Flexibility

I got sort of an odd, over-the-shoulder comment from one of my fellow actors this weekend, and decided I wanted to talk about that for a bit. Let me give you a little context first.

I'm in a show that opens this week. For those of you not familiar with theater, this means this week is tech week - the majority of our time in rehearsal will be dedicated to making sure light cues happen at the right time and sound cues aren't too loud and that when the lights come up, the actors are actually standing where the light is shining.  That kind of thing. Tech week isn't really the time to work on "acting" stuff. Which means a lot of actors try to cram in those last "acting" questions into the few rehearsals leading up to tech. This makes perfect sense - the more the actors are comfortable with what they're doing, the less the director has to worry about them during tech.

This past weekend, one of my fellow actors got a note on a line that he wanted some clarification on, largely because this same line had been commented on in the past. He and the director chatted for a moment, and then, since the line is directed at me, asked me if I had a preference regarding which way the line should be delivered. I replied with something like, "That's not really my call. However he delivers it, I will respond appropriately." At which point, another actor in the cast turned to me and said, "You're so flexible." I think this remark was made because I have been asked similar questions before and responded in a similar fashion. The way he said it, though, almost sounded like an insult.

Here's my theory on acting, based on the training I have received. I can really only prepare for the opening moment of a scene. My character doesn't know how the scene is going to end or what is going to happen in the middle, so I, as an actor, can't really prepare for that - I can't go in as a character who knows what is going to happen five minutes from now. I can get to know my character so well that whatever life throws at her, I am ready to respond appropriately. But I can't map out the emotional path of my character in such a way that I know I will be this angry on this line every night. It is up to my scene partner to affect me in such a way that I get that angry, and it is up to me to allow my character to get that angry. But if my scene partner suddenly decides to turn a situation into a joke rather than a confrontation, it would no longer make sense for me to respond to him with the fury of a thousand scorned women, you know? I have to be prepared for him to give me something new every night and the best I can do is keep up and respond truthfully in the moment. If he makes a joke that catches my character by surprise, I have to be ready to laugh, or be insulted, or joke back, depending on who my character is. I have to be flexible. For me, acting is about affecting my scene partner and letting him (or her) affect me. How this happens every night may change, and I just have to roll with it.

Side note: This is not to say that there aren't moments when I know as an actor that I will have to hit a certain emotional level by a certain place in the script. Usually, for me, that means going back to my preparation for the start of the scene and raising the stakes to the point where what happens in the scene leading up to my emotional catharsis affects me in such a way that I can hit that point. It isn't so much about, "I need to be angry by this line;" it is more about, "I'm in such a state now that if someone says the wrong thing to me (which happens to be my scene partner's line), I'm gonna lose it." Does that make sense?

This goes back to the old adage of the squeaky door, too. Let's say you have Actor A on stage, reading a book. Actor B is supposed to open the door quietly and sneak across the back of the stage without Actor A noticing her. One night, half-way through the run, as Actor B opens the door, it squeaks. Very loudly. Everyone in the audience hears the door squeak and gasps because they know Actor B was trying to be quiet and failed. If Actor B then proceeds to sneak across the stage as she had in every previous performance, the audience is going to leave the theater saying, "But there's no way Actor A didn't notice that. Did you hear the door?" and the disbelief is no longer suspended. Instead, both Actor A and Actor B need to acknowledge the very loud door in their own ways. Perhaps Actor B ducks quickly so as not to be seen. Perhaps Actor A looks around, doesn't see the ducking Actor B, and goes back to his book. Then Actor B can reassess Actor A's position and sneak across the stage as she has done in every previous performance with the audience still believing she was appropriately sneaky.

The point being, you never know what is going to happen in a live performance, so you have to be able to adapt if something doesn't go as planned. I think this goes for line deliveries, too.

I'm realizing, though, the more people I work with, that not everyone feels this way or works this way. Sometimes, I even feel like I am of the minority opinion here. There are many actors that prefer to have the entire scene mapped out in their heads before they hit the stage. I think that there is some merit to that, too. Everyone has their own thing that they need to feel comfortable on stage. I need to know my character and what her relationships are to everyone else on stage with her (or mentioned, but never seen on stage). Other people need to know the complete emotional journey and exact blocking. I guess my way would look flexible, then, which might irritate some scene partners who prefer something more concrete. I'd like to think I'm not so erratic that I throw other people off, and if I'm given the same line deliveries every night, my performance will then be the same (or similar) every night. Unless I start feeling squirrely or find a new connection in the script.

If you're in the theater, which way do you prefer? Or do you have your own way of doing things? Do you find it irritating to work with someone flexible, or do you find it exciting? I'm honestly acting because I honestly don't know. All I know how to do at this point is prepare my character, prepare my opening moment, and go with whatever the show throws at me. Is that wrong?