Excruciatingly hot up in The Balcony Room this evening. I drove in, paid the congestion charge. I had all the costumes in the back of Bergie.
Client was American and wanted The Balcony Scene, so we gave that to them. 120 international doctors up there though.
I’m greeting them all as they arrive jauntily dressed as PartyShakespeare. Their bus has broken down. They want to get drunk.
Saskia and Finn arrive on time with lines learnt. I met up with them a few days ago and gave them a talk. “These people haven’t bought a ticket to see you. If you don’t grab them you’ll lose them. They might be talking. They might heckle. Know your lines well enough that you can roll with the unexpected, show no weakness and you’ll be golden.”
First run in the space, the client was already there. PRESSURE. When one of the actors fell into a rehearsal linehole I cut in with a note because I’m “the director” and that way it isn’t evident they’ve forgotten their next line. Another of my early notes was: “the client doesn’t know how it went. They will take their assessment from you”. That’s part of the “show no weakness” thing.
I once said to a client : “it was great, even if my costume is too late for the period”. “Oh really? I wouldn’t have known,” they said to me, and then emailed asking why we were dressed in the wrong period.
These guys were dressed perfectly and I’m proud of them. It’s a lot, to bring a proper actor into the dinner environment. I wrote before about the wonderful West Side Story that could have been greatly improved with expectation management. There are plenty of “mummy mummy look at me” actors. As far as mmlam actors are concerned, the performance can only go one way where they end up covered in laurels because they are the bestest. Sometimes they hit early success and then it only starts to jank when reality kicks in but they sew poison as they go. The hope is that they don’t get early success, as then they’ll quit. Most of us are the other type which is still complicated and mostly some sort of self negation but very much not the mmlam narcissists.
My guys held their ground. They are good. There was a Russian lady who wanted to loudly talk no matter what, right next to Saskia Juliet. I said in an undertone just before we started: “she might not stop”. Saskia nodded pained understanding. THIS IS WHY I’M USING FACTORY ACTORS RIGHT THERE.
Everyone at The Swan told me we needed microphones. I told them no.
Cut to me, sweating like all hell, dressed bright, giving a very very potted history of the place. My facts were all over the place because I wanted to talk about audience contract. I wanted to talk about shared space, shared light.
I can usually beat a room vocally. Tony Witt taught me diaphragm at a very formative age. If the room is loud I can listen and find a note that isn’t being used, and can cut in low or high with an initial supported bellow. Tony was a good friend who was a baptist minister. He was Buckingham to my uncut Richard III.
But … I didn’t want the Romeo and Juliet to be belted. I didn’t want my actors to have to fight the room. So I taught the audience how to be audience. I gave them context – “these young actors have learnt and worked this scene specially for you this evening”.
The Russian lady with no volume filter did shut up. “She was about to start again, and it was my line so I addressed it to her and she stopped again,” Saskia told me. Yep. That’s the game. Well done her that’s exactly the game. Read them, watch them, listen to them, you will always win if you can do that and you know your lines.
First know your lines. Don’t fuck around. That’s your job. “How do you learn all those lines?” Hard graft because it is what we do.
Second watch your scene partners. Like tonight there might be drunk people where you wanted to have a moment. Listen live through the eyes. You can move the scene. And there are so many other little things that need to be communicated.
Third listen and allow the surroundings. You’re in a building and in time. The sun might be very interesting somewhere. Or you can get a beam on your face. Why not see what that brings. Or something in the building is affecting the scene unexpectedly – bring it in. Explore it.
Fourth, listen and allow the audience. Then you can find the unrepeatable moments for the theatre Shakespeare was writing. No fourth wall. A shared experience. All of us together. Society.
This man gave us these plays. He made this happen. Hundreds of years have passed. His voice is still held. I’m very happy to be part of his legacy.
