Entering the Scene

I'm sure you will have seen it. The actor clumps on stage, squinting at the spotlight, nervous of the audience staring at them. They find their spot on the stage and voila! The character is suddenly before us. Then, when the final word leaves their mouths they become the actor once more and clump off awkwardly. The spell is broken. Our lesson looked at making sure you were in the role from the moment you stepped into the wings. It is not enough to act the scene on stage. You must know the circumstances in which your character enters the scene, why they take the path they do. I told the students a story of 2 actors who did not believe they had just had dinner when they entered the scene, so the solution was for them to literally have dinner in the wings! Perhaps you might not want to go that far, but you should consider if you go onstage what your dinner was. Did you enjoy it? Or are you now in a bad mood because your brother took the last roast potato? I gave the students different backstories to act out, the kind of stories that don't make the stage but do set up the drama that you will see on it. For example, while we often see the argument roaring on the boards, we miss a lot of the steps that lead to it. It is important that the actor does not miss out these steps.