The Moors

Directed by Sean Linnen

Initial response to the play.

Before the first session with Sean, I decided to give the play a read through after casting.  Not only did it help my understanding of the play and how my character fits into the world. It prepared me for the discussions that we would be having around the table. 

The Moors, written by Jen Silverman is a play set in VIctorion 1840s Yorkshire, with a cast having a range of American accents. The play explores a variety of themes including homosexual relationships, religion, power/control and isolation.  Silverman’s writing style in the Moors is very Gothic / Bronte inspired as shown by the stormy weather and bleak landscapes with an oppressive household. With each scene I felt more upset for the Mastiff as he wasn’t being understood. I found the development of the Moorhen and the Mastiff very heartwarming as they are the only ones who can really understand each other despite the intellectual differences. It also became very apparent to me that the Mastiff is the ‘philosophical’ voice of the play. A big focus in this play is a homosexual relationship between two women which was really unheard of and socially unacceptable in the 1840s I found this especially interesting as it adds an unconventional dynamic that enhances the emotional intensity of the play and pushes the characters to confront the limits of freedom and societal expectations.  

CASTING

We did not have auditions for parts but were rather cast before rehearsals. Given that there was only one male role and it was going to be shared between us 3 boys I didn’t feel angry about not getting the chance to audition.

I was quite upset at first when I found out the only male character, the role I was playing, was a Mastiff in scenes 1 and 3. After fully understanding the Mastiffs importance in the play I was quite pleased. I was very happy to find out that I get to play the Mastiff when he first encounters the Moorhen and opens up about his feelings (which he has longed to do). However, I did feel the challenge of playing a dog and knew I would have to do a lot of animal studies research as well as having Eilon in to assist us with helpful tricks like just living in the world of a dog for 20 minutes, (which really helped me connect). It was hard to find the confidence to let myself go and do the leap of faith into the role, as animal acting made me uncomfortable. Becoming the Mastiff was something that I had to progressively work on for a full week to get completely comfortable, it was a great learning moment to prepare me for any future animal roles.

UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT.

We spent the first 5 days going through the text in detail. Although it was much more mentally draining than I thought, by the end of it I had a strong understanding of the play and how mine and all the characters worked in the world of the Moors. During this time, I noted down questions to research that I didn’t understand at the time. These were general questions and Mastiff related ones [post photo A] I also noted down what the play was about, themes, character roles [photo B] to increase and imbed my knowledge of the world in the Moors. 

Research  

Researching the social historical context of 1840s Victorian England was a crucial step in allowing me to understand the world and setting of the Moors and not through a 2025 lens. The class was divided and each individual researched an aspect of the play/what was happening in the time period and relayed the information at the end of the first week in a presentation style [photo C]. It was important for me to understand the value, tendencies and role that a Mastiff, dogs and pets in general played in 1840s Victorian Yorkshire [photo D]. It was helpful learning the information on the Bronte sisters as Jen Silverman used them as loose inspiration.

As well as using the information that the class presented I wanted to do my own general research into 1840s Yorkshire to fully submerge myself in that world [photo E] During this research I was giving myself questions to answer that would help add dynamic emotional layers to my role that would be shared amongst the other two who are playing the mastiff [Photo F]

ACCENTS

When we started reading through the play, we landed on the southern American accent for the Mastiff which is the accent I am most comfortable with. Before the end of the first week, we decided to change it to general American which I found much harder. I knew this would be good for me as I must get more comfortable with the accent as I will be doing it in future roles. I watched a lot of Will Ferral clips and movies like stepbrothers and general interviews https://youtu.be/Z9L8GwbvSJo?si=08aSEtPvn3_ouoci. I tried to adapt his heightened accent with no strong vowel shifts to add to the purity and innocents of the mastiff.

After getting comfortable with the accent and reading through my lines in front of the accent director she gave me some notes [photo G] I felt like I really landed in my role. And what I’ve learned from the notes will serve me well in future roles. I enjoyed using the general American accent in warm ups and outside the rehearsal space. After the performance I had students come up to me and say they couldn’t tell I was English due to the quality of the accent.

CHARACTER PROCESS

I began my character exploration by answering questions about my character that will create a world for my role [Photo H] from there I was able to fully submerge myself in the world of the Moors.

I used Utah Hagens 9 questions [Photo I] to keep me inside the given circumstances and keep the ‘moment to moment’ truth. I feel like this really showed in scene 1 as I was non-verbal for a large portion, internalising the questions and living in the answers really showed in my movement and manners.The way we worked around it was by running the scenes with my moorhen outside of the rehearsal times which wasn’t ideal but had to be done. This served us well as we still got all the rehearsal hours in to feel comfortable and confident.

I am now confident that I can hold myself accountable for areas that need improving and acting on it as I have proved in this project.

I stayed wearing my costume and makeup outside of rehearsals [photo] was something that served well before performing, as staying inside the costume for long periods of time didn’t make it feel like a costume, I began to feel incredibly comfortable. This also led to me being able to get in to character much quicker and easier. This especially helped me connect to my character as an individual.

After doing so I did additional research on children and the disease Typhus as it is mentioned a lot in the play and scenes I am in, [photo] this was to make sure I could align my visual subtle responses correctly.

REFLECTION OF PROCESS

After looking at the other mastiffs perform there scenes, I realised that It would serve us all if we had slightly different traits. After discussion it was that I would sort of prance my front arms in dog form

and the others would do a mix of there behinds or shake out leg. After adding this to character and bringing it to rehearsals it agreed that not only did it add variety and depth to the characters it also made us all more ‘puppy like’. This was important to get right because the ending is tragic as the mastiff (Torin) comes out with the moorhen’s blood on his mouth which isn’t very puppy like. Important to build the dramatic effect! At the start of rehearsals I was noticing the other mastiffs accents were more general than me and I was again leaning to far southern, and realising it would be easier to nail if I come off script as quick as possible. Halfway through rehearsals Sean gave me a note that made me reflect on and change my process. As when I see these questions in the script I don’t always see them as questions, so I just read them out with emotion and ‘act’. I had not thought to until prompted by Sean to when reading the question, GENUINLEY ASK THE QUESTION TO THE AUDIENCE. This was pivotal for me as an actor for my process and whenever I read a question I know to ask it with it feeling worlds apart better. This helped serve my character as the audience were genuinely thinking of an answer, this helped draw them into my world and create an intimate real space with just me and the audience. This also served as when I was asking the moorhen question and genuinely doing it the audience were genuinely interested in the answer from an authentic question. This learning point proved crucial to the further growth of my process.

I found it helpful to further my process by writing down what I found challenging throughout rehearsals [photo] and working on a method to fix it. Because especially for me and my process if I am struggling with one thing and it isn’t under control it can affect the others. After my accent coach told me that if I fixed the root word which was ‘sky’ for me, everything else would fall into place . This serves my process as it saves time and allows for more detailed work. 

Physical work

Every morning after reading the play we did a physical and vocal warm up, the physical was led by one of the girls who had planned it out and I felt like this served my character as these warmups provided me with such energy I was already feeling like a puppy. These warmups provided me with the correct stretches to allow me to stay in certain dog poses for a while without feeling any soreness. I also found it easier to walk like a dog after stretching. The vocal warm up helped me move between different pitches more easily to increase the puppy innocent like tones. After analysing my process I used some Laben which served me in the performance as I filled my body out just as a mastiff would do.

INSPIRATION

In order to create my version of the Mastiff I wanted to add detail. Including innocents, gentle giant vibes, and ‘sad feel sorry for me’ vibes. To achieve this and make it work I took some physical and vocal traits from Lennie Small of mice and men and Eeyore. This inspiration proved to serve me in my performance as the audience were really connecting with me when they were feeling sorry for me because they saw the relation between my character and Eeyore. I took my prancing inspiration from my dog Marlo when he gets excited. This served my performance as I was mimicking what actuals dogs do from the dog. I used will ferrel for the strength and purity of accent.

DIRECTORS NOTES

With my scene partner being off for some of our rehearsal days we had one of the other moorhens read in the lines. I found this quite a difficult challenge as I couldn’t keep the intimacy up with different moorhens. The way we worked around it was by running the scenes with my moorhen outside of the rehearsal times which wasn’t ideal but had to be done. This served us well as we still got all the rehearsal hours in to feel comfortable and confident.
 
Overview
In conclusion I wish we were able to perform it to more audiences as I felt so connected and contempt with my character and his world that I wanted everyone to see it. Moving forward I need to do better physical warmups, although I was comfortable I still noticed some strain by the end which isn’t sustainable. This project has enhanced my ability to be venerable and speak with a fluent general American accent. I am now confident that I can hold myself accountable for areas that need improving and acting on it as I have proved in this project.

the images below will be a mix of directors and accents notes, Uta Hagen 9 questions and character questions with images of me in rehearsals to provide as evidence to earlier text. if I have mentioned something and you need to look for evidence that I have done it, look through the photos. More analysis of process. You will find animal studies work that was done on the mastiff.