Theatre is something that is alive. With film and television, you are seeing a finished product, something that has been through countless takes, revisions, and editions until it has reached what the director wanted. Such things are directors' mediums because they can be done over and over again, and even once they're done, be edited again and again. Theatre, on the other hand, is an actor's medium. There's only so much the director can do to prepare it for viewing. Once the rehearsal process is over, it is up to the actors alone. Each show is its own production and will be different every time. If I feel like giving my character a little tweak or a twist one night, I can, and the other people in the scene will play off of it and it will be a little bit different show, but a movie is the same show every time. But more than that, it's the audience that brings theatre to life. Because of this, black box or "intimate" theatre is as different from the bigger houses as it is from film because of the nature of the audience-actor relationship. Intimate theatre means I can see the face of every audience member. Both actors and audiences have certain expectations going into any performance, and black box, especially in the round, breaks them all, no matter how many times you've done it. As an actor who has only ever done black box except for one show way back, I'm a fan, and most people do seem to like it once they get used to the idea. The way I figure it, if I and my castmates worked our ass off getting this show together, and we're tirelessly putting it on the line every single night, you're going to have to work too. You're not going to sit fifty rows back in pitch dark in a cooshy chair and go to sleep; no, this show is going to be your job for the next two hours. Because that's entertainment. And so, going in with this attitude, I have lots of fun with the audience members unfamiliar with my confrontational acting style, combined with the inherent confrontationality of intimate theatre. Because they aren't used to it, they refuse to look the actor in the eye when he directly addresses the audience, and that's a lot of fun to watch. I can really hook into the ones that do look at me, and that's what this style is all about, but a lot of them, when you come to them, will do anything they can to look anywhere but at you. Then once you move past them they are so relieved, but embarrassed at the same time. I don't know if they're afraid of the actor or if they think they're going to make me mess up or what, but it's hilarious. Many actors, too, are afraid to actually make eye contact with audience members for the same collection of reasons, or because they come from the proscenium school. They don't want to look because that breaks the forth wall, and therefore the reality, in a regular, realistic, sort of play. So it turns into this funny little dance between the actors and audience members where neither one really knows where they're supposed to look until you get a hard-core black box actor like me to drop some hurtin' on the audience. I wake them up too, cause damn, parts of this play are boring. I guess my affinity for intimate theatre comes not from my desire to perform as it does for most actors, but rather that part of my personality that is oh so familiar to you all - my need to get in people's heads and shake things up.
On that note, come see Phedre, and, since I know most of you are already planning to, thanks in advance for coming and enjoy the show. I mean that. I'm just an actor, and as such I am only a servant of the theatre. The audience is what keeps theatre alive and it is here to serve the public. Don't let this be the generation that loses sight of legitimate theatrical art, whatever the form.
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