Category: Actors and Acting

The end of another week of rehearsals. We continue working through the play, scene by scene, beat by beat developing character and relationships, exploring blocking, action and reaction. All this is familiar territory for a dramatic actor. But of course, this is a musical … enter choreography and singing calls, and it becomes tough stuff requiring concentration and stamina, something I had in noticeably short supply towards the end of one of today’s sessions. Yikes, there I was co-ordinating singing, dancing and dialogue, all in strict time under the watchful eye of director, choreographer and stage manager … no pressure.

We speak of muscle memory … that capacity for the kinesthetic self to recall movement, tempo and rhythm seemingly effortlessly, and without thinking. That’s where I need to be. It will probably take many, many work throughs to achieve that sense of grace and ease that marks any good work. A good golf swing and a finely executed dance routine have much in common … hours of practice and attention to detail. I’m going to need some hours to myself in front of the studio mirror getting it just so.

My mental and and physical stamina are OK so far, though I’m not used to standing for several hours at a time, or to using my voice in an extended way. I sang for 2 hours yesterday, and it felt like it at the end … tired but good. Nothing a hot bath and a steam of the vocal tract can’t fix. That and some rest.

Now it’s on to more work on the book away from the floor … I’m off book for a couple of scenes, and like to be there as soon as possible. I find I learn much faster when I can relate a line to a move, to a position on stage, a particular moment with a scene partner and so on. You still need to be prepped for a rehearsal, and to keep reading and re-reading the lines so they too become part of the inevitable fabric of a scene. I’ve always believed you can’t begin the serious business of rehearsing till you are off book. You get all you need in rehearsal and performance from your scene partner, so until you can truly engage, eye-to-eye, to ‘read’ what they are doing and how, then it’s all marking time. The fun stuff begins from the moment you can say to the DSM, “I’m off book for this scene. Could you prompt me if I need it?”

Postscript. Nothing to do with rehearsal, but I spent a terrific evening last night having dinner with some theatre colleagues, on stage as it turned out. It was a special ‘do’ to say farewell one of the theatre’s great supporters now moving interstate to live. A couple of the oldest friends of the theatre, both in their 80s, spoke so lovingly about their relationship with it, and about the artists who had performed on the stage, and the young people who had come and gone over the years, some to find themselves and others to move on to successful careers as performers. Towards the end of the evening, with only the veritas that vino can release, one of them turned to me and said, “You know, I think I would die if I didn’t have this place to come to.” It struck me once again how the theatre … and not just this one, but the idea of theatre … has always brought people together, to share a common humanity, to tell stories and to do that dreaming out loud in front of ourselves that truly does transform lives. I went home, as they say, tired but very, very happy to be part of it.

Image: Bomber Light (1933) Empire Theatre, Toowoomba.

The title of this post may mean something to readers (or drinkers) of a certain age. Once upon a time, there was a non-alcoholic mixer beverage called Clayton’s. To avoid having to go down a diversionary rathole to explain, you can read all about it here on Wikipedia if you like. Suffice it to say that the term Clayton’s has gone into the Australian and NZ lexicon as a descriptor meaning a fake or substitute. So, a Clayton’s rehearsal? Continue reading “The Clayton’s Rehearsal”

I had my first accent coaching session with a German colleague yesterday. She’s a native of Berlin, teaches German language at university here in Australia, but has been immersed in an English-sounding world for around 10 years or so. As a result of this, I had to ask her to work at strengthening her German accent for ‘capture,’ as it’s quite light and now contains several distinct Australian vowel sounds.

My colleague is clued up with regard to variations in dialects in German, and had fun trying to capture the differences between a standard German and the Berlin dialect. She described it as “rough, sloppy, my parents would scold us if we spoke like that!” As she spoke to me in German, using both dialects, it seemed to me that Berliner German is punchier, quicker and harsher-souding than standard German, It’s more energetic and ranges wider in pitch. There are good clues here to speeech tempo-rhythms which usually carry over from a non-native speaker into the new language. So English spoken with a Berliner dialect would most probably have these characteristics.

As far as applying dialect in role is concerned, the actor needs to look at the identikit presented in the text, at least to start. You look for clues as to environment, education, age, class and lifestyle of your character. These point you in the direction of an informed choice … acting is all about making choices. And here’s one of my first.

I’m thinking that my character, Fraulein Schneider, although a Berliner herself, is probably going to speak with a standard or higher-class German than this rougher-sounding argot. There are clues in the script about how she was wealthy as a young woman (she was born around 1870), but has since fallen into poverty, probably since the financial drubbing Germany received after WWI. Schneider’s education would most probably have inculcated a ‘correctness’ of speech … which doesn’t mean she can’t get down and dirty (dialect wise) if she has to with some of the lodgers in her boarding-house. We’ll see about that though as rehearsals unroll and characters develop. All part of the adventure!

And the picture? It’s a portrait of Heinrich Zille (1858-1929) one of Germany’s best loved social critics. It’s his 150th anniversary and there is a retrospective exhibition of his work on show in Berlin right now. My colleague pointed me in the direction of Zille’s cartoons, which dealt with the everyday life of the streets in Berlin during the years leading up to the time-frame of Cabaret. I’m keen to get hold of some of his drawings. These can be particularly rich for an actor searching for fragments with which to build a character. Off to the library!