Guy Masterson: The Master of Multiple Characters

Guy Masterson: The Master of Multiple Characters

The moment the curtain goes up, the magic starts, captivating his audiences with his love for the art of acting. Theatre, in the traditional form familiar to us, has always been a group of people performing together on a common theme; however, after witnessing acts like that of Guy’s, we have begun to understand the power of the SOLO act.

Finding a good solo act can be very difficult, especially if you are not a theatre person. So making an attempt to understand it can make your creative-understandings go for a toss.

Picture Caption & Link : Picture from Guy Masterson’s Shylock Play, http://bit.ly/1yxvY9L

On a beautiful evening in the Taj Mahal Hotel Delhi, A.Kameshwari from One World News had an opportunity to speak to one of UK’s most celebrated artist, a master in the Solo Act, Guy Masterson. “There is a lot of hard work involved in presenting a one-man show. It is really tiring to read and memorize lines for three consecutive months, then rehearsals for four hours and the performance needs us to be very concentrated. No mistakes, no forgetting lines so, it is a challenge every time and also a big responsibility.”

Having been on the both sides of the coin, Guy feels that acting is easy but directing is much more difficult. He says his transformation from Mastroianni to Masterson was sad, “I was in Hollywood and some commercial came up where they required someone who is a Welshman and can speak the language too. However, they never believed that I am a Welshman because my name was Mastroianni, so as suggested by my agent I changed my name to Masterson. Although, when I win Oscar I would like to change it back.”

Picture & Caption Link : Guy Masterson in Shylock, http://bit.ly/1CfWSAf

Guy Masterson was inspired by his uncle who was a famous actor. He brought him to Hollywood, however after he passed away; it was Masterson’s girlfriend who motivated him to be an actor. He learnt acting, enacted different roles and since then never has looked back.

Having performed more than 5000 times till now, Guy has had exposure to all sorts of theatre and films. He has also played parts in self-directed plays. “Doing both on the same stage was interesting; however, I hire a strong Assistant Director who tells me about everything going good and bad. There was one famous play called ‘Odd Couple’ where the producers wanted me to direct and act as well. So, I asked them to hire an assistant director who was an actor too and acted with me in the play. So it was like- I directed him and he directed me.”

Guy is well known for doing multiple characters in a single solo play. He has played a staggering 25 characters in Animal Farm, 69 characters in Under Milk Wood, 12 characters in Shylock and so on. Further talking about Shylock, Guy said that before he performed the act for the first time he researched well about Shylock. For him, knowledge about a character in the act makes you enact it all by yourself.

His experience of intense reading, acting and performing gave birth to another talent of his, the talent of writing. He has been a freelance critic and feature writer and has been published in The Herald, The Guardian, The Scotsman and The Stage, The Advertiser (Aus) The Sydney Morning Herald (Aus) The Dominion (NZ), The Times of India, and The South China Morning Post (Hong Kong).

Further talking about the plays which got him recognition worldwide, Guy said, “Animal Farm and Under Milk Wood would be the two solo plays that have really set my career and have made my name all around the world. As a director I won award in 2010 for play called Morecambe, where all my learning as a director and writer came through the act of some other person which I feel is great but still I think my finest achievement was directing 12 comedians in 12 Angry Men. It was the most exciting experience of life, even more than performing.”

When asked if any of his play had true incidents from his life, Guy laughed and said, “Well no. But maybe someone would write a book when ill die. And I am also not planning to write anything as such for now. Though, I am writing poetry about my life at the moment but no auto-biography until I am confident that I have fans who would buy it. (Laughs)”

Accepting the fact that there is no money in theatre, Guy says that his whole life has been a struggle. “It was very difficult to make ends meet, though, I earn pretty well now. The difficulty for me is that I do not have time to spend with my family. Work takes me away from my family as I tour for over 150 days a year. My elder daughter, Indigo, is fifteen years old and I haven’t even been a part of half of her life.”

Picture Caption & Link : Live performance of Guy Masterson, http://nyti.ms/1z6vvMI

Ending the conversation, Guy expressed that this wasn’t his first tour to India; he visited here in 1996 for six weeks and performed Under Milk Woods and Animal Farm. “I am glad that I am a part of this initiative, Going Solo- International Theatre Festival, taken by the British Council and Teamwork Arts. I hope the response of the audience comes as good as it was back in 1996. It is good to see that they are trying to show and promote this art would love to come here as many times as possible because I love being here.”