Last Minute Stage Suggestions

[PoolMan]

Hi everyone!

Well, today's the day! Four months of work, energy, time, and soul went into the preparation, and tonight my play opens up! We're doing a British panto version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and we're all quite excited.

As a few of you have heard me mention, this is my first time singing, acting, or appearing on stage in anything other than an instrumental/band capacity.

So what I'm looking for is any hints, tips, or general silliness that you can provide me to how to be onstage. Has anyone here acted before?

[DocD83]

I've never acted before, except a couple of skits in high school (and I only survived those by ignoring the audience completely...I'm amazed I didn't fall off the stage), so I can't give you a whole lot of advice there. But I have a joke you can tell during intermission:

The seven dwarfs walked into a Catholic church and sat in the back. During the service they were making a lot of noise, and eventually Dopey stood up and asked the priest, "Father, are there any dwarf nuns in this church?"

"No."

Dopey sat down and the dwarfs were making a ruckus again. He stood up a few minutes later and asked, "Father, are there any dwarf nuns in the country?"

"No."

Dopey sat down only to stand up again a few minutes later to ask, "Father, are there any dwarf nuns anywhere in the world?"

The very patient priest replied, "No." The service was over anyway, and on his way down the aisle he could hear what the dwarfs were saying to make all that racket:

"Dopey f***ed a penguin, dopey f***ed a penguin...."

[RobinFlamingo]

Hi there :-)

I'm a drama teacher and director/actress and I'm so excited for you!! The first time on stage before an audience is such a high...most folks get hooked right then, and it's "better than ice cream...better than sex, er, I've been told."

If you find yourself getting nervous, remember deep slow "chi" breathing is great for relaxation. Don't breathe fast or you'll hyperventilate, and this is NOT a good thing :-)

Don't worry at all about the audience. They WANT to be there, they WANT you to succeed, and they are usually especially generous on a Friday night. I'm not sure why, but Friday night audiences are the best in the world. You won't be able to see them anyways if the stage lights are on, so just do it like you did in rehearsal and it will be wonderful!

Break a leg, and be sure to tell us all about it!

[PoolMan]

Doc: Thanks, I think I've heard that joke about twenty times during the production so far. ;D Unfortunately, being kid's theater (primarily) it's not such a great idea.

Robin: Thanks for the tips. I've actually tried to become very conscious of my breathing, and the only time I have trouble is when I know my solo song is coming up. "Chest... starting... to... tighten..." I think our audience will be great, they always are, and I had my mom and grandfather come last night to the dress. You can hear my mom laughing from a block away, so she's always a good indicator. Thankfully, she was right into it.

Keep 'em coming!

[DocD83]

Doc: Thanks, I think I've heard that joke about twenty times during the production so far.

Well damn, I'll have to think of another joke now.

[Head Mutant]

It's a lot of nerves before it starts, then it's pure adrenaline and fun from thereon out. You'll have a blast.

[HeyCreepy]

1. Don't imagine the people in their underwear...it will just make you laugh

2. Remember to breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. I get awful stage-fright, and this helps sooo much.

3. Have Fun!

I have been on the stage acting, singing, dancing, and the whole nine yards. The trick is to not take yourself seriously and beware that anything can happen. Best of luck to you!

[DocD83]

Remember to breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. I get awful stage-fright, and this helps sooo much.

So do highly concentrated opiates.

[FiveMileSmile]

My acting tip only applies to us slightly visually impaired actors. It's very simple, but very effective.

Don't wear your glasses or contacts while doing the show.

If your vision is like mine, and only bad over distance; you'll be able to navigate around the stage just fine. But on those occassions where you look out into the audience, all I ever saw was a mass of faceless grey blobs, which it's very hard to be intimidated by.

- Rich
I don't act any more; mainly for the sake of the sanity of others.

[Anthy]

Drama is so much fun. I'm currently in the midst of playwriting in my Drama 20 course. It's just so neat; every single student in Drama 20 and 30 gets to write their own play and have it performed at some point during the year. That's about 70 short plays all together! ;D I like acting, of course, but I'm finding that I'm better at directing than acting. Hopefully this means that my show will be really good when it goes up in March. *crosses fingers for good luck*

As for acting, though, most of the good tips have already been said. What I can say is that you should try to stay in character all the time on the night of a show, even when backstage. And heap respect and worship on the tech people. I've done both acting and tech on shows, and the tech was a lot more work than the acting for me.

[PoolMan]

I actually got my intro to this group last year doing the sound tech. I wrangled my stepfather into it this year so that I could take the stage (by popular request, I was no quiet stagehand last year!). And here we are.

Ten minutes till I go for makeup! Yeeha! Thanks everyone!

[RobinFlamingo]

Well? Didja WOW 'em? Hope you had a blast!! ;D

[DarthToad]

Darnit, too late for advice. Sorry Pooly. I must've missed the thread. But anyway, I'll say what I usually do anyway (I've never been in musicals, but a lot of other plays):

-If you know any Monty Python songs, sing them before the show. Really loud.
-Scream really loud "i'm gonna kick a**." And believe it too. It gets your energy up.
-If you're nervous, just say "okay, I'm nervous, so what".

Well, I think that's it. Well, if you have another performance then you can take my advice.

[PoolMan]

Well, a whirlwind of action later, and we're half done.

We do three shows per weekend, for two weeks, so we've had the Friday evening, and the Saturday matinee and evening. I've personally been quite thrilled with my own performance, insofar as I've been solid, not dropped any lines, and sang my butt off. I even signed my first autograph! A dad brought his little guy up to meet the cast after the show, and I signed his program as 'Sean "King" Poole'. Quite fun.

The show as a whole was at its best last night. One dropped line, but otherwise, a great one. Which is great because last night was the night they recorded to put onto video.

The matinee was fun, if a mess. The kids were just loony toons, they were so into the show. They were going nuts. Plus, Snow White and the Prince have a musical number, which they just laughed the entire way through. We all felt pretty bad for them. They got up on stage, took one look at each other, and got spontaneous giggles. The gal playing the Prince kept trying to start her lyrics, but couldn't do it. So I started singing the song from behind the scenery while they danced, it was the best they could do.

I've had a couple of funny improv moments too, which is par for the course in a panto. I had one kid absolutely screaming at me through his rolled up program, so I went down to take it from him, he jumped back, I jumped back, etc... quite fun.

Anyways, today I'm glad I finally get a break... as of last night, I'd been at it for 9 days straight, so it's great to catch a frigging rest. But I'm looking forward to next weekend...

[PoolMan]

Et voila, me in costume (but out of makeup, thank god).



I like the costume... I'm getting quite used to people calling me "your Majesty".

I'll try and post some more cast shots later.