Hiya! Today I wanted to talks about the greatest superpower of any decent actor — the ability to improvise with confidence when everything around you is catching fire like a proper bushfire.
At the evening performance, we had an absolute classic moment. Halfway through the second act, I had to engage in a tense, serious discussion with the main character. We walked on the stage, the spotlights were blazing, and the audience was completely silent, waiting for the drama. I delivered my first line... and then, crikey, I could see it right in my partner's eyes. Total vacuum. All the words had just vanished from his head, and the script had bolted. The poor guy was literally speechless.
Now, I wasn't about to wait around for this galah to find his tongue, so I just looked at him with mild disdain, turned up the drama, and said, "I can see from your silence, my friend, that you agree with me. Though your pride won't let you admit it out loud."
The guy caught on instantly, good on him. He simply nodded silently and very sternly. In the end, we played the entire scene like that: I delivered the monologue for both of us, asking questions and answering them myself, while he was flat out just changing his expression from "I despise you" to "you're damn right, mate."
The absolute funniest part was that after the performance, a local armchair critic came up to us and described in detail how brilliantly we conveyed the silent psychological tension and crisis of trust between the characters... The psychological tension that comes from someone forgetting to review the script before going on stage, holy crud!
So, guys, I reckon if you think you've screwed up, just pretend it's part of your master plan. It works like a charm every time. No worries!
Status: Just glad my mate didn't faint on stage or something. Good on him!