MIKE ALFREDS

Mike Alfreds born 5^th June 1934 in London, England, is a theatre director, playwright, and dramatist, whom has directed over 160 productions. He studied Dramatic Arts at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA, then went on to work as an artistic director of the Cincinnati Playhouse-in-the-Park, and then Theatre West in Tucson. He then returned to Britain to enrol in LAMDA, and directed and worked as part of an ensemble with the National Theatre.

Over his career he is voyaged across the globe to work in many different countries, such as; Canada, Germany, Norway, China, Belarus, Mongolia, Australia, and New Zealand. He also spent 5 years, 1970-1975, in Israel. Beginning as a senior lecturer in the theatre department of Tel Aviv University, 2 years later becoming the artistic director of the Khan Theatre in Jerusalem, as well as directing plays at the Cameri Theatre, Bimot theatre, and theatres in Haifa and Beer Sheva, Israel.

Subsequently, in 1975, he revisited his home-country to tour with Shared Experience, an ensemble of his own creation, and in 1986, he won a Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for his direction of The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov. He then became artistic director of the Cambridge Theatre Company until 1999, and went on to direct for The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Shakespeare’s Globe, and The Royal National Theatre.

Mike Alfreds believes that the actor is the most sacred thing about the theatre, saying ‘plays need actors…however, [actors] do not need plays’, by this he means as actors we create, devise, mime, improvise scenes and theatre, but for a play to be performed, of course, it needs actors, without them it would merely be a set. Additionally, he believes that actors should never be passive onstage, simply waiting for their cue to speak again or exit, but should be living in the moments when they are not centre of attention. I agree with him, in this context, as actors’ job is to become someone else, another character, and to fully do that you must BE that person; as people we are never waiting for someone else to say something for us to react to, but speak often of our own freewill, and because a thought has provoked that topic.

As a director he has stated that he prefers to let the actors find their character themselves, as it is not something they can be instructed upon or guided each step of the way. But to help them do so, Alfreds has created theories and methods of finding character, developing character, portraying character, and understanding character:

Clap-tag: this is an improvisation game where 2 people must enter the space with knowledge of location and relationship, and allowing the scene to flow where it wants to flow, but each actor must always say ‘yes’ – as in allow decisions to be made to keep the scene afloat. Then someone claps and takes the same position while changing the story. I enjoy this exercise as it develops one’s improvisation skills, being able to think on the spot, and anything can happen in the improvisation – it allows the imagination to go wild. The only thing that annoys be regarding this exercise is that I feel as if we are limited to what we can create in certain audiences as they don’t always take a mature stand point on the scene, and so if, for example, someone were to initiate a romantic setting it would become suspicious in reality or hysterically funny – but it shouldn’t be.

Given Circumstances: this is when one person in a pair is completely aware of the situation – location, character relationship, what has happened, why they are meeting, what they want to get out of it, etc. The other person who is ignorant to this information, must adapt to how they are being treated by their partner whilst figuring out the Given Circumstances. I really enjoyed this exercise because I had to decipher what could make my partner act how they were acting towards me, and my competitive nature, forced me to be one of the first to figure them out. I think this exercise also tested and developed our improvisation skills, as we had to go into a situation where the person opposite us had the upper hand and go along, blindly, with what we were getting from them.

Mike Alfreds also creating ‘actioning’ which is a simple phrase expressing what one character is doing to another character in the given dialogue. It should always be presented as ‘I (action) (to/for/with/at) you’. I believe this helps understanding what your character is saying, why they are saying it, and how it helps them to get what they want and the scene progression, this exercise also helps to discover if there are any subliminal messages in what your character is saying. Here is an example of Actioning, taken from A streetcar named Desire by Tennesse Williams (the actions are underlined):

“STANLEY: I test you Yeah?

BLANCHE: I enquire Where’s Stella?

STANLEY: I tell you Out on the porch.

BLANCHE: I warn you I’m going to ask a favour of you in a moment.

STANLEY: I mock you What could that be, I wonder?

BLANCHE: I declare to you Some buttons in the back! I allow you

You may enter!

I look for reassurance from you How do I look?”.