INFINITE VARIATIONS: SAM LANDGRAF

Each production of a play is different. There are different actors in different spaces with different lights, sounds, and sets. You may think that the variations stop there, but they don’t. “The words are the words, so how can there be variations?” As the stage manager, I get to see thousands of different versions of a play before it gets to opening night. Being able to witness all of the versions of the play in rehearsal, the stage manager truly has the best seat in the house. I get to see the first time that the cast sits down and reads the play together, giving the play the first signs of life. Then I get to watch the cast stand up and move about the space, saying the words, reading the stage directions, and putting it all together for the first time. After this, I get to watch the best part, playing and taking direction. When you have a good group working together (and boy, do we have a good group), the director is able to give the actors one word, one feeling, one adjustment and the run of the scene is something completely new and different than before - changing the way the actors and director understand the play as a whole. 

During this past week, we played A LOT, using the Michael Chekhov Technique, which involved something called a spyback. After the run of every scene, the actors stepped back from being the character and offered brief insights about what they as an actor experienced - observations, bodily sensations, emotions that arose, things that did and didn’t work. etc. From this, Craig (the director) is able to glean new insights from inside the actor’s shoes about the character, the character's arc, and the overall story. He’ll give a note or adjustment before the next run of the scene. These adjustments can be anything from having a different atmosphere for the scene (think of this as the “air” in which a scene happens - for example, an atmosphere of “quiet rebellion”) to changing up the tempo or pace. Even with the simplest adjustments, the actors can run the same scene and have a completely different outcome from the run before. Together, the ensemble then picks the best parts of each run and creates yet another new thing. Frame by frame, moment by moment, scene by scene, the play takes shape and the direction of the story is agreed upon.

After playing and discovering all the different ways to express the words written on the page, the repetition starts. Of course by the time we have an audience, the show has been rehearsed so many times that every night is basically the same, but theatre is a living art and a play is never set in stone. When an audience member comes to see a play, they see a version of the play that no one besides them sees. If the same audience member came two nights in a row, they could see two totally different shows. Someone could deliver a line with a different inflection that causes a different reaction, an audience can find something funny that other audiences have not, or an actor can discover a new moment even after a year of rehearsal.

There is only one person that is there to see the play from its first breath to closing night, the stage manager. As the stage manager I am the luckiest audience member of all because I am there to see every variation of what the show could have been and I get to see the path that is taken to get to the very best version of our play.