I’ve seen seven broadway shows so far during my visit to New York. One thing that has really struck me on this visit is the fact that these actors do this every single night.
Every. Single. Night.
In the audience, it feels like a once in a lifetime experience- and for many of us it will be. I’ll probably never see Audra do Gypsy again. That’s my orientation going into the show, like it’s only happening once.
The reality of course is that Audra will do it again tonight and tomorrow and the next day until she closes the show. The magic is the actors ability to reengage every night.
In the great actors I’ve seen, I’m seeing characters fighting for their lives, I don’t see a craftsperson. Of course I know they’re there, and the craft is impeccable, that’s a given here- but that vanishes before our eyes.
These great actors are not seeking to reanimate what they rehearsed or what happened in the matinee. Instead they’re reengaging with the reality for the character-
What are they fighting for? What do they stand to lose and win?
And all the while, they’re not missing a note or a step.
These great actors have the uncanny ability to bring pristine presence and searing life to a structure they’ve repeated multiple times. That is magic.
And it’s generous.
To reengage as if it were the first time is generous. It’s generous to us in the audience because it is our first and last time (in that sense, the work is life or death isn’t it?)
And it’s also generous to the character. To reengage every night is to honour the character. The imagined embodiment of the human plight. That’s generous.
Putting in enough hours to be an actor with the craft and spirit to bring this every night is generous.
The audience sit and gaze up, open hearted in the dark. Tell us a story. We’re like children, shown a magic trick that comforts us and tells us we’re not alone.
Every night in temples around New York city, the lights go down and an imaginary human is brought to life. They bare their wounds for us and in turn we listen and open our hearts.
Floating in the air above our heads in the black empty space between actor an audience?
Magic. Vulnerability. Connection. Loneliness. Love. Generosity.
