It's Not the Role, mate, It's How You Use It (OR Small Actors and Where to Find Them)

Today we discuss small roles.
What do I mean by that?

Small Roles

What makes a small role? 

Leading Role

A leading role is clear. 

They are the protagonist/antagonist/main motivator of plot and action.

They get top billing: 

King Lear:

 Macbeth:

 Romeo & Juliet

Then, there are supporting roles.

Supporting Role

(These are the Oscar nominations.)
People who support the leading characters in what they do (usually sacrificing health and happiness in the process)

Edgar/Kent: King Lear

Bottom and Top Left

 The Witches: Macbeth

 Eponine: Les Mis

Oops...

Surely these aren't small roles.
These are the roles everybody wants to play.
Like Hotspur and Lady Percy (who literally have two monologues each).
These are the roles people salivate over, sometimes more than the leading roles.
So these cannot be small.

Extras

Now, we come to extras:

Star Trek (the other red shirts)

Batman (The other authority figures getting hit in the face)

 Harry Potter (The other people wishing their children farewell)

These are arguably the smallest thing you can be on a project.
These are the Lords Attendant in Shakespeare.
They are there to fill up a bare stage/frame.
Therefore, some do not consider them roles.
For the sake of this article, we won't either because they technically don't make the cast of characters.

So where are the small roles?
Well, there is another class called bit roles.
These are roles that are (usually) under five to six lines in length.

The Apothecary: Romeo & Juliet

Remember him?

He is the one who gives Romeo the poison?

Remember?

Yeah.

"That Old Guy"

Yes. 

"With the Beard."

Yep.

Him.

He is one of the most significant people in the play because without him, Romeo doesn't kill himself in Juliet's tomb. 

Juliet doesn't awake to find him poisoned.

We don't get a farewell kiss: 

"I will kiss thy lips/Haply some poison yet doth hang on them."

None of it.

But, that is his function: to move the plot along. 

There are others in the Shakespeare canon.

None of which you remember:

Seyton: Macbeth

You know...the one who dresses Macbeth and says, "The Queen, my lord, is dead."

 Fortinbras: Hamlet

You know...the one who takes over Denmarke after Hamlet has already killed everyone?

No? 

No one else does either. 

So these are small, small roles: 

BIT ROLES

• Often involving a total of one scene 
• a bare fistful of lines
• and small actors

Small Actors

HOWEVER!

From our Lord and Savior Stanislavski:

"There are no small parts, only small actors. "

-Konstantin Stanislavski

Mr. Stanislavski began his theatrical career in Russia, where the predominant form of art (in much of the world at that period) was melodrama.
Some hallmarks of melodrama:

• larger than life characters
• titanic/mythic struggles set in a familiar/domestic atmosphere 
• far and away places/exotic specimens (Native Americans)
• enormous spectacle

In the midst of shows like: 

The Octoroon

 Uncle Tom's Cabin

(Yes. These are real advertisements. And yes. These plays actually happened...for decades in The United States)

Melodramas are comparable to films or television today: 

Hundreds of extras:

 A diverse, well-written ensemble: 

 All surrounding a powerful leading player:

It was easy in melodrama (and film/TV today) to feel lost in the crowd and the shuffle. 

However, that simply isn't the case and worse it is untrue.
Look at Michael Shurtleff describing Dustin Hoffman:

"After weeks of persuasion, the unknown Dustin Hoffman did come in to audition. He was right: he couldn't sing. However, he gave a marvelous reading of such imagination, intelligence, and humor that Mike Nichols never forgot it. The producer of THE GRADUATE later told me he nearly went into a state of catatonic shock because he couldn't believe Dustin Hoffman was Mr. Nichol's choice for the Ivy Leaguer. It made a star out of Dustin Hoffman," (Shurtleff 10).

Now, Shurtleff is referring to Hoffman's innate talent and skill.
The lesson he concludes is: audition for everything.
I cannot speak for Mr. Shurtleff or Mr. Hoffman (I wouldn't dream to do it), but the lesson I conclude is:

Treat everything like a lead role (even auditions) 

You never know how/when something will be your most important performance.
Mr. Hoffman may not even remember the instance in question, but Mr. Shurtleff draws a direct line of causation to Mr. Hoffman's success with that particular audition.

What does this have to do with bit roles?
Well, treating them like any other is the key to success.
You have an actor with innate talents and skills; they use them accordingly and they can shine in any role.
Louis Zorich recounts his time in London, seeing The Cherry Orchard at Haymarket in the Actor's Chekhov: 

I think it was Joan Plowright doing Ravenskaya and Frank Finnley doing Lopahkin and I forget who else. And believe it or not, the guy who stole the show, according to the critics was Pishchik! Pishchik? (59)

Let me tell you what this Pishchik did. It's the scene where Charlotta enters with the the dog. They're all crossing the stage to go to the next room. And when she comes with the dog he sort of looked at the audience and winked - he was commenting to the audience about the play. This is the guy who walked away with all the reviews for the show! I said to myself, "What is wrong with these people, they don't have a clue!" (Ibid.)

Mr. Zorich concludes that the British have no idea what to do with Chekhov.
Everyone from top down (including very talented leading players) had no idea what they were doing and shouldn't be performing Chekhov at all!
That is a pretty remarkable claim, particularly with some of the characters they had named.
Later on, regarding another production Zorich says:

"Years ago, Olympia saw the Moscow Art Theater do The Cherry Orchard, and she said Pishchik did something she'll never forget. He comes in with the rug and all that and finally he says, 'Give me water, water, water!' And Pishchik goes - [He drink s a glass of water with both hands, gulping it, spilling it all over his face.] He played the longing, he WANTED water. How badly did he want water? It was like life and death! He wasn't just - [sipping.] But he, he - WANTED water, he wanted fucking water! And some of these things, when yous see actors really connected, you never, ever forget. A glass of water? A glass of water? His whole life was in that glass of water! It's incredible" (65). 

The same role was given radiant reception, both by Ms. Dukakis and Mr. Zorich because of its treatment.
Therefore, the character or the role does not determine its size, but its treatment on the part of the actor.
However, I would amend the phrase and say:

There are no small parts, only small directors. 

However, that will be the subject of a different post on how to rectify this state of small-acting.
Tune in next week.

Work Cited:

Hackett, Jean, and Nikos Psacharopoulos. The Actor's Chekhov: Nikos Psacharopoulos and the Company of Williamstown Theatre Festival, on the Plays of Anton Chekhov. Newbury, VT: Smith an Kraus, 1993. Print.

Shurtleff, Michael. Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part. New York: Walker, 1978. Print.