The Theatah...A Poll in Three Acts

Cafe Society
1

I went to see “God of Carnage” last night, the original Broadway cast here in LA. (James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Hardin, Jeff Daniels and Hope Davis). It won the Tony for Best Play and MGH won for Best Actress.

It was funny, I liked it. It is the first play I can recall seeing since Lily Tomlin’s “Signs of Intelligent Life” in the 80’s. I don’t go to The Theatah much.

And last night reminded me of why.

Even though we had excellent seats (14th row, dead center…I have connections and have had all my life… I never go to live performances with less than fantastic seats: David Bowie 10th row center, Elton John actual front row…hell I was backstage WITH Elton for that…) I still found it difficult to hear everything, particularly since it is a comedy and I missed a lot during the laughter.

But the thing that really puts me off The Theatah is the fact that the need to project (speak loudly enough to be heard by the back row) makes even very good performances unnatural and stilted and as a woman who grew up with the intimacy and naturalness of TV & film acting, I just can’t get behind it. It’s weird and unnatural and mars the performance for me. It’s less of an issue in something as broad as a comedy, but it’s intolerable in a drama. It’s sort of the live equaivalent of watching the acting in a silent movie, where the gestures and responses were super-broad to overcome the limit of simple title cards.

Along with my poll, a question that maybe belongs in GQ or on its own: it’s 2011. There have to have been attempts over the years to employ microphones. Hasn’t audio technology come far enough to allow discreet little microphones to do the projecting for the actors so they can speak in a more natural manner?

I’m also not a big fan of the vast majority of musicals, because even when they are good they are just cheesy. Musical = cheesy to me. I know that they are growing up but… not so much for me yet, from what I’ve seen.

I also think that at the end of the day the people who love The Theatah the most are actors themselves. I can completely see how THEY would love it. Instant feedback, constant refinement… way fun. Although the grind is brutal, too. The Broadway cast did 450+ Broadway performances, and now with LA and previews, they are way over 500 or maybe 600, and all four actors are onstage pretty much constantly for the entire 90 minutes. That’s rough.

So here’s the poll - coming. Multiple choice will be permitted because there are three sets of questions

2

I’ve never had a problem with this. I can’t remember a show where I thought the actors were projecting too much. In fact, I’ve had the opposite happen. When I saw **Arcadia **a couple months ago, the problem was that everyone was speaking too quietly. They either did not use mics or were not miked properly, and did not know how to adjust their voices appropriately. And I have sat up close many times, even though I don’t have lifetime connections.

Yes. And they use them all the time. Too much, in my opinion. Actors *should *know how to project their voices and not rely on mics to do all the work for them.

I see theatre all the time. I usually average about 5 shows per month, on and Off-Broadway. I saw God of Carnage when it was on Broadway and thought it was hysterical. I had no trouble hearing the dialogue even from up in the cheap seats with the rest of the unwashed masses.

3

I majored in theater and try to go as often as I can. I’m currently in a tiny little podunk town but in a few weeks I will be back in the Twin Cities and I plan on getting my butt in those Guthrie seats as often as possible. Mixed Blood is doing completely free admission seasons for the next three years which is going to be completely awesome.

I don’t remember having much difficulty hearing the dialogue in professional productions.

4

No theater background here but I love it, mostly musicals though.

I think John Lithgow said the stage was the purest form of acting, but I disagree for the reasons you mentioned.

Just moved to Chicago(Bloomingdale) from Dallas. I loved how in Dallas I never really had to plan ahead to see a major musical. If it was close to 8PM and I was bored I would just drive down to the Music Hall/Myerson/any number of local theaters and buy a ticket at the door. Here in Chicago you need to buy tickets before they’re sold out. I’m not good at planning ahead.

If you’re ever in the Dallas area go to the Pocket Sandwich Theater and watch one of their melodramas. It’s a blast. Best theater experience ever. It’s probably the only thing in Dallas I’ll really miss.

Your most humble and obedient servant,
OG

5

I live about 2 hours from NYC. Broadway is a pretty big ticket price so I don’t go all that often. I enjoy all types of plays, but prefer musicals. A regular drama has to have some really big specific hook for me to see it (Bent, Dog Sees God) on the big stage. Other wise I’ll catch it at the community theater.

6

I like going to live performances, but they’ve just gotten too expensive to enjoy on any sort of regular basis. The last show I saw was at a Union $quare theater in $an Franci$co - two tickets and train fare could easily consume more than a day’s pay and still not get you a seat on the main floor. Yes, I know I can probably find a seat in the Fourth Upper Balcony with a view partially obstructed by the wiring hanging down from the lighting grid, but if I’m going, I want to see the show without needing a telescope.

Ironically, growing up, one of my favorite areas to sit at the community theater was near the follow-spot operator as he was right next to an open window and there was usually a breeze. But, it was a small house with really no bad seats.

7

Couldn’t really answer the first trio because none applied. I live in a city of 225,000 so that’s not “big urban center” as most would define it, and it doesn’t have a “thriving theater scene”, but I do have the nation’s largest Shakespeare festival in my back yard and I go whenever time and money allow. Unfortunately they’re not doing very well due to cutbacks (both public and private moneys) and astoundingly stupid mismanagement, but they’re still very good.

8

I had problems with the first trio of choices as well - there is a level (or two) between a large urban area with a thriving theater scene and being stuck watching high school shows. I live in a county with 250,000 people, with the largest town being abut 37,000. There are at least nine active community theaters, plus the high schools (who put on MAYBE one show a year) and also a local opera company. At one point (about ten years ago) we had about 15 theater companies.

I also majored in theater, and have worked teaching theater classes for the last 15 years.

9

I don’t like live theatre and I don’t like musicals (which makes my love for the tv show “Glee” a bit of an anomaly, but humans are complicated critters). If I never see another live show, I’ll be just fine with that.

10

I enjoy theater although I only enjoy musicals and comedies. Occasionally when I had season tickets I catch a drama and even more rarely would I enjoy it.

I grew up in a town of 100k so it didn’t really fit your size criteria and since we were just north of LA it was the last stop for a lot of great actors and actresses or it was the stop just before they made it. Hell occasionally we’d even get big name profit era who owed someone a favor or really like a play and were between jobs. PCPA

Unfortunately I only get to go rarely anymore and I haven’t had time to get into the local theater scene since they seem to so a lot more wacky stuff and less fun stuff.

11

I’ve been to plenty of shows over the years and sat in probably every type of location they can put you in, and the projecting thing has never been an issue for me. I have no cite, but I think they’re using microphones more than the OP might expect.

12

Thanks for the reminder. Houston has lots of theater at every level. The Alley, our big theater downtown, is showing Pygmalion! I love Shaw & need to invest in a cheap seat. This July, the Houston Shakespeare Festival will present Othello & Taming of the Shrew–free in Hermann Park. (Bring mosquito spray & something cool to drink!)

We also get touring musicals & there are bunches of “little” theaters. I fondly remember productions at a defunct artsy warehouse, done on the cheap with real talent; the series included King Lear & Waiting for Godot.

I may not have such elite connections, but I’ve enjoyed most of the shows I’ve seen. Mid-year Resolution: Get out & see more of them!

Again, thanks!

13

I love live theater; we usually see at least ten plays a year: five Broadway touring companies, and five community theater performances (we have subscriptions).

There’s also another community theater we go to one or twice a year (with close to professional quality acting). I just discovered another local venue that looks great, plus I may go to Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, MA, which is professional. We’re also thinking of getting a subscription to the local equity group.

Nothing beats the immediacy of live theater.

14

I love live theater but the cost of tickets is too prohibitive for me to go more than about once a year. That said, I went to see WarHorse about five months ago and it was an amazing experience.

And put me down as another hater of microphones. I don’t want to hear the actors’ voices coming from speakers all around me; I want to hear them coming from the actors. This is particularly a problem with modern musicals where the pit is now filled with electric guitars and keyboards, requiring the singers to be miked to be heard over the racket. Too noisy to enjoy.

15

I more or less grew up working in the theatre (as an amature) and worked as a theatre professional for something like 10 years.

Your problems with theare, it seems to me, stem from you going to “The Theatah” rather than the theatre and not going all that often. I mean, let’s face it, 90% of everything is crap and even good shows have bad performances. If you only see one show a decade you are much more likely to see something bad than good. Also The Theatah is pretentious and arty shit for rich folks. Theatre is the peoples art. It’s art for the proletariat. Much more accessible than that theatah crap.

EDIT: Yasmina Reza’s work falls into the Theatre not Theatah catagory. She is a wonderful brilliant playwright who produces excellent accessible non pretentious work which is also artistically viable and rich.

You live in Los Angeles, which isn’t thought of as a theatre town much, but is actually a pretty good on if you start looking. If you are interested I can point you in the direction of a couple of smaller theaters that consistently put on fantastic work. In particular The Fountain Theater does great stuff all the time. Tickets are cheep and the venue is intimate and dynamic.
Some thoughts on what you are saying…

You went to see a play primarily starting film and TV actors, it doesn’t surprise me that they had problems with basic projection. TV and film acting takes a totally different set of physical skills than stage acting, many actors (even good ones) have a hard time doing both equally well. Also, being a comedy the actors should have been good at holding for the laughter in the important bits.

All that said, the Ahmanson is a *terrible *place to see a play like that. It’s a notoriously dead space acoustically and far too large for that show, so you were sort of doubly done wrong. The Mark Taper would be the better space, but they don’t do road shows.

I am not going to rant about this, but I have a lot of thoughts. Ask me about them if you care. Suffice it to say that 1) if the actors know what they are doing the projection shouldn’t effect their performance even a little bit, 2) what you think of as realistic acting isn’t and stylization is a good thing not a bad thing in art.

Yes. They are used in musicals a lot. It sort of misses the point though. Like I said, any actor worth their salt doesn’t need to me mic’d. Most actors I know would be insulted if asked to wear a mic.

What have you seen? How many have you seen on stage. I am not a musical person per se, but I always wonder when people say something like this. I wouldn’t call Mother Courage cheesy, for example, and that’s not a particularly new show.

The grind is brutal. I can tell you first hand that 8 shows a week for a 12 week run is rough, even if you aren’t an actor. It’s one of the primary reasons why I am no longer working in the theatre, it was more than I could take and I burned out.

I know the PCPA well and know many people who worked there over the years (mostly via college connections) They do good work. You weren’t short changed at all.

16

Oh, go! I did my internship there and really love that theater, it’s a fantastic space.

Also, the scenic designer for that show, Neil Patel, is kind of a genius, as is the theater’s artistic director. Their stuff is almost always good. You won’t regret it.

17

High school productions are not my only option, but this is a medium-sized city and we are mainly limited to traveling productions or local amateur theater. I have seen a couple shows in the last couple of years (The Producers, Big River). I’d see more but the limiting factors are the cost and having two small kids, which makes every night out a logistical hassle.

Still Wicked is coming later this year, I think, and I’ve always wanted to see that. I’ve tried to talk my wife into going to NYC for a few days and to see a show there but she’s not into it.

18

Some years ago I saw Patrick Stewart and Joshua Jackson (of Dawson’s Creek fame) in A Life in the Theatre and it was interesting to note the differences between the two. Stewart is an experienced stage actor who can rattle the rafters if needed. Jackson clearly was used to television acting, where you only need to be heard as far away as the boom mic, and struggled to project and emote and appear unforced all at the same time.

(A side question for you regular theatah goers and performers: is it just me or are audiences getting noiser and ruder? Any show whose draw includes an actor off the telly seems to attract people who think they’re in their own living room and will not shut up.)

19

Yeah, there is a totally different set of physical skills needed to perform on stage. Not just vocal control either. You have to move your body in different ways too. It’s not a natural thing, acting. How you walk, how you gesture, all of it needs to be carefully considered and it also has to “read”. Small subtle motions will get missed.

Being a good screen actor is just as hard (without the vocal thing). Every motion you make on the screen seems much larger than in reality, so your physicality has to be very tightly controlled. What’s more you don’t have the freedom to change your actions slightly every time you do the performance when filming. You need to do EVERYTHING. EXACTLY. THE SAME. Down to when you blink if possible. On every take.

Many screen actors look flat or entirely over the top on stage as a result (depending on how they are compensating). I can think of a handful of actors who are good at both. Stewart is one of them, Alec Baldwin is another.

20

Live theater is always too artificial for me. I’m too aware that it’s a play. No suspension of reality. And the acting isn’t natural. All that yelling.