Sunday, March 6, 2011

Fascinating Conversations at the Wheel

So when we act out, we also get to meet a lot of people. And the people we meet love acting, and watching movies and television. We love that - getting a group of people all passionate about acting in one room and talking about the movies and TV shows that we've loved watching. It kind of makes the very personal experience of watching something on TV in your living room - very shareable, relateable and exciting.


This shareable experience is what we thrive on. Because all the act-ups are unrehearsed, and we share the script right there and then and people have to start acting almost immediately, we need the scenes to be very relateable. The actors need to have seen it before on TV or in the movies to be able to pick up character nuances. The audience needs to have seen it, and liked it, to be able to appreciate the actor's performances and interpretations. It adds to the excitement but also to the risk factor.

Because of this high risk, we've also had some interesting realizations and aaaaahhh moments during our act-ups. One of these happened in the last meet-up. We wanted to go with some scripts and shows that everyone would have seen and enjoyed, and so would like to act. When you start thinking about some universally watched and likeable TV shows, one name comes instantly to mind.


So we chose to perform Friends at The Acting Wheel launch. We thought it'd be a safe bet. We were right...but not entirely. Right when we had introduced the scripts, the actor who was to play Ross said "But I've never seen Friends!"

This to some would be equivalent to saying, "But I've never breathed air!" Or "But I've never lied to anyone!" Or even "But I never thought that Johnny Depp was sexy!" It just defies the laws of physics, gravity and nature. Or does it anymore?

This actor in question answered everyones flabbergastedness by simply stating "I was 9 when it ended."

We've come a long way into the 2000s, and the millenium just isn't a cool word anymore :) Moral of the story: To those who were around to feel genuinely scared of the Y2k bug, do what you can to NOT become like those "yo dude" aunties and uncles who are scarily completely out of sync with the times. As for our Friends performance, the Ross who had never seen Ross on TV actually ended up doing an interesting spin on the role!

For more interesting realizations from the acting wheel, join us for our next act-up!

No comments:

Post a Comment