Initial Thoughts and Research

The first time I finished reading ‘Our Town’ I was quite emotional. I felt that the play was so beautifully written and handled topics such as Grief and Loss in such a natural, careful way. I loved the message that it put across of making the most of life while you are still here, and the characters almost being examples of who did and didn’t. The scenes were natural, comical, and all-around comforting. I immediately felt like I was a part of Grover’s Corners (where the play is set) from even the introductions of the characters by the Stage Manager.  

The play focuses on the lives of two families, The Webb’s and the Gibbs’, in and around the fictional town of Grover’s corners, New Hampshire. However, another part that I loved is that Thornton Wilder had set it in a theatre, hence the use of ‘Stage Manager’ rather than Narrator. It is almost separating the play from real life so that the audience can connect and disconnect, which bats home the message of the play. The three Act play covers different themes during each act. Act One is Daily Life, Act Two is Love and Marriage and Act Three is Death and Eternity (Please see figures 1A-1C). This is set across a time from 1901-1913. This was a time in America where a lot of events happened, most notably the stock market crash, which devastated companies and lives of people who had invested in any stock. As well as this, there was the early rise of the suffragette movement, and the Congregationalists were most popular within New Hampshire, which is seen in Grover’s Corners (Please see figure 2A and 2B). 

Initially, after reading ‘Our Town’ I wanted to know more about Thornton Wilder. He was a playwright, who had a lot of experience in different parts of the world. For example, he lived in China at a young age before coming back to the US with his family. His thoughts on Broadway sets were that because they were so full scale, the power of the words within the script were lost, and these beautiful moments that happen within daily life are missing in Broadway shows. This is why he made ‘Our Town’ very minimalistic, and when reading from an actor’s perspective, the script work and character exploration became a lot more of an easier process for me. 

Figure 1A

Figure 1B

Figure 1C

Figure 2A

Figure 2B

Casting

Instead of traditionally being given an audition time slot, and made to perform scenes as the characters we wanted to play, our director Beth Knight decided that it would be better for her to schedule fifteen-minute chats with each of us, so that she can get a good understanding of who we are as actors and what we want out of the process. During this time, you could also mention what characters you were interested in. 

I briefly mentioned to Beth that I wasn’t interested in who I was cast as, but I wanted a character that would challenge me. When reading the play, I thought that the two characters that would challenge me most would be Mr. Webb and Simon Stimson, because they were personalities that I hadn’t seen any similarities in characters I have played previously. Especially Mr. Webb, as I felt his scene with George in Act Two would be so fun to play around with, as when ‘Our Town’ was published in 1938, men still held very opposing views to Mr. Webb, so I thought that being the contrary but not looking standout due to his beliefs would test my rehearsal process and acting ability! 

When the day came, I was casted as Mr. Webb (Act One), the editor and publisher of the Grover’s Corners Sentinel Newspaper and Emily Webb’s father. A loving, family man who is one of the most well-respected members of Grover’s Corners. 

Accent Work

With the New Hampshire accent, it was imperative that I did a vocal warm up before the start of each rehearsal. As time went on, I felt that the accent was very strenuous on the tongue and lips, as when speaking there was a lot of irregular movement in comparison to my own accent. So I specifically designated time to warm up both parts more than usual, which served well in the end and I felt a lot more comfortable using the accent for longer periods of time. To begin learning the accent, the first thing that I did was look up videos of people from New Hampshire so I could hear and try to replicate their responses to interview questions. This instantly gave me familiarity around the accent. After watching these videos and practicing myself, we had accent sessions with Jess, which I thought were very helpful to get the technicalities right. 

Once I had the general New Hampshire accent down, I started to make distinctions. Mr. Webb had gone to college in New York, so I decided that there still should be a part of that with him. This I felt elevated my rehearsal as I was able to get a more in-depth version of Mr. Webb, leading to a more truthful performance. 

Physicality Exploration

Mr. Webb so far has been the most explorative and interesting character I have had to play in a physical aspect. That’s why I felt the need to really nail his walk as well as his mannerisms and gestures so that it would allow me a gateway to get into character. To start with, I used Laban’s ‘Efforts’ exercise to try and seek what felt like the most natural version of Mr. Webb’s movements. Alongside this, when physically exploring, I accompanied it with my character playlist. After testing out the different Laban’s ‘Efforts’ I thought that ‘Glide’ was the most suited. Mr. Webb is light; he seems to almost go with the wind, as well as having a big and welcoming kinesphere. However, there is still definitely a more formal, direct side to Mr. Webb as he is not only the newspaper editor, but one of the most highly regarded members of the Grovers Corners community. This is where I felt the most challenged physically, because I wanted to find the lightness within his movements whilst still looking professional. But when I changed around where his centre of gravity was held, and decided to hold it right in the core, I had found the balance that served him the best. Moving forward, Laban’s ‘Efforts’ exercise will remain in my process, as for myself I find it imperative to get a physicality down for my character before most things so that I can start to feel like the character, therefore leading to a more authentic performance.  

As well as this, costume was a big help for me. I tried to bring as much costume in as I could as early as possible, especially items like shoes. This in my head separates me from the character and brings a form of familiarity when I put said items on. 

For mannerisms I looked into various politicians and people of higher status for any subtle movements they may do subconsciously when in natural conversation and in speeches. I found that using simple, subtle gestures worked best for me. The ones that I felt had the most impact was putting my hands behind my back, which naturally adjusted my posture, and made Mr. Webb look more formal. This physically allowed me to feel a difference between myself as an actor and my character.

Character Exploration

Mr. Webb was by far one of the most complex characters that I have played. I started by looking into the play of when and where my name was mentioned, which did not have much to tell but the few things that I got from it were vital, especially around his status within the community. After this, I used Stanislavski’s ‘Given Circumstance’ exercise so that I had the facts for Mr. Webb as groundworks for the rest of my character exploration. 

Mr. Webb was a massive family man as seen in the script, and although it was contrary to belief at the time he believed in women having an education and getting jobs, which is seen with Mrs. Webb telling Emily to perform the speech she had made in front of her father.  

 He grew up in a very traditional household within the U.S at the time. His father would be away at work whilst his mother would be a stay-at-home, ensuring that the household is clean. I used Uta Hagen’s ‘Day in the life’ exercise, where I would go back into the past and act out what a day in the life of Mr. Webb’s would look like when he lived with his parents. This worked really well for me, and I found that Mr. Webb champions and values the female figures within his life because his father did not appreciate the work that his wife did for them as a family. This tied in perfectly with his scene discussing with George around weddings. In the future, I will definitely be using this exercise as a part of my process as it gave my character so much more depth that I could use, which was also transferrable to the text.  

Another exercise that I used was ‘Actioning’. But different to usual I spoke to Beth about this in rehearsal, and she suggested using the exercise but rather than putting an action to a line, go through all of the actioning words select a plethora of them that you feel suited for your character and have them almost as a toolkit to pull out (Please see Figure 3). This for me was the most useful exercise so far, because I was able to listen and react whilst still putting an action to a line. As well as this, it kept things fresh in the rehearsal room because it was different every time, as I had much more to play with. This version of the ‘Actioning’ exercise will be a staple for my process going forward, as I felt like it gave me a lot of insight to the character because not only did I have freedom with lines and scenes, but I had a set of actions that were all fundamental to how I wanted my character to be perceived on stage. 

Figure 3

Director Feedback

During the rehearsal process, I found there were many challenges that I came across, as in our cut of Act One he did not interact with any other characters apart from the audience and with his daughter Emily, but only briefly. Mr. Webb’s first speech was introducing the town in a statistical and then opinionated way once he was asked questions, but my director Beth thought that there wasn’t enough enthusiasm about this town that Mr. Webb loves so much. For weeks we tried a lot of different exercises to try and get this in a good place, which mentally I felt quite challenging, as I never felt like I was progressing and when it finally came around to the final day, I feel like I got the best version of it out. Due to my past of being in plays where the director wanted very minute, almost TV-like acting, I struggled to adapt at times to how big I needed to be as Mr. Webb.  

The breakthrough moment for me was in week three, when in a small individual rehearsal Beth told me to play it ridiculously over the top. Once doing this, and after making some small changes to internalize some of the things that I did, I finally felt it was in a good place. I realised that as an actor if you play a choice over the top to start, and make bold choices, you can always refine them for the final performance rather than try to play it as the final performance on day one of rehearsal. For future projects and plays, I need to be more confident in my choices and throw myself at anything the director tells me to! 

Conclusion

To Conclude, I have loved being a part of this process. Despite the knocks, I feel like it has helped me discover the parts of myself as an actor I need to improve on and has challenged me in all the right ways. I am so proud of my cast; the level of professionalism throughout was exceptional. I have learnt so much across the whole of the rehearsal process, and I’m excited to take away parts of my journey and use it in future shows and projects. My goal for future projects is to throw myself into rehearsals more, and being bolder with the choices that I make, which I did achieve in the end but I feel as if that if I did these things at the start of the process, I would have lots more to explore around my character!