BREAKING THE RULES
Seperating Good Actors from Great Actors
Every actor who has gone through a high school acting class has one rule drilled into their heads: "never turn your back on the audience." That's a good rule to learn in high school. There are many such rules that are crucial to the artistic developement of young actors. HOWEVER, like any profession or endeavor, continued success (and what seperates a good performance from a brilliant one) depends upon knowing what rules may be broken and under what circumstances.
During my junior high/high school years, I was in the school choir. I learned how to match pitch, how to enunciate properly, how to blend in with the rest of my baritone section and with the rest of the choir. Then when I got to college and discovered that I could get leads in musicals, I began taking voice lessons and vocal coaching. I was no longer taught how to blend in-- I was taught how to stand out, how to lead, how to use my voice and my body to command all the attention I could get. I was taught that by selectively breaking rules, that-- in itself-- could draw attention to my performance. The chorus followed the rules-- the leads broke them. Oh, it was so much more fun to be a lead!
My vocal coach in Grad School, Kay Creed, often told her students that our ultimate objective was to "Kill Miss Creed." It's not that she had a death wish-- she was telling us that after we learned everything we could from her, we needed to "cut the cord" and continue on our own, making our own decisions and using our own judgement. She had taught us the rules, now it was time for us to find a way to shine.
During a slow period in my career after Grad School, I played Henry Drummond in a Community Theatre production of "Inherit the Wind." There is a moment in the trial where Drummond is seemingly defeated, but suddenly thinks of a way to win. At that moment, I had my back to the audience, then turned around suddenly to show my new-found motivation. The director (the local high school director-- and a dear personal friend) stopped me in front of the cast of 30 and lectured us about never turning our backs to the audience. Needless to say, after a private one-on-one with the director, I persuaded her to allow me to turn my back during performance-- and to give me the freedom to try something and fail.
There are numerous examples of other age-old "rules" that beginning actors are taught: use proper stage diction, gesture with your upstage hands, turn in when you turn.... Clever actors know when and how to break those rules for the benefit of the scene. And a good director, allows an actor the freedom to find those moments!
© 2010, Kevin M Reese. All Rights Reserved.