Chorus

A few months back, I was directing a production of Doctor Faustus, and an actor had to drop out of the show. I put a few feelers out to some people who had the sort of presence and energy I wanted for the role. For lack of a better term, I used the word "chorus" as a catch-all for a group of 8 actors in the show. They  were onstage for probably 80% of the show. They played all of the parts except Faustus, Mephistopheles, Robin, Dick, and Wagner. Each actor had 4 or 5 different roles, in addition to being a sort of neutral devil when they weren't involved in a scene. It required a lot of each of them, and I think they each had some fantastic moments to shine.One person told me that she wasn't taking any more chorus roles for the year. I don't know if that was the real reason of just an excuse because she wasn't interested in the show. Either way, it demonstrates a perception of what it means to be part of a chorus. One that I think is a real problem.

But to most actors, "chorus" means somebody who's unimportant. Set dressing. They don't do anything interesting, but just walk around as a group and maybe say their lines together in unison. What is lost here is the idea that the Chorus in Greek tragedy was the connection between the audience and the action onstage. Maybe it's years of people directing shows in ways that minimized the role of the Chorus, but whatever the reason, the Chorus is very important and deserves more respect than it gets. That makes me want to do a Greek tragedy and explore the Chorus, to see if I can bring all of that out - and, of course, if I do, I'll have to battle this perception of the relative importance of the Chorus when casting the show. I'm so busy with different projects already... but someone needs to stand up for the Chorus.

Incidentally, the person who turned down the role in Faustus? I saw a show she did around the same time. She was onstage a lot less than any member of my "chorus" and wasn't able to show nearly the amount of range required in my show. Their show was really well done, don't get me wrong. But as a role, the mere fact that her character had a name did not make it a more challenging or interesting role. Here's a shot of Faustus getting dragged to hell. Look how active and involved everyone is, in different ways.