Introduction

When reflecting on any project I have been involved in a number of questions typically occur to me, usually relating to my own role in the specific project and its use in my wider career as a performer. I hope to try and find things from any project that I can apply to my working practice moving forward, and help to inform my decisions. The experience of working on Wonderful Town, even with the benefit of distance and hindsight, was unfortunately uniformly unpleasant and negative from the beginning. Poor management and stressful situations led to a bad experience which more than once led me to question whether I even wanted to continue in a career as a performer during the process. This was an entirely new experience for me, having previously only had positive professional experiences over five years of work, and necessitated a radical reframing of my entire working and mental process in order to continue work on a project I would not have completed were it not mandatory. This did give me opportunities to develop new working processes based on working in a negative environment that although I hope never to need again, I will now have to hand if they are needed.

The Outset

From the beginning I was unenthusiastic about Wonderful Town as a project. I feel that works from this period often have badly presented themes that are no longer acceptable in the modern day, requiring either significant rewriting or abandonment of the project. For this reason I would have been unlikely to ever want to audition for a project like this unless I could be assured that the need for such rewriting had been considered in advance and would be applied systematically and with forethought as to the direction of the piece. During one rehearsal I pointed out the use of an offensive racial slut leading to its being rewritten mid rehearsal. There were also several lines changed in order to tone down the sexist and misogynist overtones. It would have been my choice to be more involved in the development of these changes, but the roles assigned did not allow me that creative capacity. A lesson to take from this is to know in advance that these changes are being considered, or else to make sure that I am involved in the creative team in that role.

The role I was cast to play in Wonderful Town was very minor, leaving me little opportunity to utilise my strongest asset of my singing voice. My focus had to be on working as an ensemble member, as well as developing a character for the five lines of dialogue I took in one scene. Unfortunately I was unable to work with the director on my scene due to scheduling issues that plagued the entire rehearsal time, although this did provide opportunity to develop the character myself and choose my own direction with it. I did appreciate this from an artistic standpoint but feel it led to a confused finished piece overall. This lack of a stronger artistic direction is another key point I would want to address moving forwards, having now seen firsthand how important it is for there to be a single focused creeative voice driving a cohesion of ideas, instead of a mish-mash of multiple voices all without singular authority adding their ideas. The experience of Wonderful Town has fully reinforced my belief that collaborative creation does not work in putting on a polished piece of staged theatre, and at a certain point there needs to be a director who finalises the piece, ideally guiding the process from the beginning.

Ordinarily I would have spoken up more during a creative process, hoping to add my own experiences and vision. In this instance I thought that would have been the wrong approach to take, taking up more time and adding another voice to the general confusion surrounding the development of ideas. In an environment such as the one which developed, where multiple people are all trying to compete for their ideas to be heard, but without having any specific power to enact their vision over anyone else’s, I believe adding more noise could only be detrimental. To this end I deliberately focused on doing my part to bring other’s creative vision to the forefront in the best way I could, listening and responding to their ideas and changing as needed without arguing or fighting and creating a more hostile environment.

Working as an Ensemble Member

It was a new experience for me to be cast as an ensemble character without lines or specific direction. In the past the majority of my work has been as a named role, so needing to work without specific direction in some instances, trying to create and craft a character who fit the world of the piece and didn’t stand out, was a new challenge. I also had not worked in such a dance heavy role before, and have not found my skill set to be particularly inclined towards it, necessitating a change in my working practice.

The dance aspect of the performance became the primary focus of my work, as it formed the majority of my role within the piece. Despite the simple nature of the dances that I was involved in, it still provided an opportunity to learn some new dances that I hadn’t been exposed to before, notably the Charleston. As someone with minimal dance experience, being cast in a role that was mostly focused on dancing and movement would not have been my primary choice, as it did not allow me to showcase my strengths on stage and in fact served largely to highlight my greatest weakness as a performer. Adjusting my expectations of what I would be able to contribute, knowing that my skill level was below the rest of the ensemble, meant trying to find new ways to work, while also mentally changing my outlook on the quality of my performance. I made sure to take more time away from the show to try and learn the dances, and make sure that I came to rehearsals, especially for the Conga piece, well prepared and knowing my positions and steps.

Ensemble and crowd work is a mainstay of this style of piece, and with it comes a need to bring energy into the crowd work without overwhelming the main characters. In aid of this I worked with my castmates on specific background motions, improvising and creating small moments of connection. Together we developed a small dance routine before the Conga scene, and also a moment between Wreck and Helen in the background of a bar scene. Creating these scenes and finding the balance between energetic and engaging character work, without drawing too much attention from the audience, is something I have done before, but working on this larger scale gave me some new ideas for how best to work in a larger crowd of ensemble players.

The skill of developing a character for the background of a scene is something I will hope to be able to transfer directly to my future work, including any roles as a named character, for such moments when the named characters are not front and centre in the scene, but are still required onstage. I have also seen the necessity of developing my dance skills further, and the need for me personally to spend additional personal time on learning any dances or movement for shows I might be cast in in future.

Taking a Main Role

For the two scenes in which I took on a role someone else had played in larger part elsewhere I faced another unique challenge, of needing to try and maintain a consistency of character while also bringing my own take to the role. I made sure to observe the other actors playing the role of Baker and did my best to incorporate some of their body language into my own version. For a background role of Wreck I also needed to understand the relationship between him and Helen, which was also made easier by observing the work of the cast playing them in more major scenes.

Related to the development of Baker as a character and playing multiple roles I also had to find ways to differentiate the characters. I chose to focus on accent work, as well as body language. My sailor ensemble member was Received Pronunciation, but also spoke Mandarin, which I learned from a fellow cast member. The actions I chose for him were exuberant and in keeping with the Conga dance. For Bob Baker I worked on developing a New York accent, an accent I have previously struggled with. I began my accent by modelling it from Ray Liotta, then worked on developing it into my own voice and style to better suit the character. The body language of Baker was more restricted, as I had observed in other cast mates playing him, giving him a restrained energy. On the director’s advice I gave Wreck a broad Texan accent to better distinguish him, and paired this with bigger, broader motions, trying to link the more outwardly energetic character with the body language and voice. I have enjoyed working with accents before, particular Southern United States, but the opportunity to work on a New York accent was a new challenge I appreciated as I had previously had little experience with that accent.

Changing Mentality

It was a challenge for me to take a step back and not input to the creative process. I appreciated the reduced workload and consequently found it easier to counter the increasing stress of the work environment. Removing myself from the finished product, and learning to accept my role as simply a body on stage adding dynamics to the harmonies and a presence in crowd scenes helped me to become less emotionally invested in the finished project. In the past I had believed that good art could only be created by performers who are entirely invested in what they are doing and in giving something of themselves to each performance, making it a new experience to divest very little of myself. While i do not think this is a mindset that would work for every project going forwards, it is a valuable thing to keep in mind that giving too much of oneself to a work can lead to negative consequences, and so a degree of distance can sometimes be healthier, and lead to a better personal outcome.

As the working environment of the project became harder and harder to work within, due to poor management and time constraints beginning to cause stress and tension, it became more and more important to focus on the working relationship with the other members of the company. In such a negative space it can be easy to become negative in response, and I made a concerted effort to not allow my own mood to affect others, and was gratified to see others doing the same. I have often found that there are two outcomes to a group working under such unpleasant conditions. Either the group dynamics can fracture and people begin to lash out at their fellow cast mates due to the stress of the environment, or else a stronger bond can be formed. This stronger bond does not form by accident though, and needs to be fostered by those working in the group, which was something I endeavoured to aid. It is important to check in with your fellow cast members and make sure they are coping emotionally with a stressful situation, and remaining at an emotional distance from the material gave me more space to allow for this.

Creating a show is often an emotional and stressful experience, not matter how pleasant the working environment. When additional stresses and tensions begin to affect the general mood it becomes increasingly important to regulate and balance emotions. Previously I had been very likely to become very invested in a piece, and take it to heart when things began to go wrong, or to struggle with mounting stress. Much as I would always prefer to be more connected to a show, it was useful in many ways to realise that there can be a point of disconnecting, leaving the work in the rehearsal space, and not letting it affect me on a personal level. Disappointing and underwhelming as it can be to not have any particular interest in a piece of creative work, it was undoubtedly far more relaxing to take that step back.

Conclusion

Attempting to draw some positives from the experience of working on Wonderful Town I can find a few specifics for this project. I had not had the opportunity to learn a Charleston dance before. Neither had I been cast as an ensemble member with such little input into the creation of a character, which allowed me a degree of freedom in creating a character. Both of these were worthwhile experiences that I will endeavour to bring to future projects. It is unfortunate they came from such a troubled production, and these skills could have been acquired elsewhere.

However, reflecting on the time spent working on Wonderful Town and trying to take away what lessons I can implement in my professional career leads to the unfortunate conclusion that the majority of what I have learned from the experience tends towards a ‘what not to do’ list rather than a positive one. I have learned that if the project is offensive and uninteresting to me from the beginning I would be better off not auditioning in the first place. In the event that I am cast in a role which I find nothing to interest me in I should not take on the job. In the event that I have taken on the job and find the working environment to be so difficult and unpleasant I would be better off leaving that project. Negative as these experiences are I still find them helpful in realising where I might draw my lines in future, and to know that there are certain projects I would never be inclined to participate in. My experiences of working professionally before this show have been largely positive, and even the more stressful moments have been counteracted by my enthusiasm for the show or being able to observe that the hard work being put in is resulting in an improved product. The greatest lesson I can thus take from Wonderful Town is to choose my projects carefully, and not let myself fall into the sunk cost fallacy of continuing to put time and effort towards something which has not proven itself worthy of my engagement.