1. Initial thoughts and research
Upon first reading ‘The American Clock,’ I was instantly hooked on the fast-paced style of the scenes, interjected with longer monologues to add context to the world of the play. When I researched further, I found newer prints of the text calling the piece a “Vaudeville.” I discovered that Vaudeville was a type of variety show performed in early 20th-century America when the play was set. (See Figure A). Beginning the process with this knowledge was invaluable, as I understood the text stylistically.
The play centres on the Baum family, a wealthy Jewish-American family based in New York, as they navigate their life during the economic crisis following the Wall Street crash. We also get a small observation into the lives of a wide range of people all over America, from farmers in Iowa desperate to regain control of their lives; to Wall Street moguls who continue to thrive despite adversity.
Arthur Miller wrote the play to reflect his upbringing, his father being a small manufacturer who experienced insolvency during the Great Depression and lost nearly everything. Miller’s connection to the play accentuates his distaste for ‘Free market capitalism.’ Knowing what Miller is attempting to convey in the text allowed me to consider what I wanted to portray to the audience watching the final performance, and how to start building my characters around this.
Figure A
2. Casting
Our director, Tyrell Jones, wanted us to choose three characters we were drawn to for him to cast us evenly. For me, these were:
‘Theodore K Quinn’: As a dancer myself, I found him to be an accessible character to create and embody.
‘Jesse Livermore’: A charming, sleazy, Wall Street investor who likes to control conversation; attempting to remain happy despite his world crumbling around him. He consistently masks his true feelings which would create a challenge for me to portray efficiently.
‘Henry Taylor’: An Iowan farmer who can’t afford to pay his debts, meaning the National Bank is repossessing his farm. This role would challenge me to create a realistic portrayal of a hungry man desperate for help.
I was cast in all three roles at the end of the audition process and was further given two additional roles:
‘Kapush’: Described as ‘Slavonic, in his late sixties’. Initially, I was cautious about accessing a much older age than my own as it was something I didn’t have experience portraying previously.
‘Ralph’: A 21-year-old college graduate who wants to design aeroplanes.
These 5 characters have a wide range in ages, lifestyles and given circumstances, so I had a huge amount to play with before rehearsals began.
3. Character Work
As a company, we read through the script multiple times and worked out each ‘unit’ of the play and the ‘events’ which changed them. With input from Tyrell, we also labelled our character’s intentions and obstacles for each unit and their relationships to others in the scene. This process was advantageous as by the time we began running scenes, we had established our characters’ intentions and obstacles.
Before starting to physicalise any of my characters, I created mood boards (See Figure B) so I could visualise the fundamentals of each person. Visual representation is a technique I’d not used before. Not only did I enjoy finding the photos and adding them to the board, but I found it incredibly useful as I could identify the essence of each character in their scenes.
Further to this, I used a technique I had learnt in ‘Rehearsal Practice’ lessons: ‘Uta Hagen’s nine questions’ (See Figure C). I have employed these questions in my process previously and find the insight they give into a character invaluable as it creates avenues of viewing my characters I might not have previously considered.
Given my background in dance, I am a movement-based actor so I find it more beneficial to physicalise a character as the next step in my process. Thus, I let the character’s posture and movement affect how their voice and other characteristics manifest.
Henry Taylor
Taylor’s given circumstances of being a farmer helped me to invent the posture of a manual labourer. With strong upper back muscles, I chose Taylor’s resting pose to be with tensed shoulders and slightly hunched over (See Figure D).
I struggled to figure out how he moved until I employed a technique that I had learned in my first year ‘Animal Studies’ training. I chose the chimpanzee to represent Taylor’s movement and began improvising moving as such. Gradually, I added more human characteristics until i established a movement pattern aligning with my understanding of Taylor’s – his shoulders roll backwards the way a chimpanzee’s do when its arms meet the floor.
Vocally, I chose for Taylor’s voice to sit lower in my register as I could imagine him, a manual labourer, grunting while working.
Figure D
Kapush
The character of Kapush (See Figure E) was one that I was instantly drawn to. It is very different from anything I’ve had the opportunity to play before, and the subject matter of his lines made for an uncomfortable read, something I knew would be a test for myself.
The script describes Kapush as ‘Slavonic’, meaning Eastern European. After speaking with Tyrell, we both felt that presenting the character as a non-American antisemite was a way of absolving the United States of it’s own antisemitism. Therefore we decided to make Kapush an older American man.
His voice was the first choice I landed on with his character. Imagining an older patriotic man led me to think about Sam the Eagle from ‘The Muppets’ as the basis for my vocal work. Early in rehearsals, the voice sat uncomfortably in the back of my throat and I found it sore each time we ran the scene. Reflecting on my prior voice training from the Conservatoire, I started to support my voice more from my belly than from my throat. This aided massively in allowing the sound to travel up and out while retaining the aged croak I had added to the voice.
Figure E
Theodore K Quinn
Tyrell told me early in the process that I bring a distinct energy to a role, and he told me to select one character that I can bring that energy to, for which I chose Quinn (See Figure F). Quinn’s first scene happens directly after Taylor’s last, so I needed to clearly differentiate the ways I played them. Where Taylor was tense and hunched, Quinn was light and free.
I tested multiple ‘Laban Efforts’ which I learnt in my ‘Movement in Context’ lessons and decided ‘flick’ was the effort I should employ for Quinn. I also found that when stood still, he would have his feet turned out.
Vocally I chose not to do a New York accent but a General American accent, as the script mentions his Irish anarchist father. The choice to vocally differentiate this character made clearer distinctions between him and others.
Figure F
Character preparation conclusion
As I had five characters to play in the piece, finding 5 different physicalities and voices whilst ensuring they were all noticeably different became a much harder task than I had anticipated. To combat this I drew upon my experiences from first year. This proved effective and I felt pleased with myself. I would not have been able to solve early issues in the rehearsal process without this, and I very much look forward to incorporating more of my Conservatoire training in future.
4. Rehearsal process
For the first three days of the rehearsal process, we spent our time reading through, talking about and researching the play. This cerebral work was especially constructive to further my initial research. It also helped me comprehend Tyrell’s view and version of the world he wanted to create and I could then keep my research and world building in line with the rest of the company.
After being cast, we immediately began working through scenes in the room. As it is a large cast play, with many scenes taking place in separate locations from others with new characters, we staggered call times and were only present in the rehearsal room when we had a scene to work on. During this time, I found other actors who were in my next scene and talked through our thoughts before rehearsal. Reflecting on this, I would say it was a beneficial use of my free time. However in future, I would benefit from taking more personal time to work on my character. I spent a lot of time working before or after rehearsals and this could’ve been reduced had I utilised the staggered call times more efficiently. In future I aim to work as much as possible during rehearsal hours.
Having made artistic choices before devising any scenes i was faced with some challenges, but arguably was vital to my own development. Some of my choices didn’t work in the room once I started to perform. I recall on the first rehearsal of the scene set in Quinn’s office, I was toying with the idea of making him over-eccentric, constantly dancing around the room (See Figure G), standing on chairs and bellowing certain words dramatically. The feedback I received from Tyrell upon working further on the scene revealed to me that this approach wasn’t serving me in the way I had hoped, so I decided to raise the stakes of the situation. If I couldn’t get Georgia – my scene partner- to agree with me then it was an admission from her character, Arthur, that I was going to lose my job and everything I had worked for. This changed my characterisation of Quinn for the better and made him grounded in the reality of the Great Depression. This taught me to be more playful in the room and to not be too precious with preconceived choices.
An exercise I found to be crucial to my process was repeating the last word of the person’s line before mine and then continuing with my own. The use of this exercise helped me to better understand what my character was reacting to in the previous line. This technique has now solidified itself as part of my rehearsal process and I endeavour to use it wherever possible.
My largest challenge in the rehearsal period came from working as Kapush. The beliefs of the character couldn’t be more different from my own, and navigating the sensitive content was a hardship. What fuelled my awkwardness was the inclusion of a ‘Nazi salute’ to the piece, based off real antisemitic experiences. At first i was apprehensive as this is an incredibly harmful gesture and I wasn’t entirely sure how it would serve the performance. However, upon discussing it with Tyrell we decided i should try it to see whether it would have the desired effective. I was keen on pushing myself out of my comfort zone and it later made its way into the final production. I never became numb to it’s effect and thankfully didn’t have to do it in every run. I am glad I had the opportunity to challenge myself in such a way and the experience has enabled me to play characters who are so far removed from my own life and understanding. It has equipped me to tackle these types of characters head-on when I come across them.
During the last 3 days of rehearsal, Tyrell had to take unplanned compassionate leave, concerning the company. As a group, we managed to run the play multiple times and give each other working notes based on what we could and couldn’t see as an audience. I am extremely grateful to my group for creating an excellent professional working environment and allowing everyone to feel safe while being given feedback from each other.
Group Photo
5. Final Performance
Overall, this process has taught me much about myself as an actor. As nervous as i had become towards the end of the process with worries about not having a director; the company came together and delivered a better performance than i could’ve hoped for and I am immensely proud of us. I can’t wait to put what i’ve learnt in this project to use in the future.
