Wearing glasses onstage
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Props, Scenery, Costumes and Makeup
Forum Discription: For how-to's and where-can-I-find
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2036
Printed Date: 5/15/25 at 2:42am
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Topic: Wearing glasses onstage
Posted By: AmateurThespian
Subject: Wearing glasses onstage
Date Posted: 9/20/06 at 6:26pm
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Hi, I have kind of an odd question. If an actor does not wear eyeglasses in real life but has to/wants to wear them as part of a character's costume, can they wear them normally (pushed all the way up) or should they wear them partially down the bridge of the nose so that the audience can see their facial expressions? These are reading glasses with the lenses popped out, so I'm wondering if wearing them halfway down the nose will make them look more like reading glasses than just glasses. Thanks! |
Replies:
Posted By: POB14
Date Posted: 9/20/06 at 9:31pm
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The only reading glasses I've ever seen worn like that (halfway down the nose) are those little half-glasses. My uncle used to wear those, and that's how I remember him; peeking over the top of those glasses. Most people who use reading glasses push them all the way up (or the prescription won't work right; I suspect my uncle got his at K-Mart All these are there for the actor to use. Hope this helps. ------------- POB Old Bugger, Curmudgeon, and Antisocial B**tard |
) Bu they take them off when they aren't reading. Sometimes they chew on them; sometimes they point with them; sometimes they put them on their head and forget where they left them.Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 9/21/06 at 12:20am
As there is no glass to bounce light, I doubt the punters will miss any of your facial expressions. Even from shadows cast by the frames, if it is really that much of a concern? As mooted by POB they can be a great aid to your characterisation & even a useful hand prop. ------------- Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house} |
Posted By: MartyW
Date Posted: 9/21/06 at 2:10pm
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OK Gaafa, You may have told this one before, and I always am learning new things about our Austrailian Theater brothers, but what is a "Punter"???? ------------- Marty W "Till next we trod the boards.." |
Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 9/21/06 at 8:30pm
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It?s a fairly common English expression meaning much the same in the US
as it does to us in Gondwanaland.. Probably the simplest meaning in
theatre is a describing our bos?s [bums on seats]. The chancers or
gamblers in a ?Two Up? ring who take a punt, with great expectations,
by giving it a go & fronting up! "Come in spinner" in much the same
style of the punt kick in Rugby. Which is also used in the same manner
in other hybrid football games that derived from it, such as your
gridiron & our ariel ping pong of Aussie rules footy. Originally it would have come from the small coracle river type boats, that can be sculled in any direction, as in punting/boating in the park adopted as a leisure activity by the rather polite society.  ------------- Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house} |
Posted By: dougb
Date Posted: 9/22/06 at 11:27am
| A couple of thoughts. First, many of our actors wear glasses on stage and it doesn't block facial expressions. If they wear their own glasses, we ask them to have the antireflective coating applied (~$10). Secondly, we do have lenses in them. Our theater is small and the audience is close and would be able to tell if there were no lenses. Finally, the lenses (with no prescription) are inserted by a local optometrist at no charge. I think that frames come with clear lenses and he just grinds them down to fit whatever frames we want. |
Posted By: MartyW
Date Posted: 9/25/06 at 2:03pm
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Gee thanks Gaafa, that really clears it up...... ------------- Marty W "Till next we trod the boards.." |