You and your character |
| By Richard Chua | |||||
 After watching the plays this year at Short and Sweet Singapore, I said to myself, we need more humanity on the stage. This festival is no doubt a wonderful platform for new playwrights, directors and actors to showcase their skills. My concern here is specifically with performance and acting, I am asking for the actors to approach their characters with a more nuanced understanding and stay committed to the character in all the situations while on stage. In the plays presented in early July this year, I found that, even with the actors making an earnest effort, the performances did not seem to take off. After watching new actors in action for 3 years running in this worthy short play festival, I believe there is a fundamental problem with the concept of acting that has badly affected some of the performances. I had myself come to realise that “acting” is about who you, the character, are in front of others and about allowing others to know you, the character, better. Ineffectual performances result from being not unconvincing in your effort to be generous in your portrayal and revealing too much of your own persona. In this regards, Cate Blanchett, who graced James Lipton's famous Inside the Actor's Studio interview programme once said the best thing an actor could achieve is to get close to the character, for they will never be able to “be” the character. The difference is crucial and to be able to recognise it is important. Besides, getting close to the character requires lots of love and discipline. And it also requires wisdom, something that cannot be learnt but can only be acquired through life experiences. Nonetheless, so long as one works towards these ends, the process will be gainful and progress will occur. Written by Richard Chua Richard Chua is a writer, director and actor in Singapore theatre. He currently manages the sites www.littleredshop.org, http://richardchua.wordpress.com and www.theatrex.asia.
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