Reading the play
Before the rehearsal process, I read the play two times, with the first read being to understand the play’s themes and the writer’s intentions, and the second being to get a sense of the characters and who I would be better suited to playing.
Through the course of three acts, we are taken on a journey through life and death, and the many experiences humans go through during their lives. Wilder’s writing highlights how important our homes and backgrounds are to who we are, and how the lived experience is something that humans don’t take full advantage of. The themes of family, home and grief are ever present throughout the text and informed me of the sensitivity of the piece, and although written in 1938, I found Wilder’s commentary on people not making the most of life something that resonated with me. I also highlighted certain parts that I would be interested in playing, thus looking into them more, so that I could go into week one with a stronger idea of what I wanted to bring to the piece.
Week one research and casting
The first week was spent learning more about the play as a group, ending with an interview with our director instead of an audition. As a group we made a summary of the three acts, picking key words and plot points, as well as delving into the history of the play and America from the 1600s to the present day. I found this to be useful as it not only strengthened the ensemble’s connection, but also set the foundations of what I had to look into when I was casted, as well as providing more context for the time the play was set in.
The interview went well. It was strange to be casted in this way, but I found it to be a welcome surprise as it helped me to understand what my director wanted from me for the rehearsal process. I got cast as Mr Webb in the second act, which made me excited to continue rehearsals, as his lovely speech in act two was my favourite bit of the play after the first read. I was also excited to play such a layered character, with Webb being someone who has had to overcome his own issues to become the great man you see in the play.
Individual research
Researching the social and political context of 1900s America helped me to understand the play even more, and the many differences between that time period and the world we live in now. I continued to look into Wilder’s life to get more information about him and his motivations for writing the play, as well as looking into what men were like in this time period. I also researched what it was like for a newspaper publisher at this time, so I could acknowledge my character’s profession and what his life involved so I could then apply those facts into my preparation and characterisation. With all this newfound knowledge, I felt that I had a greater understanding of the world of play within the script, as well as having a greater idea of how to approach my character once we started rehearsals.
Character process
To begin my character process, I listed facts about Mr Webb so I could understand what the truths are around my character and what detail I could add through rehearsals. I then added Stanislavsky’s technique of given circumstances, to further familiarise myself with what Wilder had written about this character and what that adds to my portrayal. To follow this, I combined this with different tactics and objectives thus strengthening my interactions with other characters.
Next, I thought of my character’s unbroken line of action, in order to gain a stronger idea of where my character was before they were on stage, making my entrance more believable.
As family is a big theme in the play, I drew up a family tree of Mr Webb’s family, consisting of family mentioned in the play, whilst also adding a few not mentioned to flesh it out more. This made my understanding of Mr Webb greater, as making these relationships helped me play into my character’s feelings towards his family and loved ones that appear in the play.
I also made a Spotify playlist and a photo collection of songs and images I felt connected to Mr Webb. I would use these before going on stage to help get into character, providing an extra layer of thoughts to lean onto when in a scene. In order to learn more about my character and what I thought of him, I answered questions about Webb that went beyond the script. Answering these gave me a freedom of thought when approaching Webb, allowing me to bring my own interpretation to the character and giving me more to play with in rehearsals.
Character Process Gallery
Analysis of process
Reflecting on this process, I feel satisfied with the work I did and the performance it led to. Using classic techniques such as given circumstances and objectives to form a solid foundation, and then later fusing them with my own preferred methods such as a music playlist and family tree helped to make my performance distinct, and made it easier to solidify my characterisation further. This allowed me to discover what my process for forming a character is, and what I can use in future projects.
Wedding scene
Upon reading the script with my character in mind, I highlighted the wedding scene in act two as a difficult one for me to approach. I’m not a father, and have never given someone away to be married before, so I identified this as a difficult area for me to relate to. Remembering my sister was married, and that my dad was the one to give her away, I arranged an interview with my dad to ask him what that was like. This was a really fruitful conversation, and taught me a lot about what feelings my character would be feeling in this particular moment. I wrote down key words and phrases my dad said, specifically “lump in the throat”, and applied the feelings that come with them to this scene. This took the scene to a new height, as my father’s words helped me to understand what my character was feeling in this moment.
Inspiration
One source I drew inspiration from was the film It’s A Wonderful Life. The films focus on the importance of life and living in every moment coincides with the meaning of Our Town. Furthermore, the protagonist of the film, like my character, has a good heart as seen in the bank scene, so I found it easy to draw similarities between the film and play, and later use these similarities as inspiration to fall back on for my performance. Another source I was inspired by was Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting, specifically the scene where he talks about the day he met his wife. Sean is a similar age to Mr Webb, so it was interesting to see how he physically and vocally moved about when speaking passionately, as Webb so often does. Furthermore, Maguire and Webb are both people who love their wives, so seeing Maguire’s expressive gestures as he speaks about his wife gave me tools to think about when Webb was speaking about his marriage, and using this energy when delivering these lines helped to separate my own actions from the character, allowing for a more original performance.
Director Notes
I’ve always found taking directors notes to be something I am good at, however I have often found in the past that I have taken notes as criticism as opposed to something to help me, which is a negative headspace to be in as it prevents me from learning and applying the note fully. I wanted to work towards getting out of this way of thinking during this project to set me up well for future projects. Beth created a really safe space for us to work in, which meant the notes were easier to approach and take as help as opposed to critiques. This safe space helped me to get over that mental roadblock and fully understand that notes are there for me to improve, and that I shouldn’t be ashamed of getting notes.
When rehearsing Webb’s speech about his father, I was struggling to fully convey the emotions Webb and his father were feeling, so we had a one to one session in order to strengthen it. First we broke down what these words meant to Webb, which allowed me to understand what I was saying and what emotions he goes through when speaking. Then, Beth gave me the task to create a memory from Webb’s childhood that left him feeling resentment. I did this by writing a letter addressed to Webb’s father detailing an experience where he got violent with Webb’s mother. This was a massive boost for me as it gave me perspective on what Webb has been through. I then took this further by creating more memories from Webb’s childhood with his father, and attaching them to bits of the speech. I created three memories for each bit of advice in the speech, giving me a total of nine memories to think about when delivering the speech. I made sure to pick different memories every time in order to make the speech feel different every time, keeping the performance fresh and not feel restricted to a particular rhythm. Taking the note of using memories in the speech helped me improve my performance, as the visions of Webb’s past experiences allowed me to attach real emotion to what I was saying.
Physical work
Embodying the physicality of my character was very important to me, as I was playing a person who was quite a bit older than I am, so I made sure to pay good attention to this when in rehearsals and doing research.
Doing regular check-ins with the assistant directors to talk about our thoughts on what Webb’s physicality was like helped a lot, as it gave me plenty of ideas to carry into the scenes when we got them on their feet, and from there I could see what worked and what didn’t.
What I found worked from these chats was focusing on what Webb would be wearing, and how that would impact the way he moved, which gave me the chance to think about how my costume would affect my movement before I was even wearing it. Furthermore, looking into where his happiness and worry manifest in his body gave me a greater understanding of how his body responds to emotions. One thing I would have improved in my physical preparation was to apply Laban techniques more. In the initial check-in, we spoke about what Laban efforts I would apply to my character. I settled on press and dab, however after doing a small amount of initial work on these efforts, I found myself not going back to them. This often meant that when rehearsing the scene, my physicality as Webb dropped, making my performance less believable. Luckily, the other work I had done for this helped me to get back to the physical state I wanted, but in future I will do more work on consistently applying Laban efforts in my work by doing more research and writing on how these efforts affect my character.
Overview
I am happy with how this project went, as it allowed me to play a type of character that I have never really approached before. Because of this, my preparation was rather different to previous characters I have played, which gave me a different angle to look at when rehearsing scenes. This is something I would like to keep up in future projects. I also enjoyed exploring parts of myself as a person that I hadn’t bought into my acting before, such as my relationship with my dad. Overall, I’m thrilled with how it went and can’t wait to see what I do next.
Word Count (minus headers) : 1997.
