Trailburst Nuggets Cereal
The name of the cereal to which Andrew owes his fame and subsequent opportunities says it all. It is nomenclature as metaphor. While perfectly legitimate work, appearing in commercials is really related more to the business of sales than acting and while it provides much needed income for many struggling actors, it can often come to see like the point on the trail to becoming a TV or movie star at which the dream starts to burst.
John Barrymore
John Barrymore is a literal, historical person who aligns rather closely with the character in the play. As a character, however, his real power lies in his symbolism. He is constantly being placed in juxtaposition to Andrew to reveal how the “job” of acting has changed significantly. Barrymore is really almost the only actual historical figure who would be appropriate for this role in the play because in real life he is very much the symbol of how acting transformed in the 20th century from what it had been before because he is the arguably the most famous actor associated with that transformation. He has one foot in the ancient tradition of stage actor bringing a role to life right in front of an audience and one foot in the modern tradition of alienation from the audience, acting becoming a much more collaborative art due to film and, of course, the actor shifting from mere player to part-time marketing component.
The Gaffney Technique
The first time Andrew prepares to act in front of Barrymore, he somewhat irritates the ghost of the pre-Method Acting matinee idol by not just jumping into the script and instead going through a series of preparatory exercises he terms “the Gaffney Technique” after the name of his acting teacher. These preparations include, among other things: hunching his entire body, shadow-boxing, screwing his facial features into strange poses, howling and even slapping his face. Andrew’s teacher is entirely fictional, but represents a symbolic stand-in for modern acting teachers from Stanislavsky to Lee Strasberg and from Stella Adler to Sanford Meisner. Essentially, Harold Gaffney is meant to symbolize every manner of 20th century acting techniques that stand in opposition to the “just get up and act” school represented by Barrymore.
The Brownstone
The brownstone home which Andrew literally moves into as the play open is subtly used to convey symbolic meaning. The author explicitly instructs in his stage directions that right from the start there is a sense that the building is out of time: it is Gothic, medieval and castle-like. That really does not change from the first act to the second act. What does change is that the play opens with an apartment being moved into: boxes are stacked high, furniture is veiled behind the protection of drop cloths and sheets, and it is dark. The staging here is resonant of stories about mysteries and haunted houses and ghosts and successfully taps into the audience’s collective recognition of the symbols that create that ambiance. By the opening of Act Two, the darkness of the mystery and the appearance of the ghost has given way to light and light is a symbol of knowledge. This collective awareness is manifested by the transformation of the brownstone which now features an ornate fireplace, colorful wall tapestries, a Renaissance globe and stacks of leather-bound books.
Trailburst Nuggets Commercial
The famously catchy jingle for the breakfast cereal declares Trailburst Nuggets to be “an anytime snack.” The jingle thus allows the commercial for the cereal to exist inhabit a separate symbolic realm from the cereal itself. The connotation of a snack you can eat anytime declares it by definition to be something other than a product set aside for a special occasion. Since Andrew has no other connection to the cereal than being a marketing spokesman within that commercial, this creates space for the commercial to become a symbol for every facet of the acting industry which is disposable and easily forgotten and thus placed in juxtaposition to the timelessness of Hamlet. The jingle suggests that the advertisement is a symbol for everything from commercials to reality shows and everything in-between that devalues the art of acting to make it even less than a craft.
