The Essay: Watching from the Wings

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The Essay: Watching from the Wings: 12/04/2024

12/04/2024

Watching from the Wings

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Watching from the Wings, 12/04/2024

Michael Goldfarb remembers his theatrical life as an actor.

As an actor, Michael Goldfarb spent a lot of time watching from the wings. In this episode he's in K2, a play about two climbers trapped on an ice ledge.

During his less than stellar acting career Michael Goldfarb spent a lot of time watching from the wings waiting to go on for his single scene. In this series, he talks about the plays he appeared in, their histories, and the lives of the actors who performed them.

In this essay, he's understudying in K2: a play about two climbers trapped on an ice ledge, having fallen on their way down from the summit of the mountain. It wasn't a very good play but had an amazing set with the capacity for near cinematic feats of climbing and falling. 

The play made it to Broadway for a brief Tony-winning run and Michael talks about performing in a show where a huge Styrofoam mountain was the star and the jostling for supremacy among actors, directors and set designers.

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Rubbing knees with Sondheim and meeting Gielgud at the theatre door. Michael Goldfarb remembers his theatrical life as an actor.

Preparation for a performance on stage goes beyond just memorising lines, learning blocking and hoping it will be alright on the night. A diligent actor studies the history of the period of the play, learns about the intentions of the playwright, and absorbs from older colleagues' knowledge of how the play has been done in the past.

In his less than stellar career as an actor, Michael Goldfarb went through this process many times.

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12/04/2024

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