Rehearsal was good today. We had time to run the scene after we worked it and got some notes. It went pretty well for the first day working it. But, instead of talking about tonight's rehearsal, I thought I'd talk about a few of the other actors. It's really a great group and there are just a few things that I have wanted to mention about some of them that I haven't yet. I was thinking tonight about how I wish you all could just meet them but obviously that can't happen, so I thought I'd just say a few things about some of them.
I am going to use character names as I describe them.
Our Othello has played this role before yet one of the things I have found just fascinating about this process is that he is attacking this role as if he has never done it before. I mean that in a good way. He starts each scene from square one. I mentioned this today and he told me that every production is completely different and he's working with different actors, so, of course, he has to attack it with a newness each time. It would not be unheard of to have some powerhouse actor who has played the role before to come in and say something like "I HAVE PLAYED THIS ROLE BEFORE AND I KNOW HOW IT WORKS." Our Othello isn't like that at all. He's warm, inviting, humble... and just a pleasure to work with. Actually the actor is going to in a show at GEVA in Rochester next spring and we are going to try and work together to get him to come into one of our Shakespeare Acting classes. I think that would be a great day of class.
I think when most people think of a professional actor, they think of someone that only acts and does nothing else. The truth is, even with professional actors, that just isn't always the case. For every actor that has the type of gig where they only have one gig and they can completely focus on that week in and week out year after year, there are many more actors holding down a gig and a job or multiple gigs. The truth is, I may have the easiest schedule of anyone in the cast because I am in Indy solely to work on this show. One actress said today "I WISH I could live in a hotel for 5 weeks!!!"
Our Iago has a particularly strong challenge. He's playing this giant role for the first time AND he's teaching a really great summer youth theatre program at Indiana Repertory Theatre. As if playing a role like Iago isn't hard enough... he has to balance it with his current day job. This is the life of a professional actor. Our Iago is a great guy. One of the most creative actors I've seen. He just comes up with these quirky bold choices but they are rooted in truth so they work. He's creating an Iago that almost seems a bit mentally unstable and it works really well. My first experience with Iago was in the movie version with Kenneth Branaugh as Iago. Branaugh was very soldier-like and composed and it worked. Our Iago is taking it in a different direction... he's almost snake-like or weasel-like and it also works. Very cool.
The actors playing Emilia and Roderigo are actually doing another show on top of this! There is a great theatre in town that does all new plays. These two actors are in a show (the show I saw on Friday) that was written in 2009 and was off-broadway and then on broadway and then the rights to the play were released to regional theatres and this theatre picked it up. Half of the play takes place in a waiting room of a hospital where one character has been in a horrible car accident. Much of the play deals with how religion and homosexuality work together or don't work together. Anyway... we're not talking about a light comedy here. So, on Saturdays for instance, we have rehearsal from 1-5 and then they have a show at 8pm. On Sundays, they have a matinee and then we have rehearsal from 6-10. They are doing two heavy plays... one is Shakespeare one is contemporary... they are bouncing from performances to rehearsals and vice-versa. This is the life of a professional actor.
Our Desdemona just moved back here from NYC. She's working at a Starbucks in addition to her professional theatre work. You'd be surprised how many theatre people work at Starbucks. They have flexible hours and they provide insurance. Equity actors are eligible for insurance only if they work 20 weeks in a given year. You'll often hear actors talk about getting their weeks. It has nothing to do with pay... it is all about health insurance. Many a good actor will do a low paying gig if it means they can get closer to that 20 week threshold. It is also a reason why actors love getting gigs like Christmas Carol at the end of the year. Holiday shows are often the show that pushes many actors over that 20 week mark. If a typical theatre gig last 6-8 weeks, that means you have to book three equity gigs that offer health insurance, each year. That doesn't seem like a big deal? Consider this... using the stats from two years ago, the average equity actor gets less than 7 weeks of work a year. More than half of all equity actors get NO work in a given year. Those are equity actors... the best of the best stage actors.
There are around 37000 equity actors. More than half of them don't get work each year. That's how hard it is to get an equity gig. So getting three a year at theatres that are big enough to offer health insurance weeks? It's a big deal.
Anyway... back to Desdemona... it's been very fun to watch her relationship with Othello. It's as if they have done many shows together before... and I don't know, maybe they have. They had a very comfortable chemistry from the start and they really play off each other well.
I think it's worth mentioning one of our younger actors because many of the people reading this are students. The actress playing Bianca is an undergrad at Butler. She'll be going into her senior year. The thing is, in a professional production no one cares if you are in school or where you went to school or where you've worked or blah blah blah... no matter who you are, you are expected to bring it. Lord knows the audience doesn't care! This girl brings it. She makes bold choices... she's done a ton of preparation... and she is throwing down some good work. Sometimes younger actors are timid when around more experiences actors. While that is understandable, it is not good. You are cast for a reason... and that reason is because you fit the role well. There is no need to apologize because you have less experience than someone else.
There are plenty of other actors in the group who are all really fun and have great stories and I wish I could just write about them for a while.
Actually... I should mention our director. He and I met in a production of Macbeth at Indiana Rep. He was Banquo and I was Macduff. We kind of have a similar style. We're both a little blunt, we'd rather cut to the chase than tip-toe around a rehearsal... and we both really like Shakespeare. He's a really fun actor and I've worked with him on two shows as an actor... Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing. He directed me in a production of Two Gentlemen of Verona and now this. The fun thing about doing Shakespeare with him is that he really doesn't like to cut anything from the script. He'd rather the actor figure out the challenge of the harder lines of text than cut them at the start of rehearsals. Our actor playing Othello has done this show a few times and he said that he is saying lines that he has never said before because usually those lines are cut to make the play shorter or more audience-friendly or whatever. It's really fun having a director that expects the actor to make every line that Shakespeare wrote read well for the audience. As I may have said before... Shakespeare is soduku for the actor... and instead of cutting the most challenging "puzzles," he expects us to struggle with them.
We're working the fight in Part Two tomorrow. I get my hamstring slashed. Should be fun!
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