Tag Archives: David Mamet

Be Seen, Be Heard, Be Understood

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Be Seen, Be Heard, Be Understood

The above is the “mantra” of the director I’m currently working with.  Three simply things, but without them, there’s little point in performing.

After last nights rehearsal, I read this by David Mamet, which linked in nicely with the advice above:

“Actors must be trained to speak well, easily, and distinctively, to move well and decisively, to stand relaxedly, to observe and act upon the simple, mechanical actions called for by the text. Any play can then be rehearsed in a few weeks at most.”

Let’s see if I can put both pieces of advice into practice.

 

Monday Mamet Musings

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I thoroughly enjoy David Mamet’s books, and so thought I’d go through chapter by chapter of his latest book “Theatre” on the blog as and when I have time to. Feel free to comment, and add your views. Mamet isn’t a divine authority, but he certainly gets me thinking, and I trust he does the same for you.

His first chapter is The Hunter and the Game, here he makes an important observation that the Broadway ( as an American he obviously focuses on American theatre) audience is now predominantly made up of tourists;

“The tourist has no memory of last year’s play and actors…He comes to see spectacle, which will neither provoke nor disturb, whose worth cannot be questioned.”

The tourist has a different “agenda” when viewing theatre, they want to be able to go home having had an experience and brag about it. The West End thankfully is seeing a rise in attendance of plays (and of newly written ones too), but it is dominated by spectacles, and some even describe and sell themselves as such. Obviously it’s good that the “spectaculars” bring in tourists and therefore help the economy, but isn’t it a shame that so many of the musicals on currently are simply “juke box” shows or revivals.

Mamet then goes on to say that plays have to succeed in New York for them to then be able to even be printed, tour or be picked up and produced by amateur groups and thus provide a continued income for the playwright. He’s quite scathing regarding the critics, which is interesting as The Stage has recently run  a few articles on the future of the critic and has a good podcast on it (available for free via iTunes).

After reading this chapter, I gained a sense of how fortunate I am to be in London and the UK, which even though I moan and grumble (on occasion), we have a huge amount of theatres in London (40 in the West End alone) which put on a the whole kaleidoscope of theatrical productions one could want to see. See some of my previous reviews from the last months for a variety of what’s been or is currently on.

He ends on a positive note, saying that perhaps the internet will be a way of plays/playwrights being seen by a wider audience. I suppose time will tell.

A Few Good Pictures and a Few Good Musings

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As promised, here are some pictures (all pictures by Peter Whittle) from A Few Good Men, it’s the last night tonight :(

Yes that’s me being beaten up and gagged up there!

It’s been a great run and  they’ve been a great bunch of guys (and 1 girl) to work with. I’m looking forward to working with them again in future productions. There are a few plays we’re interested in doing next season, so watch this space.

When I’ve not been treading the boards this last week, I’ve finished Micheal Billington’s State of the Nation, British Theatre Since 1945. This is a brilliant book, that I heartily recommend. He makes no bones about his political left leanings, but a bit of Thatcher bashing is always good! He gives a comprehensive overview of this period and brought to my attention a good few plays and playwrights I’d not heard of but will be reading soon. It’s well written and I think it’s essential reading for anyone interested in modern British Theatre.

The other book I’ve been reading this week and not quite yet finished is David Mamet’s new book Theatre. This is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! I’m going to do a complete review once I finish it, but Mamet’s observations and bluntness,cutting through a lot of the theatrical crap is a much need corrective. There are literally dozens of quotes I could post here but here are two of my favourite;

“No adult Londoner would go to see the Crown Jewels, and no adult New Yorker went to see Mama Mia! for to do so would have been culturally repugnant, branding him as a tourist or a dufus.”

“Stanislavski’s theoretical books are a lot of trash. They are unimplementable and thus, useless for the actor. His great gift was his recognition of Chekhov. And it is Chekhov’s plays that transformed acting.”

I’ll offer more comment on this work in a future post, while I don’t agree with everything he writes (the above two quotes, I certainly do though!), he certainly got me thinking. There were many occasions though where I nodded my head in approval while reading.

Well last night party to get ready for :) TTFN