Brian Elliott joined the Unrehearsed Shakespeare Company for their collaboration with Bard in the Barn on Antony & Cleopatra (2012). Since then, he has become a regular fixture in our antics.
Q: How did you first get involved with Unrehearsed?
BRIAN: I first attended an Unrehearsed workshop back in, I want to say, February of 2012. It an entrance to a strange new world, to be sure. I’d heard about the technique a couple of years earlier at college when Bill Kincaid, the professor from Western Illinois who taught the original company members, visited my campus, and then later when I moved to Chicago and it turned out I was working with a few of the company members in a couple of productions I was in already. From there, I suppose, it was inevitable.
Q: How does your preparation differ from more conventional shows?
BRIAN: For conventional shows, I rely on muscle memory from rehearsals as much or more than memorizing lines at home. Obviously, that’s not something that is possible with the Unrehearsed Technique, so preparation for an Unrehearsed show is a little like going back to school for me. All you can do is prepare for what you know you’re going to be responsible for based on your copy of the script, which isn’t a complete list of what may be required of you, and once you get to the show, you have to realize that maybe what you thought was going to happen, won’t. So while you need to focus on your lines at home, the reality of performance is something you can’t imagine until your actually doing it.
Q: How long have you been in Chicago? How are you liking it?
BRIAN: I’ve been in Chicago for a little over two years, and it’s been something of a wild ride with a lot of ups and downs. Speaking strictly on a theatrical basis, though, I’ve had a blast.
Q: Why do you do Unrehearsed? Do you just like Shakespeare, or do you enjoy the freedom that comes from no rehearsal? Or some other, equally cool reason?
BRIAN: My initial attraction to Unrehearsed was purely my affection for Shakespeare, but the technique has continually surprised me in all of the different ways you can interpret the text just by obeying it’s rules. Also, and I can’t emphasize this enough, the adrenaline rush from an Unrehearsed show is pretty close to doing a trapeze act without a net. No kidding.
Q: Finally: favorite role?
BRIAN: My favorite role thus far in Unrehearsed has been Don John in Much Ado. It was like being a villain in an old melodrama. I was actually booed for most of my entrances and was jeered after many of my more vile pronouncements.
Will Brian be booed or cheered? You decide! Come see MacBeth Unrehearsed!
November 19th
Justin’s
3358 N Southport Ave
7:30 pm
Suggested Donation of $5
