Inquiring Minds

No matter the size of a role, the tasks facing the actor charged with playing it are daunting. The actor has to learn pages of text, memorizing not only their lines but also what’s happening in the rest of the show. They have to master their scenes’ blocking, making sure to hit their exact marks every time. They have to rehearse—and rehearse, and rehearse—yet convincingly appear like they’re saying the play’s words for the first time. And they have to pull off that last trick with hundreds of pairs of eyes staring back at them from a live audience.

As Jim Crawford, professor of theatre and a professional actor and director, sees it, that last element is what gives live theater its exhilarating charge. “When you see a great play, it will be more thrilling than the best movie you’ve ever seen because you’re in the room with these people and there’s an electricity there that is palpable,” he says. “You’re there with other people and something important or emotional or thought-provoking is happening.”

Actors, Crawford is quick to note, are just one part of the larger theatrical team. From the costumes and makeup that physically transform the performer to the sets and lights and sounds that bring the play’s world to sensory life, actors depend on collaboration with many other artists in order to be able to realize a character and tell a story.

It starts, of course, with the script. The best actors crack open every line of it in pursuit of the building blocks for their characters, finding clues in every tiny word choice and bit of action. “The writer has really started your journey for you,” says Crawford. “You ask yourself, ‘What does this person do for a living? How do they use their body? How did they grow up? What did they expect life would be like for them?’ You start from small things like that, and you wind up playing a character who is actually quite different from who you are.”

In rehearsal, the company of a show comes together and drills down into all the details. The repetition ensures that all of the artists are on the same page—so that, for instance, the lighting designer doesn’t cue a spotlight for stage left when the actor moves stage right—but also presents an additional challenge for an actor: How do they keep something they’ve done 100 times from feeling stale?

“A basketball player will practice a layup thousands of times so that when they're playing a game, they don't have to think about how to do it. They can pay attention to the people around them and respond in the moment,” says Crawford. “Acting is like that. I know what my lines are and I know what the blocking is. It becomes second nature and you have the muscle memory of doing it, and then it becomes alive again because my imagination can live in the present.”

And while all that preparation certainly helps actors to put on a good show, Crawford also sees it as having a more lasting impact for the performer. Literally walking in someone else’s shoes naturally opens up a direct channel of empathy, allowing an actor an encounter with the world from another perspective. But it also gives the performer a chance to see him- or herself in a new and valuable way.

“Often, the beginning of acting work is about allowing yourself to take up more room and to put your voice out there,” says Crawford. “I love hearing from students who I haven't seen in a few years who tell me that they had a public presentation or speech that went so well. And it's because they're able to own more space and put their voice out there and advocate for what they believe in. The world needs people who can passionately advocate for the things that we all need to be paying attention to.”