Zen and the Art of Not Corpsing

Corpsing — verb – British theatrical slang. When an actor breaks character during a scene — by laughing or forgetting their lines, or by causing another cast member to do so. The origin of the term is unknown; it refers to almost literally murdering the scene.
Up until this point, all of my cast-mates have submitted, thoughtful, humorous blogs about their discoveries during rehearsals, “the process”, and what working with the company means to them. One would expect from me, then, a similar paean to the greatness of Scott Palmer and the joy of working with the good people of Bag & Baggage.

The thing one has to know about doing Tom Stoppard’s plays, be they comedy, romance, or drama, is that they are funny. I mean that in the most superhuman sense of the word. This is a writer who can load 15 jokes — from the scatological to the esoteric — into one line; all of them are equal in hilarity.

But that had to stop. Corpsing is a direct result of an actor not being committed to what’s happening on-stage. Acting is, in a nutshell, all about listening actively and reacting honestly from your character’s perspective to the information you’re receiving, no matter how ridiculous. So while my instinct as a person is to laugh until I cry at something my castmate is doing, my character’s perspective must supersede that, which is about as easy as it sounds when a castmate bugs out their eyes and makes a sound like a wounded moose.

1. The story we’re telling is more interesting than us giggling like an idiots.
2. I have given myself permission to not laugh at funny things.
3. Theatres don’t re-hire you if you treat their shows like a sketch on the Carol Burnett show.