Trance

Trance

Critically acclaimed director, Shoji Kokami, has returned to London with a new take on Japanese theatre. On this occassion, he has opted for London-based, native English speakers for his cast. I had the pleasure of meeting the chosen three and had the opportunity to catch up with them during their lunch break.

Interview with;

Meredith MacNeill

Rhashan Stone

Stephen Darcy

Interview with Meredith MacNeill

- Can you tell us a little bit about yourself in terms of how you got into acting and your origins?

M: I'm from Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada. I joined an acting school in my small town and from there I saved up enough money to come to the UK and went on to learn at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) in London.

- How did you find this particular role in Trance? Who do you play and can you describe their character?

M: The associate director of Trance saw me performing whilst I was at RADA and asked me to audition for the role.

The great thing was that Stephen Darcy (who plays the role of Masa) and I both went to RADA, we were actually in the same form and we ended up finally working on a project together.

I play Reiko who is a psychiatrist who is involved in a very strange way with both Sanzo and Masa. The character finds herself dealing with the concept of truth vs. delusion and by the end, the question of who is the doctor and who is the patient becomes apparent.

- What is it like working with a Japanese director who does not speak English? Were there any difficulties?

M: There are always difficulties working with anyone, these happened to be different set of difficulties. The great thing about working with Shoji is that he is so passionate and clear about what it is he wants and what his vision is. I have never worked with a director who hasn’t spoken the same language as me but I don’t feel that it slows you down; it makes your brain work in a completely different way.

- Did you find that Shoji is trying to impress upon you a certain Japanese method to acting or is he quite free with his methods?

M: He definitely lets us use our own style of acting. He is fantastic, he completely trusts us and because of that, we completely trust him. We constantly keep our channels of communication open with him, which is ironic, considering we don’t speak each other’s languages.

- There may be many Japanese people in the audience, do you think that you will have to adopt a different method of acting in front of possibly racially and culturally different viewers?

M: Absolutely not, I try to not even think of that. We are going to try and tell the story as we have practiced it with Shoji and the other actors. So I think that it won’t make too much of a difference.

- You have done both comedy with movies like “Confetti” and TV series “Man Stroke Woman”, as well as serious drama with productions with RADA, The Royal Shakespeare Comedy and Globe Theatre. Which one do you prefer working in more?

M: Originally, I was not trained in comedy but soon found that there was not much difference between the two. Actually, there is a fine line between comedy and tragedy and I think that it makes more sense to be able to do both. However, at least when you work on a movie, it will only take a certain amount of time, whereas when you are performing in the theatre, you could be playing the same role hundreds of times over the course of months. Even though it’s a dramatic role, I can’t help but start having inappropriate thoughts which I may find funny.

- Do you have any words of wisdom that you would like to impart for anybody interested in starting an acting career?

M: I think my best piece of advice would be that if you have the chance, work with Shoji!

Interview with Rhashan Stone

- Can you tell us a little bit about yourself in terms of how you got into acting and your origins?

R: I started when I was very young because originally, I wanted to be a director. So I started to do productions when I was at school at 12-13 years old. When I was about 18-19, there was nowhere really to train as a director so I thought that maybe the best way to become a director was to try to learn acting first. So I went to drama school for three years and started getting acting jobs and continued to pursue that for the time-being instead. I would like to try and do more directorial jobs in the future as well as more writing for plays.

- How did you find this particular role in Trance? Who do you play and can you describe their character?

R: I received a call from my agent who doesn’t usually get so excited about work, but she had read this script and absolutely loved it and said that I should be part of it. There are three school friends who meet after 15 years and I play Sanzo, who was just a regular kid and has now become a drag queen. All the characters are quite psychologically damaged to some degree and Sanzo is someone who loves very easily and in order to protect himself, has created a new persona/ alter-ego with the drag queen, whom he calls Sylvia. During the course of his life, both Sylvia and his own life begin to merge.

- What is it like working with a Japanese director?

R: It’s been fantastic. I really think that we should share the kind of work we do with people from all over the world. You get the best out of theatre when you are working with a diverse range of people. If you are working in London with London-based actors and directors who have all had the same experience, it becomes difficult to broaden your horizons, whereas Shoji Kokami brings new ideas to the table and a breath of fresh air which makes him very interesting to work with.

- How about the language barrier between the cast and the director?

R: At first it was quite difficult but we would do a lot of miming together.

Shoji would act out scenes physically and this made it a lot easier to understand. We have been working together for 2 weeks now and I feel that the longer we spend together, the more I understand what he is trying to imply and convey.

- There may be many Japanese people in the audience, do you think that you will have to adopt a different method of acting in front of possibly racially and culturally different viewers?

R: I think that it is a meeting of two different ways of doing something. Shoji has three actors who all come from very different acting backgrounds, combined with his unique style of directing. So physically, I think, we may be doing something original for a London audience, but we also bring a particular brand of UK naturalistic acting coupled with a slightly more philosophical, physical approach.

- What are your plans for the future?

R: At the moment, I am fully concentrating on this project but I do have some plans to pursue some directorial avenues.

- You have a lot of experience acting in theatre and on TV, do you have a preference?

R: I think it is good to have a balance and not to concentrate on just one type of acting. I would like to write more for plays as I am not really interested in writing for TV or film.

- Do you have any words of wisdom that you would like to impart for anybody interested in starting an acting career?

R: My first piece of advice would be that you should only do it if you really want to. There are many people who look for fame in this industry and are only interested in acting because of the fame that it may bring them. People often forget that it is a lot of hard work and you have to go through a lot of training which can affect your lifestyle. Many people will drop out after a couple of years when they realize how much hard work goes into acting and that the glamour makes up only 5% of the career and the other 95% is hard graft.

Interview with Stephen Darcy

- Can you tell us a little bit about yourself in terms of how you got into acting and your origins?

S: I’m from a small town in the south-west of Ireland and I went to university to study Theatre but found that I wanted to do acting more than the other aspects of theatre. So I came to London to study at RADA (where I first met Meredith). When people from my hometown found out, they couldn’t believe that there were schools in the UK which taught people to act!

- How did you find this particular role in Trance? Who do you play and can you describe their character?

S: I have worked with the associate director before and she asked me to come in for the auditions very early on to meet Shoji. They chose me and I was extremely happy to play the role.

I play Masa who is a journalistic writer who suffers from schizophrenic delusions, his alter-ego believes that he is the lost emperor of Japan. As the play goes on, he starts to question what it is to be a writer and to be living in the 21st century where there is the possibility for anyone to be anybody.

- What is it like working with a Japanese director who does not speak English?

S: Well actually, Shoji speaks a lot more English than I can speak Japanese! Working with him has been really wonderful. Every director is a little bit different from one another and his style has been really great to work with. Even though we can’t speak to each other, we get by with many smiles, nods and body language.

- In your opinion, do crowds differ depending on which country you are performing in? You have had the chance to perform in front of both UK and Irish crowds, is there a difference in the way they react to certain scenes?

S: I think there are huge differences, even between Irish rural audiences and Irish city audiences. It seems that Irish audiences want to laugh and in some way that helps the cast but it can also be unhelpful as well. The audience may be looking for the laughter scenes rather than waiting for them to naturally occur. In England, the audiences tend to be a little more discerning. However, regardless of wherever they come from, it seems that audiences are always able to “sniff-out” a good show.

- Would you say that you have to act differently in front of different audiences?

S: I passionately believe that you have to fit your style into the piece of writing, so an understanding of the writer’s intentions are extremely important. I don’t know what the “Trance” audience will be like, but I think I would act the same way regardless of where I am performing.

- Do you have any words of wisdom that you would like to impart for anybody interested in starting an acting career?

S: If you want to come to London, my advice would be that they should study. It is important to study hard and to study anything but acting. Try and get a job that can pay your bills but don’t study acting.

Written by Selph

Photos by Anja Parchet