Doing Live Readings
Photo courtesy of Ann Holloway - with thanks
Earlier this week I performed a live reading while wearing a nurse's dress and tights. Once you've done that, then I don't believe any public reading can hold much fear for you. Even a couple of my work colleague shuffled along to catch sight of me in drag; one of them bought my novel! (Sex sells? Have you seen my legs?)
I'm fortunate that I've never seemed daunted by reading/performing in public. I'm not sure where it stemmed from, since at school I studiously avoided anything to do with the musicals and plays that were staged for doting parents. At College where I'd started writing plays, I had to take one of the roles myself when I couldn't persuade enough student actors to utter the swear words I'd written. The part called for me to hang over a fence erected between actors and audience while I lambasted the paying public. (Please make allowances for such youthful enthusiasms and delusions). I felt that if I wasn't prepared to spout my own words, I couldn't very well expect others to do it.
After also performing in The Edinburgh Fringe Festival to two men, a poodle and "The Scotsman" newspaper's fishing correspondent dispatched to review another of my plays, I stuck to just the writing role. That meant I got actors to speak my words for me. All the established British playwrights of that time, Davids Hare and Edgar, Howard Brenton and Trevor Griffiths were also largely able to step back and let their written words speak for them. To judge by the fact that neither I, nor most of the population knew what these writers looked like. They had no 1970's media presence, other than write ups and reviews of their work. That seemed like the ideal to me, to be judged almost in absentia, solely on the power of your own written words.
But having turned my hand to novel writing, once again I'm faced with the prospect of performing live through readings. The misgivings I have about my abilities, stem not from any weaknesses of heart, but that rather I have an uninteresting timbre of voice to listen to, nor is there much range to it. Two characters would be a real stretch for me to convey live. Added to the fact that the novel I'm currently performing from has two female characters in it, meaning on one fairly fundamental level I'll never be able to do it justice in a reading. I have trifled with the idea of getting an actress to perform it, but lack of budget, plus the fact that a reading is most different from a play; the audience have come to see the author live and in person. We not only read from our work, our personality also comes across (hopefully) through the microphone.
So I dress up. I get into character. More fool me for writing only two female parts. I like to think I put on a bit of a show. I aim to interact with the audience, not only in the introduction and asides, but through the text as well. I want to involve them in it, to draw them into its world. Not dissimilar to an actor's ability to suspend the audience's disbelief that they're in a theatre watching a play on stage.
What I have found interesting and totally unforeseen, is that each of my characters offers a very different type of reading. I don't think many if any writers pen a novel with the live readings already in mind. So I have learned this only through the process of reading and come to a bit more understanding of my own work and my two characters themselves. Both are avenging angels, but very different in style. Karen Dash can engage the audience directly, she can play with them, goad them, accuse them, seduce them and make them laugh with her outlandishness. Billie Rubin, the nurse, however operates her vengeance behind the scenes. She needs to keep people at arms length. When she made her debut this week, this is what I realised as I rehearsed her passages. It felt very strange after the full-on approach of all the previous Karen Dash readings. Can I even bring Billie out for future readings? I hope so, because in a way the presentation of her in costume along with the text is a much tighter fit; that is the readings gain much more layering from the sight of me, a man, dressed up as a nurse. Since her passages are all about mistaken perceptions of her behind the uniform. Of course the ideal would be to have two different slots with a chance to get changed between them. But this isn't always possible.
But what I would like to offer any writer, is that they ought not to be intimidated by the thought of doing a reading. If you can complete the process of writing a novel from beginning to end, then the same dedication will see you just fine up on stage. After all, you believe in your books right? Just like I had to act in my early plays. It's just a question of rehearsing and trying out different things in front of the mirror within the comfort of your own home. A change of voice here, a gesture there. If I can do it with my limited voice, then anyone can. And it really is the best way to connect with readers and potential readers by making your work come alive in front of their eyes. Go for it!
I'm fortunate that I've never seemed daunted by reading/performing in public. I'm not sure where it stemmed from, since at school I studiously avoided anything to do with the musicals and plays that were staged for doting parents. At College where I'd started writing plays, I had to take one of the roles myself when I couldn't persuade enough student actors to utter the swear words I'd written. The part called for me to hang over a fence erected between actors and audience while I lambasted the paying public. (Please make allowances for such youthful enthusiasms and delusions). I felt that if I wasn't prepared to spout my own words, I couldn't very well expect others to do it.
After also performing in The Edinburgh Fringe Festival to two men, a poodle and "The Scotsman" newspaper's fishing correspondent dispatched to review another of my plays, I stuck to just the writing role. That meant I got actors to speak my words for me. All the established British playwrights of that time, Davids Hare and Edgar, Howard Brenton and Trevor Griffiths were also largely able to step back and let their written words speak for them. To judge by the fact that neither I, nor most of the population knew what these writers looked like. They had no 1970's media presence, other than write ups and reviews of their work. That seemed like the ideal to me, to be judged almost in absentia, solely on the power of your own written words.
But having turned my hand to novel writing, once again I'm faced with the prospect of performing live through readings. The misgivings I have about my abilities, stem not from any weaknesses of heart, but that rather I have an uninteresting timbre of voice to listen to, nor is there much range to it. Two characters would be a real stretch for me to convey live. Added to the fact that the novel I'm currently performing from has two female characters in it, meaning on one fairly fundamental level I'll never be able to do it justice in a reading. I have trifled with the idea of getting an actress to perform it, but lack of budget, plus the fact that a reading is most different from a play; the audience have come to see the author live and in person. We not only read from our work, our personality also comes across (hopefully) through the microphone.
So I dress up. I get into character. More fool me for writing only two female parts. I like to think I put on a bit of a show. I aim to interact with the audience, not only in the introduction and asides, but through the text as well. I want to involve them in it, to draw them into its world. Not dissimilar to an actor's ability to suspend the audience's disbelief that they're in a theatre watching a play on stage.
What I have found interesting and totally unforeseen, is that each of my characters offers a very different type of reading. I don't think many if any writers pen a novel with the live readings already in mind. So I have learned this only through the process of reading and come to a bit more understanding of my own work and my two characters themselves. Both are avenging angels, but very different in style. Karen Dash can engage the audience directly, she can play with them, goad them, accuse them, seduce them and make them laugh with her outlandishness. Billie Rubin, the nurse, however operates her vengeance behind the scenes. She needs to keep people at arms length. When she made her debut this week, this is what I realised as I rehearsed her passages. It felt very strange after the full-on approach of all the previous Karen Dash readings. Can I even bring Billie out for future readings? I hope so, because in a way the presentation of her in costume along with the text is a much tighter fit; that is the readings gain much more layering from the sight of me, a man, dressed up as a nurse. Since her passages are all about mistaken perceptions of her behind the uniform. Of course the ideal would be to have two different slots with a chance to get changed between them. But this isn't always possible.
But what I would like to offer any writer, is that they ought not to be intimidated by the thought of doing a reading. If you can complete the process of writing a novel from beginning to end, then the same dedication will see you just fine up on stage. After all, you believe in your books right? Just like I had to act in my early plays. It's just a question of rehearsing and trying out different things in front of the mirror within the comfort of your own home. A change of voice here, a gesture there. If I can do it with my limited voice, then anyone can. And it really is the best way to connect with readers and potential readers by making your work come alive in front of their eyes. Go for it!