Introduction:

This term in my actor and text lectures we have been using a range of plays to explore different techniques, methodologies and practitioners to break down and analyse texts. By using these I aimed to gain a better understanding of the context, world and characters within these plays and ultimately deepening the believability and authenticity of my performance. I now have a solid process of research and furthering my understanding of my character that I aim to use when dissecting any scripts and characters that I work with in the future.

With the guidance of my Actor and Director Claire Eden I have looked at a range of practitioners that I am going to be discussing in this portfolio. Starting off with Stanivlavski’s super objective (Stanislavski K, 2013) and Uta Hagens 9 questions (Hagen U, 2008) which I used to deepen my understanding of the character of Cissy in Punk rock (Stephens S, 2009). Next, I looked at the play Serious Money by Caryl Churchill (Churchill C 1990). We looked into world building research and how it can help to give a fully informed performance. Finally, I looked at heightened texts using Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare W, 2012) we looked at Cicely Berry’s method of walking the text (Berry C, 1973) and other techniques to understand and perform heightened texts.

In this portfolio I am going to be reflecting on each of these methods and techniques, analysing how they have helped me to give an authentic and believable performance. I am going to be using Boud’s Model of reflection to help me convey my findings (Boud D, KeoghR and Walker D, 1985).

Stanivlavski and Uta hagen (looking at punk rock)

In the first Actor and text lecture I had we were looking at the play Punk rock by Simon Stephens (Stephens S, 2009), I chose the character of Cissy to explore. We were given an exercise in which we had to answer Uta Hagen’s 9 questions and consider the Characters super objective. Uta Hagen’s questions help you understand how to act in a specific moment character they ask about character’s relationship to other people or the what they want in that moment and what stands in their way. Hagen describes this exercise in her book Respect for acting by saying “these are the questions we must ask ourselves, and explore and define in order to act” (Hagen U, 2008, page 83). The super objective on the other hand is a Stanislavski method exploring the idea that a character has an overarching objective the play Stanislavski says: “in a play the whole stream of individual, minor objectives, all the imaginative thoughts, feelings and actions of an actor should converge to carry out the super objective” (Stanislavski S, 2013, page 271)

After we had completed, we were put into groups and had to do an improvisation exercise recreating a moment from the play without any script and just acting in a moment how we thought our characters would act. In the scene Cissy was talking to her boyfriend bennet about getting a low grade in class.

Through answering the questions and looking at the super objective I found it a lot easier to make informed decisions when playing Cissy in the improvisation. I found she was constantly seeking comfort from Bennet and when she didn’t receive it she became agitated and would lash out and get upset at him. I also found out how much the grade meant to her provoking a much more emotional tone to the scene. Because of my analysis and answering of the questions I was forced to fill in some details of the character myself therefore I knew so much more about a character that I previously knew very little about and felt much more confident making bolder and higher stakes choices in the scene. This made the scene so much more interesting to watch and perform as it was much bolder and emotional, if I hadn’t done this research I would have been afraid to make these choices out of fear they would’ve been wrong or simply just not having the understanding of my character to make such choices. As well as that it also made the scene much more believable as I was able to put myself in Cissy’s shoes and react to what Bennet was saying in an informed way, which made improvising so much easier as I instinctively knew what she would say or do next.

Because of how useful I found this exercise in regards to this character and scene I am going to strive to complete Uta Hagens questions and decide on my characters super objective for every scene and play I am given to focus on in the future. It will become an essential part of my process as in understanding and deepening my knowledge of a character.

World building research (Serious Money)

The next thing that we covered in our lectures that really stood out to me was the world building research. We were looking at the play Serious money by Caryl Churchill (Churchill C (1990) and after covering the basic plot of the play we were sent away on a task to do some world building research. The categories that we were given to research were as follows: Politics, fashion, Finance, music, language and slang. We were split off into groups, each given a focus on one of the categories, my group was given politics of the 1980s. we looked at who was in charge at the time and what else was going on politically in that era, a lot of which actuallly related to the play. Each group then presented their research to the class so we had some information for each category.

Because of this thorough research I gained many things that helped me to perform the scene to the best of my ability. Firstly, the play was quite a complex plot especially without understanding the financial and political state of the world when it was set. Therefore, doing the research for these categories helped me to actually understand the plot of the piece and portray the scene in an informed way. Without this research I would not have fully understood what I was saying making my performance weak and unclear. The fashion and language research gave me a clear vision of the time period, it informed me of how to sit, stand and move because of the clothes my character would be wearing, it instructed me on how to speak and as well as that it gave me a clear image of what I was seeing and hearing. I could imagine what all the other characters were wearing also, having a more informed view of the scene around we made me feel much more immersed in the world of the play making it much easier to give an authentic performance. As well as that a character acts the way they do because of the environment and time they live in so knowing all of this makes my portrayal more real. So for my Character Zak I held myself in a powerful masculine way because that is how men working in that environment would’ve carried themselves, which imaging what I was wearing really helped with.

This research made me understand the context and world of the play so much better as well as making me feel more immersed in said world. However, it is a very lengthy process to go so in depth for every single category and I didn’t have the time to do all of that research in class when looking at plays. So, I did a less in-depth version, prioritising the categories I thought I needed to fully commit to and understand they play I was working on. However, the in-depth research is hugely useful so when I am working on a play or show in the future I am going to go out of my way to do a good amount of research outside of class so I can understand the context of the world as well as my character would.

Heightened texts and Cicely Berry (Romeo and Juliet)

The final thing I am going to be discussing is the exploration and research of heightened texts. The term heightened texts refer to language that is “more formal poetic or expressive than every day conversation it often appears in classical texts” (Kemp K, 2025). the most common example of this would be Shakespeare hence why we looked at Romeo and Juliet. Heightened texts can be more difficult to understand so requires more breakdown and research. We started off by looking at the structure and punctuation by using the technique of walking the text (Berry C,1973). We used Juliets “O Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo?” speech (Shakespeare W, 2012). we walked around the room and when we came to a different punctuation mark, we would complete a different action: full stop was stop comma was change direction etc. We then research the character and the scene we were given, looking at a modern translation and looking up words we didn’t understand. We performed the scene once as is and then once in our own words.

Often times heightened texts can be overwhelming when I first look at them but this method of breaking them down made the task of understanding and performing a Shakespeare scene feel much less daunting. Starting with the walking the text exercise made me focus on the punctuation which I may have missed otherwise and made me interrogate why that punctuation was there which made the text make more sense also. I did however find the exercise hard to read, look at the punctuation, remember the actions and move at the same time. Finding a modern translation and looking up words I found to be an essential part of the process as it made me understand more what the scene was really about making me more confident to portray Romeo and his intentions with much more clarity and objective when I was performing, I knew that essentially, he was flirting with Juliet which gave me a clear choice to play and clear images to play with as well. Finally putting the scene into our own words and performing it just secured that we did in fact know what was going on in the scene and gave a sense of playfulness that we could then put back in to the original version also.

From now on I am going to apply this process when looking at heightened texts to break it down as it made me feel much more secure and less overwhelmed by it. I am especially going to make sure I look at a modern translation and research the words I don’t understand as I think this was the part that helped me most. I am also going to ensure I take into account the punctuation in every piece that I look at from now on.

Conclusion

To conclude doing the proper amount of research and analysis before approaching a text is vital to giving the boldest, most informed and authentic performance possible. I have found the techniques that I have discussed in my portfolio to be the ones that stand out the most to me and I shall be using them moving forward when looking at new plays and musicals. Super objectives and Uta Hagens 9 questions provide a deeper understanding of character and relationship which helped me to step into the characters shoes and make bolder and more emotional choices; the world building research helped me to better understand the context of the play and to fully visualise and immerse myself in its world and the breaking down of heightened texts made me feel less daunted by Shakespeare and made me realise the importance of fully understanding the lines I was saying. All in all, these 3 techniques help me in different areas and when put together bring a greater level of depth, understanding and authenticity to my portrayal of the scenes I was given. I now understand the level of detail required to create the best quality performance I can.

Bibliography

Berry, C (1973) Voice and the actor. New York: Wiley Publishing inc

Boud, D, Keogh, R and Walker, D (1985) Promoting reflection in learning, a model. Turning reflection into learning. London: Routledge

Churchill, C (1990) Serious Money. London: Bloomsbury

Furber,D, Gay, N and Rose,L (2024) Me and my girl. Londodn: concourd theatricals

Hagen, U (2008) respect for acting, page 82. London: macmillan

Kemp, K (2025) How to perform elevated language Like a seasoned Shakesperean actor. Backstage.com

Shakespeare, W (2012) Romeo and Juliet. London: The Arden Shakespeare.

Stanislavski, K (2013) An actor prepares, page 271. London: Bloomsbury

Stephens , S (2009) Punk Rock. London: Bloomsbury