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Cross-dressing is at least 85 percent attitude. Binding my breasts and applying a goatee helped me a lot and convinced the audience, but what does it mean to be a man?
What became crucial was what should be top priority when playing any character: what kind of man was I? I got to explore some things I might not have with a female character, like always being ready for a fight. Other things, I reexamined from a male perspective: Honor. Vengeance. Flouting authority, and alternately, love and fealty toward a superior.
And did I just imagine being taken more seriously?
The other fifteen percent is physical. Walk as if you have something hanging between your legs. Stand as if you deserve more space than you physically occupy. Keep the line between your fingertips and your forearm straight, and gesture from the shoulder, not the elbow. While you’re at it, make those gestures with fists or with fingers together. Be forceful, decisive, geometric. Tuck your butt. Hold your arms slightly farther from your body. Smile less often, and don’t drop your head, then raise your eyes. Meet gazes. And as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
catling said, make sure you wave your astral dick around.
Doing theatre subsumes everything else. This was more of a reminder than something I learned during this show. I directed a one-act last year and was in one the year before, but it’s a long time since I was involved, from start to finish, in a full-length, big show. For a few weeks I only had rehearsal one night a week, but soon enough it rose to two, then three, and during tech week and the run I was at the theatre nearly every day. I had almost forgotten how easily theatre people become theatre’s bitch, without hardly even tryin’.
There really are no small parts, just small actors. A magnificent newcomer to Theatre @ First (playing Leonato) spoke of every character having his or her own play. There’s a marvelous scene in Shakespeare in Love that illustrates this: describing the new play Romeo and Juliet, an actor confides, “So there’s this Nurse…” Not only does the play consume you just as much, timewise, with a bit part as with a lead, but the work of character discovery is nearly as intensive – if you give a shit. I had to know who Conrade was, even in silence, even when offstage.
Being a man for too long messes with my body. ( possible TMI within... )
What became crucial was what should be top priority when playing any character: what kind of man was I? I got to explore some things I might not have with a female character, like always being ready for a fight. Other things, I reexamined from a male perspective: Honor. Vengeance. Flouting authority, and alternately, love and fealty toward a superior.
And did I just imagine being taken more seriously?
The other fifteen percent is physical. Walk as if you have something hanging between your legs. Stand as if you deserve more space than you physically occupy. Keep the line between your fingertips and your forearm straight, and gesture from the shoulder, not the elbow. While you’re at it, make those gestures with fists or with fingers together. Be forceful, decisive, geometric. Tuck your butt. Hold your arms slightly farther from your body. Smile less often, and don’t drop your head, then raise your eyes. Meet gazes. And as
catling said, make sure you wave your astral dick around.Doing theatre subsumes everything else. This was more of a reminder than something I learned during this show. I directed a one-act last year and was in one the year before, but it’s a long time since I was involved, from start to finish, in a full-length, big show. For a few weeks I only had rehearsal one night a week, but soon enough it rose to two, then three, and during tech week and the run I was at the theatre nearly every day. I had almost forgotten how easily theatre people become theatre’s bitch, without hardly even tryin’.
There really are no small parts, just small actors. A magnificent newcomer to Theatre @ First (playing Leonato) spoke of every character having his or her own play. There’s a marvelous scene in Shakespeare in Love that illustrates this: describing the new play Romeo and Juliet, an actor confides, “So there’s this Nurse…” Not only does the play consume you just as much, timewise, with a bit part as with a lead, but the work of character discovery is nearly as intensive – if you give a shit. I had to know who Conrade was, even in silence, even when offstage.
Being a man for too long messes with my body. ( possible TMI within... )
