Lisa Tosti is a Chicago actor and another attendee of our recent Unrehearsed Workshop. You can see her TODAY and this Saturday the 16th in COMEDY of ERRORS.
Q: What made you decide to give Unrehearsed a try?
LISA: I had met a few people from the company while doing other shows here in Chicago and was invited to see a recent production of Twelfth Night. It isn’t one of my favorite Shakespearean plays but I thought “Hey! Why not?” It was so much more than I expected. And for a show that I thought I disliked originally, I finally felt that I understood it and that more importantly, so did the actors. I was hooked after that, so when I was offered a chance to play with the company I jumped at it!
Q: With the recent Unrehearsed workshop under your belt, how would say this technique differs from more conventional acting? Does it differ?
LISA: I have always been one of those actors who gets stuck in my head, specifically in comedies. I normally need a director to give me permission to just go and do whatever, and I constantly second guess myself. Unrehearsed helped me drop all of that and not judge what it was I was doing because the answers were right in front of me in the script. As an actor, it also gives you a chance to truly listen and be in the moment. There is no “pretending to listen” because you’ve over rehearsed. This is literally the first time you are hearing the words even if it’s a famous speech. Because you have someone else interpreting it or “flying the plane” and giving you staging or actions in their words that you most likely never picked up on.
Q: What’s it like to prepare for a performance while knowing nothing about the show itself?
LISA: I think it makes you put a lot more faith in your fellow actors and makes you really feel like a team. Knowing that they will help when you ask and that you will be ready to do the same changes the bond between actors. It is similar to prepping for an improv show, but knowing the outline or format in advance. It also makes you practice more like an athlete, knowing that if you practice your part of the formation (your script) and workout your muscles (breakdown your script and practice what identifiers and key works mean for stage direction), that you will be prepped for game time. The rest is being present in the moment and knowing you did your homework.
Q: What (if anything) is your biggest challenge so far with this technique?
LISA: The biggest challenged I’ve faced so far is trusting the good instincts and tuning out the years of “actor” instincts. I’ve started to find that things that would be too much for conventional theater fit right at home here and that I can usually push those instincts farther. It is a struggle sometimes to fight the urge to “find something to do” in the moments you are not speaking or to not ask “what would my character do in this situation?” The answer is in your script and how you interpret the small clues and key words in the script make your interpretation both correct for you and different from if someone else played that same role.
COMEDY OF ERRORS debuts tonight!
DOUBLE FEATURE
AUGUST 12
Comedy of Errors: 7:30pm
Justin’s
3358 N Southport Ave
AUGUST 16
Comedy of Errors: 7:00pm
Double Falsehood: 8:30pm
Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro
3905 N Lincoln Ave
AUGUST 19
Double Falsehood: 7:30pm
Justin’s
3358 N Southport Ave
