Process Assessment Portfolio

by

Sophia Roberts 25101227

MTH4C004R~001 25101227 Sophia Roberts

“Our art teaches us first of all to create consciously and rightly” 

(Stanislavski, 2013:13)

Indeed, in ‘An Actor Prepares’, Stanislavski depicts his experiences with director, ‘Torstov’, which shaped his own philosophy that an exceptional actor, does prepare ahead of performance. Within my first term at Leeds Conservatoire, I have been working to develop my individual actor process, in order to prepare best before performing. I have achieved this through exercises exploring contemporary and classical theatre such as ‘Punk Rock’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’. In the rehearsal room each week, I have been introduced to new techniques, methodologies and practitioners such as Stanislavski, Stella Adler and Cicely Berry. I have integrated some of my findings from these classes into my own research for performances; I am incredibly grateful for how this has developed my process taking on roles as a young performer. In this portfolio, I aim to document my journey in experimenting which practioner’s techniques worked for me in creating convincing performances. In doing so, I will use Boud’s reflection model to analyse what was effective and how I plan to continue this in future projects.

KONSTANTIN STANISLAVSKI, KATIE MITCHELL AND STEVEN BERKOFF

Initially, I was introduced to Stanislavski’s given circumstances technique when exploring Simon Stephen’s contemporary play ‘Punk Rock’, which depicts the many emotions and aspects of adolescence. This was following a blind reading exercise, to challenge the spontaneity of the original performance and allow us to build a foundation for our characters. Indeed, I found this exercise, whilst brief, imperative to creating an effective and convincing performance. This technique didn’t work for me, and it was challenging to decide how I would portray the character of ‘Cissy Franks’ without knowing anything about her or her objectives. However, having read through her scenes multiple times and acknowledging her given circumstances, I was able to play a nuanced and perceptive version of her. Resultantly after noting her background, who she was, why she behaves in a bold, performative and confident manner, I was able to outline her super objective of wanting to be the best and craving validation. I decided to play on this and when reading through again, creating a sense of vulnerability behind her confidence, by using Stanislavski’s ‘Magic If’ methodology. For example, I tried to ask myself how I would act if I craved the desire to be the best yet was crumbling under pressure from peers or at home, such as Cissy. I then made the educated decision to speed up my pace when interjecting with increases in volume, to create a snappy yet desperate sound in her speech, hinting her sharp attempts to be heard and recognised. Reflecting on this, I was impressed with how much I learned about Cissy and was able to create a more convincing performance just from using Stanislavski’s methodologies of preparation. This has impacted the development of my actor process positively, as I planned to use it further in each of the texts we studied later in the semester. I did however become curious into different methods I could develop context for my character and familiarise myself with text to create an honest performance, as indeed ‘before you put a foot in the rehearsal room on day one, you should familiarise yourself with as much of your material as possible’ (Bowling and Henshall, 2012:44). 

In the following class, we were given the brief to devise an extract from Caryl Churchill’s ‘Serious Money’ as a group. In this session, we were further introduced to world building exercises, inspired by Katie Mitchell’s meticulous world, to aid our creation of the scene. Indeed, whilst Mitchell’s in depth analysis of literature and context was ideal for the creation of this scene, it also tied in well with our work on Stanislavski as she previously made clear: ‘His [Stanislavski’s] work remains relevant whenever you find yourself directing a play that contains characters who are members of the human race, regardless of the time period they inhabit or the style of the play they belong to.’(Mitchell, 2009: 227). Therefore, the nature of her rehearsal process and creation of the character, allowed my actor process, to develop further inspired by realism. Indeed, to create this meticulous realism inspired by the likes of these practitioners, I began researching the economics, politics, society, fashion and music of the period of which the play is set in. Applying this, to my research on the play and my character ‘Zac’, I felt I could visualise the world of the play so much easier, making devising my own version much more obtainable. See attached image of script research annotations.

When it came to bringing the scene to life, as a group we collectively decided to harness the corruption of British and American financial markets, because of our research into the moral decay in society following the 1980 Big Bang and the greedy characters. Due to our collective effort to investigate the context of the play and Churchill’s satirical intentions, it became easier to create a stylised performance, and particularly we were inspired by Berkoff. We therefore staged this performance to consist of mime motifs and synchronicity like his own influence by Kabuki, French total theatre and the work of Jacques Le Coq’s ‘Seven States of tension’ (Cross, 1996:90). Reflecting on this, the exaggerated and unsettling physicality we harnessed worked well and successfully mirrored corrupting themes of play. Whilst Berkoff’s performances are contrasting more non-naturalistic than Stanislavski and Mitchell’s realism, I found his methods still did aid the development of this project well. This is evident of the versatility and importance the consideration of a character and research is for any performance project. I also found from this stage of the process that not only can in depth research and contemplation over text not only can help my individual performance, but from a creative perspective create a more concise and powerful image. Resultantly, I found from this work how important it was that ‘the creative process also includes reading inspiring books and exploring the potential of new materials and tools’ (Candy, 2020:2) and is just as important for a performer as it is from a directorial perspective create a vision. This was very insightful and will bear in mind further into this process and into these creative industries. See attached video for performance evidence.

Outside of our performance project class, I harnessed these world building skills to the research and development process of a new musical, ‘Dead Famous’. Whilst I was an ensemble member portraying a music video dancer, it was important that I researched the current state of pop music and the idolisation of the singers to understand the vision, as well as contributing to the intended image of the show. I found it a challenge however, to apply Stanislavski’s methodologies such as given circumstances and the magic if due to not having a specific role. Nevertheless, in the future if I were to do this project again, I would regardless apply these to create my own character and hopefully add more depth or meaning to my performance, as within the first weeks of term I saw the changes they made to my acting for the better.

CICELY BERRY AND STELLA ADLER

Later in this process, we were introduced to Shakespearian texts such as ‘Romeo and Juliet’. This play became more challenging to get a grasp of than the more contemporary texts we had previously been introduced to, partially due to the complex linguistics. However, to break this down and develop understanding of the play we used Cicely Berry’s ‘Walking the text’ technique, as Romeo and Juliet characters, aligning with her methodologies to combine physicality with vocal work. This would hopefully prove useful in delivering lines as a Shakespearian character later. Indeed, her belief that ‘speaking and using the voice is partly a physical action’ (Berry, 1973:9), makes clear that the way we express ourselves using voice and physicality is intrinsically linked. Resultantly, this technique and Berry’s methodologies, helped my analysis of characters in this text, as coming up with devised action helped separate the differences between the roles, and how they are presented in a crowed room. I found this useful as not only were the physicalities consolidated, but it also informed the sensitivities and emotional states of the characters, with regards to how they’d interact, or a gait that may suggest confidence or a lack thereof.  Developing this further to integrate voice with this, to satisfy Cicely Berry’s beliefs, we began to paraphrase lines in Act 1, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet, inspired by Adler’s analysis and Shakespeare intensives. After establishing a strong presence through my physicality as ‘Gregory’, with a rhythmic, and heavy gait, placing my weight to my feet and staying grounded with an angular posture, after the ‘walking the text’ technique, the robust character ready to start a brawl on behalf of the Capulets was easier to understand. I also found this technique allowed me to recognise my character in terms of the Laban efforts, for example I recognised Gregory’s physicality under pressing, which helped me understand his motifs more. From this, when beginning to paraphrase lines, the bawdy nature of the character and their relationship with Samson became prominent. I found their energy bounced off each other and their shared loyalty to the Capulet household allowed for the fiery tension with the Montagues to turn into an interesting feud. I found these techniques, combing voice and physicality, very eye opening for exploring Shakespeare texts, as whilst initially appearing as challenging, these techniques made them so much easier to grasp by breaking every down each aspect of performance individually. To develop this further, I hope to take these methods of analysis into other Shakespeare characters to create a convincing performance.

UTA HAGEN

In the final weeks of this class, I was given the task to present my character choices for Juliet’s monologue. Whilst taking on board all the practitioners’ techniques and methodologies I had been introduced to, I decided to use Uta Hagen’s ‘9 questions’ analysis to consolidate what I’ve learnt, adding another layer to analysis. Asking these vital questions, I was able to not only put myself in Juliet’s shoes, but I took a more unique and nuanced approach to the scene due to exploring these vulnerabilities. This technique took over and supported my reasoning for a lot of character choices, see attached PowerPoint screenshots for examples of choices. 

However, I did find Hagen’s technique very similar to those of Stanislavski’s. Whilst with this exercise I was able to get what I needed out of it, I feel like using Stanislavski’s given circumstances, I may have had a similar result. Nevertheless, I was able to take these choices further and consider the ‘9 questions’ with the contrasting musical theatre ‘Eponine’ from ‘Les Misérables’. Having a clear set of answers, made it much easier to compare her and Juliet, analysing not only their differences but similarities too. Therefore, having a more concise perception of each character would potentially also make it easier to portray each separately with an understanding of not just who they are but who they’re not. See attached image of comparison. 

Hagen’s ‘9 questions’ technique proved useful at this moment, however, to take my actor process further, I would love to explore practitioner influence in musical theatre as we began to transition to within the final lessons.

CONCLUSION

Throughout this term, I have found the Actor and Text classes eye-opening. Not only was I introduced to practitioners and their methodologies or new texts, but I was able to explore what techniques worked best for me, in my own individual actor process, without judgement. With an experimental approach to the classes, it became easier to become fully invested, involved and open minded to the ideologies being shared. I found the practitioners’ techniques, that relied heavily on realism, imperative to creating a foundation for a convincing performance, such as Stanislavski and Mitchell’s. They were also versatile as they aided our Berkoff inspired, non-naturalistic performance of ‘Serious Money’. However, I found blind reading extremely challenging and Hagen’s ‘9 questions’, whilst useful, repetitive of Stanislavski’s given circumstances, from my perspective. Regardless of this, I am glad that I got to experiment with both. Having recognised this, I’m excited to see where these techniques and methodologies take me with future performances. I look forward to continuing developing my actor process as well, especially under the influence of the Musical Theatre canon, which we began to explore within the final weeks of class. I have also recognised how imperative analysis is from a creative perspective and I hope to develop this more in the future of my performance journey.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  • Adler, S (2000) The Art of Acting. New York: Applause Books
  • Benedetti, J (2008) Stanislavski: An Introduction. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama
  • Berry, C (1973) Voice and the Actor. New York: Wiley Publishing Inc
  • Boud, D., Keogh, R., & Walker, D. (1985). Promoting Reflection in Learning: A Model. Reflection: Turning Reflection into Learning. London: Routledge. 
  • Bowling, D and Henshall, R (2012) So You Want to Be in Musicals? London: Nick Hern Books
  • Candy, L (2020) The Creative Reflective Practitioner: Research Through Making and Practice. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge
  • Churchill, C (2002) Serious Money. London: Bloomsbury
  • Cross, R., 1996. Steven Berkoff’s Metamorphosis: total theatre and self-reflexivity (Doctoral dissertation, Doshisha University).
  • Frost, W (2024), Practitioner focus: Steven Berkoff [online]. Available at: https://www.dramaandtheatre.co.uk/content/features/practitioner-focus-steven-berkoff (Accessed: 08 December 2025).
  • Hagen, U (2008) Respect for acting. London: Macmillan
  • Mitchell, K (2009) The Directors Craft: A Handbook for Theatre. London: Routledge
  • Shakespeare, W (2012) Romeo and Juliet. London: The Arden Shakespeare
  • Stanislavski, K (2013) An Actor Prepares. London: Bloomsbury
  • Stephens, S (2009), PUNK ROCK. London: Bloomsbury