Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

Chapter
3
The Actor
© Joan Marcus
SHE STANDS ALONE IN THE darkness and listens
carefully. A few feet away, onstage, her fellow actors
stand under bright lights and speak the lines she has
heard so many times before. Soon—any moment
now!—she will walk onstage. Her heart races, and she
bounces lightly on the balls of her feet, trying to stay
relaxed while feeling exhilarated by the sense of something
about to engulf her.
The energy onstage is almost tangible: it is there
in the eyes of the actors, the pace of the dialogue, the
smell of the makeup, the sparkle of perspiration glittering
in the lights, the bursts of audience laughter and
applause, the sudden silence punctuated by a wild cry
or a thundering retort.
She glances backward impatiently. Backstage, there
is energy, too. But this is a different energy, under the
surface, restrained. Some of her castmates perform
knee bends and roll their necks. Some gaze thoughtfully
at the action of the play. Some stare at the walls,
murmuring quietly to themselves. In one corner a stage
manager, his head encased in electronic equipment, his
body hunched over a dimly lighted copy of the script,
whispers commands into an intercom.
Suddenly the onstage pace quickens; the lines, all
at once, take on a greater urgency and familiarity. It is
almost her cue . . . if only there were time to go to the
bathroom . . . it is almost her cue . . . she takes a deep
breath, a deeper breath, a gasp . . . it is her cue! She
bounds from the dimness into the dazzle and comes to
life: she is onstage, she is an actor!
Acting is perhaps the world’s most bewildering
profession. For the most successful, it can be
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