This week we are finishing our mid-term scenes and casting for the final scene presentations. I have selected a broad range of plays that I think help you address some of your acting blocks and technical concerns we have discussed this semester. Bringing us back to Hagen and her work in Respect for Acting, think about your scene presentations. Ask yourself about what you did when your scene partner was not talking. How did you listen? Did you stand, sit, pace etc. Was this movement or lack thereof indicative of what your character was observing and feeling, or do you just do it because it seemed like a good thing to do?
If we consider Hagen's "Outdoors" exercise, how do you bring teh outdoors inside with you? What do you do physically to let us know that you are inhabiting a particular outdoor space? What do you do to make us believe that you are in a bedroom, a department store, a kitchen, a ledge of a building, etc. Think about the small details and write them down. Go back and remember what you did to establish reality on stage in your scenes.
I had a lot of busy work that I chose to do in my scene. It was pretty easy to come up with different things to do since my character was getting ready and also attempting to hurry. Even in other scenes I have been in, I always try to find some type of busy work or something to do so I don't look stiff. If the scene calls for minimal movement then I try as hard as I can to stay engaged in the scene without fading out and not paying attention. For my scene I just presented, we wanted to make sure the set resembled a bedroom so we brought in as many props as we could think to help bring the room to life. I feel like we accomplished the setting and managed to have enough "tasks" to do that made the scene entertaining and also fun to perform =)
ReplyDeletewith the scene that i was in my character had just been awakened from a deep sleep so the moves where minimal and slow paced at first and then as the scene went along they ended up being driven by the text and my partner. When it comes to movement I am a big believer in the "pinch and ow." I feel that most movement is stimulated by a reaction to the scene partners "pinch." Whether this is a big cross down stage after hearing some awful news or something as small as rubbing the handle of a sword when trying to cover up being caught in a lie. I also firmly believe when it comes to listening that characters listen and respond to specific words in the other characters lines. At this moment I can think of very few instances where a character responds to every detail that his partner has said. Because of this I like to find trigger words to listen for in my partners text that I use as words that ignite the idea in my characters brain which eventually lead to him responding to those words with his own text.
ReplyDeleteI think I generally feel okay with 'not talking' on stage. In high school I was in a show that I had 3 lines throughout the entire run but I was on stage for almost every single scene and it was one of the most easy yet difficult things I've done in acting. I agree with what Garrett says in it all comes down to listening to what character's are saying around you and go with your instinct. I think sometimes we get caught up in busy work and trying to 'act' that we forget how to juse 'be.'
ReplyDeleteI’ll be honest; this blog entry was really interesting to me. I find that this is something I need to work on, whether it comes off that way to other or not. If it does show to others than I of course need to work on it, if it doesn’t than it’s a personal mission I guess. Personally I find myself mostly feeling the scene out as I go without digging around too deeply in “what is the character thinking every second?” I do search for things that my partner says that might strike a chord with my own character. (What Garrett said was very interesting to me and very helpful). My scene was at a bar so I was sitting the whole time with hardly any movement except for the looking at the other person and back at my glass. This felt to me like I was simply sitting there and doing nothing and so I had a hard time finding a way to look engaged while my partner talked, granted I did most of the talking so maybe the silent listening was more meaningful to Taylor who had to listen to me ramble FOREVER. I normally end up with a few little quirks for the character to do, but find that I maybe am not digging deep enough to really engage. I would LOVE some feedback on this. Its something I feel like I need to work on so if you have any thoughts or advice please let me know.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in the scene with Jackie, I think my mind was really focused on getting all the lines but there were moments that I was really in the scene which is what the audience could feel as our bond as sisters. With Adrian there was a lot of down time while he was in a very dramatic part of his character so for some of it I was listening and for the rest of it I was figuring out what to do on a ledge and what to think of him as my character. With Jackie for our characters we were moving around and for Adrian we were standing. I learned different things about myself with each scene with Jackie I learned about moving while doing lines and “acting” and with Adrian I really had to learn what acting with no lines was like, it was waters I felt awkward in and felt like that was kind of obvious at times but in the end I felt good about both scenes! My biggest challenge with movement while acting is choosing a movement because I as Celsie could run lines sitting for hours and not feel any need to get up and move around but as a character of someone else I need to learn what is natural for moving around when talking.
ReplyDeleteI know that I had a lot of facial expressions that I had to deliver to show that I was completely not getting the message. I feel like i had to make it as believable as possible. I feel that if you do not go all the way in your actions then you say a line, then your character is not believable. I know that I did a little action, and I was basically trying to move into the conversation with my partner and become apart of what she was saying. More action from my scene was a lot of listening because our scene had a lot of conversation changes, so if you weren't listening then it was very easy to get lost. I feel that i also had to mime a little bit as well. For instance I had to mime a telephone conversation that was very hard because as must as I wanted to make it look as believable as possible, it was tricky to listen into a phone and hear no voices. It was tough but I felt with all of these actions it gave the play more attention so that it would take in the audience.
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ReplyDeleteI feel that sometimes when I am on stage I feel nervous or awkward. I am really trying to breakthrough this wall and just do what I love to do the most, act. Sometimes when I am on stage and feel these nervous emotions, I do movements that can be rather distracting or busy work. I am trying to work on just being natural and act as if I was really shopping or in the kitchen. I have so many memories of shopping or being in the kitchen that I just need to use my emotion memory and act as if I was doing the same things I do every day. I need to push through my awkward moments and get the job done. I have learned so much through this course and what I am comfortable with and what I am not.
Starting with my scene performance I did with David, in thinking about Hagen’s Respect for acting the class and I reflected on what my movement was like in the scene. I tend to do a lot of my movements mindlessly, but for this one in particular, I tried to pace around my apartment. We had a moment in the scene where we sat on the couch together while I tried to find him a ticket home. I made sure to keep my space away from him in the scene because I was frustrated that he was even there in my personal space. I had a moment in that scene where I couldn’t get the laptop open because I hadn’t tried prior to the performance. I learned that if I just went along with that error in the scene it would have worked in my favor. Instead I panicked and tried to start over. That helped me to learn that improvisation is one of the most important things you can do as an actor. In creating the bar scene with Joe I tried to imagine myself sitting at a bar with an old friend. In that scene, it was hard to get a word in with his character who liked to talk about himself for the majority of the scene. My actions while sitting there and listening for a response was a little awkward. I learned that the lines in the scene didn’t really matter; it was how I reacted to what he was saying that would make the scene believable.
ReplyDeleteThere were not a lot of long monologues of Celsie thus I didn't have to fill a lot of beats where I was not talking. To establish the illusion that I stand on a ledge I instinctively rocked slightly back and forth to hold balance. I always listen to my partner. I usually know knew what Celsie was going to say and I trusted her not to miss a line. But it is always important to listen. That makes me stay focused on the scene and makes me stay in the moment. If I'm not listening I can't react properly to my partner's actions. No performance is really alike so it's important not to behave like a recording. The best about theater is to my opinion that it is life. That's the real advantage over film. Theater is never perfect, but human and that what makes it interesting for the audience. The actor has to be conscious of what his or her partner is doing and has to react appropriately.
ReplyDeleteAs an actor I constantly think about how to show feelings. If I meet new people I usually have an impression of the person. What actions does the person to give me this impression? So I always analyze actions and behavior of people I meet in my daily life and I think of friends, relatives, or people I met in order to create my character. Fantasy, imagination, and theory is of course also a big part of creating a character. The magic “if” and emotion - and sense memory of what happened to me and what I observe on others work together to form the character. Spontaneous reactions that have been established during improv can also be useful. It's a little of everything that forms the character and it usually depends a lot on the given circumstances of the script.
I have never really had a problem with what to do when I don’t have lines. I think one can over think it and distract the audience from the intent of the scene. However, one can also not think about it enough and create a lackluster response. For me, as long as I understand who I am playing and what my relationship is to the other character, there’s no real problem. I just listen to what they’re saying and respond as naturally as I believe my character would. It should never feel like you’re “acting.” I try to just stay in the moment and not make artificial movements.
ReplyDeleteThe actions I do in a scene, as my character, are chosen from two main aspects: what I know about the character and instincts. Most actions in the scene are done because they fit in with what the character would do and from what is going on in the scene. I do certain actions because that is what the scene calls for. But also, some actions are spur of the moment. It’s not I feel that my character has to be doing something all the time, but if there is some action I feel like doing at some random time, then I may do it. My attitude towards action in the scene is that I don’t always have to be doing something- just to be doing something. If I don’t know what to do then I feel it’s best to not do anything. Not doing anything is better than random action without a reason. I know this somewhat contradicts with what I said earlier in this blog, but with the “spur of the moment” action I try to have a reason for doing it. The random action that comes to me I will do if it is relevant to the scene. Rarely will you see me doing something in a scene that makes no sense but is there just for me to be doing something.
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