Sunday, January 03, 2016
Broadway Shockers 2015: Earpieces and Teleprompters on Broadway
TheaterMania.com: We at TheaterMania are major proponents of the technological advances revolutionizing the stage. State-of-the-art projections, 3D printing, drones: We're all for it. One electronic innovation we're less enthusiastic about, however, is the earpiece — specifically when it is used to feed an actor his or her lines during a live performance.
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When I worked on the Kennedy Center Honors a few years ago, Chris Rock had several choice words to say about the lack of teleprompters for the awards show. The producers made the decision not to use teleprompters because they didn’t want them to be in the audience or seen on camera. On one hand I’m surprised that people are using teleprompters and earpieces for live performances, on the other hand I’m not. One thing to note is that most of the actors mentioned in the article are know (at least to me) for their work in film where memorization is not as important. I’m on the fence on the topic of using teleprompters and earpieces in live theater. As far as I know, memorization is not the key to great acting, so what does it matter if an actor needs help with a line? At the same time though, strong actors should be able to cover for a missed line. As technology increases and becomes more commonplace, the line between live performance and television (or film) may become more blurred. In the end, technology or not, we should be grateful that these wise aged actors are able to continue performing.
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