As we write this week about bringing the various elements of our practice together to perform scenes, how do you begin your process? When we talk about "characters" we are "playing," at what point do you begin to examine these characters as people who are in relationships? In everyday life, we have things we want--that which we are trying to obtain. For example, think about your relationship with people in your community that serve you, such as a worker at Starbucks. You enter into the cafe, you with the objective (also referred to as intention) of getting a latte. What actions do you take to achieve this goal? What obstacles get in yoru way that can change your behavior? What behaviors do you avoid so that you will not be refused service? Do you know the barrista making your coffee? Is this your first time getting the drink you want or do you do this everyday? As you blog this week about your process, think about details. Look for the small things you do that establish the formality or familiarity of the relationships in your life. What can you draw from these that help you to become a better actor?
I think that it is very important from the very beginning to establish what the relationships are with the people around you in the play. In my process I try to cement those as much as possible early. While working on Arms and the Man I made note on every interaction between me and the other characters in the play. By making specific notes on my interactions with them I was able to develop what my characters attitude toward them was and the quality of the relationship I had with them.
ReplyDeleteIts long, sorry
ReplyDeleteI always honestly try to understand where people come from and what they do that makes them see the world in a certain way. But I don’t put as much or spend as much time focusing on the relationships between characters or people. By that I don’t mean I skip over it completely but I feel like I look at relationships very broadly when it comes to acting. This might be getting a little bit personal but here goes. I think that this is something I need to work on because otherwise I won’t be an effective actor and no one will believe my characters. I think I get a little bit scared to explore the relationship BETWEEN people. I really focus on how my side looks at it but less on the interaction, or the TWO people. I think I get scared because as a person I naturally yearn to find a connection with everyone I meet. I’ve become very good at forming personal relationships with people I know, friends, co-workers, teachers, even the barista. The problem is that when I do I naturally become attached to these people and they become not just mentors or baristas but friends. I like it better this way; I have my professional friends and my close friends. I feel as though I learn more this way. The problem with this is that I can put myself out there to get hurt more easily. I have accepted this. But I think that when it comes to acting I’m afraid to really get in there and explore a relationship with and between characters because of it. I’m afraid that I won’t be able to separate my professional/acted relationship from the real relationship. It’s like you mentioned in class the other day, you need to be in control of your emotions and it can be dangerous to explore something emotionally publically you haven’t dealt with personally. I think I don’t know how to explore the relationship without it getting too raw and real. When it comes to professional or acquaintances I always try and am polite and friendly because I find it makes things so much easier. I can take a look at my actions when I meet people compared to when I know people and mimic these. Hopefully these little actions will help me be effective when performing. I hope that all answered your question; I know it was a long one.
Joe
I will admit, one of my faults as a learning actor is not to examine connections between people enough, but rather to get so caught up in the image of my character, that I tend to block off relationships. In examining my character, I immediately begin looking as I do the first read through. As I read in my head, I piece together an idea of the character as an image in my mind. Based merely on dialogue and responses from other characters, the nature of the character takes shape on its own. However, in taking that next step into applying the character towards relationships and connections, I'll admit I'm rather lost. Simple questions I can answer. How is this person related to me? How long have I known them? How often have I been through the situation in the scene? Age, environment, mood, tone, etc. All seem workable and doable. But in REALLY connecting, how do I apply the aforementioned 'discoveries' towards my attitudes and perspective on the characters around me? Thoughts? Suggestions?
ReplyDeleteFeb.3.10
ReplyDeleteGetting to Know My Character by Asking the Right Questions
Danielle Cooper
In the last class, when I did the exercise it really made me realize how much personal history I brought to the scene. I realized that when getting involved with a character you try to pull out all the background information on that person, and make assumptions from the context on how the character would react and behave. So I tried to take my past situations and attempt to relay them into my character. Even Hagen said that when she had to play a character that had a bad relationship with her mom she took experiences that others had with their mothers and turned it into her own twist on the character’s relationship. She really said to ask those questions that can pull out clues about your character so that when you do come into your scene you can have a clearer understanding of how to act like your character.
Also with the relationship you have with the character as well as with another person who is in the scene, I feel there has to be a good understanding and connection so that you can feel comfortable enough to show that raw emotion. In the exercise of describing the other person’s features it really helped when you saw their facial expressions and emotions that you will never get to fully analyze when the scene happens. The expressions on the other person’s face will always be in your mind when you work out the scene. Because you feel that instead of performing you are just talking with the person. And talking I feel is the purest way to really find the message of what the other person wants.
I like to think I have a few ways to approach a character depending on the role. Some times I have to spend time with my character, and get to know "me". create a back story, meditate on my life and experience etc. Other times when I find it is more difficult to relate to where the character is coming from I feel I need to educate myself by trying to observe other people, or to learn more about the given circumstances. But these steps are not enough all the time either. For this reason the exercise we did in class on Tuesday was a real eye opener for me. Nicole pointed out when I was asked if I read the paper I jumped to the script rather than relying on my character. After that I sat down and thought about what the character would have really said. I am not sure how to articulate what I learned, but I am starting to see a new way to approach a character.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought that making a connection with the others on stage with you is very important. If you don't feel and believe the relationship you have on stage then why would the audience believe it? There's always little things a person can do to enhance the relationship. Even though it might be awkward in the beginning, being able to physically touch the other people on stage is always something I try to find if I am supposed to be a family member or a lover of someone in a part. Also, I try and work out little "ticks" a character would have. For instance, if I'm asked to play a child then I try and figure out how a child would hold their hands and move around the space. Also, being aware of your surroundings helps me to create an environment which can be shown to the audience even if the actual set is not there. All of these things along with developing the psychological aspects of your character are very important to portray an honest reflection of the person you are presenting.
ReplyDeleteMimetic theater or the Art theatre is to my opinion by a very large extent about the relationship between the human being towards an other human. What distinguishes a dialog from a monologue is the relationship, the exchange of information between at least two individuals. The relationship between the characters is what makes a scene so much more interesting then a performance with just one actor. The relationship is what people are interested in, that's what you want to see when you are watching a play. The relationship between the protagonist, deuteragonist, tritagonist and of course the antagonist is to my opinion the most interesting factor of a play.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many different ways to express an infinite amount of feelings towards a person. The human being is looking for contact with other persons, is always confronted with the topic of relation an that is also what I want to see about in theater. The minimalist play Art by Yasmina Reza is entirely based on the Relationship between Marc, Serge and Yvan and the relationships from them towards other people. This play is also a good example because it shows that relationship is even more interesting when it changes throughout the play.
That's also why it is so important to create the illusion that you are actually having a conversation on stage. That it is not just text you've learned by hart, but you actually respond the other actor, that's one factor of what makes a scene alive and creates a relationship between the characters.
When it comes to establishing relationships with other characters I find it hard. I think this is because I find it hard to make friends in real life because I am kind of closed off at times. So when it comes to establishing relationships with other actors, especially quickly, I find it difficult to let myself let go and really get into my character and form relationships. Also, Hagen talks about how we need to spend time thinking about every little detail and relationship that our character goes through, but this is a fairly new concept for me because I am an inexperienced actor, and coming right out of high school we did not do much work on going this far into our characters. So I hope that after this class I will feel more comfortable with establishing relationships both on stage and off.
ReplyDeleteJackie
ReplyDeleteSo I go to Panera every Sunday between church services. I sing at First Presbyterian Church as a paid soloist. I like to think that my relationship with the Panera employees is one that has reached mutual respect status. These people have seen me every Sunday for about a year and a half now. They are close to my age. Most of them recognize my face, some know my name, and a few know what I like to eat there. My objective for going to Panera is to eat breakfast. I do not eat before going to church at 8:30 in the morning, but by 9:30 or 9:45, when first service gets out, my stomach is growling. Panera is a short distance away from my church and they have a fairly large selection of breakfast items. I always go with the other paid soloist and we all share a few pastries and then each have a bagel or breakfast sandwich. As soon as first service is out, me and my two fellow soloists rush out of church as soon as is respectfully possible, avoiding at all costs the lady who deems herself the “disco queen.” She used to live in New York and would party all night in her youth, but she still made it to church every night. She has a bad habit of talking forever and forever about nothing important till your breakfast hour is nearing its end. If she happens to stop us on our way out, we are polite enough, but we get annoyed. She really is a nice lady; she just doesn’t stop talking! Then we decide who will drive. We all drive fairly fast because we want to avoid the church crowd and be first in line at Panera. Sometimes, however, the slow churchgoers cannot be avoided. Parking is also an issue. The parking lot at Panera is small, so it is best to arrive as early as possible! When we arrive, we patiently wait for our turn. I know exactly what I want before I even step up to the register. I do not like having customers who stand at the register for a long time, looking at the menu or changing their minds a million times about what they want when they have a line of people behind them waiting to be served. Generally I order the same thing: a pastry to share with my friends and a blueberry bagel with raspberry crème cheese. I do not order coffee anymore. For one, I have acid reflux disease, and coffee is too acidic. Also, I get too fully when I eat a pastry, a bagel and drink coffee. And last, Panera’s coffee is too syrupy! If I must have a coffee, we generally stop at the Starbucks located in the Dillons that is on the way to Panera. Usually, I just stick to water. I smile at the employee who helps me out, and politely give him or her my order. I say please and thank you, even though I am often extremely tired and short-tempered. I know a few of their employees by name because I have had classes with them. So obviously I prefer that they help me out. Then I can discuss school with them or ask them how their life is going with some insight knowledge of who they are and what they might be going through at the moment.
The observations that I have just made help to realize all the emotions that I go through in one hour’s time. I know I have probably left out a whole lot more, especially in regards to the relationships I have with my fellow soloists and a few others I encounter every Sunday morning. But writing about them shows me that I have very particular feelings about everything. I may not be thinking about those details every Sunday, but they are there! I guess in order to fully give life to a character, you must think through all the emotions, objectives, and relationships that they might possible have in their lives. More details equate to fuller, richer characters!
In any scene or show there is a good chance that I, or any actor, with be performing with someone that I don’t know very well, a mere acquaintance. I have come to trust myself enough to not be shy in these situations, which lets me be freer in the scene. But I will never be at the same level of comfort and ease as I would be when acting with a friend. It is my job as an actor to get to know my fellow performers and reach that level of comfort that will release any shyness or hesitation on my part.
ReplyDeleteWhen acting in a scene, I make it my duty to find out what my character’s relationship is with every other character in the scene. I guess this helps me decide the manner at which I act towards each character. Is my character with his sister in this scene? Is he with his boss? Is he with his fellow army officers? I keep consistency with my character throughout, but I try to make the little variations in how I act towards the other characters whose relationships with me are different than every other one. In a scene, I would act toward fellow army friends as I would toward my sister, if the play called for these situations. These are just examples. Every relationship with the other characters is different and I think that it benefits me more when I know every facet of each different relationship.
Collin Stephens
Looking at the way I interact with people in my everyday life is an interesting thing. When I talk with people at first, they are hesitant about being open but once conversation starts they start to open up. The one thing I think about whenever I talk with anyone, whether I like them or not, is a saying my mom has always said repeats itself in my head, “kill them with kindness.” I love this saying because it helps me always take the better stance on things. This makes me happier and even when someone tries to bring me down, this makes me interact in amore positive way. I avoid walking into a situation with a bad attitude, sometimes when it’s a repeated experience (aka a phone conversation with an online rep about an order, and you have to call time an time again), this ends up stirring a bad attitude on my part. But I always try to hold composure. The one thing that does hinder this from being completely skate free is that I do take some of these instances personally, which makes it harder to brush off then I would like. With acting I think that I need to learn to take things less personally. I just over think situations and worry that whatever the comment or negative experience is, that it is completely my fault, and it’s a reflection of my self worth.
ReplyDeleteMegan Kane
ReplyDeleteFeb. 11, 2010
When starting a scene, I tend to just go with it. I do not really examine the relationships the character has with another person. The last scene I did, I was tested in knowing what my relationship was with my partner in the scene. At that moment, I did not know what my relationship was with the other person. I was forced to think about it which helped me so much more throughout the scene. Knowing what your relationships are in a scene can help you succeed so much because it gives you a better sense of your character. From now on, I am going to do exercises in examining the relationships so I can perform the scene to my full potential.
When I am forming a character, I feel that it is easier for me to get a little back ground information on that character before jumping into the scene. That is why when we do improvisation, it is a lot scarier to make up a character's lines off the top of my head. I like when we are told given circumstances on the character we need to portray. On the scene work I'm about to do with David in class, The Fruit Basket play, I already could connect that the sister and her brother had a very estranged relationship. I would then go to my emotional memory and relate the situation to something similar in my life. I to have a little brother, he has Attention Deficit Disorder, and we don't have a strong relationship. I feel that when I pull these memories into my character, it will help me connect to the scene a lot better. It helps me to find my objective and explore who this girl really is in the play.
ReplyDeleteI think we all fall into certain ways of interacting with various kinds of people. If we’re going to Starbucks, we treat the barrista in a manner that we’ve probably practiced our entire lives subconsciously. We don’t know the employees at every store we shop at, so we develop different ways of dealing with them. Seeing as characters in plays are supposed to be real human beings, they should behave the exact same way. A character will interact with a store clerk very differently from their estranged spouse. While I understand this completely in theory, I struggle with it in practice. Whether I develop a character successfully or not, I tend to fall into treating every other character the same way. I sometimes try too hard to establish who I am playing and not what my relationship is to other character.
ReplyDelete