Process of Understudying a Role

November 27, 2009 by  

In live theater, life happens and understudies are needed for the unexpected. An understudy is a performer who learns the lines and blocking of a leading actor or actress in a play. Should the lead actor or actress be unable to appear on stage because of illness or emergencies, the understudy takes over the part. In the opera world, the term used is cover or covering.

Is It Worth It?
When offered an opportunity to understudy, the first question you might ask is, is it worth it? The question depends on what you are looking to get out of the experience. One big reason why an actor would want to accept an understudy role is to build a relationship with the theater’s artistic staff. While the likelihood of an understudy going on for the role, in a scheduled performance, is slim to none, in theater, one actor’s tragic misfortune becomes another’s golden opportunity. Take, for example, Oregon Shakespeare Festival‘s best story of understudy heroism. During a performance of Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Sarah Rutan took a flying leap and landed wrong, severely bruising her knee. The stage manager immediately called Rutan’s understudy and, legend has it, exactly seven minutes later Georgina McKee made her entrance on cue and in costume. “The understudy nailed it,” says OSF actor Rafael Untalan. “She’ll be coming back next season. How well you do as an understudy can really assist your career here.”[1] Still if the actor does not get the chance to be in a scheduled production, the understudy run through allows you to perform in front of the artistic and casting director. Think of it as a 90-120 minute audition. The artistic staff will see so much more that what they would see in a three minute audition.

Know Your Role
And while yes, the actor needs to know their role, it is just as important to know one’s place as the understudy actor. While observing rehearsals, consider it a Master Class that you are auditing. Your job is to sit in the back, soak in everything like a sponge, and say nothing. The pressure is off. You are not the one rehearsing. Relax and observe everything. How does the actor adjust to a note? How does the director suggest something to the actor? Some actors in the main cast reach out to the understudies, and are open to dialogue with them about the character. If so, ask them questions at appropriate times. Other actors are not quite sure what to do with their understudy, and choose not to interact with them. If that is the case, let them be. You are not there to connect with the ensemble, you are there to be the fly on the wall.

Much of Untalan’s work takes place in isolation. As the understudy for a role in the two-person drama By the Waters of Babylon, Untalan wasn’t even allowed into rehearsals until two weeks before opening night. “It was a very intimate play,” he says. “The actors wanted space to create the work, and I had to give it to them.” Still, learning a part with more lines than King Lear without the benefit of blocking frustrated him. “It becomes a different kind of work,” he says. “It involves a great deal of imagination. And then when you do get a chance to see rehearsals, you have to honor the other actor’s work. That’s what you’re paid to do. You don’t mimic, but you do follow their arc.”[2]

No one teaches you how to be an understudy. You’re on your own. After sitting in on the first few rehearsals it can began to dawn on you that, in a lot of ways, the understudy job is the epitome of the actor’s worst nightmare — going on stage with no rehearsal.

As an understudy, you get none of the benefits of building layer by layer. You’re just expected to know it all, almost through osmosis. Then, sometime after opening night, there comes the “judgment day” where the theater has an understudy run through. This is the moment you have been waiting for — a rehearsal of your very own! Everyone comes to see if you can do the job you’re being paid to do. It’s a pass/fail exam. This rehearsal is a huge sigh of relief for everyone involved because it answers the question of insurance. The actor is desperate to know if he can fill the role and the theatre wants to know they have a back-up plan. The stage manager and director tidy up any loose ends or minor details that might have escaped the understudy, and they ultimately decide if the understudy can deliver a performance worthy of the show.

[1-2] “The Wait In The Wings” by Johanna Droubay. Willamette Week. October 5th, 2005.

UPDATE: The Leonard Lopate Show interviews actress Julie White and actor Justin Kirk talk about their roles in Theresa Rebeck’s new comedy “The Understudy“.

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It’s Called Acting, Not Being

November 15, 2009 by  

There are schools of acting that say when one talks about their character, they need to refer to the character in first person. As in, “I have a drug problem” or “I want her to love me”.

Gabourey Sidibe, in the title role of Precious, smartly disagrees. “It so funny, some people tell me, oh when I did this role, my first role, I got so into it, that the lines blurred between you. And I was, that’s weird can’t you just act, do you really have to live it?”

SIDENOTE: I heard this interview on my local public radio station WNYC while I was in the car. Remembering Gary Vaynerchuck’s video on “old world technology” (see below), I used the voice recorder app on my iPhone and made a note to blog about the above interview.

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