For the past year I have been penetrating the wonderful world of acting. The further I go the more I learn what one-of-a-kind place it is. Actors are artists, artists with specific believes, dreams, goals, values, understanding of the world, hopes, and even sense of humor. As different as they are they are all united by some invisible force that drives them forward, that defeats set backs, that overlooks rejections and very low income prospects.
And absolutely nothing brings people together as much and as closely as being part of a cast of a show or a play. They are brought together for hours at a time, day after day, week after week, sometimes month after month and even year after year. They are forced to reexamine themselves, to reexamine each other, to reevaluate their principles and values together. They are forced to open themselves up to their fellow actors, become vulnerable. They are forced to build new relationships, strong relationships, real relationships between each other. They become part of a new and separate from all others world. It affects not only their characters, but the actors themselves and all of this stays with them long after the show is over, often throughout their whole life.
I want to explore this world for one of the shows that is in rehearsals right now. It is a musical called “The Life” and it will premier in the beginning of December, which gives me an opportunity to follow this group throughout the process till the grand finale. As an acting student and a friend of many of the actors in the cast of the show I believe I have the ticket for this ride. But because I am not in the shows it will let me concentrate on them individually and as a group without being affected by my role in the play and will let me see the big picture.
I already have the permission of the Director of the show and an OK from some of the actors in the show that I had a chance to talk to. I hope to create a window into the world of theater as well as learn from this experience.
I think this is a good idea. I think it would be great that during your presentation you give us a taste of the play by having video also. It will add something more to your project.
I like your idea a lot. I remember doing something like it years before for a feature story, and one of the things i noticed was that the actors were trying to show their best faces because they wanted me to write a positive article. I wasn’t friends with them before, as you luckily are, but i think people can sometimes do that unconsciuosly.
Nice thought about adding video here –capturing the performance aspect of the project. Try to talk to as many people as possible and ask specific, insightful questions. The better your questions, the better their answers! Details always transform text and images too.
Josef Koudelka, photographer of the Gypsies photographed a theater group early on in his career. Why don’t you look at that work? He said that the experience of photographing a community of actors had tremendous impact on his work with the Gypsies.
It will be interesting to see the transformation in characters and how they achieve that. I also like the idea of using some video.