Meet Matt: Barlow Adamson on his role in ‘Reconsidering Hanna(h)’
Barlow Adamson plays Matt, modern-day Hanna’s editor and friend in Reconsidering Hanna(h). Today we kick off the play’s third week of performances with a little Q&A…
What is your role in Reconsidering Hanna(h)?
Matt, Hanna’s managing editor.
And Dance Captain.
What have you learned while creating this role?
The Hannah Duston story was all new to me. Not a story I’d heard about, even having grown up in this area. I’m guilty of taking the rich history of the region I grew up in for granted; so much I still don’t know. I should go on (shameless plug) one of the Freedom Trail or Cambridge walking tours conducted by so many of my friends and peers!
How did you approach and play your character? Have there been any surprising discoveries about Matt during the rehearsal process?
Mm…pretty much the same as I normally do. Basic stuff: I try not to come into anything with a hard-fast preconception. Read the play and learn the basic facts of the character and relationships with the other characters. Use some imagination in terms of character history and current situation. Come into rehearsal and listen (and adapt) to what our director, playwright, and other actors have to say about the story, the characters and each scene. Figure out why and when I’m saying any given line. And, then, just sort of forgetting all that and stay open to whatever comes. I do believe in being prepared – and some roles (whether it’s a different time period or something completely foreign to anything I’ve experienced) require more than others. It’s not something, however, I believe you should ever be thinking about onstage; just have it there underneath you. I’m also a cook, so it’s kind of like food prep: that’ll ultimately color the dish – but the real alchemy happens each time the dish is cooked (without worrying in the moment, say, about how finely your onion’s been diced). I mean, a lot of stuff – both practical and emotional – is going on in one’s head as an actor on stage, but the simplest thing to hold on to (and possibly most important) is knowing why you enter a scene and then just listening and responding from there on out – and that’s hopefully supported and influenced by the talking, imagining, etc. that came during the preparation and rehearsal period. So…no, no truly surprising discoveries about Matt during the process that I can recall. (He’s gluten free! He sees Mary too!!) But, if you work thing’s right, there’s a lot of little discoveries that happen on stage each night.
What else inspires you artistically?
Music probably inspires me the most – artistically, creatively, and in an immediate way. (A great pop song – or sonata…what have you – can take me to a time or place or emotion faster than anything else, and make me want to create something…anything with that kind of power.) I also, not surprisingly, love stories – whether they’re told through books, theater, or film – and those inspire me, as well. (Though I confess I’m terrible at TELLING stories, at least conversationally.) Anything that takes me out of my own life for a bit or moves me to feel something – either solely based on what is being presented, or through amplifying something I am already thinking/feeling at the time – arts that do that inspire me. (Arts that don’t, you bore me – go away. Heh…just kidding, other arts, come back!)
Is this starting to sound like an online dating profile? I also like long walks on the beach and a nice chianti…
Don’t miss Deirdre Girard’s ‘Reconsidering Hanna(h)’, now through October 19. Tickets