the techie's dilemma

last weekend i was in new york and i happened to see christopher durang's new piece why torture is wrong and the people who love them. don't ask me about the title, it still doesn't make sense after seeing the show. while the show itself left me feeling a little lackluster (the story felt a bit spotty but the set was really cool... i mean it SPUN which is always awesome), i left the theatre feeling pretty good. why is that? well i was standing in the lobby minding my own business when philip seymour hoffman walks in.

i'm not the kind of person who usually gets starstruck but i was agog. philip seymour hoffman was standing 10 feet away from me! i could have done like 3 lunges and walked into him (yes, i'm working on doing lunges now at physical therapy)! sure, i haven't seen a lot of his work but he is generally considered one of the best character actors of our time.

i was confused... why was i so speechless when i saw him? i'm not even his "biggest fan" or what people generally say when they meet a celebrity who they are dying to speak to. i think it's because i have a lot of respect for his since he takes his craft seriously. mr. hoffman is a fantastic actor who really engages in his roles and takes on difficult characters. any man who can play truman capote convincingly and then a priest of questionable morals as convincingly deserves some credit. i think quality acting is often taken for granted. i am as guilty of this as the next person, especially because i usually see theatre and dissect the production aspects. the number of times when i question a lighting shift, a sound cue, or a technical decision are innumerable. but how often do i actually consider the potency of good acting? probably not enough.

you see, i recently saw gypsy on broadway (twice). and while i was watching it i was so amazed by the orchestra and their awesome disappearing act and the beautiful orchestrations and sound design that i missed part of the show. i was lucky enough to see it a second time and realize something. the big 3 (patti lupone, boyd gaines, and laura benanti) are fantastic actors. ms. lupone got all the credit but ms. benanti was phenomenal. i remember speaking about the show afterwards and thinking that she couldn't have been that good because her character wasn't memorable. but then her character isn't SUPPOSED to be memorable! she is supposed to be the forgotten sister who emerges out of nowhere to become a world-famous stripper. and someone of ms. benanti's acting caliber and repute must work really hard to be unnoticed for the vast majority of the show.

maybe this is a long-standing problem of techies. we focus so much on the production aspects of the show that we forget to applaud the actors. we are the forgotten few, the people behind the scenes who make things happen and many people don't quite even know what to attribute to whom. but there is really no substitute for good acting. so do yourself a favor, techies, forget the set and the costume and the lights and the sound sometimes and enjoy the show. because without a good actor, really you got nothing.

p.s. another perk of why torture is wrong... laura benanti is in it!