Our Town – Thornton Wilder
Directed by Beth Knight
First Thoughts
I first read Our Town independently and discovered the play portrays themes of the fragile human condition and the upholding strength of human spirituality after death. Following a read-through with my company, I quickly identified concepts and emotions within the play which I myself often contemplate; being present moment to moment and the weight of grief. Whilst these experiences are dealt with differently by each character, my interpretation is that these are what connects them.
Casting Process
The casting process was fulfilling, made so by Beth’s approach and altering my casting expectations. Initially, I was keen to audition for the lead role of Emily, considering less whether I may be right for the role and more the kudos of being given a leading role.
”Extremely aware of myself”
However, after reading Our Town with my group and discussing our thoughts, my priorities changed. Developing Our Town with my company was to become an extremely meaningful experience for me, and casting outcomes mattered less. ; I became increasingly focused on my developing process. I believe this change helped me commit to necessary research and acknowledge the play’s message: to recognise what one has.
“A soft power which is laid back and innate”
The audition was not as I had expected. I had a one-to-one conversation with Beth for her to find out more about me as an actor, what might excite or challenge me during the project and my perspective of Our Town. The audition felt natural and conversing with Beth was easy. As opposed to reciting lines, having a focused conversation allowed Beth to gain a deeper insight into myself and my process.
1-2-1 feedback:
“A soft power which is laid-back and innate. Allows her to hold her daughter and family in her wisdom. Lends itself to Mrs W’s certainty of what is right and wrong and the world around her.”
“Extremely aware of myself, my approach to working with a scene partner, strengths, weaknesses, and ability to communicate this proficiently.”
Research and Analysis
Understanding The Text
During week one, we worked in groups according to our casting, blocking our scenes and collaborating to identify shifts in energy between the characters. Whilst this process was time-consuming, this approach helped me grasp the dynamic between Mrs Webb and other characters; her influence & impression on others and vice versa.
The company also took time to distinguish facts revealed by the playwright. The facts about Mrs Webb inspired some of my character choices. Being the wife of one of the town’s selectmen reinforced her confident sense of self. In extension, I developed the tactics she used to convince her husband to take her to the Atlantic Ocean: strong eye contact and a collected gait. I applied these throughout my performance. See 1a, 1b, 1c.
1a.
1b.
1c.
Researching ‘Our Town’
Historical research was extremely important in developing my character. Based on our interpretation of Grover’s Corners residents being financially comfortable, we agreed that many of the characters would possess a quality education and knowledge of US, and potentially, international history. I contributed to a timeline of events (1600-present day), exploring the history of politics, the arts & society of each period. Previously, I have sometimes found independent research for a play overwhelming, unsure of where or how to begin, and exactly how much to cover. Therefore, dividing the work between company members helped organise this process and allowed me to learn in a timely manner. In order to embody Mrs Webb, I felt it important to learn about historical events which she may have known about and lived through. I researched the American Civil War and the prominent political factors at play. See 1d.
1d.
Character Exploration
Accent:
I have always been able adopt most new accents with ease. By listening to recordings of accents, I am able to imitate the vowel and consonant placement with little trouble, so by finding interviews and similar audio recordings ahead of casting, I hoped to have a strong New Hampshire accent prepared once rehearsals began. See 2a.
2a.
I understood I would be able to use some of the placement of a standard New York accent to shape my speech. I decided to adopt a slightly refined New Hampshire accent, to reflect my impression of Mrs Webb – presenting as polished and well-spoken. To achieve this, I identified words such as ‘yard’, which carries a distinct [æ] sound and chose to soften this vowel sound.
In order to project safely and maintain Mrs Webb’s tone, I utilised my first year vocal warm up. See 2b. Exercises which served me particularly well were jiggling areas of my body and vocalising ‘s’, ‘z’, ‘th’, ‘sh’, ‘f’ sounds, in semi-supine and running around the space. This exercise helped me with vocal clarity and connecting to my breath. Mrs Webb presented a busyness which was sometimes physically demanding, however, using this exercise helped support projection.
I was proud to be named Accent Captain of the project. I enjoyed offering support to my peers and testing my skills in this area.
2b.
2b.
2b.
Physicality:
Due to the number of actors in the company, I shared my role with another actor. We mutually agreed that displaying similarity in movement was imperative. To achieve this, we met regularly outside of rehearsals to research 1900’s mannerisms . We also chose an animal around which to shape Mrs Webb’s movement and demeanour. Anthropomorphising the woodpecker extended to other areas of our work, including a music playlist, an ideas board and choosing Laban Efforts (press and glide.) see 2c and 2d.
2c.
2d.
We also had a meeting with our movement captain. Being able to express our ideas and have feedback was extremely useful. The three of us agreed that Mrs Webb’s energy was located in her shoulders, chest and solar-plexus, driving her forward from these areas in a combination of pressing and gliding. This energy placement reflected her drive to complete tasks and acts of service.
We set aside a session to do some mirroring work, playing with topography and the press and glide efforts, alongside our playlist. See 2e. We noticed heavy movement in the head, similar to the movement of the woodpecker and we agreed that this movement tied in with Mrs Webb’s persistent nature.
2e.
Character Process:
My character process began with using what the playwright shared about Mrs Webb to help shape my answers to Uta Hagen’s ’21 Questions’. I created a story for Mrs Webb beyond the script. Myself and my co-actor worked side-by-side during this process and compared our answers to find similarity (highlighted text.) See 3a.
3a.
I was able to share elements of the play which may challenge and excite me. I discussed my potential difficulty in detaching from the theme of mortality and the desire for things to remain the same. However, I also wanted to tap into Lydia’s responses to those concepts. I utilised Stanislavski’s Magic ‘If’. This technique helped me build connection with scene partners, especially during Emily’s flashback.
I felt Mrs Webb to be industrious and hyper-vigilant to her surroundings. I used Stanislavski’s Unbroken Line of Action to decide where Mrs Webb had come from and where she was headed between my scenes. This method helped me feel purposeful and dynamic. See 3b.
My image of Mrs Webb centres around her practical nature, so I decided to present as constantly occupied, which is touched on in the ‘Director’s Notes’ section of my portfolio.
3b.
When working with my co-actor, I found discussing ideas to be effective in visualising Mrs Webb’s backstory. This, alongside 1a, 1b and 1c (above) revealed how Mrs Webb’s early life shaped her. See 3c, 3d, 3e.
3c.
3d.
3e.
Director’s Notes, Challenges and Breakthroughs
Beth stressed the importance of me finding tasks to complete in between my lines, to convey Mrs Webb’s industriousness. This was challenging as I was directed to not use mime and we weren’t given props to work with. Alternatively, I found it useful to write a list of thoughts to hold in my head during my quiet moments onstage. This helped me feel occupied, as opposed to wandering aimlessly, which would not have served my character.
Beth asked me to choose adjectives to describe Mrs Webb. Initially, I chose ‘resourceful’, ‘unique’ and ‘gentle’. See 4a. After sharing these with Beth, she asked me to reevaluate my adjectives, as she felt embodying these would not challenge me enough as an actor. Finding more complex words was a challenge at first, as this deviated from my initial impression of Mrs Webb. After careful consideration, I chose ‘resourceful’, ‘distinct’ and ‘dismissive’. I feel this adjustment altered the trajectory of the character’s journey, and pushed me to make bold choices during rehearsals, especially when exploring ‘dismissive’ as a character trait.
4a.
Once Mrs Webb’s strong character had been established, I was tasked with presenting an air of authority. Beth encouraged me to play with distance between myself and others, with a view to representing a power imbalance. In turn, I feel this approach demonstrated Mrs Webb’s self-confidence in knowing she was entitled to inspect and, if required, adjust, the appearance of others, namely her daughter and Louella Soames, however that this interference from others towards herself was not acceptable.
Reflection of Process
In retrospect, utilising Uta Hagen’s character question exercise was beneficial, not only in finding correlation between myself and my co-actor’s versions of Mrs Webb, but also in designing a life for her beyond the script. This, amalgamated with devising a short improv scene as part of my warmup, I feel allowed me to deliver an authentic, connected performance. As anticipated, there were moments within the rehearsal process when the themes touched on in the play challenged me and in one instance required me to briefly leave the space. As a result, I feel that, perhaps had I spent more time developing an acting parallel to create more detachment between Lydia’s experiences and those in Our Town, certain group exercises and scene runs might have felt safer. Having said this, I feel I was aware of my boundaries and took steps to protect these.
Overview and Discoveries:
Conclusively, I thoroughly enjoyed this project. From our director’s audition approach to the diverse ways in which we as a group and I, independently, worked. I appreciated the length of time given; exploring historical context, script uniting and playing with a multitude of acting choices allowed me to access a deep connection to the story. Furthermore, as rehearsals progressed, so did my understanding of certain concepts. For example, when annotating my scene between Mrs Webb and her daughter Emily surrounding Emily’s view of herself and her hopes for her future, I sensed there to be, on Mrs Webb’s part, a failure to grasp her daughter’s desire to learn and see the world. Based on my design of Mrs Webb, she had always been able to find contentment in the familiar. Therefore, watching her daughter grow an interest in things outside Grover’s Corners was not something Mrs Webb could relate to, but rather was something she recognised in her husband, Emily’s father. Consequently, Emily sensed a lack of interest from her mother and forged a bond with her father through this shared interest. I feel this scenario reflected the play’s prominent focus on complex familial relationships.
My understanding of Mrs Webb’s view of herself also grew. I sensed Mrs Webb to be a self-assured and secure woman, never requiring validation from others. When Emily pushed her mother for approval of her looks, Mrs Webb struggled to reassure Emily. Due not to the fact that Mrs Webb does not care for or love her daughter, but that she expected Emily not to require this validation, just as she herself didn’t. I believe that throughout the play, Mrs Webb was conditioning her daughter to find her assurances from within.
Reflecting on the research and analysis areas of the project, I feel I developed a deep understanding of the play’s era when conducting and sharing research as a company. For future projects, if group research is not possible, I envisage creating a timetable to cover a multitude of research areas in a timely manner. I recognise we were fortunate to have been given over four weeks for the project and that this level of exploration would be difficult within a typical rehearsal period. However, I feel all areas of my character exploration were imperative to shaping a connected performance. Therefore, my next step will be to organise an approach to ensure I am able to carry out this vital work for future, shorter projects.
Prior to Our Town, I had not allowed myself to appreciate the mundanity of a play, instead seeking out an action-packed plot. I can now say with certainty that Our Town will remain one of my favourite plays of my lifetime and am of the belief that bearing witness to the normality of characters’ small lives and finding richness within that, is wonderful.
Bibliography
https://leedscitycoll-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/personal/24103423_leedsconservatoire_ac_uk/Documents/Established%20Repertoire%20Bibliography.docx?d=w2ae451d7689145d28f7eadbb61d74886&csf=1&web=1&e=sMfunC
