Worked on:
1. Finding and adding beats (continued)
2. creating a character from nothing
3. finding character in lines given to us
4. movement in a scene
5. acting the whole scene through
6. There are no small roles
7. Timing
8. character distinction
Finding and adding beats:
Today we continued our work on finding and adding beats (or pauses) in our scenes.
**We will always start our scenes by mapping them out or "doing our homework" - our beats will be the first part of this every time.
Because we act more in the pauses - where we place our beats is an essential part of how we're going to play the scene. Today, we took turns placing the beats and talking about why we wanted to pause there - whether we wanted to pause longer for effect, because the scene caused for it, or if we wanted to add a pause solely based on acting choices.
Creating a character from nothing/ In lines we were given:
In auditions, plays, or monologues, most of the time you are given a character description of the role you are reading for. Unfortunately, most of the time, the scene is taken out of context and they either don't give enough information to fill in that one scene - or the character description isn't full of specific things that help with your scene. You will always have to create a character backstory to some degree - in order to be successful with your scene. Today we started building characters from nothing but a name and the lines in the scene - no character description, no direction given previously in the scene.
With "Ozian" in the first scene we decided that he 1) loved Glinda.. 2)Was very excited the witch was dead.. 3) Would listen to anything Glinda said.
With "Glinda" in the first scene - we decided that 1) She loves attention.. 2) She is sassy.. 3) She thinks she has all the answers..
These, now dynamic, characters have more clear choices and direction of where to take their lines in the scene.
With both scenes we did today - we built character descriptions that were easy for everyone to understand and run with, with their movements, voice inflection, beats, facial expressions, and way they interacted with each other.
Movement in a scene:
We worked on adding movements, defined "Mark" (the different spots usually marked by an "X" that the actor is supposed to hit or pass through in their scene, and mapped out different appropriate actions when acting out the characters we created.
There are no small roles/ Acting the scene all the way through:
In both the scenes we did today, there was always a main character and a secondary character. You could tell which was which in our first scene in particular because the main character had a name (Glinda) and the secondary character had a title (Ozian). We learned today that it doesn't matter how many lines a character has (or if they have any) - there are no small roles, and every person in the scene needs to carry their weight! If any character is left with nothing to play off of - the scene falls apart. And because we do most of our acting in our pauses any way - if you don't have as many lines, it's up to you to make sure you are staying in character the whole scene, even when you don't have lines to direct you. You have to decide what your character would do, how they would react, to what the other characters in the scene are doing and saying! Every character can be interesting, and show stopping if they play their roles right! It's our job to make sure that every character is so that no one character outshines another in performance (even though personalities and choices are different with each character and one could "like attention" while another likes to "give attention" - if each person does their part equally well, the scene takes form and becomes better. If someone decides to stop paying attention, shift characters, or thinks that no one will pay attention to them because their lines are over - the scene suffers and is unsuccessful).
Timing:
We worked on adding beats of different length to help with comedic timing!
Character distinction:
We worked on our ability to play different kinds of characters. I had everyone play 4 different characters today, each being very different from the last: Glinda, Ozian, Frex, and Elphaba. You have to make sure that even though you want a lot of different characters to be big and to fill the stage - that you can show very clear distinctions between them! We did this with different voice inflections, different actions, facial expressions, and different reactions to other characters in their scenes.