The weekend actor

It was a splendid day today, so I went out and tried to make the best of the sun. Did the usual thing: visit to the local library, walked around, etc. But since I have a role to prepare, I decided to do something a bit different today: I decided to read the play in a local pub (the Irish pub I went to recently). I know drinking and working on a text is not exactly recommended, but this is a very different role I am working on so I thought I needed to think outside the box.

I say it is a very different role as I will play an elderly man, a very old widower, who is dying. He has been smoking all his life and is very cynical. I have to speak like I have been smoking all my life and much slower. I also have to picture It is quite a challenge. As I have no intention to start smoking at 33, I thought a bit of beer would give me a raspy voice. Besides, I have been rehearsing in pubs before and they are surprisingly suitable environments.

I did not speak my lines very loud, just mumbled them as if I was a grumpy old man. Still too fast I think. The landlady asked me what I was doing, I said I was learned my lines... And she said "Oh you are an actor!". I said I was sometimes. She then said "so we have an actor in our midst". I wondered if she thought I was a professional. In any case, I did not tell her I was not. Maybe I was showing off a bit, trying to show myself as something I was not, but it felt good being perceived as an actor, even for one moment.