50 Years a Playwright - What I learnt #1

That actor at the back.  You know, the one with half a dozen lines and whose name probably doesn’t even appear in the cast list.  They had to get up this morning, make breakfast, same as the rest of us.  They still had to come to rehearsals and change in the lavatories. Sometimes they get bored with what they are asked to do and that doesn’t bode well. And once they’ve started playing ‘Hide the Clothes Peg’ you’re on a downward spiral. I always try to remember the work this actor puts in.  I do them the courtesy of preparing their character’s back story and be able to tell them how they got here and why.  Sometimes, I will write their off-stage dialogue with other characters.  There have been times that their off-stage presence has been more interesting than what’s happening on the stage itself and I have adjusted the focus of the piece to make that character the centre of the action. That’s not a new idea; consider all those other stories that are told or re-told from the point of view of otherwise minor characters.  I give you “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” by Tom Stoppard. How many can you think of?