Fake it till you make it, right? That old adage is probably one of the most flippant phrases thrown at people who come across an obstacle or something that they find difficult:
“Fake it till you make it.” Theatre is NOT for the faint of heart and though we are actors, we don’t like it when things don’t go to plan, even though it happens all the time. So
what happens when you’re on stage and you drop a line, lose a lyric, or blank on blocking? Fake it, y’all! Be prepared.
First things first: dropping lines. Everyone’s done it. You have, don’t lie 🙂 The question is, what did you do when it happened? You may have frozen up and awkwardly repeated your previous line until you could remember the next bit. You could have just blustered and
BS-ed your way through until you reached a familiar section or until someone saved you with their own line. The goal is to NOT freak out, to not burst into tears, and to not apologise to the audience and then run off stage. Stop. You can do it, I PROMISE. Here’s what you do:
- This is more of a preemptive tip, but know your lines and your castmates’ lines. I’m not saying to memorise the entire darn script, but be very VERY familiar with the lines of those you interact with the most. Example: I worked on a devised piece with three other cast members and we typically had fast line run-throughs. We drilled interaction-heavy segments of the script so much that we came to know one another’s lines, and had the ability to save each other if needed, effectively forcing our script into muscle memory. But remember….
- Be fully aware of what you’re saying. One of the pitfalls that can come from being fully comfortable with your lines is losing the meaning and feeling of your words. When you’re saying things that don’t feel present and immediate, it is SO easy to forget what comes next. Theatre is acting and reacting and if you can’t feel the moment, you can’t deliver the moment.
Second thing: losing lyrics. This is probably the area I struggle with the most — it was through solo-singing on stage that I first discovered that I actually have a substantial amount of stage fright. Something about saying words and putting them to music, while getting the pitches, rhythms, and tempos just right is incredibly difficult, even for born-performers. Add in the ironing out of “performance ticks (blinking excessively and ugly ballet hands are two of mine)” and you have a recipe for what could be a very messy performance.
- Rehearse EXACTLY the way that you plan to perform. Emotion can create an
ah-MAZING performance, but can also serve to derail a song that hasn’t been
worked with that type of connection. Crying in the middle of a song can be beeyootiful… but only if it doesn’t take the performer off guard. The entire energy of the show can change in a second, all because the cast isn’t used to the feeling and they don’t know how to continue. Do yourself a favour: bring it all to rehearsal. - Yeah, this is a bit contradictory, but I’m gonna say it anyway: get out of your own head. I know, I know, I knooooow, “Lechetze, you just said to be present, be aware.” Lol I did say that. For lines. Singing is a bit different. If you don’t know your songs by the performance, you are totally SOL, my dear. All that stuff that I said above regarding pitches, rhythms, tempos? You should already have that taken care of. One of the best compliments I’ve ever received centred on this “feeling” that I projected: I was not acting the song, I was the song. It didn’t seem like I was performing and it felt real. And I was able to do that by COMPLETELY forgetting that I was actually on stage (lol not really, but close enough). See below.
Last situation: blanking on blocking. Ever turned the wrong way? Missed a spike? Entered from the left instead of the right? This seems like something that would be relatively hard to mess up…. HA HA HA. Sometimes you just get caught up in the show and walk to stage right instead of staying centre. Sometimes you start a monologue to the wrong person because you craned your head in the wrong direction. What do you dooooo?
- Honestly, if this hasn’t happened in rehearsal already, then you’re not rehearsing right. You’re not SUPPOSED to be perfect in the studio — that is the space for such mistakes. So you did the wrong thing? Make your way over to where you are meant to be. If you don’t, you will most assuredly mess someone else up. Shows don’t depend on just one actor — they depend on them all. If you don’t get over to where you belong, somebody else won’t be able to get a prop and the chain will just continue like a staged game of Dominoes. We all fall down. Walk with purpose and try coordinate it with one of your lines. Your castmates will recognise the mistake but if you work through it as naturally as possible, the audience won’t know if/when it goes down on stage. Practise all aspects of the performance, even the mistakes.
Of course, there are lots of other little things that can cause some type of breaks in the show — random little giggling spells, falling sets, costume malfunctions, mic disturbances, yada yada yada. Those are things that you actually have to fake your way through, simply because there is no foolproof method of dealing with them. But for the things that you can prevent that will DEFINITELY happen? Be prepared. Welcome to live theatre, kiddos.
Comments? Questions? Want to just express a general love and admiration for this blog?
Twitter: @theatredblog OR @kraioloa
Email: theatredistrictblog@gmail.com
TD 