I know this is going to be a strange post after a long lay-off. But in my defense I have been busy. I recently had two of my plays go up Off-off Broadway here in NYC. In addition to writing them I also had a cameo in one and the other play was a two-hander. (I was one of the two hands.) Lights go up, forty-two minutes later the lights come down, two actors.
I hadn't been on stage that much since I played Petruchio.
But now that the dust has settled and I've had some time to think and reflect on this recent experience and I have an important observation . . . David Mamet is right.
I want to make it clear, I am not someone who thinks everything Mamet writes is brilliant, quite the opposite actually. Do I like his plays? Sure, some of them. His movies? Some, I will watch UNTOUCHABLES or RED BELT any day. What about his essays? Actually, yes, I admit I am a nonfiction junkie and reading a Mamet essay about pocketknives is a great joy of mine. In regards to his theatre essays . . . I almost always walk away angry at his oversimplification of everyone's craft. Specifically the actor's craft and process.
This brings me to the point of this post.
I stand corrected and Mr. Mamet, Sir, you are right.
I hang my head in shame over the years I've spent saying, "Read, TRUE AND FALSE, but be careful, it can be dangerous for a young actor to read."
Well, I'm wrong.
After working on two of my plays at the same time, with a diverse group of actors and yes, I even had to direct a bit on one of them. I have walked away from the experience with this . . .
What is the actor's job?
Learn your lines, learn your blocking, find an appropriate action and speak out clearly even though frightened, scared, insecure etc. That is true bravery in one's art and that is the actor's job.
Some actor's never got their lines right. Now let me be clear. It's one thing to do what I call kerfuffle the line. Sometimes as an actor you learn something wrong and it just sticks in your mouth and brain. That's not what I'm talking about. That would be consistency. While Emerson may call that the, "hobgoblin of little minds," I call it an actor doing their job and what they need to do.
No, some of these actors felt the need to embellish, to add, paraphrase to which I say, "I'm the dramatist can we please at least try it my way? Just once?"
Nope, they never did. Not even at the table with no pressure to perform and the script in front of them.
In performance their embellishments, their insecurity and hubris grew to such epic proportions that they felt they needed to make it better or they needed to get a laugh. (Again, without ever trying it as written.)
They did this at the expense of other actors onstage. They did this at the expense of scripted jokes and laugh lines that belonged to other people. (These same actors never learned their blocking and couldn't physically do the same things night to night.)
In short, they were not serving the play. They were selfish and are unable to work simply, truthfully and as asked by the playwright and director.
I wonder to myself if they had actually learned the lines as written and performed them as such what would have happened?
I think their work would have been like the actors who did their job. It would have grown every night and deepened. They would have been considered giving by their fellow actors and they would have served the play and the production.
I'm not perfect. But between educational and professional theatre I've worked on well over 200 plays and I work enough to be in and maintain membership in all three actor unions, so I do feel like I know what I am talking about. Whenever this has happened to me (lines jumbled or a jump in the script) I am horrified and I immediately go to my script to uncover what went wrong and then I work to correct it and make sure it never happens again. What I don't do is walk off-stage and blame other people in the dressing room. If it's a huge issue I go to the other actor and ask we run lines on that section because I think I messed something up. (I find that works best, blame yourself and not get defensive.)
I am an open-minded writer. If a line doesn't work, let's talk about it. Let's change it. Especially on a new play. But the time for that is in rehearsal. Not performance.
This idea of what are the basics, the bare minimum of an actor's job has been sticking in my brain for weeks and I need to get it out.
So what are the basics of an actor's job? To learn their lines, learn their blocking, find an appropriate action and speak out even though frightened.
Dammit Mamet, you are right.
