Nothing drags down a play more than hesitation. When an actor has spontaneous memory loss or just doesn’t know their part, gaps between spoken lines can become noticeably unnatural. If three seconds go by without the next line being blurted out, the actors on stage must think of something to keep the scene moving! This is what I call: The Three Second Rule.
In theatre, everything (unless directed otherwise) must be within one beat, or one second; including actions or delivering sets of dialog. You may be thinking, “That’s Impossible!” but I can assure you it is not. As you are reading this, immediately sit up from your seat. How long did it take? Well, unless you are very pregnant or on a soft, squishy couch, it should have taken you one second. Even if the action took several moments to complete, you initiated it in one. Okay, sit back down. Now reach for your drink. Unless you left it across the room, it should have taken you one second. Now pick the drink up to your lips and take a sip. How long did it take to bring to your mouth? Again, one second, one beat. Maybe you are starting to get the idea.
One beat is a natural reaction time for something to happen without interrupting or changing the flow of a scene. Get out of a chair in one beat. React to a line you just heard in one beat. Make a punctuating gesture in one beat. If you use longer than one beat and take three or more, a scene becomes drawn out and flaccid, like a soggy bowl of corn flakes. Don’t miss the point—we are talking flow! Let me give an example of an average person versus an overweight person. A normal person lifts themselves out of a chair in one beat. Now, the scene may call for an overweight character to make three or four attempts to get out of the chair. The action will not be completed in one beat; however, the series of gestures in the actor’s movements should be initiated one beat at a time. It starts with one beat followed by the portrayal of being too heavy to lift oneself out of the chair easily.
Actors must stay in the moment (read my previous blog) to allow their response times to be natural during dialogue. Here is an activity for actors to recognize the soggy bowl of corn flakes:
- Take a section from your play with two to three actors.
- Have an actor say a line. Before the next actor speaks, they must count to three in their heads (by saying one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, and so on).
- Next actor: repeat, counting three beats before they speak, and so on.
- Now the actors can hear the lines from the audience’s point of view: soggy corn flakes!
The next question is, “How do we fix the flakes?” Most directors want the dialogue said word for word (as do most actors). In my studio, I take the Tim Gunn approach of, “Make It Work.” I choose to dig out the line (an expression I say very loudly to my troupe). Someone has got to say something, either the correct line or improvise a line to the actor to jog their memory. The bottom line is something needs to tumble out of someone’s lips instead of having everyone stare at each other, allowing extra beats to interrupt the flow. The audience does not know a line has been missed or relayed in a different form of dialect unless they attend nightly (no worries, a large portion of the audience enjoys the diversity of watching a show happen; especially in youth theatre). Again, I highly empathize director’s prerogative on what is acceptable to them!
Theatre is all about timing. From entrances to exits, to transitioning from one section of the stage to another, to line delivery, and more. There is no time to waste. So, as an actor, know your entire scene to keep gaps to one beat. It’s not just your lines and your blocks—it’s everyone’s!
