Seeing the Stage Through Our Eyes - Walnut Street Theatre

Nicole Liebeknecht
Kiss and Tell
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love has more than just a few kisses and intimate
moments. With so many moments of intimacy, the actors must perfect the challenge of
making it look real – making the audience believe in that moment of love, a first kiss, or a
passionate rendezvous. Isn’t that the job of an actor anyway; to make the audience believe
their character By the time the audience members view the final product, the kisses flow
effortlessly and easily, but what were the challenges in making these kisses so perfect
Authenticity is the challenge. The four main characters in Aspects of Love that must
make the audience believe the love in the story are Rose Vibert, her admiring fan Alex
Dillingham, his uncle George, and George's mistress, Giulietta Trapani. When these actors
are performing their moment of affection, (whether with the opposite sex or not) they are
acting as their character, not themselves. A stage kiss is just like any other real kiss only,
without the real feelings. The actors only portray those feelings through their characters
emotions.
The type of kiss or level of passion in the scene helps the director and the actors
make decisions about the quality of the kiss. For Aspects of Love, the director, Bruce
Lumpkin, had to decide if the kiss was too quick, not passionate enough, or too passionate,
or if it was believable. Did the kisses between George and Rose, Rose and George, George
and Giulietta increase the audience’s belief in their love I think so, and for the number of
kisses they performed, they must have had a lot of practice because all of them were
believable. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect.