Actor and Text Process Portfolio

Introduction

This semester, my Acting and Text lectures have been formulated to create an understanding and confidence in the use of rehearsal techniques and key practitioners methodologies. These indispensable skills have been shown to us by Actor, Claire Eden, to round out our preconceived knowledge on the creation of a character and performance, while additionally giving us new information to drive this knowledge and understanding further, aiding in masterful execution of character development. This term, I personally wanted to work on finding connection to roles dissimilar to myself, to create more accurate portals of them, and through these lessons, I believe I have pursued this aim successfully. Incorporating the studied drama practitioners systems, I developed a method that successfully aided evolution of a character, by understanding their current and past circumstances as well as their objectives. Working with Claire Eden, has given me the foundation of knowledge needed to work this through an unknown script or text.

Serious Money

At the start of the term, we turned to focus to the play ‘Serious Money’ by the feminist playwright Caryl Churchill. The satirical play was first staged in 1987 and was a writing of its time, set in the 1980s, in London, with focus following the 1986 deregulation of the stock exchange. Having already read the script in our own time, our task was focused in World Building Research. Within small groups, we were given a topic for the time period of the text, that was key to the storyline. Our topic was politics. Within the group we found the crucial political points, and split ourselves to focus on these individually, in order to get more information overall. I was given charge of the ‘Impact of the miners strikes, and the following closures’. The research I accumulated showed that these historical political events were the backbone of the main themes of the play. Serious money critiques greed, systemic corruption and the dehumanization that stems from thatcherite capitalism. The emotions stemmed from economic decline and increased social inequality created a breeding ground for the rapacity and the objectification from high-flying, power-seeking characters, fostering corruption.

We then reviewed, in our groups, the first scene of the play, with our accumulated research in mind. This first scene acts as a satirical prologue that connects the financial boom in London to a long history of capitalist greed. Understanding the political situation of the time gave us greater comprehension of the characters, their opinions, and the authors opinions. Immediate themes of political and financial greed, and manipulation set up the tone and Churchills aims. For me, these tasks highlighted the importance of knowledge. Understanding of the current times of a play, helps to acknowledge the themes and purposes of plot lines and character development within a drama.

This way of working, was used differently by practitioners Uta Hagen (1919-2004), and Stanislavski (1863-1938). We used the methodologies of each to help us understand the characters within the play further. Stanislavski’s given circumstances, and Uta Hagen’s nine questions aided our character analysis with our world building research.

This altogether gave me a new way of approaching character analysis, gaining ease in acting with all the information needed under my belt. Looking at characters different from myself in age, life experience, gender, and social status, I was able to approach them with much more ease than previously. Although, with no context to the show, I believe I would have found these techniques difficult to use with a completely unknown character. This in turn, revealed to me the importance of knowing a text before diving into character development and exploration and especially before rehearsals or performance. The focus on facts and truth however, I found very easy to work with, using deduction to find the untold answers of a play. Since, I have been able to use this way of working to create well rounded characters, through research, answering the nine questions, given circumstances, and figuring out where creative liberty is appropriate.

Romeo & Juliet

Our work with Romeo and Juliet (1597) extracts, showed us a more physical approach to character work and introduced us to heightened text. Before class, I picked Juliet’s monologue from Act 2, scene 2, of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (1564-1616). We were given the option of a monologue, or a two-hander scene. I chose Juliet’s monologue because I wanted to focus on the complexity of the language and balancing the meaning with poetry. Firstly, we discussed heightened text, compared it to the lyrics of a song and looked over the structure and punctuation. We got up and walked around the room with our scripts, reading aloud and keeping in mind what we had talked about, while also being mindful of metre and making the words matter. My aim at this point was to reflect Juliet’s intense emotions, even though I wasn’t sure of the phrasing.

Claire Eden introduced a list of directions in relation to the grammar within the monologue to us. These were: full stop – spin, comma – change in direction, exclamation mark – jump, question mark – spin. The excessive was to follow these rules while reading the extract given of Juliet’s monologue, and find what changes it made to the way we performed the text. Linking physical activity to punctuation was difficult at first, but once I had figured out which kind of grammar meant which movement, it came much easier, as body and brain connected. It became easier each time we did it, to feel the pauses, change, and movement within the punctuality between speech, and the changes this made to a performance. I can now use this method within a rehearsal space to then create a performance with a deep link to physicality and fill the spaces between words. There is now volume where previously, I only saw gaps. This has improved the quality and way of speech within monologues when I perform them, and physically, has given me a grounding to the things that I am saying.

Once we had gone over this many times, we moved on to world building research in groups. Because the play was not written to portray the time it was released, we had to research the 14th and 15th century customs, as well as the late 1500’s, Shakespeare time. We split the research up, so we could research all different aspects of these times. I had the task of researching costume. Taking the Renaissance indications from the play, and looking into Shakespeare’s Companies costumes, I was able to identify that on stage, when Romeo & Juliet was released, they would have been in mostly normal Elizabethan wear, with some tweaking to create the illusion of the play occurring in a different time. This, along with the research of tradition of both timelines, helped myself and my group re-analyse our text with a new perspective.

We were then put into different groups, decided based on which new extract from the same play we would like to work on. My group decided on Act 1, scene 1. This first scene introduces the feud between the two families. We each picked a character, and we quickly staged the scene. My character was Abraham, and I took into account his societal rank, his loyalties (and so in turn, his prejudices), and his job in order to create a character with as much accuracy as I could. I read through the lines in my group using the punctuation/movement technique first, before staging, and this helped me work through the physicality before emphasizing and structuring it. Working through the heightened text and using this movement technique has greatly helped me create physicality for characters very different from myself.

Applying the process

The techniques I have learned through this term, have helped me create a process when given a new text and character. Specifically Stanislavski and Uta Hagen’s techniques – the nine questions, and given circumstances have helped me the ability to dive into a character unlike myself, as a place to start and gain knowledge and understanding. These have contributed to my development as an actor, because now I have the skills to take me through the evolution of a character in detail, and am able to feel change within my body before and after the process.

Bibliography

Given Circumstances in Acting: Definition, Examples, and Exercises

https://share.google/GLQdJ0DQnel7j9kjS

Uta Hagen’s Acting Technique Explained | StarNow

https://share.google/d5VPIICJrWR0dSvrQ

Romeo and Juliet: Entire Play

https://share.google/DTIX6Je1euFeHu4my

Uta Hagen Respect for Acting: Expanded Version