PERSPECTIVE: DANIEL MCKINNON

So, I feel that I am coming to this ensemble from a very unique perspective. I have joined this cast - who has been putting hours upon hours of work in through that last year. I am lucky enough to get the chance to join the cast at this stage. I have worked with the Chekhov technique, but the perspective that I get to see them play within this iteration is very unique. 

When you go to see theater you view the show as an audience member. There is the story that the cast of the play portrays through the words of the text. There are things - from an audience perspective - that can never be fully understood that an actor can put into a role. From the perspective of an actor you can know the depths of things in the play, but from the inside of the play you do not see yourself (unless you are filmed). You cannot experience the view of the whole that the audience does. Getting to join the cast during the process is the closest that I have gotten to simultaneously viewing from both the perspective of the audience member and the perspective of the actor.

The concept of perspective made jumping into the work interesting. I am new to meeting my characters and working in the roles. So, I get to see the depths that others actors work with the character they have been getting to know. I am playing the Aboriginal, Tench, and Caesar. In some of the scenes we have worked, the characters I play are not featured, but doing the work I can still embody those characters. Watching and perspective are central to the theater, so they are even more so in a play about a play. Doing scene work, I have worked in the role of Tench watching. As I played the Aboriginal, I watched the scene work from the same spot and performed similar actions. But, the impulse beneath the surface was so radically different. Then as we moved between sections, that impulse changed the direction of the characters so drastically despite coming from the same position. I plan to keep this concept of perspective at the forefront of my work as I continue to build my score.