Process Assessment Portfolio (MTH4C004R~001 25103961)
The actors process is multifaceted there are many different methodologies you can apply to fully immerse yourself in your respective character. In this portfolio I will be focusing on my experience using the particular steps of the actors process ‘analysis and given circumstances’ to impact my performance. I will be using the ‘Boud Reflection Model’ to facilitate my research.
WHAT?
We started to approach the idea of analysis as a step in the actor’s process. We tackled William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Act 1 Scene 5 (Shakespeare,2012,1.5,92-109) focusing on punctuation and the heightened text. Oliver Ford Davies states in his book ‘Performing Shakespeare’ ‘as we start reading verse out loud, even if there are passages we don’t understand, it comes to life. Individual character immediately starts to emerge.’ (Davies, 2007:28) This is because we don’t speak in the same ‘formal idiom’ as Davies (2007) suggests.
SO WHAT?
I struggled with the heightened text because I felt I wasn’t able to fully express my character’s thoughts with nuance and shape due to the language barrier. I felt I stumbled over words and couldn’t exist in the context of the scene. I also found it hard to find the rhythm especially with my lack of understanding of the text. So I decided to focus on punctuation first as a starting point. I found following the punctuation very difficult. I noticed I wanted to take breath at different points to the commas that filmmaker ‘Gedaly Guberek’ credits as a ‘springboard to the next thought’ (Guberek, n.d.) and less of a pause. So I was overthinking the amount of breath and escalation of intensity I needed but I will say the Semi colons and full stops did help me navigate the thought process of Juliet a lot more because it clearly stated where each thought started or ended even without the understanding of the language, it helped break up the scene which helped with the flow of the scene. But after a while this formulaic structuring felt very unnatural and lacked humanity. As Oliver Ford Davies (2007) stated ’no handy Elizabethan manual exists to tell us how he wanted his verse spoken. It must fully be down to the Actor’s instinct’. So then I decided to take a more liberal approach to the scene, implementing some of the structure but then feeding off of my own interpretations of her thought process. As Sheila Hancock stated in an informal conversation with John Barton for his book ‘Playing Shakespeare’ ‘If I let it flow, just happen, it seemed the most natural thing in the world’. (Barton, 1984:13) As you can see from the annotated script I then wanted to analyse the language and either rewrite a phrase or explicate a phrase to help me better understand it. “The words exist to communicate the character’s thoughts to the audience” (Davies, 2007:36) So by revealing the intention of the language with my modern English perspective I was then able to add inflections and change the tone of the character. I found Juliet and Romeo to be quite innocent and cheeky throughout the scene so I was able to play into that once I understood.
NOW WHAT?
From my research I have learnt to first try and let my instincts shape the scene like I would in a sight read.But I think next time I would first start with studying the text before the punctuation because then I’d be better able to divide up the thoughts without the strictures of the punctuation. I also am starting to look at heightened text as I would lyrics, to strip lyrics of musical dynamic markings and melodies you are left with an unnatural speech, it’s easier now to find a rhythm once I looked at the scene with a sense of heightened disbelief, meaning I became aware of the extraordinary nature. I have used this approach for a different Shakespeare text ‘Sebastian’s monologue from Act 4 Scene 3 of Twelfth Night as seen in the example. (Shakespeare, 2008). Reframing the dialogue has allowed me to fully grasp what Sebastian is talking about. To me, Sebastian seemed quite frantic and slightly stressed the punctuation helped reinforce that and I was able to break up the dialogue into arguably six thoughts which I will then be able to play around with when it comes to the rhythm and pace from mapping out the escalation of thought previously.
GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES
WHAT?
Another step of the actor’s process we explored was the idea of the given circumstances. These are the primary facts that an author gives a character that we as actors should always question . In Uta Hagen’s book ‘Respect for Acting’ she states that“They can determine or condition our conflicts, can supply our motivations and specify the nature of our actions” (Hagen,1973:158) Hagen also suggests we study the ‘when and the where’ and how they condition our thoughts, appearance, society etc (Hagen,1973:160-4) We used this method while exploring the text ’Serious Money’ (Churchill,2002)
SO WHAT?
I found it hard picking out the given circumstances of my character in the chosen scene since there were many characters involved which prevented me from grasping who my character was from the little dialogue we got. So I then decided to approach the given circumstances from a wider perspective of the play instead. I first wanted to understand what was the environment around my character and what time period he lived in, so for someone who has no understanding of the play prior to the scene they can understand what kind of world my character is operating in through body language, the use of my voice etc. Stella Adler expresses in her book ‘The Art of Acting’ “You cannot afford to confine your studies to the classroom. The universe and all of history is your classroom” (Adler, 2000) as we delved further into the historical context such as fashion, language, finances etc we were able to approach the scene with more understanding. In our plan for the performance of the scene we wanted the staging to be anything but static, rushing past each other and weaving in and out of the space to reflect the high stakes and tension of the industry during the 1980s. The role of women in the workplace came up in our research so we decided we would reflect that in our demeanour towards our female cast member, looking down at her and not perceiving her as an equal, for example using blocking that is quite intimidating and unbalanced to reflect that isolation. We even suggested the use of character shoes to reflect the stylistic expectations of women in the workplace. I think having this context worked really well because it gave us information to work off of. From there I was able to do my own private research of my own character Corman shown in Picture A
NOW WHAT?
I found digging for these given circumstances so helpful because it really informed how I approached the character. Knowing my character’s inner motives, his dynamics with other characters allowed me to fully immerse myself in the role and then from there develop my own creative choices as Konstantin Stanislavski (2013) states “You must have a clear personal view of all the Given Circumstances…from the play itself, the direction and your own creative imagination”.(Stanislavski, 2013:56) However, I do find I prefer to research the given circumstances of the entire play rather than a scene which could cause trouble when it comes to auditions or sight reading instances, so in future I am going to try and pick out the given circumstances of the scene even if they are quite simple.
EXAMPLES OF IMPLEMENTING THESE STEPS TO MY PROCESS
After studying these couple of techniques, I wanted to be able to utilise them when it comes to approaching new material. One of the pieces I tackled was William Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ (Shakespeare,2015,2.1,31-64) specifically the titular character’s monologue in Act 2 Scene 1. Knowing it was Shakespeare, I immediately wanted to start with analysis. I rephrased some of the language to fit our modern vernacular which then helped me break down the different shifts in thought, where I felt I couldn’t decide to change thought, I would adhere to the common rules of Shakespeare punctuation as a guide. This translation to me already told me a lot about his character before knowing his given circumstances. The liberal use of commas to me expressed his frantic, anxious state and I was able to find at least 16-17 shifts of thought which was a clear indicator to me of where he was mentally. That visual representation really helped to inform the kind of heights I will be going as this character, providing me with a foundation to build upon. I find these visual representations very helpful when I feel overwhelmed by script that isn’t in my body yet.
After this initial analysis I wanted to explore his given circumstances. I actually found it was easier to identify his given circumstances in this scene than it was for Serious Money (Churchill,2002) because his thought process is a lot more realised and fleshed out. I was able to use Stanislavsky’s (1936) model of ‘the seven questions’ depicted in his book ‘An Actor Prepares’ for this monologue and it highlighted to me what he wants, why he wants it and how he will get it. These questions, as well as the world building research found in the annotated script. I was then able to form my own choices for the character. I find this step in the actor’s process is only successful once all the other steps are recognised so once I did all that, I was able to make the character my own. Macbeth to me seemed paranoid and fearful in his moment of solitude not prioritised with protecting his image, and to me he was governed almost by Lady Macbeth and wanting to please her instead of himself. This interpretation is different from Patrick Stewart’s performance in the 2010 version of ‘Macbeth’ (Shakespeare, 2010) who to me played into his regimented role with bursts of paranoia but knowing we have an understanding of the same character but choose to reveal him in different ways is what is interesting
I was also able to add this process to a musical context. As stated previously, music and Shakespeare are quite similar. They both exist in this heightened reality and both have a rhythm. We took Alain Boublil and Claude-Michele Schoenberg’s ‘Les Miserables’ (Boublil,Schonberg,1985) as an example. I took the song ’Stars’ and analysed it as I did with my ‘Macbeth’ monologue implementing the same steps to my process. Analysing the lyrics and punctuation which then would help me find the given circumstances and inform my choices as an actor.
Overall, I found implementing these steps in the actors process to be extremely helpful and essential to my own process. They have allowed me to immerse myself in characters that before may have been a ‘surface’ understanding. Knowing who they are in a way helped reinforce myself creatively. I never approached a character with this kind of formula but its been really informative seeing it in this way but also trying to equal that with my own artistic instincts and distinctiveness without it being manufactured or clinical. Finding what makes my performances me. I shall be referring to these steps in any character I undertake and exploring other techniques developed in class further.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adler, S. (2000) The Art of Acting. New York: Applause Books
Barton, J. (1984) Playing Shakespeare: An Actor’s Guide. London: Methuen
Boublil,A.,Schonberg,C-M.,Kretzmer, H. (1985) Les Misérables [Libretto]. New York: MTI Music Library
Boud, D., Keogh, R., & Walker, D. (1985). Promoting Reflection in Learning: A Model. Reflection: Turning Reflection into Learning. London: Routledge
Churchill, C. (2002) Serious Money. London: Bloomsbury
Ford Davies, O. (2007) Performing Shakespeare: Preparation, Rehearsal, Performance. London: Nick Hern Books
Guberek, G. (2025) Speaking with Shakespeare’s punctuation [Blog post]. Gedaly. 2026.Available online:https://gedaly.com/speaking-with-shakespeares-punctuation/ [Accessed 11/12/2025]
Hagen, U. (2008) Respect for acting. London: Macmillan
Kretzmer, H. (1985) Stars. [Lyrics]. https://www.allmusicals.com/lyrics/lesmiserables/stars.htm[Accessed 11/12/2025]
Macbeth by William Shakespeare (2010) Directed by Rupert Goold. [Programme] Welbeck Abbey
Shakespeare, W. (2008) Twelfth Night. London: The Arden Shakespeare
Shakespeare, W. (2015) Macbeth. London: The Arden Shakespeare
Shakespeare, W.(2012) Romeo and Juliet.London:The Arden Shakespeare
Stanislavski, K. (2013) An Actor Prepares. London: Bloomsbury
The Show Must Go On! (2021) Is this a dagger? – Patrick Stewart | Macbeth [Video]. Available online:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20JDStW6GPk[Accessed 07/12/2025]
