Actor and Text Process Portfolio

Introduction

In my Actor and Text lectures, I collaborated closely with both an actor and a director to analyse a range of text through in-depth analysis and performance. For this semester, I aimed to focus on naturalism and how to make a scene as naturalistic as possible. In addition to this, I intend to explored a variety of rehearsal techniques and methodologies devised by drama practitioners who concern naturalism, in this study, Stanislavski(1863-1938). I aim to incorporate the practitioner’s systems into my rehearsal to build a method to aid my development of a character. Over the course of the first semester, I will develop a process which helps me embody a character by understanding their circumstances within the chosen scripts. With this process, I will be able to appropriately interpret a character’s motives which enable me to make a range of artistic choices in order to successfully portray a character. In my lessons, I work with director Tyrell Jones who teaches and introduces me on how to approach my rehearsals using Stanislavski’s methods on texts ‘Paradise Lost’ and ‘The Bear’. I also worked with actor Claire Eden, who mentored me in applying these techniques into my acting to create a convincing, naturalistic performance.

‘Paradise Lost’

In my first lesson, I analysed an extract from the second book of the series ‘Paradise Lost’ by John Milton(1674-1608)[1]. ‘Paradise Lost’ is an epic poem concerning the biblical story of the ‘Fall of Man'[2]. The extract I studied was part of Belial’s speech. Belial is a daemon in Hell who has a pacifistic view to further war with Heaven. These are the ‘given circumstances of the character’; a principle devised by Stanislavski by which the environmental and situational conditions influence the characters actions- “This gives the actor the plot, the facts, the period…[3]”.Given the circumstances, I chose that they would be more docile than the other daemons. When analysing the text, it was difficult to work out sentences and phrases due to the, what seemed, irregular punctuation. In addition to this, sentences were very long and phrases continued over each line. I interpreted the punctuation as points of direction, such as use of emphasis or breaths, rather than parts of a sentence structure. In this case, I then had to decide and mark where I thought phrases begin and end. Once I had mapped out the phrases, I began deciding on choices I would use at certain punctuation marks.

For example, on the word “Enemy’, I spoke at a louder volume and put emphasis on the word by using a harsh glottal on ‘E’. I continued to use this approach through the extract. This process was very useful as it created a cohesive text where portraying Belial was convincing for the character. My general motivation behind the character was to dissuade the other daemons from encouraging a war. I portrayed this by passionately saying long phrases. I chose long phrases as they contained the pillar of the argument, therefore, Belial would be forceful. I did this by slowly gaining in volume and pace on the line, “the towers of Heaven are filled”. I rehearsed the line various ways, but this one felt more natural as it also showcased his frustration with the other daemons. However, I would only do this occasionally to create contrast between meek Belial and the other hostile daemons. In the speech there were often comments on the result of the war. On the line, “Victorious”, I would add sarcasm by using a lower volumes and rising the intonation of my voice. This portrayed a mocking of the war, giving an insight to his predictions of losing the war- giving context to the characters motives and adding versatility.

This aligns with the naturalistic style I want to employ as it displays part of the character’s interior life, rather than the grandeur of external gestures, to communicate Belial’s experience. I used this process in my further lectures as I found it helpful to gather the foundation of a character and the context around them. This aligns will with the naturalistic style I want to employ as it displays part of the character’s interior life.

‘The Bear‘

In my ‘Actor and Text’ lectures with Tyrell, I studied ‘The Bear’. This play is a one-act play written by Anton Chekhov(1860-1904)[4]. The play revolves around Popova as she laments her deceased husband and is conflicted on whether to move on. With this play, I delved into the details of the characters’ thoughts and motives. With research on Stanislavski’s system of using every part of a character’s thought process to drive a motive and brings realism to the play. Stanislavski insisted that there should be a reason for every external action and this needs to “correspond with the inner life”[5] of a character. He believed that it is impossible to grasp an entire play, it must be broken down to the finest detail. This was a fundamental technique as it removes any physical tension which could interfere with the specific action that the play requires. These objectives are broken down into: event/units, tactics, objectives and a super objective.

– Events

An ‘Event’, also known as a ‘unit’, is the smallest section of breaking an action down. An event is a change in the character which determines the character’s next specific action. The event is a point in the play, this is caused by dialogue or a behaviour or a physical object, which requires a change in emotional or cognitive response from the character. To keeping in line with the circumstances of a character, an event is the “spark of an inner chain of circumstances”[6].

I have found events particularly useful in ‘Acting Through Song’ as, from reflecting on feedback, in order to create a completely convincing performance, I need to know every small detail of the characters thinking in order to make the right choices. Even though musical theatre is an exaggerated and unnaturalistic art form, this process makes my performance feel secure and gives me the support and confidence to make artistic decisions.

– Objectives

‘Objectives’ are a series of goals that a character uses in order to obtain their ‘super-objective’. As events are the spark of an action, objections are ‘the driving force behind the action'[7]. A character will use a one or multiple actions, triggered by an event, in order to gain this. An objective is usually a problem which is embedded into the given circumstances.. This can also be framed as a question, which I found particularly helpful, ‘what do I want?’.

Following the my previous example, Smirnov’s objective in this situation has changed from collecting the debt to defending his case to prove that it isn’t just men that don’t know how to behave. Using this, I decided that Smirnov is offended by her remark as, in his view, it genialises his masculinity into being obliged to respect Popova. However Smirnov doesn’t think that fair. Therefore, this helps drive his defensive and furious motives which causes him to use ‘tactics'[8], in this case, ‘to condemn’ Popova’s remark to help him gain his objective.

I applied objectives to my work with into my lectures with Claire. I found that it was very helpful in communicating my character’s internal thought process. For example, from Arthur Miller’s(1915-2005) ‘A View from the Bridge'[9], my character’s, Mike, objective in the scene was to maintain a high status in the friend group by making, what he thought, reasonable judgements about the other characters. Understanding this, it helped me add a sense of purpose to my lines.

– Super Objectives

Another one of Stanislavski’s principles is a ‘super objective’ is a character’s overall objective of the entire play as a whole. By using a series of objectives, the character can achieve the overall goal by then end. The super objectives are what drives the plot as the character has to tackle obstacles to achieve it. A character’s super objective is completely up to the actors interpretation, unless explicitly states. This can make developing a character very interesting as there can be a variety of possible super objectives.

In my lecture, we discussed a variety of super-objectives for each other the characters. I thought of all the possible reasons for the character’s – Popova, Smirnov and Luka – behaviours or their purpose in the play. Furthermore, accumulating all the objectives helped this process. For Popova, I decided that her super objective was to prove to her late husband, Nicolai, that she deserved to be loved, after he treated her badly. This made sense because Popova had been in a self-prolonged state of mourning as she feels like there’s nobody else for her, but she doesn’t know that herself. This aids the character development as her overall mood is melancholic and sorrowful. In the end she achieves this as Smirnov is infatuated by her and they kiss. This is confirmed when Popova tells Luka, ‘no oats for Toby today’, who was Nicolai’s favourite horse- showing she’s found her reason and moved on.

Applying The Process

With these techniques combined into a process, I could then apply this process into other texts in my lectures with Claire. In these lectures, I studied the play, ‘Love and Information'[10] by Caryl Churchill(1938). The play contains 7 acts each with 7 scenes. The play has a loose structure and each scene represents a theme rather than a specific storyline. This allows for a unique story line to be developed. Furthermore, the script is broken down into sperate lines, however, with the absence of characters. This play is incredibly versatile and presents no given circumstances- even the script doesn’t provide many details, only themes. This means that I had to choose the given circumstances myself and dig deeper into developing a character from only a theme. Me and my scene partner were doing ‘Fired’. This short scene Stanislavski theory in his book, ‘Building a Character'[11], is that a character’s actions and expressions must come from the “inner life”. Therefore, I used another technique called ‘The Magic If’. This aids the process as I imagine what I would do in this situation- “When I give a genuine answer to the “if”, then I do something, I am living my own personal life”[12]

With this, I began building a backstory to my character. I began with: my character’s name; then their daily routine- for example, they get up early; their circumstances before and after the scene- where they came from, what happens to them if they don’t fire the employee; and finally their personality- making a song playlist, their favourite food, etc. From these circumstances, I could then determine an end goal and what objectives my character will use to achieve it. For example, my character was firing someone but there were 5 minutes left of on a Friday and their super-objective was he wanted the employee to leave so they could leave in good time for the weekend. Therefore, I played my character as unsympathetically and unmoved by the other character.

I found ‘the magic if’ very useful in my improvisation lessons as it gave me a backbone on what to communicate through my character’s actions. It helped me spontaneously be in the scene rather than over-thinking the circumstances.

Conclusion

From understanding and applying Stanislavski’s rehearsal techniques and methodologies discussed in my lectures, I now have a process to develop a character in detail. This supports my choices when embodying a character in a set of chosen circumstances. Furthermore, I feel confident in developing my own set of circumstances to securely create a character’s story. This allows my to facilitate accurate motives and actions which are successfully communicated to an audience. This created an accurate portrayal of what the script and the characters required in order to make the performance convincing. I also found these systems to be helpful across the curriculum in my other subjects. This didn’t also help my acting, but it enabled me to approach a text in a way that will ground my character through their thought and emotions in a naturalistic way.

Word Count: 2160 (excluding bibliography)

Bibliography

[1]Milton, J. (1887). Paradise Lost, Book 2. Oxford, United Kingdom: Clarendon Press, pp.4–6.

[2]www.britannica.com. (n.d.). Fall of Man | religion | Britannica. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fall-of-Man.

[3]Stanislavski, K. (2008). An Actor’s Work A Student’s Diary. Translated by J. Benedetti. Oxford, United Kingdom: Routledge.

[4]Chekhov, A. (1909). The Bear. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Leopold Classic Library.

[5]Benedetti, J. (2016). Stanislavski: An Introduction. 4th Edition ed. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury .

[6]Stanislavski, K. (2003). An Actor Prepares. 711Third Avenue New York, United States of America: Routledge.

[7]Merlin, B. (2007). The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit. London, United Kingdom: Nick Hern Books.

[8] Mcentire, M. (2023). Acting Tactics: How to Embody Your Character’s Objective and Goals. [online] Backstage.com. Available at: https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/acting-tactics-examples-explained-76500/.

‌[9]Miller, A. (1955). A View from the Bridge. Oxford, United Kingdom: Heinemann.

[10]Churchill, C. (2016). Love and information. London, United Kingdom: Nick Hern Books.

[11] Constantin Stanislavski (2013). Building A Character. Oxford, United Kingdom Routledge.

[12] Shevtsova, M. (2019). Rediscovering Stanislavski. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, pp.87–128.