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Debbie Lamedman is not only an acting coach, but also a playwright. This is a scene from the premiere of her play Triangle Logic at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, with Trent Fucci and Brooke M. HaneyNo-fail strategies for staying in top form during a long, grueling run
Actors cast in a successful show enjoy a lot of perks—a steady paycheck, a consistent creative outlet, bonding with a close-knit, long-term company. Still, a long run can be taxing. Maybe your role requires you to be killed in a swordfight eight times a week; maybe you’ve been in the same show so long you’re reciting lines in your sleep; maybe you’re run-down and catching cold after cold. Here are some tips on how to stay healthy and engaged, both physically and emotionally, so your performance grows better and better.
Power Up Your Perspective
The most common malady that tests any actor in a long-term role is repetition. The more you perform, the further away you feel from the creative genesis of your character, and the more frustrated you become. To combat this, try shifting away from your inner voice to concentrate on your immediate environment. “In order to keep any performance fresh, an actor must always strive to live in the moment,” says Matthew Corozine, founder of and teacher at the Matthew Corozine Studio Theatre in New York City, whose coaching/directing credits also include the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Neighborhood Playhouse and the SUNY, Purchase theatre program. “The best tool to do so is simple and difficult: listening. I believe a show lives in a certain neighborhood, but each night it’s living on a different street. Changing emotional preparation to go deeper or richer often will bring life to a long-running role.”
Review your basic preparation. “First, go over all of your character work,” suggests Elisa Eliot, an actor whose credits include Off-Broadway and the Yale University acting company, and who is a coach with studios in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. “Re-read your character bio and your script analysis. This will remind you why your character is doing what he/she is doing. Also, re-visit any photographs or music you picked for your character, which will get you back in touch with the emotional work you did so long ago. Finally, re-read the entire script—I’ll bet you haven’t done that in a while! This will remind you why you fell in love with your show in the first place.”
Strive to be fully aware of the details of your scene partners’ efforts, in particular, and respond to these details in new ways—vary a gesture or line reading, for instance. “Find new things to be aware of,” Lamedman continues. “This doesn’t mean changing your performance, but you can certainly alter nuances of the performance in order to revitalize it.” Eliot recalls, “When I was in one long-running show in New York, an extra little thing that helped us was to change small details in every performance. For example, in one scene I had to read a pamphlet onstage. In each show, the actress who handed me the pamphlet would write a little note to my character inside. This made me smile every time I got to that scene! Just make sure these kinds of changes don’t disrupt he show, or make you break character.”
You heard it a million times in Acting 101, but it’s totally true: your body is your instrument. If that instrument goes out of tune, your energy’s bound to suffer. “Acting is a physical, involved sport,” says Corozine. It’s important to treat your body like an athlete preparing for competition. After all, “One must, in the rehearsal process, create muscle memory to master emotional moments, physical blocking, stage business, dancing, or stage combat (if it’s required)—regardless of experience or skill set.”
In order to perfect and maintain these performance points, then, it pays to actually think of your offstage hours as training time. “An actor is exactly like an athlete,” says Lamedman. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint, so you need to train accordingly. Find a personal trainer, if you can afford one, to help you think like an athlete. If you need to nap during the day, do it. If you need to go on vocal rest, do it. You know yourself and your body better than anyone—you know what you need to do to take care of yourself.”
So what’s a solid daily routine for actors performing up to eight shows a week to follow? “Eat well, drink plenty of water, get lots of rest and relaxation, and most importantly, manage your stress! Stress can be the biggest energy killer of all,” recommends Eliot.
“No smoking. No late night parties. Limited amounts of alcohol,” advises Lamedman. “Find exercise you enjoy doing. I had a spinning instructor who used classic rock songs in class, and she encouraged us to sing along while we cycled away. I thought, what a great workout for actors—it truly helps endurance and stamina, as we have to be able to sing/talk and move at the same time. It’s building the very essence of what we do. But whatever workout you like, be consistent and don’t overdo. You don’t want to cripple yourself by getting so sore or exhausted it affects your performance.”
Many actors in a long run make the mistake of getting so bored playing the same character, they actually quit the show. Not only is this usually a bad business decision (especially in these economic times), it’s often a creative decision to regret. A much better option: find ways to re-engage your enthusiasm. “If you’re starting to feel restless and bored in a long-term role, and going over your research hasn’t helped, don’t keep this to yourself,” Eliot urges. “Bottling it up won’t help, and your attitude will come out in your acting and in your behavior at work. Definitely talk to your director about why you’re feeling this way. Together, maybe you can create some new moments for your character, or even refresh the blocking or choreography in some scenes.”
{mospagebreak}Another key: know when NOT to think about your role. “Have other things going on in your life,” stresses Lamedman. “If you make your work your everything, it’s easy to get bored quickly. If you engage in other interests, though, it may help when you go to work at the theatre at night. Take a class that has nothing to do with theatre or acting—utilize other parts of your brain. Also, find ways to give back—maybe find a class to teach. Getting out of your head; thinking about others, not yourself, is a great cure for the blues.”
Sometimes, the most challenging performance experiences actually serve as the inspiration to push you forward. Debbie Lamedman relates, “I was doing a run of Dancing At Lughnasa, and I got sick with a bad flu—fever, coughing, the works. I didn’t have an understudy, so I took antibiotics, rested and drank tons of water and orange juice. The stage manager assured me the audience wasn’t able to tell I was sick. That was very important to me—the audience paid good money for their tickets, and I didn’t want to short-change them. Also, I loved performing the role, and I loved my cast—I didn’t want to let anyone down, least of all myself.”
Ultimately, this gave Lamedman the ultimate appreciation for her work “Will and determination got me through—you can do anything if you put your mind to it, and I realized from that experience how strong I am,” she says. “If you’re really a trooper, you don’t complain. If you love what you do, being in a long run is a gift—you find ways to make it work!”
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