The actor enters, the audience’s eyes are on him, waiting to see what his character will bring to the scene, and then… nothing?! Your actor doesn’t actually enter, he just kind of moseys onstage, crosses to where he should be, and then starts “acting.” Meanwhile, the pace slows, and the momentum of the play comes to a halt! Undoubtedly, this actor does not understand that before saying a word, a character’s entrance should signal who he is, how he feels about being there and the reason he’s there. As the director, how do you show an actor the importance of an entrance? Notice I say “show” and not “tell.” People learn best by doing and experiencing the right way of doing something. Here’s an exercise to help you demonstrate this point. (When doing an exercise like this, I ask everyone to do it, because I don’t like putting an actor on the spot. No one gets singled out or feels insecure, which is the worst thing an actor can feel.) I give the cast a simple entrance line: “There’s a knock at the door.” Then, one at a time, each actor enters saying that line, but instead of walking, he or she has to enter in one of these ways: ramble, run, skip, jog, creep, crawl, saunter, shuffle, shamble, march, stomp, trudge, stagger, plod, inch, lunge, lurch, limp, glide, back onstage, sidestep, trot, dance, waltz, wander—you get the idea. Tell everyone their action verb ahead of time and have them make their entrance delivering the line. It’s fun to see them create a character and situation just by their physical entrance and saying one line. The second time around, have them use one of their own entrance lines and give them an action verb that describes their entrance. The verb doesn’t have to be appropriate to their character; the point of this is to show the importance of stage movement. Finally, have them repeat the activity using their own action verb that does fit their character’s entrance. This high-energy sequence is a fun and constructive way to reveal how much should be conveyed simply by making an entrance. |
