In theatre, as in life, preparing for a new role can lead to surprising insights.

Theodore Saunders, a third-year theatre studies major, knows this from personal experience. “There’s something about immersing yourself in a character, learning from a character, and taking on certain roles,” he says. “You might learn something about yourself that you never saw was in there.”

In the autumn 2012 production of Marat/Sade, Saunders played Jean-Paul Marat, the character in the bathtub who is eventually stabbed and killed.

A play within a play

Marat/Sade was one of Acadia’s bestselling shows. Since it is essentially a play within a play that takes place in a 19^th-century mental institution, the actors faced particular challenges. An extra challenge for Saunders was that this leading role was only his second production at Acadia.

“What was interesting about the role, playing Jean-Paul Marat, was I wasn’t playing that person,” he says. “I was playing an inmate of the institution who is playing Marat. It was really difficult at first to wrap my head around that.”

The photo shows Saunders (middle) rehearsing with theatre student Nick Cox (left), who played the Marquis de Sade, while Professor Robert Seale (right) directs.

Seale is an award-winning theatre professional with over 35 years in the Canadian Actors’ Equity Association. He has appeared in more than 150 leading roles in Canada and the USA and consulted with many performance bodies as well as with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Armed Forces.

Life skills in theatre

“I believe that theatre skills are life skills,” Seale says. “The theatre is a distilled form of life. You’ve got the sponge of life, and you squeeze all the water out of it, and you’re dealing with a distillation of what may happen in real time, but it has to happen in a compressed period of time.” The performer has to be prepared, he adds, to be not only aware but also well schooled in how to prepare and how to practise.

“Working with Robert was a very special time, a real treat,” Saunders says. A bonus was that the theatre company got along well and worked well together. “You have to trust one another. Working with actors, there are a lot of big personalities in there. And everyone has their own way of preparing and getting into the role. You really have to respect another person’s preparation.” Saunders went to Rome this summer for a theatre workshop with Michael Devine, his first trip outside Canada. After he graduates, he hopes to work in film or television.

Seale sees his role as more coach than teacher. “I learn as much as they do,” he insists. “We are attempting to learn something practical as well as spiritual or on a larger canvas: the way in which life works, or society works, or we as human beings work. There’s a shared contract and responsibility for the discovery of these things. And that’s really what I find exciting.”