What’s the Matter with that Line?
Listening to the actors performing your work can mean the difference between a good play and a bad one.
Have you ever seen a play you liked, only to see an actor start saying words that didn’t sound like anything that came out of her mouth before? Instead of speaking the actor is reciting — and I know enough about actors to know they don’t want to be saying those lines.
Unfortunately, both playwright and director aren’t listening to the actor — which is why I’m jumping up and down here, waving a handkerchief and yelling “Hold up!”
Once upon a time, I was an actor myself — before I turned into a playwright.
Even then, I had a sort of hybrid career where I acted once in a while, too. What I learned from acting was that saying lines should feel natural to the character I was playing, and should be in the character’s voice, which I grew to recognize the more I inhabited that character — and the more she (or he) inhabited me.
When a character started lecturing instead of talking, I got disconnected and discombobulated and started getting into trouble, because I didn’t know how to play a lecture. I was being hired to play a character. So, what do you do if that happens?
First stop: your director.
She or he is in charge of the play, and it’s up to them to figure this out with you. What are the steps I think your director should take?
1. Ask a lot of questions. You both need to be sure that the words you’re saying are not appropriate for your character. It’s always possible that you could be wrong about a particular line of dialogue, (though actors worth their salt rarely are).
2. You and the director should read through the dialogue together to pinpoint whether the line can be approached from a different angle, or whether the line or lines are just not something this character would realistically say.
3. If the director decides you’re right and the lines don’t fit, the next step is about talking with the playwright (if she/he is alive). This can be sensitive, but it’s really important that you ask your director to bring it up.
4. Follow the director’s lead about speaking to the playwright. Again — this is the director’s job.
If the playwright was or is an actor, it’s likely you’ll find an understanding soul who is more than willing to change the line or lines and make them better. Sometimes, playwrights who have never acted on stage aren’t familiar with how lines actually sound, and need to hear them before they can change something.
When I was acting, I found the best lines got more interesting to say, the more I said them.
That’s why I tell audience members to wait a week or two before they see a show. I have always found the last two or three performances tend to be the best ones, because the actors have had time to grow into their roles and understand the moments that need punching.
Good actors also know the moments that need to soften and the ones that need a little pause before letting them loose. All of this makes for stronger performances and connections with the audience. It’s also what makes acting thrilling — much more thrilling for me than any other physical sport.
Because it IS a physical sport, using every part of your body to convey the character you’re playing, as intense (if not more so) than running a marathon, skiing or sky diving.
What does a playwright need to do with a script so the actors can run with it? Three words (okay, a little more):
1. Make it alive. Make it breathe, make it fun, make it sad or sunny or scary or dark as hell. Whatever you do, don’t make it sound like you’re preaching, because your audience will fall asleep or worse, walk out on you (which has happened to me, only once, fortunately, but I promise, you never forget it.)
2. Be aware that every one of your characters has to come from a real place and needs a real voice that matches who they are, every minute of every moment they are on stage.
3. Listen to your actors. At the very first table reading, tell them to let the director know if there’s a line that’s giving them trouble.
4. If there’s a problem with the line, ask the director to have the actors read through it. Ask the actor how she or he would change the line, and if they have a suggestion, try it.
5. If you don’t like the actor’s suggestion, try your own variation and see if that works.
6. Above all, keep collaborating with your director and actors to make the line work.
Sounds easy? I can tell you it’s not.
As a playwright, I’ve worked months and years on a script and I’m not all that crazy about letting an actor wade into my garden and trample on the flowers. As an actor, I’m used to being told I’m dumb and I need to shut up and act.
Neither side should even have a side. Or if they do, it has to be on the side of the play. Because that’s what matters, in the end. The play is what the audience goes to see, and what they come away with is what you, as actors, director and playwright, give to them.
Do you want your play to be some half-assed whatever that bores people silly? Or do you want them to think about what you wrote afterwards, all night, all weekend, all week? Do you want them to tell others about the play and even think about going to see it again?
If so, you have to think about how to make actors love your lines, so they pop and shine and seduce us.
You need to be an actor yourself, walking down the street and saying lines to yourself, stopping and writing them on your phone (thank God for phones), and ignoring anyone who stares at you.
Because every actor is an extension of you as their playwright. The director puts it all together, but it’s the actors that get it across. The actor is acting out what you’ve written. What does that mean?
When talking about the cast for a play about a ritual washing of the dead, I asked my director if we could have someone playing the corpse.
This would have had to be an older adult who at least “seemed” naked and whose body would be washed, section by section, throughout the play.
“I don’t want to ask someone to do that,” the director said, “because it adds a lot of weird to the already-weird things I ask people to do.” I knew what he meant, and what he was saying: we ask actors to embody the world we are creating — and sometimes that’s asking a lot of them.
Last note: if you’re at a play and the dialogue coming out of someone’s mouth just sounds wrong, you’ll know the playwright and director and actors likely weren’t talking to each other. And if you are a playwright, you’ll know how to fix that in your own play.
Listen to the actors. Get over yourself.
Keep writing.
