Lyndsay owns it – 2009 London One Act Festival

[Lynosaurous - Attack of the Fruiter]

You could feel it in the air during the blackout before we walked on stage. Lyndsay’s opening song had the audience laughing within 3 seconds of the light cue. From then on I could feel the audience following her character’s every move on stage (vocally following her), to a point where the other characters and became secondary. During an important scene where the two sisters were arguing center stage Lyndsay dropped hot peppers all over the floor by mistake (during our hot sauce gag, which wasn’t supposed to be center of attention) and the audience laughter was so loud that I couldn’t even hear the actors shouting beside me. The show was in Lyndsay’s palm, she continued on to nail her bathroom scene with subtlety you don’t normally see in acting. Read the review of her show by Donald D’Haene here.Most actors seem to rely on cliches (forced projections, unrealistic emotional levels, false pacing, over characterizing…etc) which constantly remind the audience that they are watching a performance and the illusion cracks. In this case you could feel the audience waiting to laugh after each line, plus when Lyndsay wasn’t making a joke (during our opening/closing scenes) they remained dead silent/focused. She manages to perform so naturally that the audience felt as if they spying on her (“I couldn’t take my eye’s off her” one man said). The interesting point is that Lyndsay hates acting (and the associated ’scene’…who doesn’t?), yet she is an example of someone who has “it”…that special flair that actors struggle to find….the weird thing about “it” is you either have it or you don’t – period. I always knew she had something, back when we made the movie “i” few years ago people were only ever commenting about “that girl with the red lips!”.

So the next day she goes to the awards and wins ‘Outstanding Production’ for On The Menu, then followed by ‘Best Actress’ and before she could put her awards down she was chosen this year as most promising young artist to send to the Theater Ontario Summer Intensive (all expenses paid). I remember preying that her script would get accepted to the festival (so that she’d keep writing), and then she goes ahead and blows everyone out of the water with her performance. Keep an eye on her….Maybe one day she’ll be cutting up agents instead of apple spears.