What's the Big Idea?!
My greatest wish is that we can have a more playful theater, a theater without so much math or formula, a theater full of imagination, full of poetry, tragedy and great beauty. I want to laugh more when I go to the theater. I want to be astonished by the logic of nonsense and by the blistering ferocity of passion expressed without worry and given away with complete and hilarious abandon. I love to see actors surprised by their talent.
The theatre is a live event and dangerous by its very nature. It should be. That is what is thrilling about it. How do we capture that beauty of chaos and the thrill of pandemonium that is so full of life and possibility? I think that we must try valiantly to give the theater back to the curious, inspired and virtuosic actor (as it was for so many hundreds of years) who is full of pleasure and prepared for the dangerous and extraordinary conversation that the theater can be.
The ambition of my work as a teacher is to help actors gain access to the source of their playfulness. It is the search for what makes you unique and funny. What turns out to be funny is not always what you think is funny about you or what you hope is funny about you, but it is what the audience thinks is funny about you. Sometimes they are the same, sometimes not. The audience will never lie. They will always tell you whether or not you are onto something, either with a confused silence or with the elusive sound of ha-ha. If we can make the audience our partner in the theatrical conversation then we will never be without a playmate. We will never be lonely on the stage.
- Christopher Bayes
The theatre is a live event and dangerous by its very nature. It should be. That is what is thrilling about it. How do we capture that beauty of chaos and the thrill of pandemonium that is so full of life and possibility? I think that we must try valiantly to give the theater back to the curious, inspired and virtuosic actor (as it was for so many hundreds of years) who is full of pleasure and prepared for the dangerous and extraordinary conversation that the theater can be.
The ambition of my work as a teacher is to help actors gain access to the source of their playfulness. It is the search for what makes you unique and funny. What turns out to be funny is not always what you think is funny about you or what you hope is funny about you, but it is what the audience thinks is funny about you. Sometimes they are the same, sometimes not. The audience will never lie. They will always tell you whether or not you are onto something, either with a confused silence or with the elusive sound of ha-ha. If we can make the audience our partner in the theatrical conversation then we will never be without a playmate. We will never be lonely on the stage.
- Christopher Bayes