How Do YOU Make Small Roles Your Own?

I'm currently in a production of HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH in which I'm playing a roadie. The role is basically nothing more than stage crew because Hedwig never really goes off-stage. So I and the other roadies come on to dress Hedwig and give him props and whatnot during songs.

So to elevate the role above "stage crew", I have decided to play the roadie as a Jewish Goth or a Gothy Jew. Dressed all in black with a shirt that says "SUPER JEW" on it (The word "Jew" is replaced with a Star of David) and a black yarmulkah.

What do you guys do when you're cast as Townperson #27?

Updated On: 3/28/07 at 06:30 PM

in our school we did The Wizard of Oz and I was the Munchkin Coroner. They wanted us to do the little munchkin voices but instead I just belted. It was more fun that way.

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I was Franz in The Sound of Music and made him the biggest asshole in the world (it totally worked!). One of the most fulfilling roles I've ever played.

At dress rehearsal, during my first scene, I could hear the conductor talking to the orchestra, and he said after I said a line, "Butler's a bitch..."

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When I played Verges in Much Ado About Nothing, I was a deaf simpleton who yelled everything (I got the deaf from my director). But my favorite moment was when Dogberry said "Though it not be written down, forget not that I am an a$$" and I nodded yes like a bobble head.

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Priest in Twelfth Night: I gave him a lilty, quirky, homosexual voice. Which got a huge laugh since I was wearing this dreary, black monk's outfit.

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"When I played Verges in Much Ado About Nothing, I was a deaf simpleton who yelled everything (I got the deaf from my director)."

You make "the deaf" sound like herpes.

The best actors come from small roles =]

I did a play where I had only 1 line, consisting of all of 3 words. (wooo! =P ) The rest of the time I was supposed to be asleep. It's all about presence though, you know that whole confidence theory? Where if someone is confidant you notice them more than the person trying to fade into the tapestry? Same thing. During the silence. And when you speak, if you speak, you up that 20 times. I bet you'll be the most memorable of all characters, I know I was =]

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When I played Pritschisch in The Merry Widow, I added special reactions and went totally (but appropriately) over the top sometimes. My three lines seemed like much more! It also helps that I was by far the shortest guy.

my most recent role was "John" in Nuncrackers : the Nunsense Christmas musical (one of the catholic school kids, who was made a 17 year old for me since they needed people). i made him a complete NERD with geeky glasses, a john tartaglia-esque (a la Rod from Ave Q) voice and lots of hamming it up. I got laughs. I got more laughs than a couple of the nuns. they loved me. I was so freakin cute. and I snorted and ad-libbed a lot and it worked because the director thought it all worked for the character.

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I did a production of LETTICE AND LOVAGE with Michael Learned, as one of the visitors to the house she was tour guide for. In the original Broadway production, the visitors only faced upstage so all the focus was on Dame Maggie Smith. For our production, Ms. Learned and the director decided to give us characters. My first (of four including quick changes) was an Arab who was looking to buy the house in question. We knew someone who knew Arabic, so we got the Arabic for the word 'No' and when I tried to go to a restricted (roped off) area of the house, Ms. Learned gave me a stern warning in Arabic. It would have been quite funny, but we opened the day after the first WTC bombing in New York (not 9/11). Unfortunately no one found it as funny as it could have been.

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When I did The Music Man in high school, I was just one of the Pick-A-Little ladies. It was decided that we all could have different personalities. Apart from having two lines in the beginning and a solo in "Wells Fargo Wagon", I really didn't have all too much to do. So, I decided to make my character very eccentric. I did a funny little shuffle walk whenever I had to come onstage. I kept tumbling and falling over during the Grecian Urns practice scene (the last night of the run I fell over, struggled to get back up, then fell down again) and just for the heck of it, when I had to cross over the bridge, I balanced the basket of fruit on my head and proceeded to skip. Even when I had my solo in "Wells Fargo Wagon", I found a way to over pronounciate "double boiler" (I managed to stay on key).

The fact that I had given my character a distinct personality made the role very memorable to a lot of people who saw the show, and even though the Pick-A-Littles are somewhat an ensemble all to themselves, I was clearly able to stand out. Months after the show closed people couldn't stop telling my mom how funny I was.

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