June is Bustin' Out All Over

Hello good and faithful readers. It’s been a while.

When I set this blog up, I had lofty intentions of writing extended essays about theatre and art, both as an actor and general lover of live performance. This may still happen. I’m not quite sure. Perhaps that can be a nice summer project.

I recently dawned on me that I’ve been in rehearsal since January on some kind of production. The rehearsals are done. I’ve opened three shows this year. One has closed, one is about to close, and one just opened.

Anyway, I’ve opened Picasso at the Lapin Agile. We’ve had a number of performances. Had a sold-out show on Saturday night.

Here’s the thing about Schmendiman: it’s only three minutes. This is one of the most challenging roles I’ve ever played.

Prepping for Schmendiman in Picasso at the Lapin Agile.

BIT PARTS

I’m reminded of seeing Macbeth at the Guthrie. The Porter came on stage well into the action and blew me away. It was a hilarious and stunning performance. And that was all. Lady Macduff also had a strong performance. She made sure that her presence on that stage was fully vibrant and present. I’m always drawn to those performances.

I’m grateful and watch in awe of those actors who make the most of what they have.

I’ve never, ever believed Schmendiman to be a throw-away role. I approach this character with a lot of severity. It’s just so random and bizarre. Most audiences don’t know to expect him. There are times when I see audiences poking their heads at their programs. It catches them off guard. Steve Martin tiptoes right ahead of the audience and then likes to make an occasional mad dash. That’s part of comedy—it’s a play on patterns and the disruption of patterns.

In any case, there’s this part of me that’s continually torn between just how extreme this role is. I’ve been pushing and forcing, wasting a lot of energy. I’m still not quite sure what is necessary to find the proper groove for this. There have been a couple performances where it just felt good. Every thing felt right. My next challenge is to figure out how ride the wave with ease and finesse.

ROTATING REP

For the next two weeks, I will be performing in repertory. I’ve got the Schmendiman a couple nights during the week, and then that alternates with playing Erhart in the Borkman production. These two shows couldn’t be farther apart in scope and style.

This is sort of the prime of artistic responsibilities this year. I really enjoyed playing the two roles last week. It stretched different muscles. After June 11, I’ll just be doing Schmendiman until September. I think with this bit part, it can be easy to over-think this. But I don’t want to write this off for a second. It’s all I have for the rest of the year.

It’s strange. I knew this year would be a bit unbalanced. The first half would have a lot of responsibility and juggling. The second half would be pretty tame. I’m entering a transition period.

Perhaps I’ll delve into this a bit deeper later on.

I’d also like to write a bit about attending the legendary Mumford and Sons concert last week. It was phenomenal, perhaps even transcendent. I’d like to write about other theatre I’ve attended that has had a profound effect on me. There’s a lot of ideas, but they aren’t much use if they just stay that way.