Globe Education Online

In Trystan's first blog post, he discusses how he became an actor, his previous experience of Shakespeare and the first week of rehearsals.

Becoming an Actor

I grew up in South Wales. The arts are a big part of Welsh culture. When we go to Chapel there are the Gospel choirs. In school you are not allowed to play rugby, or any sports, for the school unless you sing or do a bit of poetry. Artistic creativity is more in the psyche of Wales than people think. So, I don’t think it is a fluke that a lot of poets or people with a poetic creativity come out of Wales. I think it is the structure of the society. And, that played a huge part of me becoming an actor.

In school poetry and singing was always important, because if you want to play sports you have to delve in there and do a bit. It was my drama teacher, Gary Nicholas, who first asked me if I wanted to audition for the part of the Artful Dodger in Oliver, for the school play. I went to an all Welsh speaking school, which is the case in Llanlli, Welsh is the first language; Gary Nicholas helped me out with my English for the play and my subjects whilst I did it. He introduced me to Shakespeare and I did his drama classes and that is how my interest in acting came about.

I joined the youth theatre. After school I worked in a factory and then a construction site. Then I thought: ‘I am going to try for drama school!’ I tried and I got in. I went to RADA for three years.

Previous Shakespeare

My first theatre job was with the RSC. I played Benvolio in Peter Gill’s Romeo and Juliet and understudied Romeo who was played by Matthew Rhys. I also played Malcolm in a studio version of Macbeth, and I played Fortinbras in Hamlet and understudied Hamlet, which was great. As understudy I had designated public performances, and Toby Stephens (who was playing Hamlet) twisted his ankle, so I had to go on for him. At the time it was the best experience I had ever had. It was amazing. It was great to do and yeah, I can say I have played Hamlet. Then I played Lysander in A Midsummer Nights Dream, William the farmer in As You Like It, Lucentio in The Taming of the Shrew and then I played the Clown in The Winter’s Tale and I have done Pericles there as well, that was a lot of the character parts.

Globe Shakespeare

I saw Mark Rylance playing Olivia in Twelfth Night which I thought was great. He won an Olivier award for that performance. I thought that was brilliant. I saw Titus Andronicus here last year, which was good, but I saw the midnight performance. You come in at twelve and you are excited and you are thinking: ‘WOW!’ But it doesn’t matter how brilliant something is, come three o’clock in the morning you are knackered and your back is breaking.

Week One of rehearsals

One thing with acting, when you go somewhere you make ties with people and then when the job finishes it is like you are having your heart ripped out. Then all of a sudden you are bonding again and it’s like the first day of school all over again. You are convincing yourself that you can smell the new paint in the corridors – and there’s no paint – it’s all psychosomatic, but have the same sort of palpitations and the same nerves meeting everybody.

Going anywhere when you are starting a new job is nerve-wracking on the first day, but just the fact that this is going to be in the open air it feels like much more, like on your first day of Rugby training, there’s something quite daunting about it, but exciting as well. It’s going to be great. It’s a lovely cast and Dominic [Dromgoole, the director] is fantastic and has really put me at ease.

First we all sat down and had the ‘meet and greet’. Then we had a read through of the play. Through the week we got down to translating the play into contemporary speech, so that everybody is clued up on what they are saying. It’s funny, you are sat round a table with six books around you and you think: ‘God if we need six books and I am doing it, the audience haven’t got a chance in hell!’ But I think you have to have faith that people will understand these stories. They will relate to these stories. We just need to do the detailed work so that we get clear images to support what we are saying. Sometimes the play might mention Diane or Athena and somebody in the cast doesn’t know who she was. Once they have an understanding of what they are saying and who they are talking about, that filters through to the audience, or I hope it does!

So that’s what we were getting grips with, and getting to know each other. It is quite a bawdy play and we have to get bawdy with each other, so we are doing the introductions, you know: ‘Hello I am Trystan’, and, ‘Hello I am Gemma’ - alright, now let’s talk saucy!

So we read for all of week one of rehearsals, and I think that is really important because there is nothing worse than getting up and doing something and you are not totally sure what you are saying because you will have to generalise. Then four weeks down the line you might turn round and think: ‘what does that mean?’ but you won’t want to say anything. It’s important that the director sits down and says: ‘right we’ve got to get to the crux of everything here’, which is what I think a really good director does, like Dominic. At the moment I am having a fantastic time with him, he’s very generous and puts you at ease and he’s a good laugh which is great!

These comments are the actor's thoughts or ideas about the part as s/he goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply his/her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.

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