Doubling!
This is Empty Chair vet Matthew Minnicino checking in with everyone in blog-reading world, here to extol the virtues of doubling briefly.
There is nothing like being in a small-cast production of a Shakespeare play to make an actor appreciate the joys, woes, and effort required to “double.” Doubling, in case anyone is unfamiliar, is the practice of having on actor play many different parts in a single play, often many small roles. The practice was the norm in Shakespeare’s day, but fell out of favor in the 19th Century when plays generally had spectacularly large casts. Empty Chair, mainly in the interests of fostering the intimacy of Shakespeare, practices doubling pretty heavily. Personally, I’ve had to double a few times (I played 2 roles in last year’s Empty Chair production of Measure for Measure, and 3 roles in its 2008 Taming of the Shrew), but never until this year had to double so intensely. In Richard, I play Bagot (one of the king’s “bad influences”), the Earl of Salisbury (one of the king’s generals), a Groom, and the Gardener (a one-off character with a single juicy allegorical scene). In Midsummer, I’m playing three characters.
One of the things I’ve always loved about Empty Chair is its eagerness to give actors opportunities to explore many characters who can be more memorable in a few moments than a single character that talks for half an hour. As an example of the flexibility of Empty Chair casts I always point to my current Midsummer castmate Mark Tucker and his role in Richard III in 2008, in which he played King Edward, the Duke of Clarence, the Bishop of Ely, and James Tyrell, as well as a few other characters along the way. He was able to imbue each role, most of which only exist for one or two scenes, with unique gait, voice, physicality, and presence–something I’ve strived very much for this year differentiating my characters in Richard II. In Midsummer, one of my characters–simply “The Fairy”–exists mainly through physical work, with few lines but a lot of featured movement, as the Fairy is frequently the manipulator of “Puck’s Puppet,” an avatar-esque giant mask made by Daniel Dobrosielski that appears whenever Puck is onstage, and moves with the same limber, playful, and frenetic quality that Puck does. Playing the Fairy, a small character in the text, has been an immense workout but a huge joy for me. I’ve also been wedged into the “Mechanicals” scenes in which Bottom and the Rude Mechanicals rehearse “Pyramus and Thisbe.” I don’t play one of the characters named in the play, but I’ll leave the details of his interpolation a surprise for those of you who come to see the fun.
–Matt
