By Harry Parkinson 24102134
Initial Response to the Play:
Upon first reading ‘The Rimers of Eldritch’, I found it structurally challenging to digest. Wilson wrote with no intentions of a linear narrative, highlighting the communities dynamics within Eldritch and allowing more focus to be placed on the character’s lives. During initial research, I discovered Wilson wrote the play to reflect his teenage years in Lebanon, Missouri, the same area the play is set, to reflect on the moral complexities of living in a small town. This grew my interest in the material as it added a personal element since I also grew up in a small town and the play struck a fun challenge of being the first non-linear performance I have done.
Understanding the plays’ need for community, I began working on the dynamics and hierarchy of all the characters to gauge an overall understanding before entering the rehearsal room.
Casting:
We were cast through an official audition process which I believe was extremely beneficial for professional practice but also to allow me to talk to our director, Jess Millward and discuss her vision for the piece.
I was cast as The Judge, a formal man who controls the courtroom and Robert Conklin, a young man who is stuck in his deceased older brother’s shadow.
At first I was nervous about my casting due to the abusive nature of the character of Robert. Having read the play I knew the climax of the piece involved a scene containing a sexual assault performed by Robert which was quite daunting. However, I took two intimacy training workshops earlier in the year and knew to trust Jess to help create a safe environment for my scene partner and I. I also took note of the Judge character being much older than I am and I knew I was going to need some character work devoted to his age in order to play him truthfully as in previous work where I have ‘aged up’, I always felt I was not doing the character justice.
World of the Play/ Research:
When trying to understand social attitudes in a specific time period, I look to the media that was being consumed during the epoch (see Fig 1. and 2.). I knew this would help me as I struggle to research by reading but watching/listening to media of the time helps me gain a clearer picture. Secondly, I researched the playwright to understand what the intentions of his work is to have a clear idea entering rehearsals (Fig 3.).
The pre-rehearsal research was extremely useful to me for gaining a better understanding of the 1960’s. It also helped me reflect on how beneficial it is for me to have prior knowledge and a clear understanding of the character I want to portray to make offers to the director, professional practice that I have noted and will continue to do.
In the first week of rehearsals, we focused on worldbuilding. The class wrote one word to describe the play, then we allotted the words into order of events and where we believe they fit. This was a useful exercise to grasp the beats of the non-linear narrative, especially during the scenes where the play goes into the past to help the cast gauge what Wilson is trying to say with the structure. (Fig 4. and 5.).
Alongside doing further social research in class, we created a map of the town based on what is given to us in the play and independent decisions. Small things like where the woods were placed, helped me greatly at understanding the relationship of Robert and Eva and how far he would travel in order to hide away from the rest of the town. (Fig. 6)
Process:
Before every rehearsal I would do both a solo vocal and physical warm-up to prepare, specifically when doing my physical warm-up, I would listen to a playlist I had created for Robert or Judge to help connect to the character. This was brilliant later in the process particularly as the songs were an instant click into the mindset of them for example the song ‘Paint It, Black’ became my song to unlock Robert’s hatred for the people around him, forcing loneliness upon himself (Fig. 7 and 8.). As a cast we would also do a communal vocal and physical warm-up led by our music and movement captains which helped give rehearsals a sense of focus as everyone prepared together (Fig 9.).
Fig 9.
Robert:
My character exploration for Robert was very intriguing but difficult. I struggled with his intentions, understanding why he never allows himself the chance to move away from his dark past and trying to unlock his morals was leaving me feeling stuck. I answered Uta Hagan’s nine questions to gain more insight into Robert’s character and it helped me massively (Fig 10.). Breaking down his life into a simplistic form allowed me to question in greater detail the relationship he has with Eva and how he only communicates with her to have control over someone. This led me to talk to Charlotte (Eva) and discuss the characters, coming to an agreement on what they both wanted throughout the play, succeeding in building a clear relationship. Alongside this, Cameron and I who shared the role helped each other throughout the process, we discussed the character in great detail and decided on similarities that we wanted to spend across our performances. For example, we explored the idea of showing his immaturity and lack of care for Eva with the physical action of slouching on one leg to provide a lazy, droopy look for his neutral stance. This was used in the final performance to make the character switch cohesive and clear for the audience and also to create a physical link to the character’s lack of care for what Eva has to say which I believe was very effective in the final piece.
Judge:
A big challenge I faced during rehearsals was the Judge’s physicality. I wanted to create a sense of threat and presence over the courtroom but I was unsure of how to reach that goal. Adding to the struggle, the Judge is only seen standing on a chair meaning he is static throughout the play. I began focusing on my centre of gravity to try and portray a domineering appearance, lowering my centre to boost his authority and control. I was hesitant to work with the Laban efforts since I felt they didn’t work for me when being taught them, however I decided since this experience is an opportunity to test new techniques, I would give them a second attempt. I talked with our movement captain to discuss the Judge’s internal effort shifts to provide more variety in his movement which I admittedly felt was out of my limitations due to being planted on the chair throughout scenes (Fig 11.) After performing Eva’s testimony scene in rehearsals, Jess provided feedback to me stating the new movement choices were transforming the Judge into a fuller character rather than just an authority figure which gave me confidence in my perception of the Judge’s physicality. This helped me to successfully portray the Judges emotional progression, growing more bitter and prejudice as the case unfolded. It taught me as an actor that confidence and the ability to test techniques that I have disregarded in the past can open up new ideas in the rehearsal process. I discovered the more open you are to learning, the more your performance will benefit.
Breakout moment:
One area of my performance that I am proud of was my accents. For Robert, I spoke in general American with slight southern undertones whereas I performed the Judge in a heavy southern accent to create a greater gap between my characters and highlight their backgrounds. Accents are a skill I struggle with and going into the project I was concerned about the standard of my vocal work. Imitation was my first step, using clips from ‘True Grit’ (2010) was beneficial for analysing how to avoid getting stuck in a rhythm/pattern which was my main difficulty (Fig 12.). I also took inspiration from the clips in finding deeper tones when using the accent to help narratively provoke the angry side to the Judge in particular, his resentment for Skelly and the refusal to listen to the other characters. Specifically, one of the Judge’s passages of text felt very unnatural and repetitive so I wrote each sentence out with spaces and practiced changing my tempo, volume and tone separately to attempt to create a more natural sound (Fig 13.) It resulted in accurately portraying the frantic nature of the speech and provided a much less repetitive feeling which I was happy with. I also used this throughout the process for Robert since it always broke my repetitive rhythm, allowed me to discover new ideas in the text and fuelled my confidence to perform in the accents that I know are now in my arsenal as an actor.
Fig 12.
Fight Choreography
After my first lesson in stage combat, I knew it was an area I wanted to pursue. However, I felt that my moments of combat in the piece had room for improvement (Fig 14.). The blocking and timing of the fights are accurate but the connection to the other actors was lost in my performance. Oryna, our fight co-ordinator, was extremely successful in creating a safe and professional space in which for us to work and was very receptive to any questions I had. Both Oryna and Jess highlighted the age difference between Skelly and Robert and they questioned how it would change the dynamic of the fight to help maintain the connection of the scene once the fight begins. Feedback throughout the project was always constructive and useful but this was a key example of when it made significant changes to the final result. Jess gave us the opportunity to test different choreography to discover which option served the story most, for example avoiding long sequences/moves as Skelly’s body would not be able to keep up with his younger opponents. The choice to keep Ruben (Skelly) from doing any major laboured movements was a step in the right direction towards a connected interaction but unfortunately I felt it still had room to serve the story clearer. If I were to perform the scene again, I would have employed more frantic and panicked movement when Skelly attacked my character. Nevertheless, I do believe the stage combat successfully served the narrative. This scene has brought me to understand the importance of stage combat as an integrated acting form and not an entirely separate skill as I had previously thought.
Fig 14.
Fig 14.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, this project has allowed me to evaluate my strengths as an actor but has equally challenged me to question my weaknesses. I am so proud to have worked with such a talented cast and director. The rehearsal environment allowed everyone to make bold choices and create their best work which was one of the key takeaways from this project for me. The ability to experiment ideas without fear of failure is what I believe made our piece successful. Another takeaway from this project is how important character preparation is prior to rehearsals so you are ready to work and have clear intentions and ideas for the director to work with.
Moving into future projects, I want to push more focus onto specificity. I believe I achieved good character building in this project but the smaller details that make characters feel real was missing. I know that I am able to be bold and big in the rehearsal room so it would be interesting to give focus to the more naturalistic values in my performances.
It was greatly beneficial to put my training into a full performance for the first time since starting at the conservatoire, and I anticipate future projects where I can employ the new skills I have learned from this experience.
Reference List:
Boxoffice Movie Scenes (2025) ‘How many men have you shot?’ | True Grit | CLIP. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIaaPOt2Lb8.
