Actor turned writer asks how did I get here?

Editorial
Reflection is a funny thing. It makes you look at your failures. Your successes. And how you arrived at where you are now. But generally, it reminds you of things that you’ve forgotten. In this case, for this essay, I’m reminded about what makes me special as a writer, why my background as an actor brings special things to my writing. I remember when I decided to become an actor. It was one of those summer nights when summer really does seem to last forever and running around the neighborhood playing Cops and Robbers makes the most sense. After a particularly thrilling match with my best friend at the time (perhaps I cheated, I was hiding “guns” all around the neighborhood.), I came home and flipped on the TV. A PBS station was airing a documentary about Charlie Chaplin. For whatever reason, I was glued. I was hooked. I wanted to do that. I don’t have a similar story about becoming a writer. I don’t remember when or how I decided it. In high school I wrote a little, mostly because that’s what my friends were doing at the time (NERDS!!!). In college, I took a playwriting class because I was interested, but it wasn’t because I wanted to be a playwright (Seriously, who does? Ok, me). Most of the time the reason I was writing anything in college was because I wanted to perform. Be in front of people. Get those laughs. Tell me that you love me!! Maybe the best way to say it: I’ve fallen into the career of a writer. Which kind of sucks because I’ve spent a lot of time working on being a better actor. Turns out, it hasn’t gone to waste. A lot of the tools I used as an actor, I now use as a writer. In the late 1990s, I left Minneapolis (yes, it was that long ago) to go to a physical theater school in Northern California called Dell’ Arte: The International School of Physical Theatre. I had been living in Minneapolis for about four years at that point. Doing improv at the Brave New Workshop, performing shows at the Bryant Lake Bowl and I had reached the point as an actor where I really wanted to learn something...more... specific. I wanted to delve into something as a performer. As an actor, I was never excited by Stanislavski or Uta Hagen (though I love saying the name Uta). Great tools for some, but they never quite made my imagination ring. And to be frank: a good actor has a great imagination. It’s like... a requirement, or something. Charlie Chaplin begot the Three Stooges, The Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello, and perhaps the greatest of all comedians: Daffy Duck. In college, I encountered Commedia Dell’Arte, 16th century Italian street comedy using stock characters. Stock characters that we still use today on three camera sitcoms. For me, there was something very powerful about archetype. Archetype and stock characters, oddly, excited my imagination. Those were characters who played. So Dell’Arte, the school, was a good fit for me. Its focus is on physical theater, using the body as the primary instrument of creation and communication, rather than trying to recreate real life, real emotions as in The Method. So what did all that rolling around on the floor, making funny voices, and doing mask work do for me as a writer? A few things... Embodiment of character Every writer should have a good idea of what motivates a character to do what they do. Motivation is the big necessary. What I’m talking about is the bodies on the stage. I’ve been in classes and workshops (and a couple of times in the audience) where I wasn’t watching characters on stage, I was watching ideas flit about saying things. Or sit on a couch and say things. Debate things. In other words, the cold calculating hand of the writer. And that makes me… ZZZZZZZ... what? It’s over? Bodies on stage Theater is about bodies on stage. We are blood and bone. We are passing through space. These are things that should be considered in the writing. Actors are not word carrying vessels, they are not there merely to recite. Writers must use them. I learned that I can express a lot with my body, with my face, sometimes something more complex and rich than with a word or two. This is something that I bring to my writing, when successful. Space for the body of the character to express, not with endless words, but through physical action. I like seeing bodies in motion, or a total lack of motion. In the end, I think about what the bodies are doing. Location can be an engine Of course, I can’t talk about bodies in motion without thinking about what they are moving through. SPACE. I think a lot about how the location can be an engine for storytelling. When I was acting and improvising, the space became vital for me. It wasn’t just the setting, it was a tool to further advance the scene. A chair could help express an emotion. A table could become another character. These are the things I like to think about now when I write. The Spoken Word And then, of course, there’s the spoken word. The major tool of actor and writer. At Dell’arte a lot of the assignments we did didn’t involve the spoken word, and in a lot of physical theater the spoken word isn’t as important. The same can’t be said for writing. Spoken words are pretty important. And thus: inescapable. I know what you’re thinking. But, dude, I could write a play without words. Look at Beckett. Yeah, but that’s Beckett. And YES, silence is grand on stage, but it really works best in between words. So, for me, the take away from acting for the written word is the rhythm of language. For me, how words come out of your mouth, the pace... the... um... way it rolls out of your mouth. Or. Maybe. There’s. A. Different way of talking? As an actor, you’re trying to find all sorts of ways to demonstrate character and to tell the story. As a writer, I think about that. Not just specific regional dialects and slang. But writing the dialogue on the page like music. I want to give the actor as much information as I can, so they can hear what I hear. And it’s not just one actor. It’s the ensemble. I see dialogue as something that can move like juggling, building a rhythm, breaking it, moving it. Dialogue between actors can be more than just providing information, the dreaded exposition, or argument, the didactic. It can be a pleasurable experience just in the hearing of it. For the longest time, I didn’t call myself a writer. Even though I was writing. Even though I was producing the work that I was writing. I was hesitant for some reason. I thought of myself as a performer first. The writing was a way for me to get up on the stage. And tell stories. I like telling stories. Stories are fun to tell. Eventually, i stopped acting. Nothing too dramatic. Boy, I wish there was. I just don’t like the audition process and that’s really the job of an actor. I just liked to act. So... away went the dreams and ambitions of being a full time actor. I made my way to graduate school down in Texas. And even there I was hesitant to call myself a writer. And I was there for writing. Maybe I didn’t totally want to let go of my acting background. The actors are the ones that get to take the bows, you know. But, I’m glad I didn’t. I think what makes me unique as a writer is my unique experience as an actor.
Headshot of Larry Pontius
Larry Pontius
Larry Pontius is a playwright and screenwriter. His produced stage work includes an Off-Broadway production of Umbrella by Alchemy Theatre Company of Manhattan; Fallout by Working Man’s Clothes Productions and The Lunar Adventures of Dar and Matey by Stolen Chair Theater, followed up with Dar and Matey’s Christmas SpectaculARGH at the The Brick Theatre in Brooklyn, On The Night of Anthony’s 30th Birthday Party, Again at the Manhattan Theatre Source, On Sunday Morning, by Collaboraction in Chicago; American Autobahnics at the Minnesota Fringe Festival.