Theater Versus Film

Yes, I know some of you are thinking, "Isn't it spelled 'theatre'?" Nope, not in English spoken in the United States where this blog resides. Not unless you want to start spelling "center" as "centre" and "liter" as "litre."

So now that we've gotten that out of the way, last night I was in the first show of a theater production. I guess I thought it'd be unlikely I'd ever type that last line because I haven't wanted to do theater. And many of the casting people and producers I know have a cautious eye toward people who do a lot of theater because they're afraid doing it teaches you to overact and be bigger than what is believable. In community theater it's okay sometimes because that's what's expected but on camera it can look cheesy and fake.

Like an L.A. producer friend of mine says, "Acting shouldn't look like acting. It should look like I've just walked in on a conversation, not a production." He would reference theater as what you didn't want to see on a screen because the audience wouldn't believe it and couldn't go into that almost-mental trance that is called "suspension of disbelief."