. And it's getting fun. I can see a few steps ahead. Can't wait to break out!

Photo by Tom Ciaburri of Oberon and Titania in Quick Bright Things. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

American Buffalo in Marysville

Image
If you've taken an acting class, you might have done an Uta Hagen exercise requiring you to perform a two-minute slice of life.  Just you, on stage, silently doing something you might do on an ordinary day.  Maybe you're ironing.  Maybe you're making a sandwich.  The point is for the audience to see you acting naturally.  It's not as easy as it sounds. American Buffalo , now playing at Red Curtain Foundation for the Arts in Marysville starts out with an Uta Hagen exercise, basically.  Scott B. Randall plays Donny Dubrow, the owner of a junk store.  Before the house lights even fade down, Donny comes on stage and begins doing what he might do on any typical morning.  He has his coffee cup in hand.  He straightens up this. He looks at that.  He takes a small trash can out into the alleyway and empties it.  He goes out the front door to get the morning newspaper.  It's engrossing to watch all the things he does and guess or conclude why he does them. It's a pe
Read more

14/48 2023

Image
I have lived in Seattle for 30 years and been an actor for the past 12, but I have somehow never been to 14/48. Tonight, I went. It was a revelation. First, some impressions: There was an actor who I had only ever seen playing very serious roles but tonight played a wacky goofball. That was so fun. Wow, look at what they can do! Then there was another actor who played the same kind of character as I had seen before and I loved that too, because they are so good at it. Play that one again! It’s never been more clear that the audience is responsible for the play. Everyone was ready. Ready to cheer. Ready to engage. Ready to love. I would guess that most of the audience was friends of the writers, actors, band members – theater people, eager to help make it a success. I have seen many short play festivals. This is not to denigrate any of what I saw tonight, but if I had seen these same seven plays in the unusual short play festival set-up, I don’t know if they would have landed as well.
Read more

Happy Endings

Image
In the Blood, recently put on by UW Drama, does not have a happy ending. The run is over now and the play has been published for many years, so it’s no spoiler to say that.  The main character, Hester, ends up killing her oldest child, ruining her own life and the lives of her other four children. You sort of see it coming and sort of not. Chekhov’s gun is brandished multiple times, as Hester says, to her children and others, “Don’t make me hurt you.” But you think, if you are like me, that that is maybe the end of it, and meant to show the impact of her circumstances. The world, embodied in the other adult characters, has treated her horribly. Anyone in her place would be justified in being angry and lashing out in some way. Alas, the lashings move beyond verbal in the final scenes.  Buried Child, by Sam Shepard does not have a happy ending either. Each character is more desperately pathetic than the next. Instead of empathy, the suffering portrayed produces distance between you and t
Read more