Backstage Writers - Think Hope Do

Julian plants himself in front of me. “Who do you love ?” he asks. The others snicker. I feel mortified.

He leans forward. I smell red wine and that enticing cologne he puts on just before rehearsals. “Who do you love ?” he barks.

Dead silence in the room. I’m blank.

Julian steps back and glances at the others. “If you can’t love, you can’t act,” he says. Read the rest of this entry »

Julian forces us to go to cocktail parties. OK, to be precise, he gets us invited, and we never balk at an evening of “character research.”

To assume a role, he says, you have to understand your character’s high moments.  Most actors roll their eyes and remind Julian that he is not a youth center drama coach. We stick up for him and assure him it’s not just for the cocktail parties. “You need to ask a few probing questions,” Julian says, “learn where a person stands, discover his driving force. Is he passionate about his job, his hobby, his unique take on life? ” Thanks to him, we’re good at getting strangers to unleash their enthusiasm. Some of us could moonlight as head hunters.

People discuss the oddest things at cocktail parties. The other night the subject was amputation. The anesthesiologist was all excited because they’d managed to save the knee. “Don’t you see?” she said, “Below the knee makes all the difference to a more or less normal life.” Read the rest of this entry »

As Mel carries on with his nose… (cf. Jacques’ Nose)

Mel’s prepping my skin. She’s right. It does help me concentrate. Her fingers tingle every stub of my beard. Amazing what that does. I love this chair. A firm seat does help. If only I could be like Vincent and jump on any girl. Vincent loves explosive love. I love Celine. Correction. I’ve got twenty nanoseconds to fall in love with Celine- dear little vitamin D deficient, long everything Celine. She drops her briefcase on stage, and I’m supposed to tackle her. Yeah! But why? Read the rest of this entry »

I got into doing make-up because I knew nothing about it. I’m a process person. I enjoy listening to the faces I dress. I study them from all angles, at nose distance or from the hallway looking into the loge, while rehearsing or in different lighting. If I know the actor’s going to pout at some point, I attenuate here, amplify there. I add a touch of charcoal or burgundy. Amazing what one can do with a dash of burgundy. I’m so full of my own science that they call me an artist.

They don’t have anyone else.

I wonder how many people have ever really looked at Jacques’ nose. Read the rest of this entry »

I respect the US Passport Service. They’ve beefed up security measures and simplified renewal procedures all in one go. Still, somewhere deep in the bowels of this honorable organization, someone issued Fran and Tod passports. The result you can see played out “Center Stage” on the right free-text bar. To read the entire play as it is being written and rewritten, click on Center Stage in the center column under Pages. Feel free to post comments about the Center Stage scenettes  here.