Gorgeous Avatar by Jules Horne

Patrick Hoffman - Actor

Patrick Hoffman

'Dan'

As a theatre newbie, I'd always imagined a green room would be - well, green. Somehow it conjures up something faintly grassy and rural. At the very least, it would surely be restful, and have a decent view? No, no, no, no and no! The green room is hidden deep in the guts of the Traverse, has no view, no fresh air, and is a beigeish clutter of sofas, kettles, newspapers, fridges. It's where people come to chill and coffee. I'm talking to actor Patrick Hoffman, aka 'Dan', aka (to his mates) Phil. It seems that some actors don't only have stage identities, they also have real-life alter egos. Phil can't go by his real name on stage, because he shares it with US screen star Philip Hoffman (seen in Capote and Mission Impossible 3). Confusing? Naw. I'm finally getting used to it...

Q: Some background info, please...

I live in Newcastle, and have done for 12 years. I was originally brought up just south of Manchester - a tiny village called Handforth, just inside Cheshire.

Q: What are you doing right now?

On the last rehearsal, we were looking very specifically at the characters in terms of how they are reacting to each other. It's that point where lines are down and you really have to play within the structure of the piece. Today we've got quite an extensive dance and singing rehearsal. There's a large nightmarish hoe-down-cum-western sequence at the end of the first act, which takes place in the main character's head, which is very interesting, and we're working hard on that at the moment. Personally, I'm just checking through lines, running lines as much as possible, and becoming aware of the technical requirements of the play as well - because obviously you have to take on board lights, sound, audio visual display stuff... so there's lots of technical stuff to work on.

Q: Last few weeks?

As a member of the cast, it's been a very interesting process for me because I haven't worked at the Traverse before or with Philip. It's a very tight-knit team here, and it's an extremely artistic environment, and they take things like voice and singing extremely seriously. I've been working with Ros [Steen], who's a voice coach, which I've found fascinating. And the performers here - Una and John and Pauline - have worked a lot at the Traverse, and seem to have worked with each other quite a bit before, and know each other. It's just been really interesting to work in a different theatre and environment, and see the different processes that they use and how they approach work. Obviously it's new writing, and the first few weeks were looking at the text and working with the writer, the other actors and Philip, the director, looking at the structure of the piece. It's been really fascinating to work on the show.

Q: What's the difference between working with new writing and working with an established text?

First and foremost, the writer's in the room, which is great. And secondly, in my opinion the text is the starting point for the piece. In any show that you produce there are cuts. The play is a starting-point for the creation of a piece of theatre. It's good to show respect for the text you've been given, but not to treat it with complete reverence, because otherwise you're not using your artistic attitude (and the director, too) to develop the piece. So the text is a starting point, as far as I'm concerned - as much as lights, sound etc... It's one of the elements that goes to creating a piece of theatre. Not just do 'the play' - it's about doing your version, or Philip's version in this case, of the play.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

I enjoy performing. I find theatres extremely welcoming places, and the people you meet are generally extremely intelligent and are interested and interesting people: they're interested in life, not just theatre. Particularly John Kazek [who's just entered the green room] has a passion for football, which is about the same as mine. He's a Celtic boy, so he actually supports a team that can play football. Whereas my team, Man City, are not doing too well at the moment! And meeting new people, basically. I also enjoy trying to push myself a bit. It's an interesting show, and takes in different lots of elements - singing, choreography, new writing, script development... and we've all been part and parcel of that. It's a good thing: you're working as part of a creative team, and I really feel that the Traverse do that - you do feel part of a team, and feel very supported in what you do.

Q: Hairiest moment as an actor?

I got a serious injury on stage. I was in a fight scene and I ripped my cruciate ligament in my knee, so that was extremely painful. But I was well looked after by the people on stage at the time, who carried me off. And another hairy moment: I was understudying a show where one of the guys playing the lead character in the play injured himself two hours before the final dress rehearsal, and I had to go on stage after having had no real time on stage at all, and wing it, basically. That was terrifying, really. But you're trained to do that job, so even if you haven't had rehearsals... we had rehearsals in the morning before the first show. Again, the performers on stage were extremely supportive while that was happening. I've done that a couple of times - understudied roles where I've been in shows: I understudied a guy called Craig Conway in a production in 1984 by Northern Stage, playing the lead, having had rehearsals but not done the show before, so your adrenalin is pumping a little bit.

Q: How are you feeling right now?
All right! Not bad. I'm sure that'll change as we move on through the week. There's a lot of rehearsal and technical days are very laborious, really. They're not really for the actors, they're for the technical team. And we have to be quite patient and aware that what they're doing is supporting us in what we're supposed to be doing. I'm sure I'll get a helluva lot more nervous as the week goes on but... first preview on Friday - looking forward to it!

posted by Jules Horne @ 5/03/2006 12:18:00 PM