By Katie Menham 24102088
THE MOORS BY JEN SILVERMAN
Directed by Sean Linnen
INTRODUCTION
The Moors filled me with excitement, I love media regarding gothic horror, and I was cast as Emilie, a governess. At first, I was sceptical about her personality, as it felt similar to characters I have played in the past, but the more I understood her, the more I realised she is different. I connected the play immediately to Jane Eyre (1847), and using the parallels between them I gathered a picture of what the next three weeks were going to look like. The play is set in the 1840s but intended to be seen as contemporary which led me to challenges, breakthroughs and developments along the way.
RESEARCH
Before entering the rehearsal room, I researched what might help me understand the play better when I read it for the second time, potentially leading to new discoveries that I hadn’t thought about the first time I read it. I was glad to have researched into governesses before being cast as Emilie as that helped me to understand her character and get her off the page much quicker. I thought it would be appropriate to research into the Brontë sisters as the front of the play text suggested they are linked, and it helped me to visualise life at the time even more. During the initial preparation stages, I was unsure whether to research the context of America at the time too, but decided against it in the end to wait and find out what Sean’s vision of the piece was instead. This is because we were doing a general American accent for a play set in the moors of Yorkshire. This research helped me to have a wider understanding before stepping into the room for table work.
I looked for character inspiration to start the first building blocks for my character Emilie. I watched The Sound of Music (1965) to see what Maria was like as a governess and I watched Jane Eyre (2011) so I could visualise the setting, and I imagined Agatha as Mr Rochester. As I am a visual learner, using cinema for my research has really helped me piece together the world of the play. I took traits from both Maria and Jane, such as naïvety, strong willingness, warmth, and commitment to morals. I realised there were also many differences between Emilie and these characters too, as she is more confined to the traditional roles in society and wouldn’t reach out of conformity.
There is certain fashion that women of Emilie’s class would wear. The neckerchief was true to the era and her line of work but also helped myself and the other actors playing Emilie to differentiate ourselves from the other characters. My costume connected me to Emilie as it is far from anything I would typically wear. As a class, we did further group research to remain in agreement about other aspects of the era.
ACCENT
I have a strong general American accent from practicing skills, however I would have liked more of a challenge so I decided to research the accent in a 19th century setting, I watched Little Women (2019), looking specifically at Jo and Laurie’s scene on the hill. I received one on one feedback in which I was told my accent was warm, which I was wanting to bring to Emilie. My area to improve was my ‘T’ sounds, because of my Midlands accent and my regular mouth placement, they were coming out as New York, so I practiced my articulation on lines with any Ts in them.
PROCESS
TABLE WORK
During the first few days of rehearsals we had a discussion about our thoughts of the play as there was a lot for us to decide and theorise about the plot. We re-read the play to unit each scene to give us a foundation. By the end of the week, we did my scene for the first time. We knew it wouldn’t be the finished project, as it was the first time I tested out some of my character preparation. We analysed each line of the scene in detail to understand the subtext, what questions characters were really asking, and I came to some conclusions about what Emilie’s intentions were within the scene. Analysing the lines and stage directions this way was extremely helpful with figuring out Emilie’s objectives, super objectives and tactics, which I usually don’t manage to fully solidify until the end of my process.
CHARACTER EXPLORATION & UTA HAGEN
I started my character process with Uta Hagen and given circumstances so that my research could inform my decisions about Emilie’s background. I highlighted information the playwright had given me, and any questions left unanswered. I used these to get started on my character questions; I believe this helps me to dive deeper into what she really wants beyond the play. I then started thinking about the situation of the scene and techniques such as creating my fourth side points I could use if I felt suited to and endowing certain elements. This was useful to offer in the room later down the line to see if it served me and my scene partner.
STANISLAVSKI
I have to fully start to understand my character before understanding their driving force. I came to a conclusion about my super objective when I had completed the ‘morals’ section of my character questions, as I realised that discovering her sexuality was part of her journey that she did not anticipate at all. The way she acts on it in the script tells me it is something that she was looking for; she just didn’t know it would be that.
This helped me to develop my objectives which I tried out in the rehearsal room, and when they didn’t work, I kept coming back to the drawing board to think of something better. I started to acknowledge that Emilie wouldn’t always be successful in getting what she wanted, as she is generally lower in power when it comes to interacting with Agatha. So, I thought it would be useful to decide whether the objectives would be achievable in the end, to improve my connection with her.
Writing an unbroken line of action from Emilie’s point of view of the play was really insightful as it helped me create an inner monologue for her when I wasn’t on stage. This was particularly useful on week three when we added a ‘final scene’ to round off each character’s storyline. Emilie comes out with a baby bump, and in order to quickly create a difference between Emilie in the previous scene to now, the unbroken line of action I wrote helped me to feel more prepared for this last minute addition.
REHEARSALS
Before run throughs and rehearsals of my scene, I would do a quick physical warm-up to get my energy flowing, as my character wasn’t physically demanding. I used Laban to get into character externally and internally; I decided that Emilie was a glide on the outside, but slash on the inside. My vocal warm ups lasted ten to fifteen minutes, focusing on articulation for my accent, and volume; the rooms we were working in tended to swallow any sound.
Week two consisted of revisiting each scene and re-blocking / re-discovering intentions, as thoughts about our characters had changed over the weekend. This is around the time I began to hit a block and the best thing I could do to get out of it was to look through my character development and make any changes I needed to fit my updated understanding of the scene. I decided to use a Mike Alfreds technique and focused on Emilie’s sexuality as my point of concentration in rehearsals. This helped me to think more about Emilie’s acceptance of Branwell’s situation and why she has feelings for Agatha. As a straight actor, this was challenging at first; but then I thought back to how I first imagined Agatha as masculine, and so I could justify Emilie’s dialogue and decisions better.
During week three, I had my biggest breakthrough of the entire process. Myself, Sean, and my scene partner tried being more playful with the setting. We used the chairs, piano and wings as rocks to climb or lean on. My Uta Hagen research aided with this and I could picture the moors in the distance so much clearer from being on a higher surface. We turned a stationary, dialogue heavy scene into a ‘cat and mouse’ game, which elevated the scene and gave us new tactics to try. The final scene that we added gave me a chance to show a difference in my character. I allowed Emilie to want to ‘regret’ her initial drive during the play, and be conflicted as to whether to carry on with it beyond the ending. To indicate the development of character I changed my centre of gravity to my hips to knees area, to help drag my feet across the floor with more effort, carrying the weight of the baby.
INTIMACY
Intimacy training is challenging for me. Having done it before, I know what my needs are in the rehearsal room and I have to have a sense of trust. Sean made me feel really comfortable, and I was lucky enough to be working opposite a close friend. We used a traffic light system to begin with, and then choreographed the moments leading up to, during, and after the kiss. We decided on the types of touch we would use, and confirmed what our movements were going to be each time. From that point on, each time we did a run, we made sure to check on each other, to see if we were okay to do it that day. I kept a log on the final week of rehearsals to check my mood that day to be prepared to put a placeholder in for the run throughs if needed. This has been a safe experience of using intimacy and made me feel secure in a professional environment.
NOTES & FEEDBACK
We received notes after runs in week three. I wanted to arrive with energy upon entering my scene, and the transition where I swapped with the previous Emilie helped with this because it made me feel ready to go, adding a whimsical rush to the beginning. Me and Liv decided to create the illusion of the expansive scale of the moors the further we moved away from each other by raising the volume of our voices. I was sliding into a rhythm with my lines, and breaking certain thoughts up that shouldn’t be. To resolve this, we did speed through line runs to help us break out of pre-anticipated line deliveries.
PERFORMANCES
Notes that stuck with me is getting rid of the safety lock which inspired me the most on performance day. During the dress run, I played it safe. This might have been because of nerves, or I didn’t feel connected enough. Before our final performance, myself and Liv agreed that if we could find an opportunity, we would go for ‘bold.’ For me, this decision changed everything. I now felt optimistic and ready to just go for it. This worked in mine and Liv’s favour; we found light and dark in places we hadn’t found before, and I’d never felt so tethered to her and the scene. We even found comedy which earned us the climatic moment of the kiss. It just ‘clicked.’ If I could perform it again, I would bring this exact same energy; I have learned that I just need to jump out of my comfort zone sooner. However, I do believe that all of my preparations, blocks and breakthroughs really paid off and served me in my final performance.
CONCLUSION
During the past few weeks I have made changes to improve my process, and I believe this development will be ongoing as I navigate the rest of my training. I would have liked to have spent longer on this process because in the last few days I really started to see my progress grow significantly. My previous limits were challenged through playing within such an intimate scene; it has taught me to find places for bold choices and movements that aren’t in the text, and to be confident in exploiting this. The time constraints have taught me that in the future I need to explore physicalising character much sooner, leaving more time for development in this area during my process. My understanding of Uta Hagen techniques have really come into fruition during my practice of them for this project. I am proud of my improvement to the depths of research and preparation I did before rehearsals began as it informed many of my successful choices for Emilie.
