PERFORMANCE: The Actors' Roundtable: "The Long Run"

Each week, Paden Fallis poses one question to a group of professional working actors from a variety of backgrounds. Our goal is not to demystify the work of the actor or explore their careers, but to dig a bit deeper into their artistic working process. ACTOR’S ROUNDTABLE: “THE LONG RUN” Recently I conducted a Q&A with actor Gary Sloan about how he approaches performing in a long-running production and the challenges inherent in playing the same role night after night for an extended time. As actors on the stage, we are not afforded the opportunity to backslide, but must continually stay sharp, fresh, and inhabit the role every time out—be it performance #2 or performance #222.  How do you approach the long run?  How do you keep it fresh?

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PERFORMANCE: The Actors' Roundtable: "Previews"

Each week, Paden Fallis poses one question to a group of professional working actors from a variety of backgrounds. Our goal is not to demystify the work of the actor or explore their careers, but to dig a bit deeper into their artistic working process. ACTOR’S ROUNDTABLE: “PREVIEWS” Previews. Sometimes they can last for weeks or months. Sometimes you get one night. The bigger the show, the better chance you have of previewing in different cities before setting foot in the Big City. More often, you get a handful of previews in the theatre between dress rehearsal and opening night.  But what do previews mean to an actor? Is there a distinction from preview to performance, even though an audience is in attendance for both? Is your prep different from preview to performance? So, I ask, how do you approach previews?

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PERFORMANCE: The Actors' Roundtable: "In Character"

In our new Actors’ Roundtable series, Paden Fallis poses one question each week to a group of professional working actors from a variety of backgrounds. Our goal is not to demystify the work of the actor or explore their careers, but to dig a bit deeper into their artistic working process. ACTOR’S ROUNDTABLE: “IN CHARACTER” In John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation, Quisa says to her husband that she fears turning the young hustler Paul, who had entered their lives, into a “punch line you’ll mouth over and over for years to come.” She fears becoming a “human jukebox.”  I think of this when I think of how actors speak of their work. I feel that we “mouth over” things we’ve read, been taught and conditioned to say. It becomes rote. And when it becomes rote, then we become “human jukeboxes.” Specifically, I think of this anytime I hear this phrase… “I was in character.”  In character. In character?

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