Tomb Tone

Ten years ago, or thereabouts, I was treading the boards. That was the last time I did such a thing – incredible! Ten years since I’ve done any Actoring in front of a live audience! And I enjoyed it, too, and while I know that I wasn’t any good, I have it on good authority that neither was I completely rubbish.
That show was the wonderfully bad ‘Tomb With A View’, with the Hutt Repertory, and it was a good laugh. My character was an anxious chap, and I vividly remember one of the rare bits of directorial advice I received about my actoring. I was, the director told me, giving a performance devoid of rhythm. There was this one note, “anxious”, and I was hitting it over and over again. Hitting it well, he said, but – the same. There needed to be some more up and down, some variation, peaks and valleys of intensity and feeling and so forth.
The fact that the character spends the entire play fearing that his life will end at any moment notwithstanding, this was sound advice, and it was something to which I’d been blind before he said it. Instantly it became obvious what I had to do and how I should approach the task. My performance duly acquired some variation, and was much better for it.
I mention this because I’ve been working on the (hopefully, cross fingers touch wood, final) draft of Ron the Body. Feedback from the second draft pointed out to me that my main character hits the same note over and over again. I realised that I needed to put in more up and down, some variance in her mood and tone. I needed to ensure that she was invigorating company for the reader, not a tediously predictable bore. And, again, this only became obvious to me after it had been pointed out a sufficient number of times.
Anyway, I’m satisfied with my reworking of part one of the revision. I think it is, spellcheck apart, the version that will be read by The Publishing Industry. I’ve just spent ninety minutes post-Conchords working on structural changes to the remainder of the book – there are a few fairly significant changes that must be made, but most of what is there will stay (if in shuffled-around form).
(Anyone who gave me feedback on an earlier draft of Ron is welcome to shout out for the revised part one, if they truly are a glutton for punishment at least…)
Hmm. Maybe I should think about doing some acting thing sometime in 2008…
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Welcome, Helen to the blogosphere! Helen is a poet and publisher and will be writing with an eye on the literary aspects of the Wellington scene…