Overacting, Underacting and Acting

[Craig T Gustafson]

The problem with TV is that it has made theatre actors think that you need to act at that energy level. Which is fine if the theatre is the size of Village Theater Guild and the audience is right in your face.

But people are paralyzed by the fear of overacting when in reality they're underacting. Acting at a Grand Size is not proper in an auditorium -- it's required. You need to be able to reach people 200 or 300 feet away from you. TV acting is not going to get the job done.

Margie and I saw two musicals over the weekend. I'm not going to name the one I'm talking about, because for the most part it was really good, but:

The cast was good, but apparently horrified of overdoing it. So the climactic song, which is supposed to blow everybody out of their seats, was polite. They had the moves, they had the notes, they smiled. But there was absolutely no electricity that said, "This is the Greatest Song in the History of Theatre!!!" Which it may or may not be, but while it was being well sung, it wasn't being sold. Done properly, the song will have people cheering when it's over. This time it didn't. It's because people are afraid of overdoing it and they end up underdoing it. You need to do it. Acting at the proper size is not overacting.

Why am I bringing this up right now?

Because after seeing this, I went to rehearsal last night for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and paid close attention to the actors playing the Proteans and the Courtesans. There isn't one of them that behaves as if "I'm just in the chorus; I don't have to put out much energy. Who cares?" Or: "Gee, I don't want to stand out from everybody else; that'd be pushy."

Andrew Trygstad, Kevin Gum, Michael Buonincontro, Jessica Gresk, Whitney Baldwin, Cara Lee Haman, Karissa Brown, Mallory Peterson and Angelina Panozzo all walk in (no... they barrel in, slink in, dance in... nobody just walks) with the attitude that the show is absolutely about their characters -- they just don't have as many lines as other people. They don't steal focus, but they commit to the action 100%. Combined with the rest of the cast, the energy level could power the air conditioning for the building.

There is nothing Polite about their performances. And that's fantastic.

We open this weekend. Info here:
Summer Place Website

[Craig T Gustafson]

By the way, "Protean" is one of the most thankless jobs in musical theatre. Those guys have to work their asses off and seldom are as acknowledged as they should be. David (our director) is working to rectify that.