Most of people now make theatre or play performance as an entertainment. It is something they consume, something they enjoy to get entertained. Theatre here is a performance which has a storyline and entertainment purposes for people who are going to enjoy it. The theatre player nowadays being a minority among us, I mean their number is decreasing. People start to leave their tradition of being a performer now, yah, our society actually have a tradition of making performance such as ketoprak, ludruk, and so on. They start to be the performance devotee and forget the story behind the performance itself which sometimes more interesting than what happens in front of the audience, at the stage. So here, this article is made to remind you about stories that happen behind the stage. I hope you can enjoy it and start to care about them again, the performance and the story behind it.
The first story I wanted to share to you is related to the performers, the players of the theatre. An actor can be called professional only if he can act professionally, I mean he can transform himself into a specialized character that he played and even forget about himself as acting to that character, suggest himself that he is that character, not himself then he could called a professional actor. Here is the first story; it is about the professionalism of actors in playing theatre, actors or players who died while he is acting on the stage. You must not believe this story; I did not believe it either at the first time I read the story. So there is an actor or actress who is died while he is acting or died after he is acting, or we can say that he is died because he is acting. For the example, please read this passage…
“It was while playing Othello to his son's (Charles Kean) Iago at Covent Garden, March 25, 1833, that Kean played his last rôle. Kean's financial condition at that time was as desperate as his physical state, so that he was compelled to once more brave an audience, no matter what the consequences might be. Arriving at the theatre, he immediately sent for his son, Charles, who found him in his dressing-room on the verge of collapse. "I am very ill, Charlie," he said, "I am afraid I shall be unable to act." But with the aid of stimulants and the encouragement of his manager he managed to get dressed for the part, and supported on his son's arms, he went down to the wings. The house was crowded to the doors and a salvo of applause greeted the old favorite, but Kean could only respond by feeble attempts at acting. His voice was weak and movements pitiful. After speaking the line, "Othello's occupation's gone," he sank exhausted into his son's arms and expired soon after.” (RENÉ WREN, PLAYERS WHO DIED ACTING: 8-10).
So, do you have any opinion about that? Anything you want to say about Charles Kean, the actor? Mr. Kean could easily cancel his performance because of his sickness actually, but, what did he do? He sacrificed his life to act on the stage, because so many workers depend on his act at that time. Really wonderful and unimaginable! As a newbie, I even stop practicing if I feel a little unconscious. And the other tragedy is “Peg” Woffington’s story when she played “Madly Loved” by David Garrick, check this out…
“Although ill, she disregarded her feelings to face a brilliant audience and managed to struggle through the performance, feeling worse and worse as the play progressed. Nevertheless, she played delightfully until the fifth act, almost breaking down when she came to the lines in the epilogue:"If it be true that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue, etc."
The collapse came when she arrived at the familiar passage:
"If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me."
As she struggled with these lines, her voice gave out and she was completely overcome. With the mournful cry of, "Oh God! Oh God!" She staggered to the wings where she fell unconscious.” (RENÉ WREN, PLAYERS WHO DIED ACTING: 50-62).
What a brave actress she is. Even she could give her last message to the audience on the stage. Things like this usually forgotten by people or just say that people now just judge an actor by his performance or his act, not the story behind it. In the other hand we can see Peg is all in all out for her performance, she sacrifice anything, include her life to save the play when she is dying. Furthermore, the show must go on, right?
The next story will be about a performance era. This era is not the classic one or the modern one. This era of performance is in the Nazi era. Yes, as what you are thinking now, this story has relation with the concentration camps. Is there anyone of you has once imagined that there is a play performance in the concentration camps? I neither has imagine about that too. But, here is the summary of the story that I read.
“There are two big concentration camps in Germany, they are Dachau and Buchenwald. In Dachau there are approximately 10000 prisoners live there. The discipline on the camp is strict, even the performers have to perform inside the hut, hide and seek with the officer there. Yes, this concentration camp have performances even have a well known actor there, he is Paul Morgan, he died from lungs inflammation. In this camp if we caught acting, we must escape from the hut by jump out of the doors or the windows to avoid the officers in command. And the second camp is in Buchenwald. This camp has approximately 25000 prisoners, much more then in the Dachau. The difference from the Dachau is here we can act or perform freely. Most performance here based on the true story. Even sometimes the story is about the officer of that camp too. This camp could have 2-4 performances per day when holding a show. Again I wanted to say, amazing and unbelievable! So, let say when a performer performs something this night it is possible to find him dead tomorrow by the toxic gas. It is happened in the concentration camp. Ironic and tragic, isn’t it? Even this story is prohibited to publish before the horror of the holocaust reveal to the world.” (CURT DANIEL, THEATRE IN THE GERMAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS).That was some storied I wanted to share about the life in the theatre. Some of you maybe amazed but some of you maybe frightened and I am sure none of you have ever imagine about that things that happened in the theatre. Ironic and tragic, aren’t they? So at least as a devotee we should appreciate the performers from many side, not only when they are act at the stage, because actually the real act is there, behind the stage. You must be ever heard about this sentence, the rehearsal or the practice is the real performance, it is better then than the performance itself. Why it is happen? It is because when the actor is rehearsing they act as what they want or as the script wants without thinking about the audience but when it comes to the stage, the top priority of the actor is the audience he has. So, do not appreciate a show only at the stage but also appreciate the process and the stories behind them.
REFERENCES
Players who died acting. (2002). Theatre History. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.theatrehistory.com/misc/themag001.html
Theatre in the german concentration camps. (2002). Theatre History. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.theatrehistory.com/german/holocaust001.html
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