Downstairs they’ve just arrived in Cyprus. I’m in my Elizabethan jerkin up in the dressing room listening to it on the monitor and it occurred to me that I can write this now and then warm up again. I tend to sit and chill at this point anyway.
My first half starts in a lift, and we all have a little sing song. Then a touch of slow walking and I get to watch the Brabantio scene and get a sniff of the audience. Tonight everyone was momentarily plunged into darkness on stage and they valiantly continued. It was only for a moment but I’ve written already about time on stage. Everyone in that magic box would have experienced eons in the dark. That’s the live thing, the thing that it must be all about. All of us in a theatre breathing a story together that is fragile and just for tonight. The fragility adds to the beauty.
Iago and Roderigo are on now. The drunk scene is coming up which will be my cue to start getting back into my body and voice. It’s a tough one to hold, Lodovico. I warm up long at the start, but I need to crank up and be authority right at the end here in this big theatre.
It has grown on me this stage. Tim is using the thrust largely but it can go really really deep. I like being on the thrust, in among the people, but vocal clarity is essential and that doesn’t come without work. Daily warm-ups and then topping up mid show.
It also means I need to be careful how I wind down. There’s always someone going to the pub but I think I’m gonna start avoiding it unless there’s a friend in the house.. We’ll see how that goes, eh?
Anyway, I’m gonna shake my booty and make sure my resonators are resonating. Cassio has just said how he has poor and unhappy brains for drinking and it’s telling how the action of the play unfolding has affected my thinking as I write. Oh dear, there’s Cassio getting drunk. He’s gonna turn nasty soon…
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And now the show’s over. Largely my focus today was technical. Keeping my head still when I speak. You’d be surprised how hard it is. But if you’re after a high status trigger, that’s your monkey. And I figure I’ve done enough work on the calophonics and unlocking the potential ways in which a thought can be expressed that I can be present and responsive and let that work rest whilst keeping my head still.
TC gave me a cunt of a note about what I was doing with my head this morning and I was thrilled because it means he knows I can do better and will move towards it. I knew exactly the avoidance activity he had lasered in on. Old shy actor stuff mixed with obedient actor imperative to cover the whole audience with my face. Taken to extremes it can look like a twitch. Burnt away like the faces in some Venetian portraits.
AlBarclay 