Actors breaking character and laughing?
Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Directing
Forum Discription: For questions about handling shows, actors, crew, board members, children ...or do we repeat ourselves?
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4123
Printed Date: 5/03/24 at 12:01pm
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Topic: Actors breaking character and laughing?
Posted By: jayzehr
Subject: Actors breaking character and laughing?
Date Posted: 7/15/09 at 5:01am
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I'm having a problem with several actors repeatedly breaking out laughing in the middle of scenes. I had it chalked up to nervousness and was counting on it working itself out as such things usually do, but it's getting pretty late in the process. I'm running out of ideas about how to approach this. (These are adults.)
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Replies:
Posted By: SamD
Date Posted: 7/15/09 at 8:17am
Remind them that they are not only doing this for a good time, but to entertain an audience. People in the seats are paying good money to be there. They are not there to watch the cast entertain themselves.
If that fails, you may have to be the "bad guy" and get angry. Not an easy line to walk, with volunteers, I know. But, they have to know that you are serious about this production and that they should be, too.
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Posted By: Tallsor
Date Posted: 7/15/09 at 10:21am
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Part of the problem may be coming from that they're trying too hard NOT to laugh. My director in college had a saying, "If I say, 'don't think about elephants', what are you going to think about? Elephants." So, when someone sits there trying NOT to laugh, it just makes it harder to not laugh.
Tell them that if they feel like laughing, that they need to focus on something else (my director gave the suggestion of a blank piece of paper). Remind them that they need to be professional, even if they are volunteers, and that if they feel like they're going to laugh to start thinking of that piece of paper.
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Posted By: DWolfman
Date Posted: 7/15/09 at 10:26am
Originally posted by SamD
you may have to be the "bad guy"
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Definitely the guiding spirit!
Two incidents from my endeavors:
With a younger crowd in a Christmas show, I had to give them the "people are watching as you build your reputation" speech. Quite often, other directors will ask me when they are casting whether I've worked with someone, my thoughts on their dedication or abilities, whether I would work with them again (and I made sure the speech was to the full cast so some of the older cast who were letting the problem effect them could consider their actions)
Another time with mostly experienced actors in a drama, there was an extremely intimate and intense scene that evoked nervous giggles. This time it was the "how can we expect the audience to take this seriously, to grasp the impact of this scene, if we do not" speech.
These "blanket" admonitions seemed to do the trick in these cases, but I've also had individual chats in other similar cases, asking the particular actor what they feel would be the best way to address their individual "activity". Some of those worked, some did not.
Hoping for a good resolution and that it works out well.
-DW-
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Even a man who is pure of heart...
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Posted By: greenphoenix
Date Posted: 7/16/09 at 4:49am
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They obviously are not focused on their character or objective in the scene. I would be getting ticked off. It may be funny to the actors, but sloppy rehearsals will lead to a sloppy play. Time to crack the whip.
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Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 7/17/09 at 2:30pm
Thanks for the advice, everyone! Interestingly, after I posted this everyone has been very focused over the last two rehearsals. Funny how things often go like that in theater, at least in my experience.
I'm also at the stage I always seem to get to where some of the moments I tried to "micro-manage" earlier in rehearsal are standing out like sore thumbs as moments where actors are doing or saying things a certain way only because the director told them to.
But I guess that's a different subject!
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Posted By: falstaff29
Date Posted: 7/19/09 at 12:25pm
As easy as it is to judge and say the actors aren't focused (which may be true), that might not necessarily be the case. I've done enough acting that usually my concentration is solid (and I'm always substantially better in performance, even when I'm having trouble during rehearsals), but sometimes even good actors have problems. I distinctly recall a situation a few years ago, where I was appearing in The Underpants as Theo Maske.
For those unfamiliar with the play, it's a great little comedy by Steve Martin about this German housewife and her boorish husband (me) and a couple of other crazy characters. In contrast to some of the other characters in the play, my character is still funny but is kind of the straight man and has one-liners that are a bit drier than the rest. Anyway, there's this one scene where his wife is out and he's trying to seduce the neighbor, and I had to say, deadpan, "I am going to take off my pants." Well, it's a ridiculous line, and I couldn't keep a straight face. So the director wisely gathered the whole cast together and we chanted the line for a solid couple of minutes until the humor had completely worn off. Never had any more trouble with it. Delivered it fine during the shows and kept character, and the audience loved it.
Which is to say, sometimes even good actors are amused much more than they should be. If it appears that a certain prompt is causing their lack of concentration, you need to deal with it a bit more creatively (as above) than if it appears to simply be general lack of focus.
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Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 7/20/09 at 3:28pm
Originally posted by falstaff29
As easy as it is to judge and say the actors aren't focused (which may be true), that might not necessarily be the case. I've done enough acting that usually my concentration is solid (and I'm always substantially better in performance, even when I'm having trouble during rehearsals), but sometimes even good actors have problems. I distinctly recall a situation a few years ago, where I was appearing in The Underpants as Theo Maske.For those unfamiliar with the play, it's a great little comedy by Steve Martin about this German housewife and her boorish husband (me) and a couple of other crazy characters. In contrast to some of the other characters in the play, my character is still funny but is kind of the straight man and has one-liners that are a bit drier than the rest. Anyway, there's this one scene where his wife is out and he's trying to seduce the neighbor, and I had to say, deadpan, "I am going to take off my pants." Well, it's a ridiculous line, and I couldn't keep a straight face. So the director wisely gathered the whole cast together and we chanted the line for a solid couple of minutes until the humor had completely worn off. Never had any more trouble with it. Delivered it fine during the shows and kept character, and the audience loved it.Which is to say, sometimes even good actors are amused much more than they should be. If it appears that a certain prompt is causing their lack of concentration, you need to deal with it a bit more creatively (as above) than if it appears to simply be general lack of focus.
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Yes, you're definitely right. It's not necessarily a lack of concentration.
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Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 8/06/09 at 2:12pm
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And to finish the story, everyone came through with flying colors and great concentration and we had an excellent opening night last night....
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