Rehearsal 2

After warming up we picked up our texts and began unpicking Marks speech on page 95.  We marked out breath and objectives. I have been struggling with this concept of 'physical objectives'. I usually can work out why I am saying what i'm saying on stage and the meaning behind it, but having to action out objectives that can be demonstrated physically. However, using objectives and the given circumstances of the short monologue we worked on our articulation and conviction behind it. We then got into pairs. One partner would perform the speech with the script and the other would turn around and walk away if they began to feel disconnected from what the other was offering. This was a nice way of being pushed to give more to the text. Working one and one and having an honest response from your partner was really helpful in developing the text and my understanding of it. I need to work on my ability to find out what my physical objectives are as opposed to just my characters reasoning behind what they are doing.

We developed this partnered exercise into having 2 people in the middle of a circle. We played on the idea of using the speech as a way of stopping the other person talking. This helped both partners. As an actor onstage, even if you do not have any lines in a scene, your character will have an opinion about what is being said. Just because your character doesn't have a line written down, doesn't mean they don't have anything to say. So in Marks speech on page 95 he is having a big rant at all of women kind, and verbally attacking the women in front of him. Her character would definitely have something to say. In this exercise with the two people in the centre of circle, the person who wasn't speaking wanted to say the 'fucking rapist'. When someone wasn't giving enough and stopping the other person from speaking they would say 'fucking rapist'. This meant the other person wasn't playing their objective enough to stop the other person speaking. This exercise helped to develop both sides of the scene.

We then got into our scene groups and used the meisner repetition technique to rehearse our scenes. We ran through our breakfast table scene with Sarah, Dennis and Ruby. Three way repetition can help with idea of the person on stage who isn't speaking. Which in this scene is my character, Sarah, for the majority of the scene. However, through this exercise we managed to develop lots of family dynamic and the relationships between us. We didn't know the lines for this scene so using our scripts did hold us back slightly. After time we began to off script a bit. This developed onto us adding opinions like in the original form of the repetition technique. We got to enjoy exploring our characters with freedom but maintaining that grounding in truth and honesty. I feel like this really showed when we then went back to strictly using the text with the repetition. When we went back I didn't feel trapped in what I was doing or how I was saying a line. It felt natural to be speaking to these people who were my family. This is why I think it's so important to do this exercise with almost every scene in the play, especially those which rely on a relationship between characters and less so on visual or digital aids.

Meisner

Sanford Meisner was the son of Jewish immigrants who grew up in New York. He was born 31st August 1905 and died 2nd February 1997. He developed an acting method based on Stanislavskis method. This is known as the meisner technique. After his brothers death he became resentful of his parents and turned to playing the family piano. He went onto study at Damrosch Institute of Music now known as the Juilliard School. When the great depression hit, his father pulled him out of the school in order to help out in the workplace. He found that the only way he got through it was by remembering the classical piano tunes he learnt at school and playing them back to himself in his head. By doing this he became almost pitch perfect. Later on his life he would often close his eyes when assessing actors performance. He said he did this in order to feel when the true emotions were expressed during a performance or rehearsal.  


We did the Meisner 'repetition' exercise in our rehearsal today. I have used this method when directing and rehearsing scenes and I find it very useful. 


Repetition technique




Level 1: On chairs or standing, with a partner. Begin by stating only what you see about the other person. They must then accept this and repeat it back to you. 1 observation may go back and forth until one actor feels the instinct the change it, i.e they observe something else. For example: 'You have blonde hair' to which the other would respond 'I have blonde hair'. The key to this is to listen to the other actor, accept that they are observing what they see in that moment. Do not offer opinions. 

Level 2: Offer opinions. Start off the same as in level one but begin to allow opinions and deeper observations to come into play. Be aware that it is only what you see in that moment, not what you may or may not already know about the actor in front of you. Allow yourself to not be offended and just accept what they observe. 

Level 3: Begin to use the space around you. Stand up from the chairs, instinctively move around the space, but continue to communicate with the other actor. 

Level 4: Apply text. Using a scene between two people start to repeat the lines back to each other. Do not move on from a line until you feel the instinct to, and you have reached a connection with a line.

This technique allows actors to be honest and instinctive on stage. It forces you out of that cage of learning your lines and saying them the same way every time, despite what the other actor might be saying. In order for a relationship between to characters to develop onstage, the actors must be listening to each other onstage, and not just relying on the text to build it for them. This exercise helped me and the actor playing my daughter to develop our relationship dynamic within the scene. It allowed us to experiment with different ways of saying lines, and different moments of agreeing and conflicting. 

Rehearsal 1

We started of the session in partners doing a '1,2,3' exercise. We did this moving around the space. The idea of this was to get us used to working on three sides, without shutting off any of the audience. This is extremely challenging. It requires the actor to manipulate the shoulders, body and neck to work separately so the audience gets a good view of all your body. For example, if your head has to face stage left to speak to another character you need to alter your body to be facing the right, while turning your neck towards the left. This way every audience member should have an interesting and clear view of you. This exercise started off with everyone in the space. Then most of the class stood around the space along 3 sides like in the theatre and 2 people stayed in the middle and continued the exercise. We as an audience had to put our hand up whenever we weren't satisfied with the view we were getting onstage. I was part of the audience for this exercise. From observing the actors onstage it seemed to me they were really starting to understand how much of a challenge working on three sides successfully is. It required them to think about what their bodies were doing technically whilst at the same time trying to communicate with the other actor onstage. On top of that when it comes to applying the play text you will also have to focus on living freely as your character onstage at the same time.

We then developed this exercise on from the 1, 2, 3 to one partner saying 'tell me' and the other saying 'no'. This meant the audience saw more of a story develop between the characters and the actors onstage began to listen to each other. It was very clear to  me as an audience member when the person onstage had connected with the other person and was reacting of what they had said and how they had said it. It was an invisible connection which was easy to create when you really listened but just as easy to lose if an actor stopped listening.

We began rehearsing for our production of 13 today. At first I was struggling with my opening scene as I couldn't figure out the exact objectives of my character with her lines. After working this out some more and allowing myself to experiment onstage it became clearer and a more successful scene.

Over all the blocking process was too rushed. I think we needed to start with the dream sequence in scene 1 as opposed to skipping over it. The reason I feel this way is because the dream is such a big defining thing that happens to the main 12 characters, it seems odd too miss it out, when it is an important part of their character development throughout the play.

I think in order for future rehearsals to improve we need to be much more focused as a cast. It was much more productive when people came to rehearse their scenes having already learnt their lines. This allowed people to start speaking into the other person and passing energy between the characters onstage as opposed to just blocking it through with scripts.

This play is highly political and requires us to know a lot about middle eastern conflicts, and the issues in Iran. It also emphasis's the significance of America's involvement in the middle east and its influence on UK politics. In order for our audience to be able to understand this, we need to as well. To do this we need to research every issue that comes up from within our characters scenes. This way when we are speaking about them we can see what we say. When speaking about Iran and this world off stage, we need to be able to see it clearly in our minds, then the audience will also be able to. In terms of my character I need to develop an understanding of the christian faith, and unstable mothers. I also need to research what prison I would be likely to be sent to and what sentence I would be given.

Development of the character

As a part of my acting technique I began by making this table which highlights when my character has said something about herself or her situation or when another character has. I have then gone on to put the page reference down and whether or not it was a fact or an opinion.

My character is high class, and high status. However, her status is through her husband and not from herself. She has a set of traditional American 'home values'. Her time appears to be taken up by looking after her daughter and with moderate charitable work. We find this out from Sarah and her daughter on page 69. As the character developed we begin to see how unhinged she is within her mental state. Which leads her to commit and evil crime. It is seemingly more shocking for a woman to commit a crime like this than a man, it is even more heart wrenching when the crime is against a woman's own child. However, statistically speaking it is far more common than we think. Out of the 49 women on death row, 11 of them have killed children. A psychologist who studies women who kill children said 'We should detach from the idea of universal motherhood as natural and see it as a social response'. 

This quote feels relevant to my character as I feel she would have been brought up traditionally, with a housewife mother, and was brought up to do the same. However, she clearly wasn't meant for it. Although she is a seemingly capable mother she is in fact unable to cope with her own mental state and adapt to the differing opinions and values of her daughter.

The information I can find from my character from the script tells me about the conflicted and eventually tragic relationship I have with my daughter. It is important me and the actor playing my daughter develop this relationship to be truthful. We need to make sure our decisions we make with the scene come from listening and responding to one another. This way our scenes won't be boring and set in stone but they should be different each time.

I think my character would dress extremely conservatively. I see her wearing a pearl necklace and lots of high neck pastel cardigans and clothing. We were told we might have to costume ourselves in order to save money for a dynamic set. I have been looking for images online of what my character could look like.

This is a character from the show desperate housewives which resembles some of my character in the sense she holds extreme traditional home values. However, she is slightly unhinged and the relationship with her children is constantly strained and challenged. Also watching her speak has been helping me to develop my american accent. I think the way she dresses suits my character.




The film 'Carrie' which is a remake of a 1976 film, is soon to be released. The film shows a damaged daughter and a psychotically religious mother. I think it will help me to watch this film, to demonstrate an extreme mother daughter relationship. This may be able to feed in to the decisions made in rehearsals by my character and the character of my daughter.