Eyes are more of a central means of expression for screen acting than for stage acting…

…due to the practical fact that only the smallest live theaters and/or closest rows offer an intimate enough vantage point to even notice minute ocular changes. A piercing gaze can penetrate the back of even the barniest barns — cheers to you, Laurie Metcalfe — but the nuances of the pupils are generally beyond visibility. 

Which doesn’t stop thespians from trying. 

The latest example was in a venue sufficiently cramped to see irises. For the entirety of The Passion of Mr. Cardboard at SoHo Playhouse, Miles Calderon rapidly darted his retinas back and forth above the audience’s heads, of a piece with his character’s manic instability (and suspicious paranoia). 

While not character specific, Jessica Hecht has a habit of stealing glances and briefly locking eyes with the front rows, breaking the 4th wall to bridge the divide between artifice and reality. 

Finally, in Downstate at Playwrights Horizons — returning to Broadway this season — K. Todd Freeman scanned the house to shoot daggers of individual eye contact, one with the play’s personal entreaties towards a shared empathetic humanity.