Thespian Musings: Tablework and Why We Do It

When people outside the world of the Stage and Screen hear the word "tablework" you get one of two reactions:

A totally blank stare accompanied by a "huh?"

Or a "that's cool...what is that?"

Sometimes you get both from the same person, seconds apart.

And it has very little (or nothing) to do with an actual table.

It used to be a word I loathed.

Sitting around talking and doing nothing, I thought, which made me distinctly twitchy(thank you for that, ADD).

But, several experiences--including a couple quite recently--have come to convince me how important this aspect of production is.

You can't do a show without proper tablework.

If geniuses like Steve McQueen did tablework, why aren't you?

You can't.

I've tried.

And I wouldn't say that it exactly failed, but the result wasn't as good as it could have been.

"Tablework" is a term used for what happens at the very beginning of any production. The entire cast(and hopefully, the production team) sit down, scripts in hand and do the following:

1. Read the script in it's entirety, including stage directions(aka a Tableread). The biggest difference between a Tableread and Tablework is:

2. The discussion in as much depth as possible of the nitty gritty bits of the script afterwards: the relationships between characters, the characters themselves, the plot schematics(exposition, climax, etc.) and how they will mesh together as part of the director's overall concept. (Note: this part of tablework is sometimes stretched over a couple of rehearsals rather than crammed into one--see below. It depends on the director(s) and how he/she/they like to work)

Number 2 is also known as "Script Analysis"--which is one of my absolute favorite things to do. So much so that when I write scripts of my own I analyze the ever living crap out of it to make sure that I have a good skeleton to put the plot meat on.

But I digress...

Tablework is the part of the rehearsal process where discoveries are made, about the character(s) an actor(ress) happens to be playing and how he/she/they fit into the story.

Sometimes they make discoveries about a character that is based purely on their interpretation rather than just what is in the script--and that's ok!

This is what Carrie Fisher did to her script during "Empire Strikes Back". In this theatre artist's humble opinion, every page of your script should look like this.

As of this posting, I have seen the show "Cyrano de Bergerac" three times(the latest was one presented by National Theatre Live staring James MacAvoy and oh my WOW!!!!!); and each Cyrano was different from the one I saw previously. No character will ever be played the same way twice, and if they are it's because there's a stipulation in the playwright's contract somewhere that says as much (and, of course, I have an opinion about that, which I won't go into here).

Anyway....

Several actors/actresses I know(and quite a few that I know of) do their tablework on their own and at rehearsals. Sometimes they'll leave a rehearsal where they think they've nailed down a character only to come back the next day and say "hey, I actually figured something else out, let me try it"; and sometimes it works and sometimes it flops. But it was tried so that's what counts.

Thing is, "tablework" isn't just done around a table. Sometimes it's done with the actors on their feet. When this method is used, directors ask the actors what their motivations are, what their objectives are, things like that.

In order to succeed at tablework, you have to be flexible. Don't be "married" to any of your ideas as an actor because chances are that your ideas will evolve and change--more times than you can count.