‘Our Town’ by Thornton Wilder, Directed by Beth Knight
Initial Response to the Play
Prior to beginning rehearsals, I read ‘Our Town’ by Thornton Wilder three times. Once as an initial read, another to understand what was truly happening and finally to understand the characters. This really benefitted me as I went into the process with a strong understanding of the play, what I liked and disliked about it along with a vague idea of which character I was interested in playing.
I quickly fell in love with the play due to the themes of family, liminality and grief. I thought that it portrayed each theme in such a beautiful and meaningful way. I also loved that the play didn’t carry super high-stake scenes. I am usually drawn to pieces that are heavy and dramatic, so it was refreshing trying something new! Thornton Wilder’s immense eye to detail and use of foreshadowing also really intrigued me.
Casting
I had mixed feelings when it came to our casting process. Our director Beth Knight told us that she doesn’t cast roles based on auditions but by interviewing her company. This made me quite nervous as I do not have much experience in the industry and enough theatre education to try and sell myself to her. I often struggle being put on the spot with questions and go blank. Despite this, I did my best to go into the interview as true to myself as possible whilst still being professional.
When we were told our casting, I got Emily Webb in Act 1! I was very pleased with this as I adored her character due to her innocence and brightness. I asked Beth about feedback on my interview to which she said that I didn’t seem too confident or sure of myself. I did feel quite upset about this as I do think I have a decently strong sense of self, however I tried to turn this into a task to work on my confidence which I have been doing throughout the process of rehearsals and so on.
Research
Over the course of the first and second week, we worked heavily on researching the play and all its aspects. It was important to the entire company to have a rich understanding of the world of our play and to all be on the same page about each character. We investigated the themes of the play and where they come from, each act of the play, researched Thornton Wilder and his life and researched the time the play was set (see Figures 1-3). One subject that I found particularly interesting to research was the education at the time. Finding out that Emily would not have been able to attend college despite her dream to make speeches for a living made me really empathise with her character. It gave me more to play with when talking about her dream.
We also spent a lot of time researching and discussing each family and all their relationships (see Figure 4). This assisted with understanding how each character felt towards another and how they would act. We found evidence through the script and context of the play. It also helped to collectively build fake stories and memories to add more depth to relationships. An example of this was an exercise Beth led where we chose a song and built a memory involving other characters then played it out in the space. Spencer, Tait and I created a memory of dancing with Mr Webb whilst Mrs Webb played piano for them. By doing this, we were able to create a narrative of the family loving to dance together which was added into the final cut of the performance with a small scene between Mr and Mrs Webb dancing together.
When it came to accent work, I was looking forward to it due to the fact that I enjoy learning and speaking in different accents. We began by researching and practicing the New Hampshire accent by looking at videos as a group and appointing an accent captain. We all found this a bit tricky due to the mix between a standard American accent and New York accent. Jess came in and assisted us with this which helped tremendously. She taught us how to say specific words or phrases that we were struggling on and taught us key sounds that transitioned our accents from Standard American to New Hampshire. To help myself progress in this, I would speak in the accent as much as possible when in and out of the rehearsal room which helped me get used to the placement of it and ease the transition between my own accent and the New Hampshire one.
Character, Process and Rehearsal
After using the first half term to discover our process, I was very eager to put what I had learnt into action. Through using my process in a performance setting, I was able to find what served me.
Something that benefitted me every day was warming up before rehearsal. Most days I would find my own space in the room and take the time to do a small vocal warm up, stretch and ground myself. This really supported me before going into a day of practice as it ensured my mind was clear from anything in my personal life and that my body felt ready for the day. This is something that I wish to take into further practice due to the positive impact it had on my days in rehearsal.
I found that a character’s physicality and costume is what helps me fully transform into them. Through meeting with the other actors portraying Emily (Spencer and Tait see Figure 11), we found the way that she moved, what she wore and why. It was essential to us to have mirroring gestures and movement through all of us so that an audience would clearly be able to tell that a different actor had taken over the role. It was also important to me that I didn’t feel like I was in my own clothing so wore jazz shoes and a practice skirt for most rehearsals to ensure I felt as much like Emily as possible.
I personally found the most sense in her way of movement being passed down from her mother. This is because I believed her to have been taught from a young age what is ‘feminine’ and ‘proper’ due to that being the normal at the time. Due to this, I observed small movements of Connie and Lydia’s portrayal of Mrs Webb and added them to Emily. This included her posture being very upright with her shoulders back, her soft arm and hand movements and her walk being very square with one foot in front of the other when taking steps (see Figures 10 and 12). Although I chose to add these to Emily, I did not wish for her to be an exact copy of Mrs Webb as they are quite different in character. To make it different, I took some of my work from animal studies in first year and applied it to her character (see Figure 6 and link) I settled on Emily being a Foal due to her grace, strength and youth. I watched many videos on their movements and humanised them to fit Emily. I believe this to have been very successful as practicing her physicality before a run helped me really get into her character.
Another thing that aided my process was creating a character mood board and playlist. I have never attempted this method before but was eager to try it. Tait and I made a playlist together including songs that reflected Emily’s character (see Figure 5). We both found different songs that had lyrics reflecting her life and melodies that paired with her physicality then compiled them into a playlist. I found listening to these songs whilst warming up helped enormously with getting into her character. I also made a mood board on Pinterest with pictures I felt captured Emily’s essence and would look at it whilst listening to my playlist (see Figure 13). It helped me envision her life and give me a visual to play out. I will definitely be taking these methods into future rehearsal rooms.
(See Figures 7-9 for character work).
Something else that helped my process was properly grounding myself before a run or performance. I often struggle with nerves before a performance so wanted to incorporate an exercise that would assist me in feeling present in my body and mind. I came up with a method of taking two minutes and tapping specific points on my body, brushing any negative energy away and envisioning breathing in light. This method became extremely beneficial for me as I went into each performance with a feeling of serenity. I will certainly be using this in the future. (See Figure 14).
I did begin to face some struggles picturing my surroundings as rehearsals went on. I believe this to be due to our lack of set and props. To combat this, our company went through each scene and deliberated on what each room looked like. From this, I sketched the key rooms that my scenes took place in (see Figure 15). These were Emily’s bedroom and the Webb’s living room. /see photos of drawings./ This eased my awareness of being in empty space and gave me more to envision when acting. I also used Uta Hagen’s technique of ‘the unbroken line of action’ to help me picture where I was coming from and going to within a scene. This aided me in understanding Emily’s motives in entering and leaving a space. Examples of this are Emily and George coming back from school together before meeting Mrs Webb at the doorstep.
One thing that I do wish to improve on is my use of time outside of a rehearsal room. I believe I could have used some of my time a bit more wisely by doing more script work or individual research such as line analysis. Though I am not necessarily academic when it comes to a rehearsal process, I would like to try and push myself to do more written work to see if it benefits my performance more.
Overall, I am very pleased with the process that I developed for this performance. Though I believe my process will change for each project I do, finding some key exercises and methods I know to have worked makes me excited to apply it to future work. In the future, I wish to find more practitioner techniques to help me get into character and test them out to see if it is something that I can adopt.
Successes and Hardships
One scene that I struggled with was the scene between Emily and George at their windows. Whilst being close to the other actor (James) didn’t pose as an issue for me, I struggled in my volume due to the intimacy and close proximity of the scene. I tried many techniques to combat this without making the volume sound unnatural and forced. These techniques included changing my intonation and delivery of the lines and making sure to add volume exercises in my warmup. Though we received incredible feedback on our chemistry, I am unsure if I was loud enough during this scene. In the future, I wish to ask for more vocal guidance when approaching intimate scenes.
After every run through, I ensured to make a note of any feedback or feelings. I believe that reflecting on these and the overall process assisted in giving me clear tasks to work on between rehearsals and run throughs and also helped me see how much progress I was making. (See Figures 16-19).
Evaluation
On the whole, I am extremely pleased with how this block of work went. I believe I produced some of my best work yet and am very proud of what I have achieved. I wish to give thanks to my wonderful group and director for filling each rehearsal with so much love and joy, it truly made me look forward to every day. Being in a room with people like that really does make all the difference! (See Figure 20).
For the future, I wish to do more written work as previously stated and work on my confidence. I want to learn to not be afraid to take up space in a room and remind myself how much I deserve to be there. This project has aided me in realising how versatile of an actor I am, I am able to tackle texts I wouldn’t normally gravitate towards and create a beneficial process.
