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.
Read MoreDuring our May 28th rehearsal, we discussed how the seed of Our Country's Good, or the basic precept that unites the events, is "change". As I thought about this word,I started asking myself questions: Do we really change or is our awareness for something just magnified and it looks like we have changed? Can a person be changed if their peers or society as a whole don't acknowledge or recognize them as being changed? Who are we changing for? Is change really necessary and if so, according to whom?
Read MoreLast rehearsal I chose to begin to work on my character, Captain Jemmy Campbell. I had been avoiding him. He’s difficult to nail down. The text that is presented for him is broken, parroting, passionate, stumbling. A number of his lines are just him stuttering out support of others’ opinions. He seems disconnected, but also deeply lost. Like someone who used to be of import, but now he finds himself in a place where even his words, even with his official title of captain, hold very little sway. I think he understands this.
He could be a drunk, self medicating to cover up his self consciousness. He could be a man with some sort of dementia, struggling to maintain any semblance of who he was. Or he could just be broken.
“Aah-eeh-a. Confusion.” An example of one of his eloquent responses and also how he makes me feel on occasion.
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.
The complexity of creating a character cannot be overstated. Similar to other complex endeavors, there is much that remains unseen by those who witness the finished product. My favorite analogy is that of shipbuilding. An ocean liner or an old sailing vessel in the vastness of the sea is a thing of beauty. Consideration is rarely given to what it took to create such majesty.
Music is a scaffold that can be utilized in the process of character creation. By design, music is intended to quickly find an emotional and spiritual core. Songs provide instantaneous transport to vivid memory, inner life, or atmosphere. For myself, I find music provides freedom from the burdens of heady intellectual processes like script analysis or using imprecision of words to determine “character actions”.
In rehearsal a few weeks ago, I stood on the edge of the room, warmed up my actors’ ideal center, and crossed the “Threshold”into the playing space with two of my fellow ensemble members. The air inside that invisible membrane was different. What I found that day was a swirl of joy, focused playfulness, and connectedness with my fellow actors. It’s moments like these that I live for in theatre. I’m out of my “mind” and fully present with all my cells, my senses, and my imagination. I fully trust that we are agreeing to believe and play in the same imagined world. It’s a rush.
Read MoreAs is appropriate, today’s blog post by our voice and dialect coach, Chuck Richie, is an audio file. Happy listening!
Read MoreIn Our Country’s Good, I play two characters, Captain David Collins and Robert Sideway. Both characters are based on real life people, and it has been intriguing to dig into their stories through history as well as through the world of the play. Where do these two versions of Collins and Sideway overlap and when do they not? Today, I would like to share a bit about Robert Sideway.
Read MoreIn the spirit of exploring process, let’s dig a little deeper into exactly how I put together the new poster for Our Country’s Good. This post will be a bit technical, but that’s what this blog is for.
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