Written by Jen Silverman
Directed by Sean Linnen
Initial Response
Before rehearsals began, I read the play twice: once on my own before we had been cast, and once with a peer, having been given our roles. I like to go into reading or watching a play completely cold so I didn’t know what to expect, but was immediately taken in.
I was excited to be doing a contemporary play. The writing was funny and engaging, making it an easy piece to follow, despite the weirdness of the world. It is very evocative of Jane Eyre (deliberately so) and really plays with the tropes and characters found within the genre of gothic horror.
I found it fascinating how Jen Silverman took this well established and fairly archaic genre and used it to explore modern themes and ideas. She places women at the centre of her story, with the only male character being a dog. She explores queer relationships and problematic power-dynamics and reimagines the roles women play in these stories. There was no character who didn’t have much to do and no weak female roles, which is not a given.
With such a play ahead of me, I was keen to get started.
Mastiffs, Moorhens & The Moors
The Moor-Hen
I was cast as the Moor-Hen. This character had some of my favourite scenes in the play, so I was very pleased to be given this role.
The Moor-Hen is almost completely removed from the main story, interacting only with the Mastiff, always on the moors. She is described as “very pragmatic”, a stark contrast to the Mastiff – a “philosopher king”.
I had quite a different character process for this role than previous ones. I didn’t give her a name, I didn’t invent a backstory, I knew very little about where she had been or where she’s going. Instinct and reactions to immediate action became the bedrock for the Moor-Hen.
In animal studies, something that really stayed with me was the idea of animals living only in the present, responding to immediate danger, with survival being their only goal. This rings very true for the Moor-Hen.
I was a crow for animal studies, and did a lot of detailed work on things like breath and head movements. As the Moor-Hen spends most of her scenes injured on the floor, that work lends itself perfectly to finding a physicality within the confines of the given circumstances.
I knew I wanted to commit fully to the animal elements of the characters. However, there was also a real sense of humanity running throughout the Mastiff/Moor-Hen scenes (arguably more than in some of the human ones).
I thought the writing was beautiful, the character fascinating, and I was looking forward to getting to work.
Accent
I tried various accents while finding her voice, but landed pretty quickly on a New York dialect (though almost everyone else did a General American accent). I felt that a faster paced American accent suited her best, and having such a clear divide between the animal and human characters, really added to the oddness of the piece. Two of the actors playing the Mastiff chose to do a Southern States accent. This not only supported the animal/human divide, but also highlighted the differences between the Mastiff and the Moor-Hen.
Because the play is set in “1840s ish”, I knew I wanted to do a more specific period New York accent. Early on, I drew inspiration from actors Natasha Lyonne and Peter Falk, specifically as their characters in Poker Face and Columbo respectively (see Figures 1 and 2). They have a very distinctive, very classic New York accent, which gave me a really good jumping-off point.
It wasn’t an accent that came naturally and it definitely improved as I became more familiar with the text. Because it was such a strong accent, I knew that diction and clarity was important. I would do tongue twisters in the accent and make sure I had the placement and sounds in mind while warming up.
I think this accent was a success. I never had issues with vocal strain or fatigue, which meant I was warming up and delivering lines safely and effectively. I received positive feedback from Jess after a run. She told me I had landed on a very specific pre-1930s NY dialect, which was consistent and leant a lot to the character.
I really enjoy accent work and I loved applying my skills to a full project. I would be really interested to develop this sort of work in the future.
Research
Early in the process, Sean gave us a long list of topics for us to research. I chose the most relevant for me which were moorhens, mastiffs, and the moors. In past projects, I have often done enormous amounts of contextual research, which doesn’t always serve me.
Something I found to be extremely helpful was knowing the sizes of mastiffs and moorhens. Being able to visualise the scale really helped to play the stakes and dynamic of my scenes. Knowing what the moors were like so that I knew what my surroundings would be was also crucial in enhancing my performance.
I came into this play with a lot of prior knowledge of things like gothic horror, the Brontës, and 1840s England. This undoubtedly gave me a head start when it came to understanding the world we were portraying. However, when it comes to developing a character, I needed to do that practically. My biggest revelations were made in the rehearsal room with the text, or doing our animal studies session.
Going forward, I want to refine the kind of research I do for a project so that it is best suited to support the practical work.
Animal Studies
The animal studies workshop was a real turning point for me in terms of character work. This session had us exploring our characters at various points on a spectrum from animal to human.
A point of concern for me was navigating my mobility issues. I am hyper-mobile, which limits a lot of my movement. This was a role that required a lot of physicality, and I was eager to challenge myself. I needed to find a way to embody it as much as I possible, while still working safely within my own limits.
A breakthrough moment was during an extended improvisation, when the Mastiffs noticed the Moor-Hen. I suddenly felt very cornered. Obviously a moorhen would fly away when faced with three mastiffs. I could not, and neither actually could the injured bird in the play. I was faced with fight, flight or freeze: I froze.
I was sniffed and barged, my whole body was tense and I tapped into the rapid breathing of a cornered bird. This was a feeling I later applied to Scene 10, when the Moor-Hen begins to feel trapped by the Mastiff. Having that experience to draw on so readily made playing those stakes much easier, and I think created one of the more impactful moments of the Mastiff and Moor-Hen’s story.
Rehearsal Process
Our first session began with a table read of the entire play, though we would only be doing 2/3 of it. I loved hearing everyone’s interpretation of their characters for the first time. Though I had read the play twice before, I was delighted to still find so many new things in the text, particularly hearing it read aloud by the real voices of the characters.
I wanted to start exploring my character as early as possible, so I did the first read through in the New York accent. Last year, a lot of my feedback was to make bolder choices, which is something I had in mind a lot during this project. By making a strong offer in the first session, I broke that first hurdle by not asking permission and going with my instincts. Sean liked the accent and I was very happy that it made it into the play.
We then started uniting. Sean’s method was different to what I had done before (which I had found to be unhelpful and restrictive). We went very carefully through the text, in great detail, making sure everyone knew exactly what was happening and really interrogating where the shift in a scene happens. Sean described two types of changes in a scene: pregnancies and nosebleeds. If someone was to announce they were pregnant, everyone in the room would change at the same time. If someone started having a nosebleed, not everyone would notice right away. I found this analogy really helpful to easily identify a unit change, which I think I had struggled with in the past. I would like to start doing this kind of text work in future projects. Sean said that this kind of text work ensures we all have a collective idea of what the play is. It is important everyone lives in the same world so the piece is cohesive.
After that, it was time to start getting the play on its feet. Every session began with a physical and vocal warm up, as well as a focus game. This warm up targeted the areas most relevant to what we would need for the piece. I spent last year learning how to adapt safely and productively to what was required of me. Coming into this project, I knew I needed to devise a personal physical warm up that supported my mobility issues. I don’t think what I landed on was perfect, and going forward I still need to develop a warm up that serves me better. However, having the chance to put into practice what I had come up with was extremely valuable, and still helped me, as I feel I was able to remain fairly safe and unrestricted.
When it came to scene work, Sean worked chronologically through the play. He went into great depth, which often meant we might only get through three or four scenes a day. This meant there was a lot of sitting and watching before we got to any of my scenes. However, this afforded me the opportunity to familiarise myself with Sean’s directing style, and start thinking about what kind of offers I wanted to bring. While there was a lot of waiting, when it was my turn to work on a scene, it was incredibly beneficial to spend that amount of time with the text.
I had a lot of fun staging the scenes. It felt like we made very fast progress with Sean’s direction and the established text work. My scenes got better with each run and I was able to keep making new discoveries. I have had issues with scenes stagnating after a while, but I think the level of textual analysis I had done gave me so many more ideas to draw on that this didn’t happen.
A recurring note was “everyone’s acting is very polite”. Sean encouraged us to push ourselves much further and free ourselves of the “safety lock” we put on. I think I was enthusiastic and did my best to make bold offers, but I definitely could have gone further. I wasn’t able to find a reliable way to energise myself, which I think is something crucial to work out for future projects.
Rehearsal Notes
Blue = director’s note Yellow = goal setting Pink = analysis Purple = character process Green = relevant research
Script Annotations
Evaluation
Overall, I think this project was a success. I loved working with Sean, and I think I conducted myself professionally and made productive contributions.
I would have loved the time to put on the entire play, but I am very proud of what we produced in just three weeks. I proved to myself that I could produce what felt like a well-rounded performance in a small space of time. I created a whole world, developed a new accent, and learnt two duologues and an entire musical score in fifteen days of rehearsal, which is no small feat.
I believe my final performances were among my best, which is definitely something to be celebrated. As it was my last chance to live in the world, I was able to tap into my impulses more and find new things within the scene. I was incredibly pleased with the impact our play had on the audience. I think in the end we definitely found the intensity needed to really make this play pack a punch.
I also felt much more comfortable making bold offers, making mistakes, and being much more playful in a rehearsal environment. Last year, I identified that I had a fear of getting things “wrong”, or looking stupid. I felt this significantly less than in previous projects, which is a huge personal win. I want to carry that momentum forward into future projects, freeing myself even more and start treating rehearsal rooms like playgrounds.
This was a brilliant project to be a part of, and I feel ready and excited for the next…
