Tuesday Samurai - Creating Original Roles

In last week's Tuesday Samurai, I wrote about the concerns of being a producer. This week, I'd like to get a little more personal and talk about being an actor, and specifically the opportunities I've had as an actor working with Urban Samurai Productions.

But first, I have a confession: as an actor, I'm just as egotistical as the next. It's impossible not to be. It takes a certain amount of ego to put yourself on a stage as a character and expect audiences to listen to you, to invest in what you're doing, to care what happens. What I'm really saying is that no matter how many of us try to be humble or claim that we're actors because "it's just my passion," there's still an egotistical goal somewhere - whether it be as simple as the love of the audience's applause or as complex as achieving EGOT by the age of 35. And guess what else? Goals are good. A little big of ego is a good thing. It's called confidence.

But I'm getting off-track, which is why I write such long posts. New goal: knock that off. Anyway, back to my confession...my egotistical goal is to one day have my name printed in the front of a published script, where it states, "This play was first produced...and the opening night cast was as follows..." The great thing about this goal is that I've already entered that lottery three times just by creating original roles with my fellow Samurai.

There's a certain freedom that comes with being the first actor to play a role. Starla Van Sanders (Musical the Musical) could have just been your average, run-of-the-mill drag queen. But once I got my hands on her, I decided that she was a really bad drag queen. On the page, Starla was fantastic and universally loved. On the stage, I made her a bit inept, outwardly spontaneous while inwardly lonely. That is not to say I made Starla out to be a sad creature - far from it. Characters are more interesting to me (and, I hope, audiences) when you get to see their imperfections.

Creating a role, and how it's directed, can also be helpful to the playwright. Jerry, the bum in Protection Program, had an obsession with whiskey bottles that was the invention of Matt Greseth, not the script. During rehearsals for American Apathy, I had a spirited discussion with Aaron Christopher, USP founder and Apathy playwright, about the dissonance between how Aaron had seen David in his head while writing the play, and how I saw David after getting to know him during rehearsals. It showed Aaron that what he had created on the page had taken a life of its own.

Maybe I sound like a cheesy actor right now, but the characters we play aren't just inanimate objects on a page. Figuring out what makes them tick is half the fun of rehearsing. And it's what ultimately makes theater the collaborative art that it is. Characters, and the stories they tell, aren't just the creation of a writer or the performance of an actor. They're both, and more. The clothes they wear, the way they style their hair, the objects they encounter and how they carry them, the sounds they hear, and the space they inhabit are all a piece of the puzzle. And live theater is one of few places where that character's world can change with each production.

But the first production? That's often the most fun. "Starla Van Sanders was originally portrayed by Ryan Grimes." No one else can say that.

Ego...a little bit goes a long way.

Ryan Grimes
Managing Director
Urban Samurai Productions