Monday, which is the Equity day off for actors, we scheduled a recording session with Peter Macon.\u00a0 Thanks to the help of Claudia Alick<\/a> from the festival (introduced to us through a new acquaintance Debra Murphy<\/a>), we were able to reserve a quiet room in the festival’s offices for the recording.\u00a0 For the other scenes, which weren’t as long, I had to feed lines as the other characters.\u00a0 This was fairly tricky, as I was also in charge of the recorder and the sound quality, since I had to record the session alone with Peter.\u00a0 I also should have taken notes as we went, but I didn’t even attempt it so that my mind wouldn’t have multitask meltdown.<\/p>\n When I first imagined Sunday as I read the book, I followed Chesterton’s visual description, which was a large fat man with a huge frame and a long white beard.\u00a0 But like many others, I’m sure, when I read the lines he had the voice of James Earl Jones.\u00a0 I wanted a deep voice for Sunday, but I also wanted him to sound different than everybody else.\u00a0 Perhaps a little international, with less of an accent.\u00a0 I also wanted him to breath power and force.\u00a0 As Peter read the lines he would occasionally slip into a type of British accent that was tainted with an African flavor.\u00a0 I really liked it.\u00a0 Sunday is not a product of a certain country, he could come from anywhere, or in fact, everywhere.<\/p>\n Then of utmost importance is the last line of the book– “Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of?”\u00a0 I think this will come across beautifully.\u00a0 It’s in answer to Gabriel’s question, “Except you.\u00a0 Have you ever suffered?”\u00a0 It’s not an answer to the questions of the book, but Sunday’s answer does answer Gabriel’s question, and it also has to express his reaction to Gabriel’s final revelations.\u00a0 We recorded the line about a dozen times.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/andrewjwahlquist.com\/manwhowasthursday\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SundaySetup-300x200.jpg\" "\\"SundaySetup\\"")
<\/a> This session was more difficult than the others, because we would be recording Peter by himself in scenes that he will be interacting with sometimes six other actors.\u00a0 For the first scene like this, the “balcony scene” as I called it, Gabriel first meets the dreadful Council of Days, the seven princes of anarchy, led by President Sunday.\u00a0 I had already recorded the scene a few times with other actors, everyone except the Marquis.\u00a0 So I edited the scene together, minus Sunday’s lines, and brought it up on my iPod to play for Peter.\u00a0 During the recording session, he would listen in headphones to the other actors performances, and then fill in his lines whenever there was a gap.<\/p>\n