"Why Darkness Seems So Light"
I have recently been cast in a double role for our school's low-budget theatre arts performance, which will be running alongside the school's main, afterschool performance of "Oklahoma" which, for scheduling and timing reasons, I was not able to be a part of. However, since the low-budget play is rehearsed for during school hours and while I am in class, there were no troubles in me acting in it (so much so that I won two parts, one major and one minor).
The play is an unknown one called "Why the Darkness Seems So Light", and is the story of a teenager names Johnny and his friends who are undergo tremendous stresses when they witness the murder of Johnny. Very corny and awkward in some parts, the play was written in the early 90's and touches on many social issues of teenagers, including drugs, guns, alcohol, abusive parents, teenage depression, education, suicide and rape. I play Johnny, whose two favorite things in life are auto-mechanics and the saxophone; my interpretation gives him a carefree appearance and voice with his friends, but a brooklyn accent and tough-guy walk when with people he doesn't know, which leads to his eventual death. Though his actions very rarely run in one consistency, I am trying my best to take away any awkwardness of his lines, which is proving to be a challenge as the play is not written very well.
My second character comes later in the play, but is very important to the end result of the story as I play Ralph, the abusive father of Johnny's teenaged killer, whose actions cause his son to commit suicide. The only time Ralph is seen on stage is when he is an angry, wreckless drunk, so I give him actions reminiscent of Jack Nicholson's charater in "The Shining", especially near the end of the film. I enjoy the contrast in characters I play, but both part are written poorly and I attempting to compensate is difficult. But, as I have started saying, a good actor doesn't get great parts, a good actor makes them great.
Now, to get more in touch with my characters, I am going to try and master their walks. It is very rarely understood how important the walk is to a good character, and if you get his walk down pat, the rest of him comes easily. Think of it, Jack Nicholson in "The Shining", John Travolta in "Pulp Fiction" and "Saturday Night Fever". Every character has a walk, and so will mine. Johnny, because he is a teenager, has two walks because he has not developed a definite personality or identity yet, and most teenagers haven't. A carefree, almost floating walk in one moment, then a chest out big man in another. I still have to work on it, but the walks will come soon.
But no matter what, I have to keep telling myself..."A good actor doesn't get great parts, a good actor makes them great!" Hopefully I will.
The play is an unknown one called "Why the Darkness Seems So Light", and is the story of a teenager names Johnny and his friends who are undergo tremendous stresses when they witness the murder of Johnny. Very corny and awkward in some parts, the play was written in the early 90's and touches on many social issues of teenagers, including drugs, guns, alcohol, abusive parents, teenage depression, education, suicide and rape. I play Johnny, whose two favorite things in life are auto-mechanics and the saxophone; my interpretation gives him a carefree appearance and voice with his friends, but a brooklyn accent and tough-guy walk when with people he doesn't know, which leads to his eventual death. Though his actions very rarely run in one consistency, I am trying my best to take away any awkwardness of his lines, which is proving to be a challenge as the play is not written very well.
My second character comes later in the play, but is very important to the end result of the story as I play Ralph, the abusive father of Johnny's teenaged killer, whose actions cause his son to commit suicide. The only time Ralph is seen on stage is when he is an angry, wreckless drunk, so I give him actions reminiscent of Jack Nicholson's charater in "The Shining", especially near the end of the film. I enjoy the contrast in characters I play, but both part are written poorly and I attempting to compensate is difficult. But, as I have started saying, a good actor doesn't get great parts, a good actor makes them great.
Now, to get more in touch with my characters, I am going to try and master their walks. It is very rarely understood how important the walk is to a good character, and if you get his walk down pat, the rest of him comes easily. Think of it, Jack Nicholson in "The Shining", John Travolta in "Pulp Fiction" and "Saturday Night Fever". Every character has a walk, and so will mine. Johnny, because he is a teenager, has two walks because he has not developed a definite personality or identity yet, and most teenagers haven't. A carefree, almost floating walk in one moment, then a chest out big man in another. I still have to work on it, but the walks will come soon.
But no matter what, I have to keep telling myself..."A good actor doesn't get great parts, a good actor makes them great!" Hopefully I will.
Exactly, I may not know much about theater, but that definitely makes perfect sense. Too bad I won't be able to see it though... I would have liked to see you acting, I bet you're good at it.
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Anonymous |
Sunday, March 06, 2005 9:23:00 PM