Introduction

During this term in my Actor and Text Lectures, I have learnt a wide range of techniques on breaking down and analysing both classical and contemporary texts from both actor and director Claire Eden. Being taught these techniques from both perspectives in the rehearsal room has shown to be very useful to me, and has helped largely develop my skills as a performer. As well as this, I researched a wide range of rehearsal techniques which have been created by practitioners who specialise in naturalism, in this case, Stanislavski (1863-1938). My main objective was to include the practitioner’s methodologies into my rehearsal to help build a process in order to help support my character development. Throughout the first term, I have managed to create a process which can help me fully embody myself into a character by understanding their objectives and circumstances within the script. using this process, I can sensibly understand a character’s motives which can aid in making my artistic choices so that I can better portray my character. In my Actor and Text lessons with actor and director Claire Eden, I have been introduced on how to approach my rehearsals using naturalistic methods on texts such as ‘Serious Money’ and ‘A View from a Bridge’ Claire also helped me in applying these techniques and methodologies into my acting in order to help create a believable, naturalistic performance.

’Serious Money’-Given Circumstances

In one of my first lessons, one of my first tasks was to read the play ‘Serious Money’ by Caryl Churchill ‘Serious Money’ is a satirical play which focuses on the wealthy and financial elite on both the British Society and the North American Society[1]. The extract which I studied, rehearsed and performed was the scene between Zac, Corman, Etherington and Marylou. In this scene, Zac, Corman and Etherington are having what seems to be some sort of business meeting, discussing how the can influence to stock market on the shares they have to go in their favour, with Corman leading this. In this scene, I played the role of Etherington, who, in this scene, seems to disagree with Corman’s ideas and believes that Corman isn’t being careful enough with their decisions. These are the ‘Given Circumstances’ of both the scene and the character, which is a technique which was developed by Stanislavski, meaning the environmental and situational conditions of an extract can influence the character’s actions-“This gives the actor the plots, the fact, the period”[2]. Knowing these circumstances, I firstly played Etherington as someone who is quite defensive, showing how they disagree with Corman’s ideas and decisions, almost as a way of Etherington attempting to undermine Corman. When analysing this extract, it was a struggle to get over the use of rhyming couplets which Caryl Churchill seems to use a lot throughout reading the play. I interpreted the rhyming couplets as something which should be delivered very naturally, and for there not to be emphasis on the words at the end to show that they are couplets. Luckily, I didn’t have to worry about this too much, as in Etherington’s dialogue, there weren’t too many situations where rhyming couplets were used. Once I had realised this, I decided to make choices on how to deliver Etherington’s lines, and where I felt that there should be certain emphasis on certain words.

On the word “You” I decided to speak at a louder volume and to add emphasis on this word by adding a very subtle, slight pause after the word “You”, to then carry on with the rest of the line. I then carried on using this process throughout the rest of the extract. I found this entire process to be quite useful because it helped me to further develop the character of Etherington. My general motivation as Etherington was to warn Corman about their decisions for the company and for Etherington to be heard by everyone for his thoughts.

Overall, I feel that the technique Given Circumstances is very helpful and I found that it helped further aid my process in developing a character, thus helping in being able to fully embody myself as this character. Using given circumstances also gave me more to work on with Etherington, and made me think more than just with the text in front of me, specifically what Etherington perhaps is like in day-to-day life, helping me get a good feel of what they are like.

Extract from Serious Money by Caryl Churchill.

’A View from a Bridge’-World Building

A very important technique which I learnt in Actor and Text was World Building. World building is where you help yourself to understand where the play is truly set. Claire broke this down to us in 4 main sections: Money, Politics, Fashion and Society. This helps me to better understand where and when the character I’m playing is truly from, and what influences them as a person, and why they are like how they are. I used this technique to help better my understanding of the play ‘A View from a Bridge’ by Arthur Miller[3]. From my research, I found out the following useful information for each subject:

Money

With this play being set in the 1950s in USA, I found that there was an economic boom in 1950s America after their victory in WWII, meaning that American families had more disposable income and more money to spend. Also, there was a large rush of white families who moved to the suburbs-thus creating the idea of the ‘American Dream’ and a ‘Nuclear Family’[4].

Fashion

When it comes to fashion, there was a return of traditional femininity for women, for example having a cinched waist and full-length skirts. For men, on the other hand, more casual styles emerged, like jeans and T-Shirts, which were worn by icons of the time like Marlon Brando and James Dean[5].

Politics

When it came to politics in the 1950s, there was a lot of tension surrounding the Cold War, and a focus on ‘Capitalism vs Communism’, with the US Government cracking down on communists. This was known as McCarthyism, also known as the “Red Scare”[6].

Society

Society in 1950s America was very mixed between both the American Dream (as said before) and rising social tensions. This was due to the fact that the civil rights movement was rising, and also with the use of very strict gender roles in the household. 1950s society was mainly known as an “affluent society”[7].

I also found that I used World Building in other parts of my course, for example in Acting Through Song, as it is important to know exactly what your song is about, and it its important to have a clear understanding of what you are singing. I also used world building in my R&D project at Leeds Conservatoire, as the project I was working on was about Dick Whittington, and was set in the Middle Ages in London. This led to me finding out what Money, Fashion, Politics and Society was like in Medieval England.

Overall, I feel that World Building is a brilliant rehearsal technique to use in an acting process as it helps the actor to understand the world that the character that they’re playing is truly in, making World Building another technique to help the actor in fully embodying themselves as the character which they are playing.

World Building technique used on the play A View from a Bridge by Arthur Miller.

Walking the Text-Romeo & Juliet

Another important technique which I learnt from Claire Eden in our Actor and Text lessons was ‘Walking The Text’. I learnt this technique when it came to analysing Act 1 Scene 5 of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The exercise consists of walking whilst delivering a piece of text/monologue, and when approaching a piece of punctuation, changing something in your movement. In this case, the most important piece of punctuation for me was the comma, as this is used a lot throughout Shakespearean texts. So whenever I would approach a comma when delivering the text, I would change direction, when I reached a full stop, I would ‘stop’, and when I would reach a question mark, I would spin. I found this vastly helped me to understand how to deliver Shakespearean texts. As someone who isn’t very experienced with Shakespeare, I have been someone to avoid Shakespearean text. This helped me to realise how similar Shakespearean texts is to lyrics, especially when it comes to iambic pentameter. As I was playing Juliet, I found out that she is quite young. Knowing this, I still decided to play her as quite a serious, intelligent young girl, rather than a stereotypical teenage girl who may really show her emotions about her romance, as I thought that this would come across as a bit too comedic, which I felt wasn’t right for the extract.

All in all, I found that using the Walking the Text rehearsal technique is highly beneficial when it comes to the rehearsal process, especially when it comes to monologue rehearsal, as I found that it helps to add depth and emotion to the monologue or extract you are analysing/rehearsing for. However, I would perform the exercise only once or twice with the piece of text, as I wouldn’t want to overthink the punctuation in the text, and start becoming too heightened and not so naturalistic, depending on where the monologue has come from. If it comes from a more contemporary naturalistic play, then this is a point for me to look out for.

Act 1 Scene 5 Extract from Romeo and Juliet.

Conclusion

In Conclusion, the work that I have made in the Actor and Text unit has been instrumental to my growth and development as an actor. Although there may have been exercises which I wouldn’t use as much as perhaps other techniques, I have still been able to truly appreciate them and their value to other actors/directors and how they could possibly help break down a text. After being taught all of these techniques, I am looking forward to seeing how they can help benefit me in the future when it comes to further developing my character, not only with a script, but also whilst working with other actors and directors. Now that I have this newfound level of understanding, this means that I can be able to be open and free within a rehearsal space whilst possibly working with creatives who may work differently and may have different ideas to me. Throughout the course of my training, I will be aiming to further develop in my ability to be freer in a rehearsal room when it comes to going to the greater lengths and extremes. Now that I have learned some of these abilities, I feel that I am already able to do so much more in a rehearsal room than I was back in September. I have understood more about myself and how I work most efficiently when it comes to character analysis, and I have realised that I work best mainly from a practical exploration of who the character really is, but I can also work well with theoretically breaking down a script.

Bibliography

[1] eNotes. (2019). Serious Money Summary – eNotes.com. [online] Available at: https://www.enotes.com/topics/serious-money

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

[3] SparkNotes. (n.d.). A View from the Bridge: Full Book Summary. [online] Available at: https://www.sparknotes.com/drama/viewbridge/summary/.

[4] Wise Bread. (n.d.). This Is How Americans Spent Their Money in the 1950s. [online] Available at: https://www.wisebread.com/this-is-how-americans-spent-their-money-in-the-1950s.

[5] Morton, S.J. (2020). 1950s Fashions: Mid-Century Clothing Styles. [online] FamilySearch Blog. Available at: https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/1950s-fashions.

[6] Encyclopedia.com. (2019). The 1950s Government, Politics, and Law: Overview | Encyclopedia.com. [online] Available at: https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/culture-magazines/1950s-government-politics-and-law-overview.

‌[7]Greene, J. (2022). United States in the 1950s | EBSCO. [online] EBSCO Information Services, Inc. | www.ebsco.com. Available at: https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/united-states-1950s.

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