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Acting
Develop, Developed and Developing Character
Developing characters is them their own identity. It is important to acknowledge the character as a living conscious that needs physical attributes to accompany it. These physical attributes come with getting to know your character and giving them history that makes them the person they are in your performance.
I therefore created three character profiles for my main characters in order for me to develop them to the best possible standard (find the character profiles attached below).
The Bogus Woman and Epic Theatre
When I first started rehearsing with the actors I started to notice small glimpses of non-naturalistic theatre that I was unknowingly installing into the piece. I realised I was getting the actors to perform using highly exaggerated postures and sometimes even movement, showing that I was taking a lean towards the non-naturalistic style within theatre.
After much thought into this I decided it was the right idea to carry on with the idea of non-naturalistic and take it to a higher level so it was clearly this kind of piece of theatre. Researching Bertolt Brecht and his ideas on Epic Theatre I realised I could use some of his ideas within the performance and they would be very apt. Brecht presented the idea of having fragmented costume and set, which we followed. Our costumes (apart from Fran’s) were the same, showing that the actors were not completely trying to portray their characters. The set was fragmented in that it was not a complete set the audience were perhaps expecting.
From the beginning, as a theatre company we decided we did not want to let the audience sit, relax and enjoy the show. I came to the realisation this was carrying on the idea of epic theatre ‘because Brecht wanted to represent historical process in the theatre and have it judged critically by audiences, he departed from many time honoured theatrical traditions.’ (Barranger, M, 2002, P.122) We ourselves wanted to do as Brecht had done and make the spectators really listen, challenge and question what we were putting on stage for them, as this was a piece that we wanted the audience to thoroughly consider.
I briefly looked at Brecht’s idea of verfremdungseffect, also known as the alienation effect. I discovered that to use this effect ‘the first point at issue is to uncover those conditions, (one could just say: to make them strange). This uncovering (making strange or alienating) of conditions is brought about by the process of being interrupted.’ (Walter, 1998, P.18) I approached this idea during Scene nineteen, which was the Mrs Doughty scene. This scene changed quickly to the young woman being belittled by a check out girl who won’t let her buy sanitary towels. Changing the scene so quickly diverted the audience’s attention to something fresh. Performing this unexpected scene would hopefully keep the audience alert and thinking. Also these enabled actors are able to prompt diverse ideas and situations to the audience quickly and effectively.
Looking at Brecht’s concepts on acting I felt I did not want to imbed the ideas completely. Brecht believed that the actors should not be acting the character; they should just be representing the character. However, I felt for the piece I was directing that each actor had to become the character on the stage to get the full emotion out of the audience that I intended. I did consider and marginally use the idea of the actors remaining emotionally unattached from each other. This was very fitting with our play as I had already decided I did not want the characters to look at the young woman for any length of time. I did this because I wanted to portray that the majority of the characters saw her as a nobody and somebody they thought lower of.
(Scimeca, 2014)
I also liked the idea of having characters facing out to the audience. I felt this helped transport the audience into the piece and see each of the characters expressions so they were really able to get into that characters mind-set.
(Scimeca, 2014)
Brecht and his concepts helped to turn theatre into an implement to prompt the audience into considering big issues, and this is precisely what we wanted our audience to engage with.
Barranger, M. (2000). Theatre. A way of seeing. 7th ed. USA: Cenage Learning .
Scimeca, D. (2014). Univeristy of Lincoln: Lincoln.
Walter, B. (1998 ). Understanding Brecht . New York: Verso .
The Snob.
“Satire is closely linked to parody and can often discredit an individual of their public worth or value.”
Clarissa Merchant at first was not a funny character to me. Within the first few weeks of exploring her character, I viewed her as fanciful and posh. As the rehearsals progressed, I noticed an underlining sense of satire within her scene with the young woman. Even though she insults the young women, more then once, her ignorance and arrogance caused giggles within the theatre company. I therefore enhanced this element of her character and created my own interpretation of a high-pitched, snob version of Clarissa. She is ‘head of the committee’, and so I used hand gestures and my own stance, to show her character and define her place within society and therefore within the play. A thin, colourful scarf was added towards the end of the rehearsal process, to add to the image of Clarissa being stuck up and over confident. I had a lot of fun playing her, and having that scene be one of a few comic relief moments within the play, allowed a versatile side to my acting to show.
Cash, J. (2007), Satire- The Drama Teacher [online]. Available from: http://www.thedramateacher.com/satire/[Accessed 28 May 2014].
Projecting Mrs Pennington.
My main character, Mrs Pennington, is the young woman’s trusted solicitor. When receiving our roles, and after a few read through of our lines, we hot-seated the characters in order to see what we could gain at such an early stage. I could immediately tell that the Solicitor was not tyrannical or harsh, but sensitive and understanding. She either is very good at being patient or has a connection to the young woman, and this is noticeable through the scene where she has lost her husband, yet puts the young women’s distress before her own. Being Mrs Pennington was a pleasure, as physically she is very powerful on stage, and her language is very professional. I was placed on downstage right and given the same spotlight throughout the performance. This showed the audience a recognisable visual element to my professional relationship to the young woman. When discussing aspects of ‘solicitor’ matters, I faced the audience, yet when I was reaching out to the young woman, I originally would turn my face to the young woman in the opposing spotlight. After gaining criticism and feedback from other students, I was advised to fully face forward, yet show the mood changes through my face and gestures. This would allow the audience to see my responses through my facial expressions, and continued with the starkness on stage that we had running throughout the performance.
Mrs Pennington progressed over the weeks, and as I became more comfortable with her persona and the words she uses, it was time to slow things down. Being such a calm and composed character, I struggled with projection, and slowing down the paragraphs that contained large, professional words such as; ‘positive identification of the political faction of the killers’. This was difficult, as I didn’t want to loose my emotion through the need to project my voice.
When we allocated the Solicitor with a red clipboard, this was her establishment of her role. The colour itself, against the grey dress, stood out and is very noticeable. I became fully committed to the character of Mrs Pennington when I was able to practise with the clipboard and felt that overall I justified her lovely and loyal character.