BWW Blog: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF's Ben Rappaport- Keep It Fresh

The orchestra starts the waltz into 'Sunrise, Sunset'. Everyone is in place, Tevye sings, 'Is this the little girl I carried?' Nothing out of the ordinary, here. Then, four male ensemble members and the Rabbi slowly come up the upstage stairs from the trap, moving downstage center, where they slowly get into position with the chuppah (Jewish wedding canopy). One little problem, tonight. There's no chuppah (we later found out it had been broken). I look around the stage at my fellow cast members, who are all slowly registering this and getting that glint in the eye you get when you're about to crack up. Then, it hit me. Samantha Massell and I have a solo coming up in a second where we have to sing the lyric, 'Is there a canopy in store for me?' The irony of this is just too much for me and, no matter how hard I try, I sing this line with the stupidest grin on my face. I mean, you can't ignore it! I absolutely LIVE for moments like this. Happy accidents that keep things fresh, can breathe new life into the show, and remind us all that it's called a 'play' for a reason. It's supposed to be fun!

Ok. I'm gonna get little 'act-y' on you guys. One of the biggest phrases we throw around is 'be in the moment'. This is also a pop psychology term for a healthy way of life, but what does it actually mean? Well, it means different things to different people, but to me, in Fiddler On The Roof everyday, it means to find something new in it every single time. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not about changing anything that we've built into the fabric of our show. On the last notes session after our last preview, Bart Sher told us that he loathes the phrase, 'the show is now frozen'. Our show will never be 'frozen', per se. His only requirement of us was not only to maintain all the work we had done in those first 2 months, but to DEEPEN our understanding and connection to the stakes and blocking we have set up, not BROADEN.

What excites me every day is, actually, what new stimuli could lie ahead of me? For example, I could be having a really bad day and be really upset or angry about something. I don't have to ignore it, it's real life. There is no reason why Perchik couldn't benefit from these feelings. The same goes for if I've had a particularly great day and feel as though I'm walking on air. As long as I'm operating in connection to my given circumstances, and telling the story honestly, then I'm doing my job. You may get a tinge of a different flavor on a given performance, but that's real. If I'm not operating this way, I'm withholding my breath of truthfulness, which is required to lift words off a page and into real life.

Even on a smaller level, the same principle can be applied. Just last night, a hearing aide or something was creating feedback throughout the house. Almost as if a high pitch dog whistle was being blown throughout the entire show. There are two ways to react to this. Be annoyed the entire time, which takes you out of the moment and out of the show, or allow it to be part of the truth of this performance. 'Jeez, these Anatevka crickets sure are loud tonight!', Accept it as a given, and carry on.

Fiddler is a living, breathing organism and like all living things, it grows and changes. I find a lot of beauty and profundity in the juxtaposition of a fixed piece of matter on the exterior, with a wildly changing inner life. One can't exist without the other.

Check back next Wednesday for more from BroadwayWorld's latest blogger, Ben Rappaport. Ben can currently be seen as 'Perchik' in Fiddler on the Roof, playing at the Broadway Theatre. Every week, he will answer questions from fans, so be sure to comment below, or tweet him directly at @Ben_Rappaport.

Ben was last seen on Broadway in Picnic with Ellen Burstyn, directed by Sam Gold. His Off-Broadway credits include: Sex Lives Of Our Parents (Second Stage),The Gingerbread House(Rattlestick/stageFARM). Regional: Alex Timbers' original production of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Williamstown Theatre Festival). On TV, Ben is best known as the star of the NBC series "Outsourced". He currently appears as Carey Zepps on "The Good Wife"(CBS) and Ollie Parker on "Mr. Robot"(USA). He has also appeared on "Elementary"(CBS). Film credits include: Hope Springs opposite Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve Carell. The Brass Teapot, Stereotypically You (upcoming), and lead of the upcoming film Landing Up. Ben trained at Juilliard, where he received the Michel and Suria Saint-Denis Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Drama.