See, this is what happens to actors. They get involved in a show and they vanish from the face of the earth. I wanted to make sure that I kept this up...writing at least every other day if not every day and what happens? Three weeks without an update.
I've been cast in the Coronado Playhouse production of Sherlock Holmes' Excellent Adventure. I'm playing Sherlock, which came as a bit of a surprise as mentioned previously. I've got a lot of homework to do for this one. Since it's a parody, it's important to be up on all of the Sherlock trivia to establish the baseline. Thus, all of the jokes will make sense. I've never read any of the stories and while I've heard a couple of BBC Radio adaptations, I've not really had too much experience with Holmes.
I've been looking through online videos of Jeremy Brett since he's considered one of the definitive Holmeses out there. Unfortunately, the first one I saw was "The Dying Detective" which has Brett going a bit over the top. The large-scale plot is the same: A young woman of breeding has come to Holmes to help her save her house from the clutches of an evil relative who is going to put her out. In "The Dying Detective," it's her husband's cousin who happens to be a doctor specializing in the treatment of rare diseases. He's seemingly killed his cousin and due to a quirk in the will, the estate goes to him. Holmes, in an attempt to suss the confession out, pretends to have the same disease and has an hysterical fever fit, berating Watson as a horrible physician.
Well, I've been playing Holmes a bit over the top, too, and the director has been on me about that. "Yeah, but the episode I saw is precisely the way I've been playing him!" Yeah, yeah, but that's not quite what we want. So, I'm going through others. From what I can see, Brett played Holmes as understanding that he had a reputation and while it wasn't all false, it wasn't all true, either. Underneath, he has a strong understanding of human interaction and while he remains detached from the expression of emotion, he understands that others need it and is not above providing it when they require it. At the end of "The Dying Detective," the daughter of the woman goes to thank Holmes and you can see that she's a bit scared of him. Holmes remains his formal self and then, ever so quickly, flashes her a grin.
There's also a fair amount of physical work in this. We're having a minimal set so the train sequence is done mostly via mime. At one point, Holmes and Watson have to squeeze into the toilet, so there's a fair amount of "man in a box" going on.
And then there's the accent. I do a fairly decent British accent (having just done a couple British plays recently, No Sex Please, We're British! and Betrayal), but it's always nice to have more training. Our coach for this show is being exact with me. Apparently, I'm a bit nasal which, in British circles, tends more towards buffoonish characters. I've got a good grasp of the form of the vowels and the peculiarities of pronunciation compared to American English ("ad-VER-tiss-ment" rather than "ad-ver-TIZE-ment"), but it's a question of placement. Twenty years of musical theatre training of singing through my nose is catching up to me.
We open on October 30th. It should be fun.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Going Against Type
As I write this, I am in Georgia. Work has sent me across the country to conduct some training for our clients. I've never been to Georgia and it's been a good time, the weather's been pleasant, and it's another state to check off the list of one's I've been to.
City of Angels closed with some good friends in the audience. Finally, somebody got the "without taking his pants down" joke! Four weeks of nothing and at last, I get a laugh. The group of actors over by the band for "All You Have to Do Is Wait" had almost everyone who wasn't on stage, it seemed.
For those who don't know, "All You Have to Do Is Wait" is a song near the end of Act I where Munoz arrests Stone, confident that he'll get the death penalty. Munoz hates Stone for getting away with murder and now he thinks he can pin another murder on Stone and he sings a Latin tune. It's been the hit of the show, the audiences love it, our actor does it wonderfully, and the cast tends to dance backstage while it's going on.
There wasn't anybody in the orchestra available to play the castanets, so one of the actors who knows how stepped up, so she's over by the orchestra. There also wasn't anybody to play the maracas so one of the actors who had one had stepped up and he's over there. Since my entrance is right after the song and is over by the orchestra area, I'm over there. Our shenanigans (after all, I am a very white man prancing around to a very non-white song) started gaining some noteriety as the band could see us and soon, more people came over to cavort with us. Very fun.
But that Monday, audtions for Sherlock Holmes' Excellent Adventure came along. Unfortunately, work was taking me to Georgia for the day of the callbacks and I was worried about not being able to be there. But, the director said not to worry, come audition.
Now, the character of Moriarty in the show apparently ends up playing a couple of women during the play as a means to learn what Holmes is up to. OK, that's been my gig for a while now. The Mystery of Irma Vep, Cinderella, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), God's Younger Brother, I've made a bit of a career wearing dresses. The acting awards of won all came from when I was in a drag role (though the recent Aubrey for Betrayal seems to have broken that string). And since Moriarty is a flamboyant character, I thought that I'd be going right up along my type.
But I've been cast as Sherlock. I'm certainly not sad or disappointed in any way, but it was a bit of a surprise. I had a similar reaction when I was cast in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown as Schroeder. Schroeder? Well, I would have cast myself as Snoopy first. After all, he's a wild, zany character and I do that well. If not Snoopy, then Linus. He's an intellectual as am I. If not Linus, then Charlie Brown. He's a loser and I have a long history of that to draw upon. But Schroeder? Well, I do have a music background, but I wouldn't put it as the most clear type for me. I had a lot of fun as Schroeder (and he is in "My New Philosophy" which is a wonderful song), but it wasn't what I was expecting.
That said, Holmes is an intellectual so it isn't completely against type. I wonder who has been cast as Moriarty. He could be even better in a dress than I am!
City of Angels closed with some good friends in the audience. Finally, somebody got the "without taking his pants down" joke! Four weeks of nothing and at last, I get a laugh. The group of actors over by the band for "All You Have to Do Is Wait" had almost everyone who wasn't on stage, it seemed.
For those who don't know, "All You Have to Do Is Wait" is a song near the end of Act I where Munoz arrests Stone, confident that he'll get the death penalty. Munoz hates Stone for getting away with murder and now he thinks he can pin another murder on Stone and he sings a Latin tune. It's been the hit of the show, the audiences love it, our actor does it wonderfully, and the cast tends to dance backstage while it's going on.
There wasn't anybody in the orchestra available to play the castanets, so one of the actors who knows how stepped up, so she's over by the orchestra. There also wasn't anybody to play the maracas so one of the actors who had one had stepped up and he's over there. Since my entrance is right after the song and is over by the orchestra area, I'm over there. Our shenanigans (after all, I am a very white man prancing around to a very non-white song) started gaining some noteriety as the band could see us and soon, more people came over to cavort with us. Very fun.
But that Monday, audtions for Sherlock Holmes' Excellent Adventure came along. Unfortunately, work was taking me to Georgia for the day of the callbacks and I was worried about not being able to be there. But, the director said not to worry, come audition.
Now, the character of Moriarty in the show apparently ends up playing a couple of women during the play as a means to learn what Holmes is up to. OK, that's been my gig for a while now. The Mystery of Irma Vep, Cinderella, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), God's Younger Brother, I've made a bit of a career wearing dresses. The acting awards of won all came from when I was in a drag role (though the recent Aubrey for Betrayal seems to have broken that string). And since Moriarty is a flamboyant character, I thought that I'd be going right up along my type.
But I've been cast as Sherlock. I'm certainly not sad or disappointed in any way, but it was a bit of a surprise. I had a similar reaction when I was cast in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown as Schroeder. Schroeder? Well, I would have cast myself as Snoopy first. After all, he's a wild, zany character and I do that well. If not Snoopy, then Linus. He's an intellectual as am I. If not Linus, then Charlie Brown. He's a loser and I have a long history of that to draw upon. But Schroeder? Well, I do have a music background, but I wouldn't put it as the most clear type for me. I had a lot of fun as Schroeder (and he is in "My New Philosophy" which is a wonderful song), but it wasn't what I was expecting.
That said, Holmes is an intellectual so it isn't completely against type. I wonder who has been cast as Moriarty. He could be even better in a dress than I am!
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