I'm producing a play with a character who the audience isn't supposed to know is alive, can I credit the actor in the program?
There isn't a theater SE so this seems like the best place to ask, but feel free to suggest a better place. I'm producing a community play with a character who's believed to be dead, but turns out to be alive in the final scene. I don't want to give this away to the audience by putting credit for the actor and character in the program that everyone will read before we start and during intermission. Can I give the actor credit as a fake technical role like Assistant Producer or Costume Designer? Should I hide his credit on another page towards the end of the program? Should I put up a sign by the exits after the end with his crediting?
If it matters, he's a side character, not especially pivotal to the plot, just the partner of one of the main characters. He doesn't appear on stage dead.
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I would say there's actually precedence for not crediting an actor if it would ruin the story; in the stage production of The Woman in Black, the actress who plays the ghost goes uncredited. (I don't have a copy of the program but the website only credits the two actors and their understudies.)
She doesn't even take a bow at the end of the show; I assume this is to keep the audience immersed and to make her that much more otherworldly and memorable.
But if you want to give the actor full credit in the program, I'd say the best way is to list them as 'ensemble' - it's non-specific and implies a bit part or many bit parts. As long as you're not casting a huge, well-known actor in the role, it shouldn't give anything away.
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Even actors that play dead people in films get credit. A murdered hooker or mugging victim, for example, on a cop show. I am not sure about unnamed extras in a crowd scene, or shopping mall or street scene, but since your actor shows in the final scene, if there is an exception for extras, this doesn't apply. The character has name, presumably has lines, this is not an extra.
If a named character appears on stage or camera, dead or not, no matter how small the part, they get credit.
You aren't giving anything away, the person could be part of a flashback, a body in a funeral scene, whatever. Give them credit.
EDIT: A way to be open but keep the secret is to refer to the dead character by an affectionate nickname; like Skipper. In fact, make it a nickname they remember the character didn't even like, but they used it to tease her. Then, in the moment before it is revealed Skipper is alive, produce the real name.
"Sir, there is somebody at the door. She says her name is Skyler, and you know her."
"Skipper? She's a con, Skipper died when the plane went down. We had a funeral."
"Yes sir. I shall send her away."
"Wait. Skyler. I have to see this fraud for myself."
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The character of Death in Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding (Bodas de Sangre) is not supposed to be credited in the program. I note that she (Death being a beggar-woman in the play) is not in the list of characters in the script (see page 4) and this is a specific instruction by the author (page 50).
I can’t tell if the intention is to name that actress for one of the other small roles. I suppose that for a professional production some special arrangement must be made with Actors’ Equity or an equivalent union to have an actor appear without credit.
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