‘Adversity breeds commitment’

Press, 19 February 1986, Page 20

‘Adversity breeds commitment’

By

LEE MATTHEWS

The absence of live theatre performances eventually gives actress Heather Lindsay “withdrawal symptoms.” Audience reaction is the key to theatre work and is an element missing from television and film acting, she says. “I can’t put any one (way of acting) ahead of another, but I know that if I did not do theatre work for a long period of time I would suffer with withdrawal symptoms.” Heather Lindsay is in Christchurch to play the female lead of Dotty in Court Theatre’s next production, “Jumpers,” which begins on Saturday. She says Dotty is a wonderful character, obviously intelligent and humorous, but teetering a knife’s edge away from collapse.

“She’s all the time battling away to get through to her husband. It’s a challenging role.” The role’s greatest challenge has been brushing up her singing to “get my voice right,” as Dotty is a

retired night-club singer. Hour-long singing lessons daily with the show’s musical director, Paul Barrett, made her rehearsals slightly different to what she does usually. Theatre work, especially in intimate theatres such as the Court, gives actors a direct link with the audience.

“By the time you get into the performance there’s nothing but you and. your audience. There’s nothing like hearing your audience breathing, going silent, tittering, sighing.” The power of television acting is seductive for some, but other actors sometimes feel they are just the last cog in the wheel while performing, she says. “You are well lookedafter in television ... but you almost have to insulate your very flesh and blood to stop it becoming part of the electronic system.” Technical skills required for television work are very different to

theatre acting; and an electronic medium like television has many extra complications introduced by things like equipment faults.

Actors still need high adrenalin levels for television work as scenes, contrary to public opinion, are mostly done in oneshot sequences. “But you know if someone burps you can be excused ... there’s still the second shot.”

The biggest point about television is its power to reach people as a medium.

“The soaps can get up to one million people watching them at one time,” she says. “In theatre, 300 to one performance is a good crowd. To reach one million through live theatre — well, how long?” Lindsay has been a professional actress for about 11 years and says that making a living acting in New Zealand is probably harder now than in past years.

The number of young actors wanting to go professional has probably quadrupled in the last five years, which means a higher standard evolved but competition is more fierce.

"It’s excellent the way the standard has improved, but it means that there’s less work to go around," she says. “It means anyone going into acting has to be tenacious to survive.

“I’m not one who believes you have to starve in a garret to be an artist but I do believe adversity breeds commitment.” She ticks off the negatives of acting. It is an uncomfortable profession, erratic and unstable. People say it is not a “real job,” and it is financially uncertain and hard on family life. Actors must move around to get work.

“But I can’t leave it. I’ve decided several times to do something different, but then something like

Dotty comes up and here I am!"

Actors, all artists in fact, are revolutionaries, she says. “We dont’ brandish guns or go around being subversive, but we are instruments of change.”

An actor’s prime aim is to shift or change people’s perceptions, and provoke them into thinking. “If during a performance you get someone to step sideways and look freshly at one of their convictions, you’ve achieved your aim.” Lindsay is based in Auckland, but has appeared with many New Zealand theatre groups. Her last performance at Court was when she played Martha in “Conversations with a Fainthearted Feminist" in August, 1984. Her television experience Includes playing Christine Lowatz in “Close to Home” and being the presenter-inter-viewer for Northern Television’s 11 a.m. programme.