Acting: How many times is too many times?

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How many times is too many times?

Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Acting
Forum Discription: Q&A about auditions, character development and other aspects of the craft
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4981
Printed Date: 4/25/25 at 1:52pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: How many times is too many times?

Posted By: NDTENOR
Subject: How many times is too many times?
Date Posted: 2/23/11 at 9:02pm

In theater it's always nice to do different roles. Yet , I would say that there tends to be a "core" of shows that tend to be done a lot. By different theaters and groups. So the same shows sometimes "come around" more than a few times.

I guess my question is this in a nutshell. There is a show I've done and a certain role in this show a few times. I was wondering if there were any thoughts on how many times is it appropriate to do a role in a show until it gets a bit "creepy". For instance... I know a person who has done a certain role at least 6 times in a show. Is that possibly "creepy"? Possibly too many?

Thoughts???

Replies:

Posted By: PaulyWally
Date Posted: 2/24/11 at 6:02pm

I don't think an actor can do a role "too many times" if they are still learning from the role (or if they're getting paid lots for it).

'Course, some actors never learn from the first time they perform a role.

Posted By: edh915
Date Posted: 2/24/11 at 9:57pm

As long as you're still fresh in the role. As long as it speaks to you. As long as it has relevance for you. Go ahead and do it. Stop when it becomes mechanical, because at that point you're cheating yourself, your fellow actors, and your audiences. (Unless, as it was pointed out, you're being paid for it; then do it because it's your job.)

I've only repeated one role; Grandpa in "You Can't Take It With You." I did it as a senior in high school, then again 35 years later when I was more age appropriate. I have directed a few individual shows two or three times, but most often with a ten year hiatus between productions. But that's just personal choice. There are so many things I still want to do, and the years are catching up with me. No impetus, really, to duplicate anything.

Posted By: peacock
Date Posted: 2/25/11 at 7:04am

I once read that Yul Brynner played the King of Siam over 1000 times. Sometimes practice makes perfect. It seems that if you want the role, and the director wants you, if you would enjoy it and others would enjoy seeing you in it, then do it again.

Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 2/25/11 at 9:33am

Our theatre did Annie 10 years ago when I was 31. I played Daddy Warbucks then and loved the role. This year we did Annie again and once again I played Daddy Warbucks. Rooster Hannigan and Drake also reprised their roles from ten years ago. I think I have two more runs in me at 51 and 61.

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Patrick L. Davis
Fort Findlay Playhouse

Posted By: Rorgg
Date Posted: 2/25/11 at 3:27pm

Depends what you're getting from it. I've played some parts I'd do again happily, but only one so far that I just relished to such a point I'd do it over and over and over... Audrey II in Little Shop was SUCH a good time.

Posted By: NDTENOR
Date Posted: 2/27/11 at 10:12pm

Well.... admittedly I've done a certain role 3 times with 3 DIFFERENT theater groups who are physically more than 50 miles apart from each other. Basically I've worked with 3 completely different groups of actors and 3 different directors and I'm pretty sure that I've performed to three completely different audiences with not one person that I know having seen me more than once. I may be presumptuous but I'm pretty sure I got the role on three entirely different occasions with three different groups that I had no prior association because I was the best person to audition..... not because I was someones "friend" or I was familiar to the theater group. If I ever thought that was the reason I was getting a role I think it would be about time to put away the makeup, turn off the stage lights and find another hobby.

Posted By: KEB54
Date Posted: 3/01/11 at 9:18pm

I don't think that is up to the actor. It is up the director and possibly the producer. If they are aware that an individual has done the role many times in the area and thinks it creepy, well I'd say that is a ligitimate reason not to cast them.

But how often is the same play done in the same area? Aside from HS productions (which really isn't pertenent to this discussion) plays may come around every eight years or so in my area. In many cases the actor has aged enough that the same part isn't appropriate to them.

That said, within about a 20 mile radius I have played Hucklebee in the Fantasticks a dozen times in the last 35 years. But , alas, I think I have finally aged out of the part and may be only able to play Henry from now on. :)

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KEB

Posted By: NDTENOR
Date Posted: 3/01/11 at 11:58pm

Possibly you could also do Mortimer. He says "I've been dying for forty years" at one point. He's probably "pretty old" too.

But it's amazing that in the 5 page staging description at the beginning of the script of the "Fantasticks! written by the authors there is not one word referring to "Age" of characters. In the script.... only " sort of " to Louisa but that is not completely clear either.

If you can portray the role.... my feeling is that age is unimportant.

But I guess the director can his or her own "age" bias. Be it right or wrong.

Posted By: Jamey
Date Posted: 4/02/11 at 4:30pm

It is a question that I have asked myself. That comes from the fact that I have done Seussical 3 times. In my defense, I played the Mayor in the TYA, Gengus Khan Schmidt in the full-length show and the Mayor in the full length show. That is not the end of the story: I did Warbucks in Annie 4 times. It should go without saying that I love the Warbucks charcter. Every time I think I got all of it, I see something, hear something that I never thought of before and want to do the role again. There are two CTs near me that are staging Annie this summer and I will audition for both of them. As long as I can keep it fresh and as long as it is fun, I will keep auditioning. If somebody has a problem with that, too bad!

Posted By: MusicManD
Date Posted: 4/16/11 at 4:23pm

I like having the chance to play in a show multiple times. I feel like I can dive deeper into the show, and apply the additional life experience (including the previous run of the show) to the new run.

I did Big River when I was 11 or 12 (I was one of the boys) and then did it again when I was 16 as the King. Knowing the show really helped me to play up the part, but also helped me see how I had grown as an actor/performer.

I did Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in high school, and then did it ten years later in community theatre. Both times I was cast as Judah, which I think is a testament to my ability to sing the part... and it was a great opportunity to show myself how I've matured.

A fun show is still fun the second time. I can't speak to it on the third iteration, however. And I have yet to direct a show that I had previously acted in.