- The effect of the audience. The audience's presence today made a huge impact on our performance, for the better I think. I want to pinpoint the effect in a number of ways, the first being the effect on the rhythm and pacing. What's interesting about having an audience is that suddenly there are expectations - if you start with a certain pace, the audience expects to be brought along at that pace. When the pace picks up, like it does soon after Jeanann's entrance, these expectations actually helped us - the audience became a support for us. This works because every time we pause, or there is silence, this is always a pregnant pause because the audience is waiting for what comes next, and we have to give it to them. Then, when the audience laughs, this allows us, the characters, to pause naturally to listen to each other without an awkward silence - so the laughing of the audience was also a support to the natural listening pace of the play. We've all probably experienced this before, the way the audience laughter supports the rhythm of a comedic play like PIG, but I think in this case in particular the laughter strengthened the rhythm of the piece because the play is so complex, and there are so many lines coming from so many different places. But as Matt said, the audience wasn't laughing for nothing; we earned it. So congratulations everyone.
- The laughing of the audience also had a huge effect on my character in particular, George. What was interesting for me is that, since I don't have many lines, and almost all provide some outside comedic relief to the scene, my lines set me up as "the guy who we can rely on to say something funny." After I realized this (around my 4th line), I realized I had a real dilemma here: how to maintain a character and not a caricature, as Tammy said yesterday, but of course how to also live up to the expectations of my comedic lines and keep the audience laughing. How I did this was by 1st of all NOT thinking about the fact that I was facing a dilemma - I knew that that would just take me out of the scene and make me un-present. Instead, I realized that I could say my funny lines, get those laughs, but maintain the reality of the character by staying active even when I didn't have lines. So when I didn't have lines, I gave myself natural actions that would "fill out" my character, in a sense; give the audience something to see about George besides his funny lines. These actions were eating chips, teasing Bernice, drinking beer, and then, in the more serious moments when the gun comes out, working to control my breathing and all that. Although of course in Act II I didn't have to worry so much about being funny when I, George, was handling the much more serious issue of facing a claustrophobia-induced panic attack. So I was happy with the amount of laughs I got, but I also worked adamantly to tread the fine line of character and caricature and present someone real to the audience.
- Another effect the audience had on me, on a more personal level, is that my heart was simply RACING for most of the play! Of course it was the excitement of being onstage, performing, but where it tripped me up is when I started to pull out of the character and start thinking about how the play was going, and how my next line would fit within the pace of the play. I remember this happening with my line "I almost went to 'Nam. But I got a heart condition." I was thinking about the new Jack, and what the audience was thinking about the new Jack, and whether the entrance of the new Jack had changed the pace of the play, and then I thought about how my upcoming line would fit within the conversation Jack and Santos were having, and I thought about how I would approach it, and then all of a sudden, before I knew it: BAM I missed the line. I missed it by a small beat, but I felt it. So as something that I need to work on for the future, worrying about the audience and what they think or will think about the play as it is going on will take me out of the moment, make me inactive in the scene. Instead, if I keep listening actively and stay present, I don't need to worry about a thing.
- Finally, I felt really good about the physicality of George. Putting in the gray makeup yesterday made me suddenly realize how old George was, and with his heart condition, it made sense for me to weaken his physicality. So I hunched his shoulders, slowed his movements, widened his stance a bit, leading with my head and tops of my shoulders. It really helped me get into the age of the character, which helped me get into the mindset of the character - someone who had been living for a long time, a lot longer than I have.
Otherwise, I agree with Matt that today was a strong performance. With everyone active and participating, there was an energy this morning that I haven't felt during a performance in a while. It was a lot of fun working with you guys, and I will miss playing with you. I'm not taking Acting next year, but I'll still be coming to your performances, so watch out! Much love.
Jackson duBlanc
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