Theatre Games that actors play onstage
Theatre Games that actors play onstage
#1Theatre Games that actors play onstage
Posted: 4/4/13 at 9:30pmI rencently was in a show, we played a game where we had to work in a certain word into our lines(the word was "Richard Parker":))Have any of you ever played games of this sort or even witnessed any of it?
#2Theatre Games that actors play onstage
Posted: 4/4/13 at 9:47pm
Maybe, but it's hard to remember what we did in elementary school plays.
So you're saying you do plays where instead of concentrating on your performance for an audience, instead you play games to screw it all up?
Or are you talking about some kind of rehearsal game. Surely you didn't do this insane thing during actual performances, did you?
#2Theatre Games that actors play onstage
Posted: 4/4/13 at 9:57pm
HOW DARE YOU PLAY A GAME ON STAGE!!
Okay, never added random lines, but I will happily say that I've played a round or two of pass the button, and at acclaimed regional theatres. Not saying that to toot my own horn, just saying even the pros get a bit restless after a few weeks of a run and like to spice up a chorus scene, 'cause why not. (Playing the game is not un-professional, screwing up your show is...it's a fine line)
Also, not all shows lend themselves to playing games. A three person play isn't going to have any opportunity, but a crowd of 13 villagers gawking at the roustabout/pie contest/knife fight happening down center, there's some wiggle room.
I also played a fun game once called "Murderer" which is far too complex for me to being to post about now.
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert
#4Theatre Games that actors play onstage
Posted: 4/4/13 at 10:17pm@patash FYI: I'm freakin' fifteen years old and in high school, and after doing a show for two weeks straight you get a little bored! Plus, it was a children's matinee, not a performance to an opening night to a broadway show! #people #need #to #get #over #them #self's
ghostlight2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/5/04
#5Theatre Games that actors play onstage
Posted: 4/4/13 at 10:28pm
And some people should reconsider their profession if you get bored after only two weeks. A performance is a performance, no matter what night it is or who the audience is.
Professionals don't do things like that.
Updated On: 4/4/13 at 10:28 PM
ghostlight2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/5/04
Marcellus2
Chorus Member Joined: 2/16/12
#7Theatre Games that actors play onstage
Posted: 4/4/13 at 10:35pm
I was at a Second City revue in Chicago when the ensemble would quickly stick out their tongue during scenes, similar to Barty Crouch Jr. in the 4th Harry Potter movie, to make each other laugh throughout the night. I think I was the only one in the audience to notice it. I decided to sneak it into the final performance of a production of Bright Ideas I was in, when my back was to the audience once, and a second time right at the end of a scene when the lights were going down. I made sure it wasn't going to disrupt the scene, just to make the person laugh when they were safely offstage a few seconds later.
Updated On: 4/4/13 at 10:35 PM
RippedMan
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/05
#8Theatre Games that actors play onstage
Posted: 4/4/13 at 10:49pm
Eh it happens. And getting bored after a few weeks is pretty common. You get into a groove and sometimes it is nice to get out of that groove. And honestly it usually helps people reconnect to the material.
Just read the book Bound for Broadway (or something like that). They have a whole section about people in Les Miz who would be dead on the barricade and how they'd have certain body parts exposed in order to make the other people laugh, etc.
ghostlight2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/5/04
#9Theatre Games that actors play onstage
Posted: 4/4/13 at 11:14pm
Passing pennies, adding some name to your dialogue for some inane reason, sticking tongues out, baring body parts in no way helps connect to the material.
What professionals do is create different inner backstories for their characters from time to time, change the way they deliver a line - something show-related, not some kind of a children's game. If you're bored after a few weeks, you are in the wrong business entirely.
RippedMan, I think you're talking about Making It on Broadway, which was written by a pair of amateurs, one of them a wannabe actress. All that screwing around on stage at Les Mis was one of the reasons nearly the entire cast was purged. If you can't focus on your performance without getting bored for two and a half hours, you really need to be doing something else.
#10Theatre Games that actors play onstage
Posted: 4/4/13 at 11:30pmFrom what I can remember,at the last matinee before the evening of a final performance,sending up fellow performers was a theatrical tradition.Imagined or for real--anyone?
ghostlight2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/5/04
#12Theatre Games that actors play onstage
Posted: 4/5/13 at 12:03am
#people #need #to #get #over #them #self's
I had to reply. I couldn't just sit by and not respond.
1. The use of hashtags doesn't elevate your point or make it seem any more important
2. The word is "themselves". "Them self's" will never, ever be correct in the context you meant it. Or in any context I can think of off the top of my head.
"All our dreams can come true -- if we have the courage to pursue them." -- Walt Disney
We must have different Gods. My God said "do to others what you would have them do to you". Your God seems to have said "My Way or the Highway".
#13Theatre Games that actors play onstage
Posted: 4/5/13 at 8:39am
OK, so you're 15 years old. I realized that your question sounded like you were (or even younger), not sure why I didn't realize that indeed you were a child.
by the way, there's a big difference between passing a button that the audience never sees, and adding saying a name within lines that makes absolutely no sense, so the audience is left saying to themselves "WTF?"
But never fear, it is clear you're not going to be a professional actress anyway. Two weeks and you're bored?
Also, apparently you get equally bored in English class. Maybe you should concentrate there more and see if you can learn something. I believe the use of apostrophes and pronouns has surely been covered in your classes by now.
You ain't gonna make no point righting like that!
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