ACTORS/ACTRESSES/DIRECTORS PLEASE HELP

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

Hello.
I was cast in the school's juniour play as a ditz. It's a pretty big role in the play, a supporting lead. It's a comedy. I have been in acting troupes for 6 years, HAD LEAD ROLES, and at this point, am just sucking and finding out I cannot do comedy worth #$!@, and NEED ADVICE. Tonight we had rehearsal and honestly it sounded like I'd never acted in my life. So if any of you out there could help, or whatever... I'd appreciate it a lot. Thanks

Maggie

[soleft]

1. Well. What's the play, what's the story, and tell me about your

character. What does she do?

[HEyHEY]

2. yeah

Relax....don't try to hard and it may come

[rusty charly]

3. don't play the comedy

play the truth of the character and the situation, the comedy comes when your character believes he's/she's serious and for real. you have to trust that the comedy will happen. laughs are not going to come in rehearsals. they're going to have heard the jokes over and over, so forget trying to get laughs in rehearsal. it'll happen with an audience and y'know what? most of the time the laughs aren't where we plan them anyway. so don't plan for jokes or laughs. play the truth. it'll be funny.

[Susang]

4. What's the play you're doing?

The best advice I can give you is to play it totally straight. Commit to being the ditz and don't worry about trying to be funny. In my experience, nothing kills a good comic performance than trying too hard. Just worry about being true the character and the comedy will follow.

I realize it may be very hard for you as an intelligent woman to really get behind playing a ditz, but having had to do it once or twice, it actually is quite fun once you get into it. Try it out at the drugstore, Blockbuster etc.. That's how I used to test out my characters to see if they were believable. It's a great improv exercise and you don't have to worry about being funny. Just do what you think the character would do.

Good luck!

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

5. I tried playing it straight.

Well sort of. That was definitely part of the problem, he showed it as an overdone, full out, space cadet, idiotic ditz. I tried to play it kind of straight but then he wanted me to really exaggerate the stupidity. I mean, I think stupid people don't know they're stupid... so...

The play is called "Killer Halloween" and it's a spoof on Scary Movie sort of.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

7. If he wants you to go...

over the top with the stupidity, maybe your acting isn't the problem... all directors are not created equally. :)

Sounds like he is doing a standard high school productoon where every character is play in BIG and BROAD stereotypes.

Watch "Romie & Michelle's High School Reunion" for some inspiration. Heck, have your director watch it and he can get a clue that ditz doesn't have to be OTT! Or check out some of the great ditzy female screwball comedies from the 30s & 40s. "Bringing Up Baby", anything with Gracie Allen in it -- I'll try to think up some more.

[soleft]

8. what do people with limited intelligence often try to do - think of BUSH

They try to compensate for their deficits.

They concentrate harder

They try to "sound" intelligent, mangling words along the way

They work really hard to try and figure something out

They sound especially stupid when they try to sound "profound"

If the director is telling you to exagerate, try exagerating the effort to overcome stupidity, rathern than playing what you think stupdity looks like.

Think about Jean Stapleton as Edith in All in the Family, had hard she had to work to grasp a concept, and when she finally got it, the sheer joy of understanding something.

Think of an area where you feel deficient, and how you tried to make up for being weak in that area.

A mean person who has an need to suddenly act nice will act overly nice.

A clumsey person will go to physical extremes to try and not knock stuff over. That's where the comedy comes from.

So if you're stupid, try playing - trying to act really super smart

[JohnKleeb]

14. a spoof of a spoof huh

I dont act but I hope you get the hang of this.

[Susang]

17. I did a short film similar to that

It was called Spring Break Party Massacre. I was the goody-two shoes, nice girl character. Our director was also looking for over the top satire, but you still can accomplish that while still being the character.

Trust me, I worked in food service for a really long time, there really are people that over the top! You probably can't be too broad for that type of role, particularly onstage. You just have to figure out what their mindset is and go from that. Try going as broad and wacky as you can, you can always tone down from there. As long as you understand why your character is that way, it'll work.

Another really important thing about comedy, HAVE FUN! It makes a huge difference in your performance. If you're worried about your performance it can often show. Enjoy being stupid for stupidity's sake. It's broad satire, after all. :-)

[Cheswick2.0]

6. LPFF, equity actress here

I have also directed. Comedy is hard, but you will be fine. You just have to find your character. What play is it? Let me know what role you are playing and a little bit about your general type. I think I can help.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

9. The show

is called "Killer Halloween". I play the character "Sue"...

http://bakersplays.net/kiha.html

[Cheswick2.0]

13. okay

It looks like the director is making a very good choice to direct this as farce. It is a play about a lot of things that wouldn't really happen, so already it is ridiculous.

Everybody that has answered has told you to play it straight, they are right. The fact that the character/acting is over the top doesn't mean she can't seriously believe everything that is happening. Most important is that the character can not be in on the joke.

Give the character a life, give her 1 or 2 quirks. Maybe she always drops things? Everytime she runs across that stage, she drops something and has to pick it up and go on. Try it, your director might not like it and that is his choice, but then he might like it you never know. Just don't overplay it, let the audience wonder if you are actually just a clumsy actress. After the 4th time they will be laughing because they expect it and you deliver..... make sure that any quirks you add do not take attention from the main action. Put "funny bits" in appropriate places.

Maybe she has a weird laugh, or she always checks out her nail polish at inapropriate times? Does she twist her hair? Does she pose like a Show Girl everytime she stops moving?

I am suggesting these things as a way to take your mind off being funny. If the lines are funny, the laughs will come. Just remember you have no idea you are being funny.

[gardenista]

10. Good advice to go very seriously into the character

Then the humor of the situation will bring on the laughs. Sounds like your director is trying to get you to get really campy. That's fine, just go for it and get more outrageous as your character finds her footing.

Haven't you met some one who is just so out of touch, so into their own world, so completely idiotic..... say, doesn't that remind you of some one? At least you're not playing Shrub!

How about thinking of your character as a Shrubbette. What do you think shrubbie was like as a teenager?

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

12. ha

very good point.

[Stupdworld]

11. cowbells, more cowbells

/i got nothin.

[regnaD kciN]

15. Lots of people here have made good suggestions...

...the biggest of which is to not play it as "I'm a smart actor knowingly playing a stupid character." There is nothing, nothing that will result in a bad performance more than an actor that is distancing her- or himself from the character they are playing. It always comes off looking false, even patronizing. And it makes little difference whether you are playing a farce or a Shakespearian tragedy.

If the script is any good at all, truly connecting and empathizing with your character will cause the humor in the script to come through. If not, no amount of playing it "over the top" will help, and will just make you, not your character, look stupid.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

16. bingo

i feel like i can't get into this character as well as most characters. I'll admit that I am very accostumed to playing drama and have not got a clue how to be unintentionally funny, script funny. I just have not gotten a chance to know the character well and feel like I am definitely distant from her. good analysis.

[Dogmudgeon]

18. Trust your Craft

Maybe I should have said, "Trust your Craft, Grasshopper"

Really.

I write a lot, and sometimes when I look back at what I've written, I wonder if I ever really learned English at all.

The greater the artist, the greater the self-doubt. Fall back into the structure and safety of your Craft, and it won't let you fail.

--bkl
In a particularly pompous mood tonight.

[DS1]

19. be natural, be yourself

otherwise will come off at a "West Wing" tempo, which is totally unrealistic.

Don't stress, practice your lines with the other actors, forget the crowd, and stop being so critical of yourself.