Portfolio

Initial response

Rimers of Eldrich is a play that centres around the Trail of Nelly Windrod and the Assault of young Eva Jackson, causing the Murder of Skelly Manour, of whom Nelly shoots, thinking it was him sexually assaulting Eva, when in fact it is Robert Conklin who is doing such and Skelly attempting to stop him. It is set in a Post-industrial Coal mining town in Missouri, 1962, that, for the most part, has been abandoned.

My initial response to Rimers of Eldritch was one of confusion, as the structure of the writing (in which the timeline was not in chronological order), I found it difficult to grasp where each scene was taking place. However, upon further reading of the play, this became a short-term problem as I gained a deeper understanding.

Research work/ pre-Casting work

being cast, we spent our first week researching relevant political, economic and cultural elements of the play.  A key finding in the research was those relating to the coal Mining industry, as it gave good context to the setting of the play. One of these is the Federal Coal Mine Safety Act of 1952, which allows inspectors to call for the immediate closure of mines if they are deemed not to meet standards. Giving a plausible explanation for the circumstances of the Eldritch mine. A greater depth of research in the culture of the time period could have benefited me more, as I could have found a greater sense of identity with Robert through the norms of groups and ideologies and used it to greater inform the character’s personality and mannerisms.

We also used this period to do a full cast mining of the text, in which we deciphered all the facts in the text and broke them down into units, which would later be used for calls. We then expanded on this work and created a structure for the town and worked out the links between the characters. This work gave me mixed feelings, as while I found the mining of the text to help my overall understanding of the play, some of the connections of the characters and building of the areas to not have a large impact on my development. I did find it useful in parts to create some more depth within scenes (such as a scene with Skelly and Robert where he doesn’t want houses nearby to hear him speaking to him). I often struggle to fully envision entire places where the characters are, particularly in more minimalist productions, of which this was. To add to this, I saw limited direct benefit in the connections of the characters. However, I would also argue that this is more to do with the character being more of a ‘loner’ rather than the technique. Understanding the link between him and his brother (of whom he isn’t a present character) did help indirectly.

Casting/Character Work

My roles in the Play were Robert Conklin in Act 1 and Trucker in Act 2. My initial response to being cast as these roles was positive, as I saw Robert as a key player in the play’s plot. Upon first discussions with the person playing Robert in act 2, we identified 2 key issues that we would face; With Robert being the end Character that commits a sexual assault, it would be important that, when trying to connect with the character, we had a clear differentiation between Robert and us. This would be to allow us to be able to give full justice to the topic of the piece while also keeping my own mental well-being safe. I found this particularly important for me, as, although I didn’t perform the assault scene, I knew I could find it particularly overwhelming to find similarities with a character that does. A method we had been told to use by are director was check-ins and check-outs before and after scenes and runs to create a clear line between us and our characters. This is something I began to apply later in the process with Felicity (who had been cast as the Act 1 Eva). We had also had pre-discussions of how we get out of character before casting, mine were to add things to myself that were distinctly me (e.g. talking about topics that were niche to me or wearing my own shoes).

To begin developing my character, I mined the text for all of Robert’s and Trucker’s given circumstances. From these, I made some choices on the character’s background that were not Fact within the texts and allowed this to inform my initial characterisation choices.

For Robert, I created a spider diagram to help visualise different parts of him. It also helped me filter key parts of his circumstances that I wanted to work with. This helped form opinions for Robert on key aspects of his life, which I could use to inform his reactions to stimuli and objectives in scenes and his life/play. Throughout the process, I often had struggles with finding strong character choices for Robert that were distinct from myself, due to his being of a similar age to me. I attempted to tackle this by using my own time to scale up physical choices to take into the rehearsal room that could be brought down as they became more cemented into my character’s movement. I also had discussions with the other Robert about mannerisms we would both adopt to make it clear we were the same person to serve the overall piece, however, we planned them not to be identical to give our own interpretations.

Rehearsal

In the first week of rehearsal, we had dedicated calls for individual scenes (that would later be pieced together). To give our director as much to work with as possible, where possible, I gathered with my other performer in the scene to go in with an idea of what was happening within the scene, the relationships of the characters and the objectives of the characters and Langford. This allowed me to get more out of my calls, as I was able to have open discussions with the director about the scenes and develop a deeper understanding of them and my characters. However, due to the nature of the calls being in isolation, at this stage in the process, I struggled to see the director’s overall vision for the play, causing minor confusion for some ideas I was told to explore. Despite this, I saw it to be professional to put trust in their vision (of which I would understand and bear the fruits of as my understanding developed)

Before each rehearsal, I would aim to get there 30 minutes before I was officially needed. This allowed me not to feel rushed upon arrival and to adequately warm up. I felt warm-ups to be a key part of my process, as they allowed me to fully utilise my body’s movement and vocal limitations, as well as to be fully energised in a room. I adapted my warm-up to meet the demands of each rehearsal (e.g. A vocal focus if it was a singing call) to fully maximise what I could get and give in them. As well as this, I often took myself away from others and used headphones when warming up to gain an early focus to take into rehearsal and void myself of habits of getting distracted by others ( as I know myself to be easily influenced by the mood of a room).

Further on in the rehearsal process, we began to do full cast runs. In these runs, we were always within the performance space, even when not actively in the scene, as we were sitting on the edges of the stage. This meant that we had to sit in stillness to avoid being distracted from the main stage. Being a neurodivergent performer, this came as a great challenge for me (as I often struggle to sit still); however, I decided to take this with an optimistic outlook, as it allowed me to discuss methods with others with similar problems and come up with strategies to help tackle issues. By taking this attitude when the issue first presented itself, it had adequate time to develop these strategies ready for the performance. This will also benefit me in later work as I can use the same idea for similar staging.

Also, at this point in the process it was were transitions between scenes were being added and played with. Our director introduced us to previews (a concept that was new to me), which is where ideas for a scene/transition are explored but not necessarily implemented. This often confused the cast due to it being a new concept for many. During these periods, I made a stronger effort to listen to the director and maintain focus to help both myself and maintain a calm rehearsal room. I found the transitions confusing initially, as I was unsure of my cues to enter the stage ( they weren’t always during scenes I was in) and what side of the stage I was coming on. This was important due to it being in traverse, so we couldn’t easily switch sides other than during scenes. Our director suggested making tracks to memorise where we had to be, which I used as an idea. This was useful for me in the sense that writing it down allowed me to remember it easier rather than revising it to internalise. I also marked through my track before runs and the show to help me envision it and quell doubts of getting it wrong and not knowing. I began to struggle during this period on days of low mood, as my confidence would be at a lower point, causing me to be harder on myself for mistakes, and my listening skills to be less present. On reflection, it would have been more beneficial for me to dedicate time and attention towards wellbeing. Doing this likely would have made me more available to the director, as well as not taking their attention from key focus points.

Singing

Singing is an area of performance that I have less experience in, and in turn, also lack confidence. A problem I faced when having to learn parts of the was having the confidence to practise on my own. Doing this stopped me from fully committing to the song early on in its development. Thankfully, this is something I identified earlier on in the process and began to focus more of my time towards where needed in my own time. On reflection, the unwillingness to practise in my own time may also have been linked to a more of a distain of singing in front of people, and therefore I made less of an effort. Development on this during the piece was a move towards a more professional approach, as personal preference should not take the helm over the demands and needs of the piece and the director. I took this as a key development during my personal process through strengthening my maturity and professionalism for future work.

Overall, I felt that during this project, I made many key developments in my process, such as building a stronger sense of professionalism. I would like, in future projects, to have a greater well-being focus than I had during this one. I did, however, take this as an important personal learning on my needs as an actor, which is positive to find at the early stages of my career. I believe my preference went well, as it felt it was believable and compelling. Despite this, there could have been a stronger sense of character found in Robert. To combat this in future, I will attempt to be more playful with characterisation, as I felt a greater success with Trucker, which I had done. I also think I got stuck in loyalty to earlier ideas, which limited my exploration.