Hartman, arguably Pittsburgh's tallest actor, will play the vertically challenged Lord Farquaad in Pittsburgh Musical Theater's production of “Shrek.”
The musical, based on the Oscar-winning DreamWorks film, is playing through Feb. 16 at the Byham Theater, Downtown.
10 comments:
Although this is slightly hilarious and simply innovative, I am curious to the amount of stress that acting on his knees is putting on his body. I understand that the silicone kneepads are there to help that but even then, it is rough on the body. knees aren't supposed to be in that position for that long and I don't know if dancing on them helps the stress either. I am curious as to whether he actually is feeling repercussions from this role or whether he will feel them later if at all.
This summer I got to work on this very character. One of the theatre groups in the area was putting on a production of Shrek The Musical, and the lady they had hired to do costumes had made everything to fit; well at least most things to fit. A few of the sizes were off when they finally tried them on and most of them just looked funky from the house once put on the actors. One of the characters was Gingy and the other was Lord Farquaad. Gingy was just a matter of fixing some puppetry issues, but Lord Farquaad needed some real help. The way that the lady had rigged the legs made him look like he was in an eternal squat. The legs had to be placed in front of the actor's own knees so it was a hard task to accomplish. I ended up shrinking the distance from the actor's knees to the heels of Farquaad's feet. I am surprised that in the picture we are able to see the actor's legs in jeans. We took extra care to add a cape to him so that it would cover the entirety of his legs (so it looked like he just had a really long cape) and had him wear black pants just in case. I hope that picture is from a rehearsal. It is weird for someone not to notice something like that.
This is an interesting solution to a strange problem. I find that you do not hear many stories of an actor being too tall for the role. In cases like this you would normally think that you would just hire a shorter actor but it seems as if none of these actors would suit the role. Although it is a creative idea to have the actor portray the character while on his knees, is this really the best way? As Carolyn has said will this leave him with some damage? He seems to have to use his knees for something that they were not meant to be used for and that won't help in the long run.
I don't think that was the best solution to the problem in this situation. If the character is meant to be short than have a short scot play the part. Based off the pictures, I don't think the look works that well. All of the other dancers with him are standing and are fur size, so why can't this character be realistic too. There must had been some other options when casting that would have pulled of the illusion better. Choosing an actor who is 7 inches taller than Shrek to play the shortest character in the platy is very strange. I strongly believe they made the wrong choice and messed up.
I think it is funny that the director did not type cast this AT ALL even though it would be easier. It gives a whole other look to a show when it is so obvious that the physicality of one of the main characters is completely made up. I personally don't think I would like to see a guys real legs trailing behind him (as it shows in the picture). Also, I disagree with Petrucci and I think that lord Farquad is meant to be a small looking man, small head, shoulders, and all. Because then he demands to be looked upon as a large man and it is far funnier. But then again, that is just my opinion.
I saw a tour of the Broadway production of this show, and I read somewhere that this is how they made the actor in that role short as well. There seems to be a trend of casting super tall actors in this role- the original actor was 6' 2". As pointed out in other comments, I hope the picture posted in this article isn't the full costume- they could at least put black pants on him. In the production I saw I believe he had a cape that covered his legs somehow
I think this is amazing to see an actor step into the shoes of someone who is completely physically opposite of himself. This reminds me of our animal projects, where I am now taking on the role of someone who is around 100-15- lbs heavier than me. I appreciate how the made these adjustments for him in a non drastic way unlike most actors of today.
This is a really funny article! I worked on a production of Shrek this past summer as a lighting design intern and we had to do exactly what they did. I always felt bad for the poor dude because it looked really painful to be walking around on your knees even with padding. I imagine this problem would not exist in the commercial theatre world because they wouldn't cast someone who's body did not fit the role. I have even heard stories about people on broadway who have been dismissed from certain roles simply because they gained or lost too much weight. Or in the case of longer running shows with young kids, the kid literally grows out of the role. I'm glad that in the regional theatre world they don't stress over body type as heavily and find ways to work around it. I think this makes for a much better situation so that the actor does not feel self conscious about there body when auditioning.
I adore this costume. It's such a hilarious and clever way to portray the character. Here's a video of how they get dressed into the costume! It's great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sXBA5IdCQ4
This is versatility at its best from Hartman. His size stands in his way for playing a guy whose supposed to have a small stature and be on his knees the entire time. Since he is so big this will add to the comedic effect and PTM realizes that. That's why they allowed this to happen. I'm ecstatic they didn't type cast.
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