AN ATMOSPHERE OF PLAY: JEANNINE GASKIN

During one of our rehearsals we finally got to apply our skills we've been learning for months to a scene from the play!

We identified the atmosphere of the scene and applied qualities of movement & psychological gestures with sound.

The scene I worked on with Lana & Natalie was called "The Women Learn Their Lines". In this scene we learn who can read, who can't, who is embarrassed by this, who isn't, and who just wants to keep the peace. Needless to say, the atmosphere was quickly identified as TENSION.

Walking around in that atmosphere immediately caused my shoulders to tighten, my breathing pattern to shorten and I felt like the walls and ceiling were compressing. That feeling forced my body to move as if I was drawing power from the earth (molding). As the lines were delivered I felt a fight or flight energy start to brew.

Each time we ran the scene we tried a new gesture or a different tool. One that was fascinating to experience was using the psychological gesture "embrace". While the objective atmosphere remained the same the subjective atmosphere changed. The fight/flight feeling turned into humility/understanding. This was also true when I changed from a willing centre to a feeling centre.

I missed the lesson on Stick-Ball-Veil but the ladies gave me a nice overview. This exercise gives an actor the opportunity to explore physical transformation for a particular character using the self-created version of an object: either a stick, ball, or veil. This exploration builds imagination, inspires physicality, and engages the characters center of energy.

Stick was a natural fit but I found it quite interesting how the power dynamics in this scene shifted when Veil was used.