Favorite and/or Most Challenging Role you EVER Played

[Elphie]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 3:12pm

I think the subject states the question. What is your most favorite role ever???

Favorite because it was so much fun:
Cookie/RUMORS

Favorite because it was more of a challenge:
Christine/BAD SEED

Updated On: 1/8/04 at 03:12 PM

[ShineOn]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 3:25pm

Mine was Guenevere... most fun and challenging, I think. Maybe because I was only 15... she's such a multi-faceted character. She changes so drastically and it was really fun exploring different directions to take her in, but at the same emotionally draining. She goes from being such an immature, spoiled princess to a strong, remorseful Queen; but there are so many different levels she reaches and self revelations she makes during the course of her change... she's really a complexed character. If played the wrong way, she can be a very undesirable character, but if done correctly, she becomes a very misunderstood, yet lovable and relatable character, which was my intention.


Lots of fun and was highly rewarding in the end. I would love to play her again one day, when I reach a more skilled and mature level as an actor. Even only five years later, I have a much better understanding of her now than I did then... and many more character choices I wish I had used and would like to experiment with. For what I had to work with then, I put my all into the part and was proud with the outcome.

[Elphie]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 3:27pm

That is a really demanding role.

Christine in BAD SEED breaks down a lot haha. It was fun!

[marincrazy11]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 3:35pm

Most Favorite-Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun, she's just kooky and crazy and even though the show is kind of hokey it was probably the most fun I've ever had doing a show. Wendy in Peter Pan comes a close second cause of the fact I got to fly.

Most Challenging-Roxie Hart in Chicago. Not only is she a complicated character to begin with I had to develop all of her traits and her depth and such in only a 45 minute version of the show.

[ShineOn]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 3:38pm

Breaking down is always fun.

My high school director was really tough on me. He took me aside one day and told me he only did it because I was the only one he really saw potentional in to make it in the business, which was flattering to a degree, but he still drove me insane. He was one to use the screaming method.

I will never forget one day in rehearsal... we were working "Before I Gaze At You Again". At one point he wanted me to cry. I just couldn't do it. I wasn't feeling it and couldn't get the water flowing. He stood there at the back of the auditorium, I was standing up on stage, all alone... millions of kids sitting in the front row... now this is a TINY man, but damn, could he project.

He stood up and looked microscopic, but all you could hear throughout the large room was his voice bouncing back and forth from wall to wall.

*calmly at first* "You are going to cry. I don't care what you have to envision, but you're going to do it. I don't care if you have to picture your mother dead. Your cat getting hit by a car...

*screams* YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM CONE FALLING ON THE FLOOR BESIDE YOUR FEET! YOU'RE GOING TO *beep-ing* CRY!"


I stood there... and bawled. There was a moment of silence and the entire cast was PETRIFIED.

Then...

He smiled. "Yes, that is it. Let's take it from the top."


Um, suffice to say I NEVER had a problem crying during that number again. Or crying EVER again... in anything. In fact, during the course of the performances, I cried in parts where it wasn't even directed I was so caught up in the moment. He approved, especially since the entire audience was bawling, too. LOL!


I had a lot of fun with that show... and a LOT of interesting stories, as well. I can't wait for the revival.

Updated On: 1/8/04 at 03:38 PM

[WillParker]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 3:39pm

Favorite & Most Challenging: Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie.

Runner-up favorites: John Hinckley/Assassins, Jack/ITW, Will Parker/OK!

[robyn525600]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 3:43pm

Most challenging role to date: Sheila in HAIR - since the character plots are not the best in HAIR, it was difficult (but fun) to really take her and create someone that was strong and believable.

Favorite role to date: Narrator in JOSEPH...DREAMCOAT - LOVED this fun and energetic role.

[Elphie]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 3:47pm

We're doing "Annie...Gun" at our high school this year. We just recently had auditions and I'm very nervous to look at the cast list, which should be posted next week. Dolly or Winnie are my top two choices. I'd cry if I got one of those! I've never really had any experience with a musical part- just Liesl in the awfully boring THE SOUND OF MUSIC, and I pretty much sucked being barely 13 singing about "...going on 17" and I filled in for my friend Joizey on here when he got sick during our high school's run of JOSEPH and sang the Callypso song in my "manly" voice. Yes I was a brother. And I completly screwed up the words- though it wasnt noticeable to the audience- the first night going into it with just a brief run through of the blocking and the song before the show. I said something like "I heard the voice of the yellow birds, their singing man i know you got it wrong, i hear the voice of the yellow birds..."
Haha. I was upset at the time, but have now learned how to laugh it off.

[ShineOn]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 3:56pm

LOL!!!

My friend directed the Sound of Music a few years ago and was having trouble with his cast so he called me in. I was covering a MILLION different roles. One night I was the maid, the next I was Liesl, the next I was Maria... the next I was a nun. It was crazy... he called me in the week of tech rehearsals... and I had like three nights to learn all those parts. Everyone was like, "How did you have time to learn the lines, let alone figure out each character??" I was like, "Ah... professionalism, my friend." No, really... I just... pulled it all out of my ass!!! GOOD thing I'm an instinctive performer, I guess. I was like, "Um, better just suck it up and do it!" I was like his everyman... whatever he needed, he just threw at me. He also made me teach all the Von Trapp children all their harmonies... I was like, "It's a WEEK before the show and they don't know this?" We pulled that together quickly. They sounded pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.

That was my random Sound of Music story. LOL! Quite the experience, but it taught me how to stay on my toes... it'll come in handy some day if I'm ever cast as an understudy... I had a LOT more respect for covers after that point in my life. They have to always be... "there".

Updated On: 1/8/04 at 03:56 PM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 4:01pm

Favorite and most challenge was the same role - Samovar (Groucho) in A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine. I would love to do it again. I worked my butt off to get him right.

[WindyCityActor]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 4:42pm

Favorite: Sterling in "Jeffery" - All the great lines, and a fabulous hospital mourning scene at the end.

Most Challenging: Ned Weeks in "The Normal Heart" - playing Larry Kramer.

[BillyLawlor]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 5:57pm

The most challenging was Nicholas (Jeffrey) in Godspell. The character NEVER leaves the stage (except for intermission of course) and has to keep the energy UP UP UP, because it's such an energetic, fun show. It was pretty hard, and emptionally draining as well. I bawled every night when saying goobye to Jesus and watching him die. Oye.

It was such an amazing experience, though. Never forget that one.

[Megan Marie]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 6:35pm

Favourite Role would be - Scarecrow "Wizard Of Oz"

Most Challenging - Jenny "ThreePenny Opera" This woman had this unbelievable amount of baggage on her, and it was hard to be so unhappy and bitter 24/7, but I loved it.

[shermanslave]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 7:06pm

favorite: Hysterium in Forum
challenging: Skeets Miller in Floyd Collins

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 1/8/04 at 11:45pm

Favorite: Joanne in Godspell
Most Challenging: Donna/Oolie in City of Angels and Ella in Bells Are Ringing.

[jesseeinstein]

Posted: 1/9/04 at 7:10am

My two favorite were also the most challenging!
Jim Conley-PARADE
Rick Taylor-BAT BOY

[StarUsher]

Posted: 1/9/04 at 12:08pm

Favorite Role: Lucy in Snoopy

Most Challenging: Callie in Stop Kiss. I had this killer monologue in which Callie relayed the events of a hate crime that left her best friend Sarah (who she was starting to have romantic feelings for and she had never had romantic feelings for someone of the same sex before)in a coma. To add to the complexity my classmate playing the police officer that I was recalling the events to was playing it in a way that seemed to completely conflict with where I was going at first. The director and the two of us spent a lot of time on table work to get us on the same page. Lot of work but very rewarding

[ShineOn]

Posted: 1/9/04 at 12:13pm

I played Callie in Stop Kiss -- great play!

[TheatreGuy06]

Posted: 1/9/04 at 12:18pm

Favorite Role - Seymour in Little Shop

Most Challenging but I also enjoyed it - Dickon in Simon/Norman's The Secret Garden

[Seany]

Posted: 1/9/04 at 12:36pm

Favorite Role - Ren McCormack in FOOTLOOSE; Eugene in BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS; Jeffery in GODSPELL

Most Challenging - The Voice of Audrey 2 in LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS; not vocally but the fact that I could not see the plant while I was talking or singing, and that I had to figure what I was going to do with my part early on in rehearsals.

[BrdwyThtr]

Posted: 1/9/04 at 12:44pm

Most Challenging-Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz. I wanted to do a different take on it than the classic movie that everyone knows.
Most Fun-Boy Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.

[Karma76]

Posted: 1/9/04 at 1:04pm

fun & most challenging.

Bonnie in Anything Goes. She was fun but heaven hop is a fun/yet weird song to sing.

[BroadwayKate]

Posted: 1/9/04 at 1:53pm

Eliza Doolittle- My Fair Lady...the accents and music in general are so much fun to do, but it is such a challenge to play (in essence) two polarly opposite characters in one show.

and Im currently Marion in The Music Man..and though it is one of the corniest roles in theatre history, the songs are challenging, not nec. to sing but rather to convey the emotion of the character. Fun role though!

Kate

[King Stevos]

Posted: 1/9/04 at 2:16pm

Fav: Psudolis, in forum

hardest: schroeder singing A's for a low baritone is tough
and man #1 in Lucky Stiff, that was an acting job I had trouble getting right.

STEVOS

[dry2olives]

Posted: 1/9/04 at 8:54pm

Favorite -- Ali Hakim -- when you stick to the way Oscar Hammerstein wrote the role, it's a wonderful parade of genuinely funny gags and one-liners.

Most Challenging -- Donal in Sean O'Casey's "Shadow of a Gunman". An insane (but brilliant) director completely miscast me as a failing Irish poet courting a young rebel by making her think he's a gunman hero. After years of playing comic relief in musicals it was the most difficult and rewarding thing I've ever done.