As I watched the Tony Awards the other night, I saw several clips from “The 39 Steps” which I had honestly never heard of.  I was fascinated by the way the actors would switch characters.  Sometimes they simply switched hats, other times they had intricate choreography that put one character out of sight just long enough to switch hats or masks or whatnot to change characters.

I imagine this method doesn’t take very long to get used to, much like the puppeteers in “Avenue Q”.  After a few minutes, you don’t even notice the puppeteers — until they want to be noticed.  The same thing probably applies for “The 39 Steps”.

So back to my original point.  The scenes that I saw really got my mind racing about those kinds of possibilities.  I’d often seen similar shows (like Patrick Stewart’s one-man version of “A Christmas Carol”), but I had never really considered it from a directing standpoint.  It’s raised some questions in my mind.

1)  Does the show need to be specifically written with those kinds of mechanics in mind, or could you theoretically adapt regular plays to fit that kind of model?  Could we, say, take Romeo and Juliet and do the same thing, or would massive changes be required?

2)  How much does the audience enjoy that kind of switcheroo?  I imagine there has to be some sort of seamlessness in character changing so the audience doesn’t even think about it.  Another Avenue Q example:  Several times an actor will hand off the puppet to someone else while he leaves the stage to grab another puppet.  Nearly every time, I didn’t notice the hand-off until the actor came back on stage with a new puppet.  If I were to adapt Romeo and Juliet to the “39 Steps” model of switching characters with three or four actors, how do you make it seamless enough that the audience isn’t distracted by the changes?

3)  How can I take these kinds of concepts and apply them to an existing (or new) play in an original or different way?  I don’t want to flat out copy The 39 Steps.  Their switcheroos were flawlessly executed and seamless, but I don’t really want to steal that idea or clone the show.  I don’t want my Romeo and Juliet to be “The 39 Steps” in sheep’s clothing, so to speak.

I’ve been working on a play for the past year or two, and I had a transition planned for the characters, but seeing these clips from the Tony’s has given me some new ideas.  I should pull out that script and see what I can do.