I'm in With the In Crowd.

Tonight we rehearsed a crowd scene of sorts. The Act III, Scene 4 crowd at the Macbeth house, during which the ghost of Banquo shows up.

I play nobody in particular in that scene. I've just a body on stage making it look like the party that it is. More specifically, I'm helping obscure the entrance of Banquo, as are most of the rest of the crowd.

I was the only person who delivered the like that is written for the whole crowd, ("Done what, my lord?") several times, so the line was given to me. That will teach me to do what I'm supposed to do!

To be honest, I dislike nights of rehearsal like this. Perhaps if it were the only thing I was doing in the whole play, it wouldn't feel so tedious, but as it is, I'm just a walk-on in this scene, in the same play in which I'm a solid supporting actor. I'm used to being proactive during the rehearsals I've been to, as Malcolm. If I had my choice, I'd not even be in this scene, wherein I walk around, pretend I don't see Banquo, and stare at Macbeth for 15 minutes as he acts crazy. I understand why the director needs so many people, but again, if I had a choice...

To further complicate this little nuisance scene, to coin a phrase, it comes immediately after the only other scene in the play wherein I am not playing Malcolm. I play one of the murderers of Banquo, (who actually doesn't do any killing), and as soon as I leave the stage for that, I'll need to make some kind of quick costume change into this party guest. I hate having to do that. (I did a lot of that in Radium Girls.)

On the bright side, these bit and almost-bit parts come right before intermission, and once the second half of the show starts, I don't have to do it again.

My hope is to have both the murderer and the party guest look and act quite differently from both Malcolm and one another. (Especially since one follows the other right off.) I'm hoping to have some kind of costume item for either one that is distinctive and easy to remove/put on. Not only do I want to make sure the audience isn't confused, but I want to give myself different focal points for my performances as well.

Playing two different small roles between the Malcolm of the start of the play and the Malcolm at the end of the play may actually help, in a way. Might allow me to reset Malcolm in some ways, to tweak the performance without overthinking the shift. Maybe. I'll find out when we start doing more of the show at once.

Next week is the first week we a start rehearsing entire acts in one night, and I'll be needed every day that week, I think.

So the intensity is about to ramp up, I would guess.