Opening Statement

In our final Performance Project, we chose as a collective out of a few different musicals, to create a performance of a selection of scenes and songs from Wonderful Town. This project was voted on and chosen by the group due to it’s feminist themes and the opportunity to explore a musical that would be a completely different experience in contrast to the contemporary works that we had performed in our other Performance Projects, with it being a 1950’s play. This was a very exciting opportunity which took a lot of us, including myself out of our comfort zones, as I have never worked on performing a musical written prior to the 1990’s. Whilst it is true that no matter the time period, every musical is going to be unique and have it’s own challenges, there is a stylistic consistency with contemporary musicals within the dialogue and musicality that reflects modern trends. This differs with a musical of a much older time period which is in a vastly different style both musically and as an actor to more contemporary pieces. Whilst this was a challenge that I acknowledged would be difficult for me at the start of the process, I was excited at the opportunity to broaden my horizons and take any opportunity I could to gain more experience in different styles and aspects of musical theatre.

Line of Inquiry

Throughout this academic year I have begun to grow as a performer and a collaborator. In the first half of the year I was finding my footing in how to work within my set role as a performer in the collaboration process and now through this process I have begun to try to push myself as an artist into the parts of my role that I am less confident in. Specifically in my case, Dance. Dance is the part of the trifecta of musical theatre performance that I am least proficient and experienced in and to push myself forward as a performer, I volunteered myself to work with the much more experienced dancer in the group on the dance break within our big dance number. I want to explore how that process went and what I’ve learned about myself and working with a cohort of dancers more experienced than me, as well as how I can improve my ability to assist in dance settings as well as perform to the best of my abilities with the ensemble.

I also want to take the time to evaluate my growing role as an actor, specifically at how I have needed to adapt, engaging with older material in a more classic musical theatre style than the contemporary shows that I have built my experience on thus far. As well as style, I also want to evaluate how we re-evaluate some of the basics of stagecraft and how I engaged with that return to the fundamentals in the rehearsal space. I want to explore how I can use this process to strengthen my abilities going forward and retain certain process’s and knowledge to enhance my skills as a performer as a whole.

Documentation

Throughout our final performance project, I have engaged with the project both as an individual performer in growing my own skills and putting in the work to understand my character/s, as well as being part of an ensemble and even helping to devise/improvise certain aspects of the performance, including dance.

This is a clip of the section just before the dance break from the song ‘Swing’. In this section the music loops 4 times in a way that inspired our choreographer to want to do the same set of moves, 4 times, with each time adding more members of the ensemble to the group until on the 4th time the whole cast was doing the moves. However they were struggling to find the right formation for this moment of the choreography, especially as people have to join the shape in a staggered manner in time with the music. This clip showcases a work in progress of that formation.

This is a clip showing rehearsals of the dance break within the song ‘Swing’. There would be 9 people in the dance break within the production but within the video it is less than without a strict formation due to it being in the early rehearsal stages and still evolving

Reflection/Analysis

Character Work

At the start of the process after the project had been chosen and auditions had been held, it was said that the casting would most likely be on a scene by scene basis, due to us doing only a section of the show and wanting to give all 16 cast members a fair chance to have something to do in our assessed project. This made it so that multi-rolling would be integral for our production. I was faced with the challenge of being cast in multiple named speaking roles. Multi-rolling isn’t something I have had tons of experience in, so this was a big challenge but an exciting one that I wanted to make sure I felt prepared for coming into the rehearsal space. We spent a lot of the time as an ensemble in the early stages of the process, working on the music, which allowed me to have more time to learn my lines and take the time to really break down each of my characters individually and understand their uniqueness. Above I’ve presented some of my simplified notes for the 3 main characters that I had speaking roles for. Whilst I had another scene where I had a speaking line, it was as a member of the ensemble with the line being very clear for it’s intentions and character (a drunk angry man at the club), so I didn’t find it necessary to include that character within my breakdown. Due to having to switch between multiple different characters within a few scenes, I wanted to make sure I had some keystone ideas to hold on to, in order to be able to ensure that I differentiated each of the characters in their behavior and mannerisms, beyond just the dialogue being written for different characters on the page.

I was inspired by Stanislavski, as he speaks on physicality within performance stating, “When we step on the stage many physical shortcomings attract immediate attention. There the actor is scrutinized by thousands of on lookers as through a magnifying lens.” (Stanislavski, 2013: 30) This highlights how important training the body as a tool for storytelling is, as your physicality instantly tells the audience so much about your character, so any parts of your body that are not engaged within the character are highlighted to the audience and stand out in a negative way. Focusing on this idea, with Baker, I identified his pride as a key factor in his character. Whilst in the second act of the musical, a lot of his bravado and ignorant behavior from the first act of the musical has faded, that doesn’t change the fact his pride is still controlling his actions. This pride is mixed with a genuine kindness as he is very sincere in his care for Ruth despite his pride getting in the way of him admitting his true feelings for her. Due to this mix, I chose to lead with my chest when performing as Baker, keeping my shoulders square to show his pride but allowing my posture to soften/relax when he is talking to/ or about Ruth. This really helped to ground my performance of this character as an individual and have some key ideas and traits to lock on to when performing as Baker. To achieve this physically I employed the Laban effort of pressing. The Laban efforts are best explained as three categories of movement, Space, Time and Weight and these categories are either filled with one quality of that category or the opposite quality. Space being direct or indirect, Time being sudden or sustained and Weight being strong or light. (Merlin, 2018: 91) Applying this to Baker the Laban effort of pressing fits well as pressing is described as “direct, sustained and strong.” (Merlin, 2018: 92) These qualities helped to represent both his pride and certainty in his actions as he is a confident person. However as mentioned, when talking to or about Ruth, I wanted to present my movement as softer and more relaxed to show his true feelings for her and so in turn, especially in Bakers song about Ruth, I employed the Laban effort of floating. Floating is described as “indirect, sustained and light.” (Merlin, 2018: 92) This is too help physically convey the overwhelming love that he feels for her, which allows his movement to go from something more strict and maybe even stuck up, to more at peace and relaxed.

This contrasted with Chick, who is very much dishonest in his intentions. After breaking down the key traits I identified in Chick, I decided to play him as quite defensive, leaning back, his shoulders loose as if he’s ready to slink away at any given moment. I was able to achieve this by employing the Laban effort of Gliding which is “direct, sustained and light.” (Merlin, 2018: 92) This was perfect for the transition between Baker to Chick as it showed a different kind of confidence with the relaxed nature of Chick, the contrast able to portray his dishonesty in comparison to Bakers honesty, even when they are both filled with confidence and a level of pride. This helped me to feel a real difference between my characters, influencing not just the physical performance beyond their posture, but also in turn allowing a greater understanding of how this physicality would effect their vocality, helping me to differentiate my line delivery and make it more specifically catered to each character, ensuring that they had their own identities. This was especially important, as due to the constraints of the performance, we didn’t have any costume/ costume changes, so ensuring that each character was instantly distinct to the other despite being performed by the same actor was entirely reliant on me as the performer. This was an important lesson to learn, as whilst in bigger scale productions, there may be lighting, costume or any number of choices that would help to enhance the differentiation between characters, it is important to never be reliant on those aspects and always bring strong choices as a performer to create distinct characters on stage.

Whilst my focus in breaking down the characters was drawn to Chick and Baker as they were more prominent in their speaking roles, this does not mean that I neglected my other named character of Lonigan or that he was without his own challenges. Lonigan is an Irish police officer and sings the opening verse solo in a comedic song within the play. Whilst the whole ensemble was not required to do the Irish accent throughout the scene, the song was intended to at the very least have an Irish twang to it, especially as within the sheet music, the accent is not only implied by the scene prior, but written into the score itself. Within the chorus, to emphasise the exaggerated Irish accent which is played up for the comedy within the scene, the word ‘ever’ is written instead as “iver”. (Bernstein, Comden and Green, 2004: 129). This way of writing the sung word can sometimes cause a difficulty with performers as it did with our own cohort at first. There was a struggle in understanding not only the intention and meaning of the word as it wasn’t initially clear that they meant the word ‘ever’ until it was said out loud in the intended accent, but also in understanding how to sing it. This is due to there being a “tension between the look of the word on the page and the way it sounds in the mouth of the actor. This is sometimes caused by inaccuracy or inconsistency with the phonetic dialect being used.” (Caird, 2010: 223) Due to not all of the lyrics being written in such a way, this stood out and was a pitfall which a lot of the ensemble including myself, fell into. This was a great learning experience as a performer, teaching me to really take the time to understand the text prior to rehearsal, as at a glance the lyrics seemed easily understandable but upon closer inspection it became clear that there were certain words like the example above that were written not in standard English but rather phonetically for the accent intended. Whilst the accent work as a whole was a challenge, with the main body of the material being in New York accents and this particular character being Irish, I learnt that working with accents isn’t just about the work you do on that accent for the character but really understanding the text and how the accent might effect the language and visa-versa.

Dance Break & Formation

A big thing that I have struggled with in my transition as a performer from acting to musical theatre performing is the dance aspect of theatre. Whilst I have always enjoyed dance, I’ve not had formal training before and have never felt confident in it as a performance art. Throughout my training this year I have been taking full advantage of the dance training classes that have been offered to me, and whilst I have enjoyed those classes, I still haven’t been confident in taking the dance from technical classes to the stage beyond full ensemble numbers which I can hide within. It has been a tough experience in dance, feeling as though I am behind some of my peers as there are some who have a lot more dance experience, whether that be within the context of musical theatre or beyond. I have allowed this to make me feel as though I should leave the more complicated dance numbers in our performance prior, to the more experienced dancers, but in doing so, I had been holding myself back from experiencing really pushing myself in a performance setting and learning more musical theatre dance which would only help me in the long term as an overall performer. In Wonderful Town, I decided to take the opportunity to volunteer myself amongst the more experienced dancers to perform in a dance break in the biggest dance number of the show, ‘Swing’. Through this experience I was able to learn from my fellow cohort members and push past my own self-doubts in this aspect of my performance abilities to grow as a dancer and an overall performer. It was an invaluable lesson to learn that just because my ability level and experience is currently lesser than others around me, it is not necessarily a detriment. In many ways it is a strength as it allows me to learn from those around me and improve because I am working with their expertise rather than feeling as though I will detract from their ability. This was showcased most prevalently by a moment where I was able to help the group when devising a section of the dance. Whilst my experience as a dancer is less than those working on the choreography I pushed myself to make suggestions when the group was struggling with deciding on a formation/pattern for a section where the ensemble would all be coming into the stage space to dance together. “A pattern is a repeated element within a composition” (Kogler Carver, 2018: 50) which are used prevalently in musical theatre, stagecraft and especially dance. I was able to suggest a layered triangle pattern as presented above with a sketch in my notes. This pattern worked perfectly for the 15 of us in the dance number allowing everyone to be seen throughout whilst being a fresh pattern within the dance, giving the opening before the dance break a different feel from the singing portion. Whilst it was a small section of the dance, it highlighted to me how i can still be an active creator and artist, even in sectors of musical theatre I am less confident/experienced in.

Stagecraft

Finally, a big learning experience for the whole cohort but especially for myself was the value of going back to the fundamentals and really appreciating the importance of basic stage-crafting. The biggest example of this was when rehearsing scenes with our director, we were reminded of the importance of working on diagonals. Using a diagonal sight line between two actors on stage when performing is a fundamental part of theatre performance. This is done for many reasons, for example, “We always had to be on a diagonal, because the lights from the side would shadow.” (Soviero, 1995). This is also done to draw the attention of the audience to each character, depending on their positioning, upstage/downstage. This would be much harder with both characters parallel on stage as, “Our instinct is to look at the center of whatever we are looking at.” (Kogler Carver, 2018: 44). Whilst sight lines and working on the diagonals, is something I have explored before in my prior training, it was revealing, how easily some of the simpler fundamentals of performing on stage can be lost in the excitement of performing new material and the stress of putting together scenes in a short time period. It was a humbling experience which reminded me that no matter how experienced I may be in certain areas of performance, it is always so important to break down the fundamentals and understanding every decision you make for your character, including and especially when working with a scene partner. By playing the diagonals on stage, “you assure the viewer will look at the whole image and not be drawn toward one detail at the exclusion of all others.” (Kogler Carver, 2018: 44). It allows the audience to focus on a character talking upstage whilst they hold the power and are the focus and still keeping the other character in view, allowing them to then take the audience’s attention whilst keeping a diagonal on stage to ensure the audience’s viewpoint is constantly on the action within the scene. I took the time to plot out exactly where I would need to stand and move within the venue whilst working with my scene partner to ensure these diagonals were met whilst working with my scene partner. This experience highlighted the value of fine detail and ensuring you are always training and re-training the fundamentals.

Conclusion

Through the process of working on our final performance project, I have learned to work better as a member of the ensemble with my cohort, understanding the value of my role and how I can still contribute individually and assist in areas I may feel less experienced in than others around me, whilst learning from their experience to better myself as a performer and in turn help to elevate the performance as a whole. I have also learned the value of breaking down the fundamentals of stagecraft aswell as implementing performance techniques from the classroom into a full performance space. This process has reminded me of the strength in appreciating weakness and wanting to grow and learn from it rather than simply highlighting your strengths and it is an important lesson that I will carry forward into future projects.

Bibliography

Bernstein, L. Comden, B. and Green, A. (2004) Wonderful Town. Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation.

Caird, J. (2010) Theatre craft : a director’s practical companion from A to Z. London: Faber And Faber.

Kogler Carver, R. (2018) Stagecraft Fundamentals. Focal Press.

Merlin, B. (2018) Acting: the basics. Abingdon: Routledge.

Soviero, D. (1995) On Playing Madame Butterfly. New Theatre Quarterly, 11(41), 12–16.

Stanislavski, C. (2013) Building a character. Translated by E. Reynolds Hapgood. London: Bloomsbury Academic.