poliphilo: (Default)
poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2006-09-20 10:57 am

Changing The Script

I have this dream a lot: I'm on stage or leading a church service and I don't what the hell I'm about. I haven't learned the lines, I can't find the place in the book. Mercifully the dream ends before the audience or congregation starts throwing things or walking out.

Last night there was a significant variation or development. I had been cast as Torwald in a production of A Doll's House. I'd learned my lines, but none of them had stuck. My part was a huge blank to me. Normally I'd have gone on stage and improvised desperately, but this time I did the sensible thing. I went up to the director (who happened to be Peter Hall) and told him frankly, "Look, I don't know my lines. And I'm never going to. I think you need to get somone else."

Maybe I'm learning to live with my limitations. 

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2006-09-20 07:43 pm (UTC)(link)
This is the first time I've short-circuited the process myself- other than by waking up.

I sometimes wish I'd gone on the stage, but then I think about having to learn all those lines and I'm glad I didn't.