Henry IV continues tonight with loads of sword fights and fantastic performances! Come check us out at Mill Run amphitheater at 8 pm: the island opens at 7 for picnicking. We'd love to see you there. (PS- there's fire!) Here are a few backstage photos and a behind the scenes video of our battle sequences, courtesy of NPT member Matt Hermes. Enjoy!
Last weekend we opened Scapin, and received a nice review from Columbus Underground. Tonight, unfortunately, we were rained out (it was an incredible storm!) so Will and I stayed in and watched The Fighter, which we hadn't seen yet. The heat has been crazy here in Central Ohio, but despite the 100 degree weather yesterday, we entertained a small but mighty audience:)
Kelly Hogan and I in Scapin.
This weekend we are teching King Lear and performing Scapin. It's going to be a long weekend, but I'm excited to have both shows on their feet and to see what it's like to perform two shows at once. I hope you can make it out to the island!
For more info on New Players Theatre, including Scapin and King Lear, visit here.
Our director for Scapin challenged us the other day by asking us to each pick an animal to base our characters on. Usually this is not my thing: I tend to come from a more vocal than movement base in acting. With this play, however, the choice seems to really work. The goal of this production is to be truly funny and family friendly, and so basing characters on animals moves us closer to that goal. So my friend David (also in Scapin) and I went to The Columbus Zoo yesterday to do some research. We caught some amazing things on camera, including a wolf rolling around playfully and flamingos fighting.
My character tends to laugh a lot, and so naturally I gravitated towards the jovial hyena.
It's body movements and hang dog look, however, didn't suit my sensual gypsy character, so I'm now looking towards the sly fox for body movements, and keeping the hyena for vocalization.
Doesn't she look like she's smiling? We saw two arctic foxes get into a brief play-fight yesterday, and it was over as soon as it started: it made me think of how quickly a summer storm blows through a sunny day.
I was surprised how naturally the work came to me, as soon as I was open to it. My body and instincts took over. I'm looking forward to really playing with this technique and seeing where it takes me! Have you ever done animal work in your acting? Where did it take you?
