Learning Lines

Every new show is exciting and nerve-wracking, and it all starts with learning the script and your lines in particular.

Happily, Rapture, Blister, Burn, my next show, is really well written (nominated for a Pulitzer Prize!).

The playwright, Gina Gionfriddo, uses very organic patterns for her characters, with qualifiers like, "I mean..." and "right?" I love how they soften the text and make it seem spur-of-the-moment, but I don't want to start adding them inadvertently. I have to justify why they exist in some spots but not others.

And so it comes down to learning my lines and really thinking up why the character has these pauses and seeming "throw-aways." Obviously they exist for a reason and are hints at what my character is thinking as she says these words aloud.

Here's my favorite line so far:

GWEN: It's just... It's what you said, right? It's that forty-something thing where you start thinking about the life not lived.

Great, right?  It basically tells you she's checking in with the other character in the scene. She hesitates, then checks in with her, then quotes the other character. And that, in a nutshell, is Gwen.