Performing in a Smaller Space

By Steve Leblanc, Actor

The previous two We the People shows (Something Rotten and A Man of No Importance) were produced at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction. While “The Briggs” isn’t huge, its larger size is typical for a musical theater venue. As performers we had to be mindful of every audience member, including those in the back row. All spoken lines, gestures, and expressions had to be big enough for all to see.

For this year’s show (The Spitfire Grill) We the People decided to move to the Eclipse Grange in Thetford, VT. This is a much smaller venue; one that has traditionally been used for straight plays. The move made sense for a variety of reasons, including the fact that this is such an intimate musical with a small cast.

Director Richard Waterhouse and Associate Director Amanda Rafuse worked from the beginning of rehearsals to acclimate us to our new home. Our first week at “The Grange” included character and relationship building improv exercises that encouraged exploration of the space. During physical and vocal warm-ups we would stand, walk, run, climb, and sometimes even crawl through every available bit of space, to try to learn about different locations. Were there spots where we felt powerful, and others where we felt vulnerable? Places where we felt connected to others, and places where we felt disconnected? How has our perception of distance changed in this new setting? Amanda took the lead in helping us with this exploration; she is great at helping actors physicalize and internalize these types of elements.

Once the set began to appear, we continued our experimentation with the space. Richard said that now that we knew the space a bit, that he wanted us to run through our scenes and follow our instincts on where, when, and how to move. Often, he wanted us to make up our own dialogue, but still to follow the gist of the scene, to make it feel even more naturalistic. He would take notes of what we did, and he and Amanda would incorporate what they liked into the final blocking. They trusted what we felt as actors living in the performance space, and combined our instincts with what they were seeing from the audience’s perspective. I believe this organic approach has helped the movement in the show to look and feel realistic; it is the way people in dramatic moments would utilize the space in real life.

Our directors also did a lot to help our acting fit the smaller venue. The Spitfire Grill utilizes thrust staging, where the performance space extends into the auditorium, with the audience seated on three sides. This offers a much more immersive experience than a traditional proscenium stage. For our show it means that no audience member is more than three rows back, and the first row is virtually in the performance space. In other words, everyone in the audience is extremely close. This affords us the opportunity for a more realistic style of acting.

This show calls for something closer to “film acting” rather than “musical theater acting”. There is an adage in film acting that goes “if you think it, the camera will see it”. There is no need to telegraph with broad gestures and expressions what you are feeling; honest and natural acting is actually more effective. However, many of us have years of experience performing musicals in large venues. During rehearsals we often found it difficult to “tone it down” and to “stop performing”. And when we did “stop performing”, we worried that we might now be bland and flat. Richard has been a great resource for helping with this, drawing on his experience teaching film acting at Brown University. He told us that we shouldn’t think of it as acting “smaller”. He said that everything needs to be just as big and energized, but simply more focused. I found this extremely helpful in terms of how to play a very emotional and volatile character (Caleb) in a smaller venue.

I am excited for folks to see this show, in part because I think it will be a very unique experience. Audience members will truly feel they are inside the Spitfire Grill as they experience great music, humor, high drama, and a story of healing and redemption.