The Bird & Baby Philosophy House

Actors, as they work on a role, can have a very self-indulgent approach to their process, and I am no exception. This “self-indulgence” can be manifest in many different ways – tunnel vision of the role, an unwillingness to move forward, and a procrastination that masks the actors fear, to name a few. These speak to the importance of a director.

Over the last year I have been privileged to work on three main stage productions: "No Exit", "Notes From Underground", and "The Dumb Waiter". I not only acted in all three of these plays, but was also the director. This was more from necessity then from some misguided belief that I didn’t need an outside perspective/director. Throughout those three productions I was aware that I was developing bad habits as an actor, but unfortunately I was unable to provide myself with an honest critique, a critique that a director provides the actor.

This week we began rehearsals on "I Dream Before I Take the Stand", a one act play by Arlene Hutton, which is being produced as part of The Bird & Baby Theatre Co.’s summer production "The Few Lilies Project." David Schneider, The Bird & Baby Theatre Co.’s Artistic Director, is the director for the project, including the one act play.

At the first rehearsal I was expecting the standard table read, and since the play is short I assumed that we would read through it a couple of times and then I would be free to go to Fitzpatricks and hang out with friends. The rehearsal began as expected; David had us read the play, twice. Upon finishing the second read thru he asked us some standard questions about our characters and our super objectives. After discussing the role(s) for a bit David asked me some questions about my perspective of my role (Questions I won’t go into detail about ‘cause I don’t want to run the risk of lifting the wizard’s curtain too much to the point where there is no need to come see the production.) After I explained my brilliant analysis he asked me to completely ignore my instincts during the next reading and to take the role in a completely different direction. I have to confess that my first response was annoyance. Not because I didn’t understand the reason and importance of his request, but because he was asking me to work sooner than I wanted to. I had anticipated a walk-in-the-park, phone-it-in table read, and here was this young, punk director asking me, John Ellis, to begin working before I wanted to! I thought to myself, “David, I have a very specific process that has been tested in the fires of 50+ productions and I don’t need you to tinker with it. But, since I want to set a good example I’ll humor you.” So I did it. And then he had me do it again.

The first (third) reading was a challenge, a good challenge and I recognized that, but as I wrote above I didn’t want to be challenged, yet. During the second (fourth) reading really cool things began happening. My instincts caught up with David’s direction and I was able to find layers that I wasn’t aware were there. This is always an exciting moment for actors - when we take cognitive steps forward in the role. After the final reading I reflected on what had happened and compared this rehearsal with my previous rehearsals this past year. The contrast between this rehearsal and the previous rehearsals highlighted some of the bad habits that my previous director, myself, had allowed me to fall into. There were moments during those previous three productions from this past year where I felt behind and that I wasn’t firing on all cylinders. I recognize that this was a product of not having someone to force me to work, instead of allowing me to be wallow in my increasingly self-indulgent process. David has reinforced my need for a strong director who is willing and able to force me to work and stretch, even at the first rehearsal.

One of the exciting aspects of this is, how much will my character in "I Dream Before I Take the Stand" grow and develop, and how much more sharp will my storytelling be compared to my three previous roles?