This blog follows the rehearsal and performance process of Barry Nash as he works with Lee Trull and Eric Steele on "The Midwest Trilogy" for Second Thought Theatre in Dallas, TX.
Conversation(s) with Director Trull
Director Trull: Last summer, we never really found the rhythm of the piece.
Outer Barry: (Smiling.) I know exactly what you mean.
Inner Barry: (Fretting.) What??? Never found the rhythm of the piece? What if you change it and people don’t LIKE you as much? What does Director “I’m an Equity Actor and You’re Not and I Get a Paycheck from DTC and You Don’t and I’m Young and Smart and You’re Old and Dumb and I’m Tall and You’re Short and I Have Hair and You Don’t” Trull know anyway?
Inner Barry loves to hear himself talk. He thinks he is smarter than Director Trull because he thinks he is smarter than everybody. And he tells me constantly that he is the only one that REALLY loves and cares about me. All the others just want to USE me. I try not to invite him to rehearsals but he almost always shows up, yammering on. I need to shut him up so that I can hear the play - and Director Trull.
This will not be easy. Biographers say that Eleanora Duse used to sit for hours, waiting for Inner Eleanora to wear herself out so that Outer Eleanora could do the play without her.
Wouldn’t it be great if there were some sort of collective psychological day care for actors’ inner egos? Some place I could send Inner Barry to play with all the Inner Eleanoras of the world while I did the play without him?
I’m thinking today that I’d be willing to pay for that. A lot.
BN
