New interview with actress Sarah Lynn Dawson. speaking of theater
1.- What can you tell me about William Shakespeare?
What characters do you like from all his work?
Well I have always loved Shakespeare and I was in a Shakespeare group in LA quite a few years ago. Recently in the Pandemic, I’ve read eleven or so of his plays with other actors on Zoom, some plays more than once like Twelfth Night. This experience has been such a great way for me act and learn the plays I didn’t know.
I really like the way Shakespeare understands humanity and the human condition. His characters are rounded and flawed they all have their good and bad sides. He’s also a genius with words, puns and his language. Shakespeare’s language is different to our own, so it’s a bit of work to understand it and many times I still don’t, but once you get into the characters, their emotions and feelings - it flows. It has a depth and a timelessness that I also love.
I would have to say in terms of Shakespearean roles I prefer Viola and also Rosalind from As You Like It.
2.- How was your experience with the "Hamlet" podcast?
You know I had been thinking of doing a podcast for a while, but I didn’t know what subject. There are so many great podcasts out there and I have been a guest on a few. So when my friend and collaborator actress Therese Theurillat, suggested we turn a reading of Hamlet into a podcast, I though it was a great idea. Luckily all the other actors agreed and ‘Stepping into Shakespeare’ was born.
I do a lot of voice over work because the British accent is popular in the States, so I got very good at editing my voice for my work which enabled me to take the recording and turn it into a podcast. We both didn’t know how to make a podcast when we started actually, because we both had never done it before, so we found our way as we went along. Like life!
The editing and post-production took much longer than I thought, around three months and I must have listened to the play around thirty times. I thought about giving up quite a few times, because the editing work was so hard, meticulous and detailed and it was so many hours of time, but we kept going!
I loved adding the music though, it really increased my knowledge of classical music which before was quite limited. I love how it sounds with the words, it goes together well.
I know the play so well now! I was originally thinking to cut it like Orson Welles did in his Shakespeare radio recordings with the Mercury Theatre (which are excellent by the way and available online), but then I watched Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet film, which is the full version and I thought ‘I am not the person to cut Shakespeare in this situation!’. So it’s the whole play.
I also really liked the actors in our cast, everyone brought a lot of energy and talent to the project.
Here is the link:
3.- Now in London you are going to do Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" podcast. How do you feel? Are you excited about this opportunity?
Yes! It’s so exciting for me as a British actress to be doing Shakespeare in London because I have never done it there! We are kindly supported by the Swiss Cultural Institute since Therese is Swiss. This is brilliant because it is enabling us to rent a high quality audio studio for the recording thankfully and we also have a beautiful location which is the Swiss Church in Covent Garden. Again we have a great cast and we have been very lucky with the whole thing really.
4.-tell me about your character “Viola”.
Violet is a maverick, especially for her time. She is shipwrecked in an unknown land and dresses as a man and gets a job to survive. She works in Orsino's court and falls in love with him at the same time! He of course sees her as a man and asks her to woo the Countess Olivia, a woman of noble birth whom he wishes to marry. Viola does so well at this job that Olivia falls in love with her or Cesario, her male persona. Luckily all’s well that ends well, because Sebastian, Viola’s twin brother is found alive and Olivia marries him! When Violas identity is revealed she finally gets together with Orsino. It’s a comedy, very funny and touching and essentially a play about love. Pretty much every character in the play is in love, or falls in love with someone during it.
5.- Would you have liked to live in Shakespeare's time?
No! It was brutal. I mean they had bear-baiting and all sorts of other things that were so violent. I am a bit of a futurist and if I had to pick it would be the future I would go to.
6.-What is theater for you?
It’s timeless entertainment. It connects people on an immediate, emotional and visceral level.
7.-Have you written a play or would you like to write one?
I have. It’s a four character play set in a bar in Miami. I am not sure it’s really up to Shakespeare’s standard, however my film scripts are a little better, so I am working on those getting made! Right now I am producing a sci-fi and a suspense film.
8.- What do you think of Broadway? Do you like musicals?
I love them. The first musical I saw was The Phantom of the Opera in London’s West End. At one point they dropped a chandelier from the ceiling towards the audience and I was terrified! Such a wonderful show, I often listen to the soundtrack.
Also when I was auditioning for Equity theatre in New York, there were often Broadway auditions and the voices you could hear were incredible!
I love dancing. Singing I find much more challenging, so I did a musical theatre showcase at acting school (the Lee Strasberg Institute in NYC) which was so much fun! Again I was terrified, but we made it happen thanks to our great teachers. I did scene from ‘Guys and Dolls’ where I played Sarah Brown and she sings a duet with Miss Adelaide. For another scene we sang ‘Moon in my Window’ from ‘Do I Hear a Waltz’ by Stephen Sondheim and Richard Rodgers which is a beautiful song.
9.- What difference do you see between filming a movie and acting in a theater?
Film is smaller, more subtle. It’s also about the relationship with the camera, you have to know what kind of shot it is, a wide or close up. It also has more technical constraints. Where to stand how to move etc. Theatre has less of that. There are some basic rules like find your light and don’t upstage another actor, but it’s a much more free medium.
Where do you feel happiest in the cinema or theater?
On a film set, but it’s close!
10.- I love Macbeth. Would you like to get into the role of Lady Macbeth?
I have read that role during the pandemic! It’s a great play. I saw it in New York at Shakespeare in the Park by the Public Theatre. My friends and I queued for hours in the street to get tickets. Liev Schreiber played Macbeth and it was a wonderful production.
Comments
Post a Comment