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

50 Chapter 1 The Actor
4. In the makeup and wig room,
Fiona Matthews applies
Antony’s graying hairpiece
with tiny dabs of spirit gum
adhesive. Becoming bald
at age nineteen, Stewart,
at first embarrassed, soon
discovered it could be a
theatrical asset. “Most
of my hair went within a
year,” he told the London
Independent, “and I was
very depressed. But it was
possibly one of the best
things that could have
happened. And of course it
means I’ve got a head that’s
the perfect block for wearing
hairpieces. I’m a wigmaker’s
dream.” For Antony, Stewart
felt the wig a necessity, in
particular to justify the line
“the curled Antony.”
© Robert Cohen
2. From his dressing room, Stewart checks with the wig room—ninety-two steps up—to see if
his wig is ready. London’s Novello Theatre, where the performance takes place, has dozens
of individual dressing rooms scattered throughout the building’s five backstage floors. The
telephone is essential for communications with stage management before and during the show.
© Robert Cohen
3. Onstage, the actors prepare with a physical and vocal warmup, led by voice coach Lyn Darnley
(standing). Lying on the floor with the rest of the cast, Stewart is sounding his vowels as
Darnley directs. © Robert Cohen
“Star Trek isn’t written in naturalistic
dialogue,” Stewart continues. “It
has a certain heightened quality, a
tonality which is not like CSI or any
of those contemporary shows. It has
a five-act structure, which very much
follows classical principles. And the
bridge set is like an Elizabethan
stage: it had a huge opening; the
‘view screen’ where the audience is;
entrances, down left and right and
up left and right; and a raised area
at the back with its own entrances.
It is a very theatrical set, basically
a stage format that hasn’t changed
much since the sixteenth century.
And it is costume drama: no jeans
or T-shirts, and, as with Elizabethan
costumes, we have no pockets! No
place to put our hands! And finally,
the nature of the relationships
of the principal cast very much
conforms to what you might find in a
Shakespearean history play. So there
are many parallels!”
Stewart is also deeply involved
in theatre education, currently
as chancellor at the University of
Huddersfield and previously as
the Cameron Mackintosh Visiting
Professor of Theatre at Oxford. And
he is widely known to U.S. theatre
students through his many visits to
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