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Michael Fitzgerald, who portrays Doalty in the current Broadway revival of Brian Friel's Translations, has been dismissed from the production at the Biltmore Theatre.I was in a play once where (believe it or not) my character engaged in a swordfight. As with any stage combat, the fight was meticulously choreographed. The actor fighting opposite me was of the "intense" school of acting; he liked to work himself into a frenzy and deliver his lines in a strangled shout. The problem was he tended to play the quality of "intensity" as opposed to letting that intensity generate out of his character's specific desires. His ever-erupting "rage" didn't ring true.
The New York Times reports that Fitzgerald was let go from the production for "handling another actor, Geraldine Hughes, too roughly during a scene in which he physically confronts her." A statement that was released by the production said, "[Mr. Fitzgerald] failed to heed written notes from stage management to cease uncalled for harsh physical contact."
-Playbill
He would get especially "intense" during our swordfight. His eyes would bulge, his jaw would clench, his muscles would contract. And he would consistently mess up the choreography. He nearly poked me in the face more than once. The fight scene was very short and it was always over before he could do any damage. But what he was doing in our swordfight wasn't only unprofessional. With its generalness and lack of specificity, it was bad acting.
In a scene where two actors are tussling, the one being tussled always leads. You grab my hair and I throw my head around to make it look like you are throwing my head around. You raise your fist to "hit" me and you only bring in your fist after I've made eye contact with you to let you know I'm ready. You then punch the air near my face and I jerk back my head. You "shove" my chest after a mutually agreed-upon cue and I stagger back to sell the moment. Stage combat is a dance and the victim always takes the lead.
Sounds like the guy in "Translations" was getting all "intense" and ignoring this essential rule. He presumably thought that being careless with the choreography made the scene "more real." He was "feeling it" and isn't that what it's about? The fact is acting is technical. It is not real life. Actors can and do experience real emotions on stage but those emotions are produced in a rigorously controlled, structured environment. When there is physical contact involved, playing outside the grid is not an option. Aside from the danger involved it makes as much sense as an orchestra musician going off on his own improvisation during a classical concert.
I would, however, pay good money to see a play where there was a fight scene between the "Translations" guy and the guy I was in the play with. Hoo boy.
March 9 2007, 15:35:01 UTC 5 years ago
March 9 2007, 15:36:37 UTC 5 years ago
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March 9 2007, 15:43:20 UTC 5 years ago
Thanks for that. I get shoved and thrown across the floor a few times as Brighton in Henley's The Debutante Ball, and I defiantly don't feel like I'm the one leading. I got to get my fellow thespian to take a look at this.
March 9 2007, 16:14:47 UTC 5 years ago
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Anonymous
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March 9 2007, 16:05:02 UTC 5 years ago
March 9 2007, 16:52:27 UTC 5 years ago
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Anonymous
March 9 2007, 17:05:12 UTC 5 years ago
March 9 2007, 18:17:30 UTC 5 years ago
Did he honestly do a good movie after Godfather?
Anonymous
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March 9 2007, 16:21:33 UTC 5 years ago
"We're actors. We're the opposite of people." -Tom Stoppard , Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Also:
“Actors must practice restraint, else think what might happen in a love scene.” - Cedric Hardwicke
And one more:
“My dear boy, why don't you try acting?"
(Sir Laurence Olivier on the set of 'Marathon Man', to Dustin Hoffman, who had announced that he'd gone 3 days without sleep in order to 'become' his character)
March 9 2007, 16:43:04 UTC 5 years ago
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March 9 2007, 16:53:58 UTC 5 years ago
It's funny because Olivier is a terrible actor.
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March 9 2007, 19:31:36 UTC 5 years ago
Still a funny quote, though, true or not.
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March 9 2007, 19:51:21 UTC 5 years ago
March 9 2007, 16:52:22 UTC 5 years ago
March 9 2007, 17:29:31 UTC 5 years ago
March 9 2007, 19:49:42 UTC 5 years ago
My point? Someone should have slapped some sense into me. Every movement in a stage fight should have at least four people making sure no one is getting hurt - the attacker, the defender, the fight director, and the stage manager.
Also: I'm stupid. (Though that pain was nothing compared to the time I tried to hide a weird bronchial virus thing while playing Shylock. Like I said, stupid.)
March 9 2007, 19:59:40 UTC 5 years ago
"That was acting? The grunting, the groans...the pauses?"
The show you were doing with Mr Intensity wasnt I Hate Hamlet was it?Seems The "Translations" actor pulled a Nicole Williamson but without the "star power" to avoid firing. I'll assume from the fact that he got notes and still was going too far that that was the case. But stories like this always lead me to wonder if the guy was too intense or if the actress was to neurotic...Ive scene actors Ive done fight scenes with who were the very picture of safe and sane get chewed out by actresses who I assume either have physical contact issues or who arent physically secure enough to do their job of "selling" the fight as a victim.
The first time I was in Henry 6 I was in the fight ensemble and "being a girl got paired with a girl" (directors words not mine) in the early rehersals she would flinch and grimace everytime my sword made contact with hers...and this was at 1/4 speed with me warning her first...when I suggested that she could be one of the flag bearers the director was short on she jumped at the chance. I shudder to imagine what wouldve happened had we stayed paired up. My safety record was impeccable but i could easilyimagine her blaming me somehow if it went wrong.
March 9 2007, 20:44:33 UTC 5 years ago
Re: "That was acting? The grunting, the groans...the pauses?"
I highly doubt the guy got fired because his female partner wasn't delivering in the fight scene. I assume the nervous actor in your ensemble was a relatively inexperienced young person; seasoned Broadway actresses don't freak out over a little stage combat.It's also not a question of being "too intense"; if you execute the fight choreography accurately you can and should be as intense as you want. I assume the guy departed from what had been set. For whatever reason, maybe he lost his focus during a heated, emotional scene. Fine. He was called on the problem and didn't fix it. So they fired him. Just like any employee who made consistent mistakes in the workplace.
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March 9 2007, 20:34:44 UTC 5 years ago
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March 9 2007, 22:31:14 UTC 5 years ago
March 10 2007, 01:39:24 UTC 5 years ago
The New York Times reports that the actor was let go from the production for "handling another actor, Geraldine Fitzgerald, too roughly during a scene in which he physically confronts her" and I thought, Fired? Why wasn't he arrested? She's like 99 years old.
Great relief to know that stage legends are not being mauled in the New Theatre of Cruelty.
March 10 2007, 03:04:22 UTC 5 years ago
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