27/9/2001 At what point does the actor stop proving him/herself?

Sure, you have to impress at an audition, but the tall and short of the matter is - unless you have inside information - you never really know if an audition panel wants a bombastic "look-at-all-I-can-do" thang (usually associated with musical theatre) or some suggestion of sincerity, subtlety and/or even malleability.

So at the first rehearsal, once again, you obviously have to prove yourself once more - why you got the role, why you were better than those sneering in the shadows, why your characterisation is appropriate and (gasp) "the best", why, why, why...

Thus, at the second rehearsal, you will find yourself having to add to the arsenal of "look-at-all-I-can-do" weaponry because, rather than evolving or even altering what you produced at the first rehearsal, you now have to add to it in order to continue to impress. If I put a natty hat on a monkey, it won't make the monkey any smarter, better or any less a monkey. Just a monkey with more adornments.

Sorry. I don't buy the "look-at-all-I-can-do" way of doing things. It's retro and artistically dangerous. Additives and adorments are not what is needed - carefully-chosen layers of sensitive artistic decisions are what is necessary to make a characterisation work.

An actor has to be courageous and allow her/himself to be an uncarved block, from the first rehearsal through to closing night. He has to be brave enough to acknowledge that layering, amending, evaluating, reviewing and (the tough act of) improving actually needs to occur if an audience is to be genuinely won over AND that this all actually takes a bucket-load of time, self-knowledge and guts. Especially with wankers waiting in the wings to whine.

Not only does he have to allow himself space to put layer upon layer on the never-finished wall that is "a characterisation", but allow himself the flexibility to remove bricks, rearrange their shape and situate them in arrangements that either allow for changes in conditions or require the necessary portability should it all need to be moved, in its entirety, somewhere miles away.

If the brick wall is ready in record time, decorated with ornamentals and looking a million dollars, you can't do much but stand back and say "Gee that's a good wall" while you wait for the cracks to appear in the cheap bricks you know you chose to use for the foundations.