Like a Ray of Light, Piercing the Clouds...

What inspires you?

What gets you up in the morning? Makes you get dressed? Prepares you to start... no, tackle your day?

For you, it will be something completely different than mine. And it should be. That's what keeps things interesting. Guess what, though... It. Will. Change.

Every moment we are faced with a new challenge. All we can do is react to it. And that's what acting is about. Not making moments happen. But just letting them be.

There are some constants in everything: job, family responsibilities, career goals, etc. But over all, it's the little moments in life that really creates the magic, that really contains all the heart and soul of what we do. I published a post on my other blog (check it out here, if you want) about music and how we can use that to convey so much.

It's All Just Words

Yesterday at rehearsal, we went over Ross bringing news (as he always does!) this time to Macbeth regarding the honors being bestowed upon him by the king, Duncan. This news fulfills the prophecy made by the Weird Sisters (read: witches) of Macbeth's rise to power. 

This scene, and the scene preceding it, has Ross delivering important news. Arguably, when does he not.... But that got me thinking. What message is he really trying to convey? In the first scene, the message is to the king. In the second one, the message is to Macbeth. The message to Macbeth, it's relatively clear: the king has charged him (Ross) to bring tidings to Macbeth about his being appointed Thane of Cawdor, a lofty position indeed. But Ross gets all flowery about it. Why?

What to do...

I don't think I've mentioned the show I'm currently working on.

I am lucky enough to be cast in Shakespeare's Scottish Play - (Macbeth) - as the character Ross. Ross can be summed up by one word: Messenger. But he is so much more than that.

True: Ross is the bearer of news. Maybe it would be better to use reporter. Either way, my director has described him as the glue of the show. Glue of the show. Wow. Sounds pretty important.

Bring Me to Life

So, lately I've been thinking on what it means to bring a character to life.

With something as beloved (and widely known) as Shakespeare, at one point or another, the character you are portraying has been done before. And because everyone would react to stimuli differently, there is a myriad ways of approaching any given subject. What's more, the actor, in his or her personal life, may approach that same stimulus very differently than would their character.

Setting the Stage

Welcome to the inner workings of my mind!

This blog will be a bit different from Rants, Ravings and Nerf Herders (my other blog) in that I will be exploring more my thoughts on becoming a character, rather than the world at large. Some posts probably could cross the border into the other one, but I will do my best to keep them separate.