Crying part?

Question

Im Messua in the jungle book. I have to be crying in one scene in a play.

Im Messua, My friend is Chitra, The vilage search party is headed by Toomai.


The lines go like this-

Me(off stage): My little baby! My little Nathoo!

Chitra(my bff off stage w/ me): You musnt worry Messua. The men will find him.

Me(still off stage):They should have been back by now.[My and my friend from hut. Im terribly distraught. my friend tries to comfert me]

Chitra(finally were on stage):You must be patient.

Me:How can i be? Nathoo is all I have. The man-eating tiger has killed my poor husband.

Chitra: The men of the village will find that terrible tiger and pushish him.

Me:I am not thinking of the tiger. Im thinking of my Nathoo.(horn's sound effect)

Chitra: There, what did i tell yo> The searchers are back
(I grab Toomai on my next line)

Me: Toomai, have you found little Nathoo?

Toomai: Not a trace of the baby.(I sob, chitra tries to comefert me)

Chitra: There there Messua. Don't give up hope. (to Toomai) You will look for him tomorow, won't you Toomai?

Toomai: I will send men into the village tonight with torches. If we do't find Nathoo, we will search again in the morning. You must be strong Messua.

Me:He is so little. So helpless. Nathoo! Nathoo!

(voieces ecoho)

Chitra: Come with me messua. You must rest.(She gudies me a very sad and distarught person back to the hut)




My question is how can i go about playing this part?

How can suddenly burst out crying?

Ive got the screaming part down.

Look guys!, i wasnt done typing the rest pf the script soo chill!!!!!!!!!!!

Ive chopped zillions of onions and never cryed because of them.

Answer 1

You've stumbled onto the most important question in acting. "How to be 'so into' the character that you can become that which you are impersonating". It ain't always easy because to really cry on que is draining. I suggest you not cry during every rehearsal. Save your self for the dress rehearsal and the production. I had to cry for a two week run in college and some nights it was easier than others. Get into the character and stay there while on stage. Lose yourself in the part. It can be 'scary' sometimes because when you're young you're just learning who YOU are and now you're trying to be someone else. It can be done with practice.

Answer 2

Not every actor truly cries, as in tears running down the face hysterical, every single time. Can you imagine how unstable that person could be in their downtime? I have a respect for people that can pull it out on a regular basis, and that's easy to do some times more then others. Like in my personal life right now a member of my family I was incredibly close with died in the past year, so if I had to, I could pull from those feelings. But just know if you're going to do that, you have to be able to turn it off just as quickly and move on. And if you have to wear stage make up, it might not be such a great idea to really do it because you will mess that up. As long as you own what you are doing there's nothing wrong with just pretending to cry.

Answer 3

The point is to make the audience BELIEVE you are crying. Think of some of the times you have been moved to tears -- What did you sound like? Look like? What made is worse? Better?
Now exagerat those actions and practice in a mirror or with a friend. Haven't you ever pretended to cry to get a reaction out of someone -- say an old boyfriend?
You will be surprised at how different you performance can be from one night's show to the next.

Answer 4

First of all, in acting, the charecter does not just "burst out crying". The scene begins with a prior moment (what your charecter was doing before the scene, maybe she was hiding or recieving comfort from the other charecter you are offstage with. Take that point and build from it. How do you go from your prior moment, to your first line? What is your charecter's thought process in order to get there? Each line is building off another. The charecter does NOT just burst out crying. The charecter begins at one place and gradually builds to another. Really, the crying is not needed in the scene when you analyze it, but if the director calls for it then you must. What is making the charecter cry? Is it that she is leaving someone behind? She is loosing a love? Why is this so difficult for her? What in her past might contribute to making this more difficult?

It is absolutely imperative that you make a charecter bio. Just write about her or write in her voice. Maybe do journal entries. If you know your charecter and you can embody your charecter, you are already a head above the rest.

Then, analyze the scene. Think about objectives (what does the charecter want out of the scene)? This is a verb. Maybe it might be to comfort, to dote, to bid goodbye, to preach, etc. There are millions of options. Then break it down even further into "beats". A beat is the beginning and end of an intention. Intentions are basically a smaller, more specific and broken down version of the objective. Maybe for the section where you have to cry, you can try to play the verb: to rid of guilt. Or to bask in the drama (I don't know your charecter so I can not make the choices for you). Stop thinking about the crying, that is a symptom of what the charecter is feeling inside. Which is..sadness, regret, loneliness, grief? If you are playing to comfort, then the soft and cooing voice will come as a symptom. Do you see?

Do not think about the crying. I did a scene this past summer where I was a lesbian and my mother tried to kill me. I was abandoning my sister because she told my mother about my charecter's sexuality. Now, in this scene there was intense physical combat, fear, hesitation, rage, and acceptance. Now, I did have to cry and so did my scene partner. But I did not play "to cry". I played "to accept", and the crying (because of where I had come from and where I was going), just came to me. I didn't try, I succeeded, and that is the difference.

I study the Stanislovski method which is thought to be the most tedious, so good luck in attempting to decipher what I have said.

Answer 5

You're an actor. You draw upon whatever method works for you. Figure out if bringing up a personal issue (real or hypothetical like if you lost someone close to you or you can imagine how you would feel if you did) will do it, or putting yourself in your characters shoes (how would you feel if you were Messua and you lost your baby? How do you think your mother would have felt if she lost you when you were a baby?), that kind of thing... Some people say that laughing is very close to crying. Use that energy to 'fake' the crying loudly. Start laughing and turn it into a cry. Try all of those methods and see what works for you.

You'll get the feel for it :-)

Break a leg!

Answer 6

Perhaps do an edit and ask your question at the end this time.
In fact ,ask your question in the middle if you want, but ...

ASK IT...!



Ahh, an edit...! (and the Q...!)

Sounds like you're struggling.

I'll give you a cheat, but promise you'll not tell...

Put a small dab of "Tiger Balm" under each eye a moment before going on.
The fumes will irritate your eyes and make them water.

Of course it'd be better if you could get into character but sometimes, the script, the director or our fellow actors, don't sufficiently motivate...

Best of luck doll...

Answer 7

Well, you're going to be on stage, so in actuality, tears shouldn't be too big of a problem. No one's going to be able to see your face that well except maybe the front row, and as mentioned already, if you really want to have tears, use mentholatum of vicks vapor rub, but remember, it WILL hurt and will probably make seeing a little hard.

Answer 8

Is your question how to cry on command?

Well, just think of something sad and use that memory in relation to what you are doing onstage. If you cant do that, well, maybe acting isnt for you! You can also put Mentholatum or Vicks Vapor rub in your eyes. It hurts really bad and makes you cry!

Answer 9

This is a play so you don't need tears.
Just do a "Susan Smith Act".

Use your voice to sound as if you are crying and tweak your face. A sniffle or two combined with uneven breathing will help also.

Answer 10

You should use a tear stick, or tear drops. But your hand (with the stick in it) on your face before you cry and rub it under your eyes, very few people can just burst into tears.
Good luck!