I wanted to share some overall facts about my current production.
Currently, I am in a stage adaptation of Miracle on 34th Street. The Old Opera House Theatre Company, in Charles Town, West Virginia is presenting it. (A link to them can be found to the left, in my links section.) It is here that I have done most of my community theatre work since graduating college.
This will be my 9th appearance on this particular stage, and my 5th this year. It will be my 15th production lifetime, as an actor. (It feels like more than that.)
The role is Mr. Thomas Mara, who does not enter the action until act 2. (A first for me as an actor. I have usually entered no later than the middle of act one.) He is the assistant district attorney who represents the state of New York in a court hearing. This hearing is the climax of the play. The purpose of said hearing is to determine if one Kris Kringle, who claims to be the one and only Santa Claus, is mentally incompetent. My character attempts to prove, at least initially, that Kringle is in fact, crazy. (Popular guy at Christmas time, I am sure.)
Those of you who have seen the movie are pretty much aware of where things go from there. I myself have never seen the movie, and I plan not to do so until this production is concluded. I try never to see movie versions of plays I am in before I am done with them. (Unless I have seen it prior to auditioning for a show.) There might be an unconscious decision to mimic the one actor in the movie playing the same character I am playing on stage.
We have only had one read-through so far. Last week. I estimate there are about 30-35 people in the show. I am quite pleased that I am friends with about 2/3 of them. While not a requirement for a good show, it always makes it a bit more fun.
It should also be fun given that it is a Christmas time show. (I was in Scrooge last year, and enjoyed a sort of Christmas spirit in that production, among many friends in the cast. Oddly, I played a guy named Thomas in that Christmas show as well. Hmmm...)
This show will open on December 1st. That gives us 6 or 7 weeks. In that time, of course, much will be happening, in the show as a whole, and with me as an individual actor. I already see several different ways I could approach my small but interesting role. I look forward to experimenting with it, and sharing some of my thoughts and findings here.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I applaud your desire to find new life in a workhorse like "A Miracle of 34th Street." Come to New York. We need more actors like you.
I thank you, Mr. Freeman, for your comments. I suppose I have a bit of a soft spot for all kinds of Christmas festivities. Even though I play a cynic in this production, if I can inject a bit of something memorable into someone's Christmas experience any given night of the show, I am willing.
As to coming to New York, I appreciate the sentiment. I have considered moving elsewhere with my acting aspirations at various times over the years. However, I feel rather certain that New York already has more busboys and waiters than it knows what to do with. I would almost certainly become another one if were to transplant myself there now, as opposed to being esteemed for my acting prowess, (whatever amount of it I may posess.)
Post a Comment