In the time between starting in September and finishing the term, I believe I have massively improved my knowledge as an actor. I have found the process of creating and discovering characters along with the given circumstances, extremely beneficial in ways that will improve all aspects of my performance. Being able to see this from both an Actors and a Directors point of view, also developed my view points in different ways enabling me to think more critically in different detailed view points. Learning about the necessary process before getting up on our feet and working practically, genuinely interests me and enables me to expand my performance techniques and become a more well rounded actor. On top of that, learning about the practitioner that helped us as actors and directors understand the development and creativity needed for presenting characters, was a key part of my academic development so far.
At the begging of term we began by working with Tyrell Jones, for a directors point of view. The first text we took on was ’Paradise Lost, Book II’, we began by being split into groups, each having a different fallen angel’s speech. My group and I had Moloch’s speech, which we began to translate due to the text being written in a language we were not familiar with. It was interesting hearing about everybody’s different interpretations of the text and working as a creative team to work out the speeches purposed for the character. Other groups had the characters Beleil and Beelzebub, which we soon interpreted them all to be fallen angels plotting whether or not to have a war. We then split the text up and all were allocated a line or two to read out loud. This allowed us to play around with some physical and vocal character ideas. After reflecting on the lessons, the translating of the text meant we were forced to seek out the objectives of the characters, as well as eventually the super objective. Therefore beginning the Actor and Text lessons with a challenging start, yet subconsciously foreshadowing the in depth lessons to come.
We then moved onto one of Anton Chekhov’s plays, ‘The Bear’. On wider research of the play I found that it is ‘A joke in one Act’(2024) therefore a comedic one act show that expressed themes of love, grief and conflict. Chekhov himself was a Russian playwrite and was ‘know for the principal in drama called “Chekhov’s gun”’ (Hingley, 2024) this suggests that every part of the play should be crucial to the plot. Chekhov wrote fourteen plays and over two hundred short stories, many consider Chekhov to be the overall founder of modern short story and had influence on a series of famous writers such as Tennessee Williams and Flannery O’Connor. After being given a copy of the play we read it through as a group disguising character roles and context of the play. Then we addressed Stanislavski’s given circumstances of Who? What? Where? Why? For what reason? And How? Delving deeper into the play itself, this allowed us to create further detailed ideas of the characters in play. For example we came to the conclusion that it was set in Popova’s House in the countryside, in the 19th century. This indicated many more important themes and expectations of the play due to roles and beliefs at the time, such as the role of women and how the characters may act due to the exceptions of the character in that time period. We then used the Stanislavski method of uniting our text, also referred to as Events. We separated the text into ‘bite size chunks’ (Packer, 2021) when necessary like when characters enter or exit, the subject of dialogue changes or when the character’s objective changes.
The Stanislavski system of conveying what the character does and why they do it in every scene is what fuels a characters super objectives. We then worked out what all three characters super objectives were for the whole play. I found this really interesting and used it later when acting out the scene. I found that having the overarching drive as a character really helped finalise the details physically when developing a character. For example I believed that Luka’s super objective was to maintain Popova’s happiness and peace to fulfil his duty, I chose to physically reference this through holding my chest indicating a reach for the heart on the line ‘Go away sir’. In general as a class we struggles to get to grips with finding a simple enough super objective as we overcomplicated them. This made it more complicated and harder to follow therefore learning to simplify the super objective actually opened us up to more acting opportunity’s and building more depth to our character. For example creating a super objective that is detailed, leaves no room left for creativity in developing the character. I found this really helpful in the end and was able to self critic if I believed I was limiting myself when deciding the character’s super objective.
I then went through my script outside of lesson and picked out Smirnov’s objective in each event I had labeled. I found creating and working out character objectives quite difficult, as I felt it was a challenge to link it to the super objective. I struggled to find the place between linking to the super objective too much and not linking to the super objective at all.
We looked into the method of actioning, as this is useful to ‘ interrogate the text in minute detail in order to find the right verbs to express your interpretation’ (Moseley, 2016) of each individual thought. The actual breaking down process I found quite difficult and finding a verb to describe the action was a challenge. For me, this part of sectioning and breaking up the script, I found hard as it meant I had to think very creatively and I felt pressure to be unique as well as correct. Being correct is completely a matter of opinion in most cases. So I managed to overcome this and now see actioning as a great way of visualising the characters intentions. I then later applied this to other parts of my development within the conservatoire. I used this method in preparation for my Acting Through Song lesson when I was performing a character from ’Kiss me Kate’ the musical. I found that breaking up the song and actioning it, made the lyrics easier to remember and feel less repetitive as I gave the line different actions and therefore managed to perform a range of emotions and character intentions in a very short amount of time. I had a similar experience when applying it to Jazz Rep Class and the character work needed for that during the big dance numbers. This specifically helped when playing exaggerated ensemble roles in choreography numbers like ‘Grease’ and ‘Shrek’ when a character journey is necessary.
We then had a change of view point and began working with Claire Eden in order to see an actor’s point of view on actor and text. We can see how we physically develop and approach a text and even construct the given circumstances.
We were given a script from ‘Love and Information’ by Caryl Churchill which ‘Drama Online’ states to be a “Kaleidoscopic play of short scenes addressing contemporary issues” which we worked with to create characters and the characters given circumstances. I personally began with a name, as it helped me form a physical image of that character in my head. From that I formed characteristic traits for that character. I worked with Becca to create a scene with detailed characters and plot. The script that had began with no characters or given circumstances, then made sense as we used our initiative to differentiate the different lines between the characters making this run smoothly.
An integral part of this development process was Stanisklavski’s method of hot seating in order to make our characters intentions clear. I found this rehearsal technique really effective and throughly enjoyed the experience, both as the character and questioning the character. This gave us the opportunity to really go full out physically and vocally as well as expand our characters back story in ways that may not being directly relevant to the scene.This unlocks doors in order to understand the details and habits of your character that I personally think make a great and well thought out performance. Another way in which we developed our charcters, was improvising a continuation of the scene. This links very closely to hot seating as it requires improvising yet it gives the scene more depth and this also helps with world building. This meant as actors used more of the stage in productive and meaningful ways.
Lara and I then worked on ‘Affair’, beginning with a read through and brainstorming the relationship between the characters and then naming ourselves. We then took it in turns hot seating one another asking similar questions in order to gain similar information and depth to both of the characters for our plot. After deciding on a setting we got on our feet and began to world build as we ran through the script a couple of times. For this piece I chose a character completely unfamiliar to myself which meant i had created a challenge for both of us as it took me slightly longer to develop my character’s traits due to the lack of direction from the script. The situation we came up with, required us to gradually move forward as we were waiting a in queue at a coffee shop. This meant we were given the opportunity to explore our characters stance and physical reaction to what was going on in the scene. This helped present the given circumstances we created to the audience and successfully portray our emotions. We then as a class presented our work and then had to say what the given circumstances were for each pair. This was a successful exercise as most were guessed correctly by the class. Lara and I’s work was guessed correctly and we got some feedback that our character dynamics were clear meaning our use of the hot seating rehearsal technique was successful.
As a group of three, Priya, Katie and I worked on the scripts ‘Fired’ and ‘Dinner’ taking it in turns to direct and watch back the scenes after creating the given circumstances. As the rehearsal time went on we asked eachother questions about the characters that could be possible shown in the scene without words, and therefore using gesture or facial expressions to hint at them. I really enjoyed this experience of watching and giving feedback to others and it helped me become more aware of myself and introducing me to some questions that I should also ask myself.
For the final exercise I did a monologue from ‘Fleabag’, this was due to my script partner being away. I therefore worked on self reflection and began applying both directors and actors takes on the script, asking myself questions in a hot seating style. The independent work on the monologue was extremely helpful as it made me come to terms with the knowledge I have gained and how overall my view points have expanded since the beginning of term. Reflecting on my progress has been beneficial as I have therefore acknowledged the work that has taken place and due to this my performance has only become more detailed and mature.
Bibliography –
The Bear (2024) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bear_(play) [Accessed: 07 January 2025]
Hingley , R.F. (2024) Anton Chekhov, Encyclopædia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anton-Chekhov [Accessed: 07 January 2025]
Packer, A. (2021) STANISLAVSKI Uniting, YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/giXzBe_VOGA
[Accessed: 7 January 2025]
Unknown Writer. (2025) Origins, ActorsCo-op. Available at: https://www.actorsco-op.org/campaigns/view- campaign/EAYNLXQJqwaeB4AQCr_XMWimO8QKpb7l5tIynNkVS2e0-cxCCCxV3VSJEyKtcUY4bsW-coMqVTzwMq85LxBR1do_O1uHD2YO#:~:text=Many%20consider%20Chekhov%20to%20be,Raymond%20Carver%20and%20John%20Cheever [Accessed 8th January 2025]
Moseley, N. (2016) Actioning and How to do it. London: Nick Hern Books. Available at- https://www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/asset/3265?cmsAsset=1 [Accessed: 8th January 2025]
Drama Online. Available at: https://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/playtext-overview?docid=do-9781784602482&tocid=do-9781784602482-div-00000002 [Accessed: 8th January 2025]
