Can actors really cry every night onstage?

i think mary bond davis crys a lot...at least she did when i saw hairspray.

I think they can. I just did a production of Godspell at CTGSC and we all cried every night.

when i was in titanic i cried at every show and so did most of the cast. it's very easy to cry on stage when it's a powerful emotional moment.

When I saw A Thousand Clowns with Tom Selleck, the woman who played the social worker was crying. I asked my friends who both had seen it five times before me if she cried at all five of their performances, they said yes.

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its different with every person. My friend who was playing a nephew in Richard III had a seuence where he found out his father was dead and began to cry for like a minute in his mother's arms. And I went to see him in it and he was really crying. He said he did that by like pinching himself really hard for a while backstage and it made him tear. Others probably do it by thinking of something horrible.

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i heard somewhere that u can't really fake crying, u just gotta really get into your character's shoes, maybe connecting it to a similar (yet more trivial) moment in your life. this is dangerous tho cause imagine playing 100 performances and thinking about your dead parents on cue every night! but if you think about your dead childhood pet, suddenly the emotion is there, minus the psychological damage.

but yea, crying onstage will only work if u find some sort of button for yourself during rehearsal, some way of looking at what is happening in the show, that will work every time.

personally i went to see little shop twice during the summer, and the girl that was audrey didnt cry the first time and cried the second, but the first was just as sad and believable so no damage done.

in other words, real tears are cool if you can get them and then control them (u dont wanna sob incontrolably during a song or line either), but regular "dry" acting works just as well.

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wickedkiwi, I have to disagree. As an actress, in a lot of roles I've had to cry, and even before I learned more about the whole Method and learned to live in the character I was able to make myself cry every single time. However, I know a lot of very talented performers (some of them much more talented than I) who can't cry on commmand...I guess it's a personal thing, but like you said, frequently good acting more than makes up for a lack of waterworks.

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In an experience I had this last summer in a Shakespeare class I chose to do a speech from Titus Andronicus(long story as to why) and it's set before everything goes to hell, but this woman is asking for her son's life to be spared right? Well I knew the piece I just needed to add a little bit more to the character. So one of the teachers explained how prevalent the situation was then to now and how true it can be and the power in the speech. Then he described situations to me(which while sad worked very well) and I got the feeling you get when you are about to cry, but I held it in. Then he told me to do the speech again and by the end of the first word I started bawling. I could do this everytime. But during the actual performance I found I couldn't cry. Lol kind of funny, but I think part of crying is if you get to the point where you do cry don't let it hinder your performance. If it doesn't get in the way of performing then use it, but there are no guarantees that you're always going to be able to cry. Some days you can and some days you can't.

Sorry for being so long just thought I'd say that.

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Undoubtedly it's hard to do sometimes though.

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I agree with that. Crying doesn't make a person a good actor, but if they do it in the moment and well than I don't mind it as much. Depends on the situation,etc.

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I think that song could make anyone who is performing it cry. What I meant was that crying has to be more in the moment according to the scene and situation in play, etc. It can be quite powerful though.

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Well Wicked is an emotional show. I mean going through that and being a part of that journey, then having to sing that sad song at the end, it would be hard for JLT or KC NOT to cry.

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