Ha ha, 'Woman at a Threshold, Beckoning' uses a narrator. In our production, he stands to stage right narrating whilst he has a physical 'double' in the action, 'playing' or acting out the narration. At one point, the character flashes back to a previous episode in his life, and we had the actors switch out to indicate the flashback. Multiple reasons for this: one was to give my main narrator a break as he has so many lines, another for stylistic/aesthetic choices, and because it's theatre, and I can do what I want :)
Seriously though, to help the audience understand that this was the same character, the two actors said their first line onstage in unison, and then break apart to their respective positions. When they switched narration/playing out roles, they said their lines in unison again, and then one more time when they switched back. I also divided the last monologue section between them as they came together to the same positions that we started the whole play off in.
Well, I thought it was cool, anyway. :) But it is one more example of a narrator and how we used them. Whilst the narration is going on, this particular narrator is literally commenting on what is happening. This is a little more tricky, but again it looked pretty cool as the narrator wasn't looking at the other performers as he narrated what they were doing. Other times he's commentating. So in this instance the two work together and there's meant to be a split focus. I know in Drowsy Chaperone it seems that the focus needs to be on the narrator, as he acts as a framing device and the musical is as much about him as it is about the rest of the characters.
Hope this helps a little!
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Phillip Goodchild
Theatre Arts Instructor/Assistant Department Head of English
Hillsborough County Schools
Ruskin FL
Original Message:
Sent: 12-08-2015 08:03
From: Jennifer Jordan
Subject: Narrators onstage
Glass Menagerie.
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Jennifer Jordan
Drama and Dance Director
Miss Hall's School
Pittsfield MA