This definitely is a learning experience. You know I was suggested for this small part (2 parts actually: EDDIE and PATIENT) by Jayne Jacobs a few weeks after rehearsals began. Not that this is an issue with learning lines. It’s just the figuring out of the being where I need to be and doing what I need to do during the rehearsals. The physicality. Everybody else already knows. As Chris Harris told us in class “memorizing the lines is just a technicality”.
What I have learned in just two nights of rehearsals: You do need to know, memorize, own your lines, but you also need to be intimately aware of the other actor’s lines to know your queue. You need to be aware of what the other actors are doing. You need to know how other actors react.
An example of the last statement: At one point I (EDDIE) come rushing onto the stage to step in between WILLIE and AL who are in an argument. WILLIE is saying his sentence, I have hold of him to keep him from AL, and I am waiting to say the next line. Well the actor playing WILLIE will keep going in a rant until I start my line. But of course I am waiting for him to end so I can say my line. Everybody was waiting on me. What I learn here is that if I know how the actor acts and what his lines are I should know how and when to “interrupt” correctly.