Listen ...

       In rehearsals, we are always doing something. If we’re not working on a scene, we’re in the workshop practicing dances and music, work-shopping scenes, or working on creating an efficient ensemble. In Wednesday’s rehearsal, while Ugly and the Ducklings were working a scene, the rest of the ensemble was doing an exercise to help with listening. We had to count as high as we could with one person saying a number at a time. No overlapping. We had our eyes closed so we couldn’t signal or look around to see who was going to say a number. This got me thinking. What would a show be if nobody listened?

In the rehearsal process it is crucial to listen during every step. If you ignore what the director says or what’s going on in the other scenes, then you won’t have any idea what to do. And if you’re confused, the performances of the other actors can be hindered. If you don’t listen during performances, you’ll miss your cues. From my experiences, this is one of the worst things that can happen during a show. When a person misses a cue it causes the other actors to improvise, until they come on. But possibly the most important time to listen is onstage. Listening while in scene helps keep your acting honest. What I mean by honesty is that by listening to the people in your scene with you and discovering it anew every time you can make your acting seem more realistic. Without this type of listening, acting would just be someone reading lines from a script with no emotion or meaning behind the words. And that would just be boring.

So, if no actors listened, then plays would just be confused people saying random words on a stage. But it only takes one. As I mentioned earlier, if you miss a cue or just don’t know what to do, the other actors onstage must make do and improvise, which is hard to do, but possible. But if you don’t listen in your scene, there isn’t anything that other actors can do about that. It’s like they say, a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link.

When I thought of this I got worried. Is this how easily something that we worked on for months could come down? With just one person? Then I realized, no, it won’t all fall apart. Because every person here at STC is just as good as the next. No link is any weaker than another. I am constantly amazed when I see younger actors and actresses, new to theater, acting just as well, onstage and off, as my friends from STC that I’ve known for years. At Story Theater Company, everyone is a strong link, therefore we have a strong chain which is very hard to break.

Zander Reed
Greylag