Organising is something that I really enjoy, so making a rehearsal schedule for the group was fun for me. I collected together all company members timetable for University and any other times that they are not able to do, such as if they are in a society or work at certain times. By doing this I was able to maximise rehearsals by making sure that every member was able to attend. By looking at times and dates that people were not free I was able to draft up available days for rehearsing. Then I searched room bookings and booked the rooms that were free during the times we needed. Unfortunately we were not able to get as much time in the studios within the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre as we would have liked, but we was able to use other rooms within the University. Once rooms were booked I met with the Director, Lauren, to plan out what each rehearsal could consist of. This was to add structure to rehearsals so everybody knew what would be happening within the rehearsals.
Once this was all decided I went away and crafted a rehearsal schedule that was given to each person within the group. Using Windows Excel meant that I could use the columns to organise each rehearsal clearly, splitting it up into; date, time, room, scene and notes – so that notes could be made on each rehearsals to help people, actors especially, to see what they have done on what day and help with their blogs.
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 .
“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].
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.
22.5.14 rehearsals
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.
Well, well, well… Chatty Karen, what can I say? What an awful woman she is! A bigoted, opinionated guard with no respect for anyone. Out of the eleven characters I play in ‘The Bogus Woman’, this one has been by far the most challenging. Acting out such a racist character seemed so unnatural due to the language used and, as you can see by the video below, the first script in hand run through of this scene was awkward and somewhat uncomfortable.
23.5.14 rehearsals
Action Shot of me as ‘Chatty Karen’ (Daniella Scimeca, 2014)
Having someone film scenes was an extremely useful tool for myself, as personally, it enabled me to see my performance from an audience perspective. This meant that something I thought might have looked good such as a wink or a direct point to the audience, may not have necessarily worked as well from the outside looking in. From watching this first script in hand run through, it was evident that a lot of work needed to be done before Chatty Karen took to the stage. One of the most important tools that I had picked up from my last drama module, Advanced Scene Study was to produce a character profile. This would enable me to create a rounded picture for my characters, aiding differentiation between them and picking out individual traits that each character would embody. Similarly through creating character profiles, the objective of the scenes and super-objectives of the play can be found. James Thomas asserts that, “According to Stanislavski, all the individual minor objectives in a play should come together under the command under a single, controlling objective called the super-objective.” (2013, p.65)
I created a couple of drafts of a character profile for each of the charactrers I play in ‘The Bogus Woman’ with the drafts being amended after each rehearsal when specific characteristics were established. Below is my final Character profile for ‘Chatty Karen’.
Chatty Karen Character Profile
Definition of a Guard: Watch over in order to protect or control
Occupation: Group 4 guard – been in the job since the age of 21 and it is all she knows. Because of this she thinks she knows everything about everyone and is the cream of the crop out of the guards who work there. She does not care who she offends and is a bigot. Campsfield Detention Centre is a real life, privately run immigration detention centre near Oxford. Protests at conditions at the centre have sparked a number of hunger strikes and protests.
Age: 35
Ethnicity: White British
Background History: Did not do well at school. Is not the brightest woman around, because of this she became a guard who wanted to intimidate. Was a bully at school and therefore takes pleasure in belittling people in order to make herself feel good about herself.
Marital Status: Married to a bigot husband who has a one track mind and black and white view on situations. Because of him, she has the views she has on immigration. She’s in an unhappy marriage and because of this takes it out on the immigrants. She has no children.
Does she respect the beliefs of others?: Chatty Karen has no respect for anyone and is quite happy to offend and criticise the detainees to anyone who will listen. Anything that is different from her is wrong and therefore she disregards and disrespects them.
A trait of Admiration?: Her knowledge on the differences on the detainees and where they originate from.
Super-objective: To watch over the detainees and make sure everything stays in order – All of the characters in the play apart from the Young Woman act as obstructions from her freedom and get in the way of her truly being happy – Chatty Karen being the one who wants to make sure the Young Woman remains a detainee for as long as possible.
Scene Objective: To belittle the detainees as she ‘apparently’ knows everything there is about them. Wants the detainees to hear what she says about them as it makes her feel superior and more important than they are.
On Stage Characteristics:
Treats the audience like they are another guard on the break with her.
Head nods and laughs at lines she finds funny. For example: “Takes a plate of curried eggs to prise a paki out his gaff to have a dust about”
Racist language does not phase Chatty Karen in the slightest as it is everyday language to her.
Choice of language on stage is colloquial and laid back.
Glottal stops instead of pronouncing the letter ‘t’ in words.
Stern faces, emotionless expressions.
Slouched on chait with a cup of tea.
Creating character profiles for each of the 11 characters meant that it was a lot easier to manage who I was playing and what specific traits they had. For instance, with Chatty Karen as you can see from the profile above, She slouches on the chair with an emotionless expressions on her face.
Works Cited: Thomas, James, (2013) Script Analysis for Actors, Directors and Designers, CRC Press
