We come to theatre to be thrown into a world for a couple hours, but sometimes, audience members want to disrupt this world, either wittingly or unwittingly. Its painful enough to be near these disruptive member as an audience member, but while you’re on stage? That’s the ultimate test of wits. How should an actor handle it? Different Broadway actors handle it in different ways. How should they handle it? Its too big a question for one person handle, so we at OnStage Blog threw it up to our staff, and we got some fun responses. 

The situation specifically posed to the staff was as follows: “You’re performing on Broadway, and you’re in the middle of a serious, tense scene. You can hear a group of 3 people laughing throughout this scene, loud enough to reach the stage and cause some audience to grumble and try to shush them. How do you, the actor, respond to this?”

While I wait to hear back from two pending auditions, let me just say… waiting is the worst. Can I get an amen?

I have been in a season of auditions lately which is bringing up many thoughts on the subject. Here are three different audition scenarios I’ve encountered and my Do’s and Don’ts for each.

In Long Wharf’s upcoming “The Chosen,” based on the novel by Chaim Potok, two Jewish boys in the 1940s form an unlikely friendship. While this is the world premiere of Gary Posner’s stage adaptation, it’s a return to the stories of Potok for actor Max Wolkowitz, who plays the show’s narrator Reuven. Two years ago, he played the title character in “My Name Is Asher Lev,” another play by Posner adapted from a Potok novel in New York. After what he called a “beautiful” and “challenging” experience at the Penguin Rep Theatre, Wolkowitz says he is happy to make his Long Wharf debut and once again inhabit a teenage Chaim Potok protagonist.

Grease is legendary, so it makes sense that there are lots of conspiracy theories surrounding particularly the film version of the musical. The question is, how many of them are believable? Here are my favourites.

For high school seniors you're probably getting a ton of communication from your colleges about what to prepare for next fall. It probably includes what to pack, choice of meal plans, Resident Life tips, etc. 

But for theatre majors, there isn't a whole lot the school can do to help prepare you for what's truly ahead of you for the next four years. How could they? Being a theatre major has its own set of challenges and triumphs. Having come from a program like this, I know that many of the people I've talked have had the same experiences. For BFA students, it's going to be a bit different but maybe some of this applies to you as well. 

BFA auditions can be a stressful process. Not only can they decide whether or not you get into the college of your dreams but also how much scholarship money you'll receive. So the pressure can feel enormous. That's why everything needs to be perfect when you enter that room. 

We need to address an issue within training for the performing arts in the United Kingdom. In England, Northern Ireland and Wales right now, you must pay tuition fees to go to a university, which means, any actors, directors or writers who wish to study a BA must have the money to afford this course or else look for a scholarship. In Scotland, the government funds the majority of our courses, which means that you would think that working-class students within the performing arts within Scotland would have a better chance to get the training they deserve.

Well you're wrong.

This past summer, the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival made its debut on the New York independent theatre scene. Only a handful of productions were accepted into the festival. Among these productions was Saving Stan, a full-length drama written by veteran author/playwright Gary Morgenstein. Now, just a few months after its premiere, Mr. Morgenstein is looking to the play’s future, as a staged reading of an updated version of the play planned for November 15th at the Dramatists Guild approaches. Over this past week, I was offered the chance to talk a tiny bit with Mr. Morgenstein about his play, his creative process behind it and its upcoming reading.

Fuck you, Kevin Spacey. You too, Louis C.K.

In recent weeks, with the number of people speaking out against those who have sexually abused them, we are seeing who their perpetrators are. While no one would probably call Harvey Weinstein or James Tobeck beloved icons, Kevin Spacey and Louis C.K. are on an entirely different level. 

These two men were Gods in their respective industries and idolized by many within them. 

While the Tony Awards aren't for another seven months, news surrounding the awards ceremony is already making waves. The first round of Tony eligibility decisions have been made and many of them seemed obvious. However, one big shocker was that the recent and controversial production of 1984 will be left off the ballot completely.