Rehearsal #5: Mr. Angry

Last night we did two mini-long forms. I was in the first one in a group with Susan, Tara, Lauri, and Larry. We chose Wendy Wassertein as the playwright, and while I couldn’t give you a detailed account of her style, I have at least seen two of her plays.

We told a fun little story that centered mostly around Laurie’s character as the protagonist. I good time as a side character in a volatile relationship with Tara’s character, but I came away with a couple realizations.

The first being, playing opposite someone you’ve been playing with forever and know very well is like riding a favorite roller coaster. You know all the twists and turns, but they still surprise and excite you.

The second being, I have hard time playing angry onstage. I wanted to be bigger and angrier than I was, but just couldn’t go there. This was not entirely my fault. The story was obviously a comedy and intense anger might have derailed it into drama, and yet Larry managed to be quite angry in the second long form, a Neil Simon inspired comedy. I guess this is something I need to work on: Playing anger. Playing mean. Playing characters who aren’t nice.

This could be a whole new way to avoid being the protagonist I haven’t explored!