'Road' By Jim Cartwright - Section 2: Notes on Directing the Blocking Process, Plans for the Ending of 'Road', Evaluation of the Staging, Character Development
Week 3
How Is My Lecturer Directing The Group Within The Blocking Process? Notes For Actors:
Whilst taking notes about the development my character, Skin-Lad, during the blocking process of 'Road', I had also taken more notes specifically focused on how my lecturer was blocking each scene with many of the different characters.
I noticed how my lecturer wanted to build on the different characters emotions/feelings during the scenes. One example of this was when we were in the process of blocking the long scene with Carol, Louise, Brink and Eddie:
Carol
My lecturer found that the actress portraying Carol had a tone which she thought was too aggressive. She said that Carol shouldn't be this aggressive in the first place. I did agree with her decision to change this as I felt that the character wasn't going anywhere in terms of emotions as she was appearing to be angry straight off the bat and wasn't very good to watch in terms of development. Something that I did think about for this scene is that the characters could possibly play more with sarcasm, especially between Carol and Louise, since they seem to be teasing Eddie and Brink in some areas of the scene. Plus, Carol and Louise are best friends, so the actresses need to make it so that they can express their relationship to the audience by doing things such as this.
Whilst the scene was going on, I had found that Carol had changed her personality slightly. Earlier on in the play, during a scene with her mother, Brenda, Carol was acting as more of a powerful, bossy character who was standing above her mother not taking in her orders. Now, Carol has seemed to have turned into someone who whines more than stands for her differences.
Louise
My lecturer found that the actress portraying Louise should be much more playful in the scene since, at the moment, she's just acting too much like herself. This is something that I'd looked past since we're still all quite early on in the blocking process, but my teacher wanted to bulid on the two characters' relationship with each other.
Since the actor isn't really moving or saying that much within the scene, I feel that there could be more movement since, because the character is drunk on the wine, I would think that she should be just walking around staring into blank places and showing slight signs of agreement to what Carol is whining about in this scene.
Eddie
My lecturer found that the actor portraying Eddie should be more suave in this scene as he is trying to woo the ladies into staying over at his house with his friend Brink. I agreed with this decisions since, at present moment, the actor is portraying the character in a sort of scared state. This makes sense in a way as the character would try his best to not say the wrong thing to the ladies, but he must have done this so many times within his lifetime that this should be natural to him, he even asks the ladies questions like if they want a drink of wine for example.
For the line where Eddie says "Take a seat" to the ladies, I would like him to over-exxagerate this line. This may make it appear as though he wants to be in full control for this scene, and of course the women, but this seems to take a turn once the scene carries on progressing. I feel that this would show more development in his character, making him appear as though he makes the decisions, not the other people around him.
Brink
My lecturer found that the actor portraying Brink should have moments of showing physical reactions to what the characters are saying to each other, this would be followed by the other characters looking at him. I feel that this decision makes sense since the actor doesn't really say that much within this scene and I was getting worried that he'd look out of place in a way because of it.
If performed correctly, these physical reactions should being some slight humour within the scene and it would be a good ending point to the performance before the very last scene with Scullery.
Again, the experimentation with sarcasm could be used for this scene for both genders of characters as I feel it will indeed build on their relationships and it will make the characters themselves appear more real to the audience.
Plan For The Ending Of 'Road':
Speaking of the last scene with Scullery, my lecturer had made some brief plans as to how we should present it to the live audience. For the scene, she would like it if all of the characters would appear on stage and for wherever Scullery would walk, a light would shine down on that character(s) for that area. This would continue until the monologue ends leaving all of the characters, at the same time, to chant the words "Somehow, a somehow, might escape" and the performance will end with all of the lights turning off on the characters.
I find this to be an effective ending to 'Road', but what I also noticed is that it sounds very similar to how we ended our presentation of '13' by Mike Bartlett earlier on in the course. It was before the ending monologue that all of the characters would walk on stage, and at one point Big Ben would chime, this then leads to 13 lights shining down on each of the individual characters one by one to then end with the sound of an explosion.
Evaluation Of The Staging Used For The Beginning Of The Blocking Process:
One other thing that I wanted to mention in this blog was how my lecturer is staging the whole blocking process in the early stages that we're currently in. From what I can tell, the staging is very flexible; my lecturer doesn't really seem to care where the characters are entering and exiting the scenes. There are some scenes however, particularly the long scene with Carol, Louise, Eddie and Brink where my lecturer actually wants to block the entrances and exits since this is one scene that my lecturer would like to get fully blocked now rather than later since all of the other scenes in the play are so much shorter compared and we don't necessarily have a whole lot of time to block our individual scenes.
For the feedback sessions we have regularly, which shows our development on our characters, there are some notes that we all receive as to how we should, for example, walk around the stage or say a certain a word differently than we had (higher pitch, tone etc). But what I personally like, more than most, is that our lecturer is just allowing us, the actors, to direct our own selves for the blocking process of this play. This is great as it lets us all have some experience in directing actors, which helps in the progression of our careers as actors.
Character Development on Skin-Lad - What Things Have I Worked On? Feed Back Given:
Looking at Performance Techniques and Key Influences for My Character:
During the third week on 'Road', my lecturer had given the whole group a task which was to partner up with someone to work on our own characters whether it was through further development or refinement. The partner that I was working with for this task was Luke, whom is portraying the character called Bisto.
Both of our characters mainly have monologues and nothing else to work on so far, so I volunteered to act out my monologue as Skin-Lad first whilst Luke would take notes on how I could possibly improve my performance. After finishing the monologue, what me and Luke were working on was thinking of ways of how I could say my lines. This wasn't with all of the lines in Skin-Lad's monologue, but certain parts which could have more dramatic effect if they were portrayed differently. One part for example is the moment where I'm going "Pad, Pad, Pad." Luke said that I should do these slowly to create more tension for the audience and making the scene overall much more intense. All of the other lines in-between he mentioned should be much faster, but just slowing down for the "Pad, Pad." - this is mainly so the moment doesn't drag as I'm saying pretty much the same thing over and over, which is understandable. This should happen until I say the "KIYAA!" line. When evaluating and building upon this feedback for another show back to Luke, he had said that it really builds towards the intensity of the scene and also shows much more of a mystic personality towards Skin-Lad's character.
Before working on any of that though, I had received some positive feedback from Luke about my performance as Skin-Lad. He had said that I portrayed the character very well with all of the actions included from the script such as the practicing he does in between sentences. He also complimented my efforts in remembering all of the lines within the monologue as I had learnt all of my lines by this point. He said that I had come across as very intimidating and almost scary as derived from this quote:
"I feel that you came across as very intimidating for the moments where you came closer to the audience and started practicing your fighting. There were also times where I felt a little scared of Skin-Lad since you have given him this long stare in-between lines when he is directing questions to the audience, the blank face you do with this is also effective. The use of stage space is very good, but I feel that you shouldn't use it so much as you'll be left going to the same places over and over and I feel that the audience will lose that picture your describing, especially with the moment where you're showing the audience about the night you experienced 'the tingle'."
Luke had said that my style of acting was along the lines the same as Method Acting; I had used my acting techniques to perform with both thought and emotion to be able to develop what appeared to be a lifelike performance. Method Acting is something which the whole group had looked at earlier on this year with the case study of a practitioner named Constantin Stanislavski.
Stanislavski's work in Method Acting is one of the key inspirations which I had for when I started working on my interpretation of Skin-Lad. By having the lifelike performance which Method Acting brings, I feel confident that my portrayal of Skin-Lad will be remembered by the audience members and, as Luke quoted, I should be able to achieve this if I keep the intimidating and scary characteristics.
There were many other key influences I had for when I approached Skin-Lad. One of the key influences is Sir Anthony Hopkins' character in the film called 'Silence of the Lambs'. The character the actor had played is called Dr. Hannibal Lecter, who is a former psychiatrist and incarcerated cannibalistic serial killer. I would like Skin-Lad to come across as this kind of person, just not in a cannibalistic way obviously. As depicted from reading his monologue, I had imagined that Skin-Lad seems to know a fair bit about the human anatomy since he describes human body parts and seems to know where certain veins are within the body which he can use as "Targets!".
Sir Anthony Hopkins is renowned for his preparations for roles. He had indicated in interviews that once he has committed to a project, he will go over his lines as many times as is needed. This is one thing that gave me some inspiration for working with Skin-Lad since if I go over his monologue so many times over and over, the lines would become more natural to me and it would also give me the chance to further develop and refine some of his lines and characteristics. There's a quote which Sir Anthony Hopkins gave to interviewers which follows this same thing which was "do it without thinking". Doing this would lead to an almost casual style of delivery that belies the amount of groundwork done beforehand.
Another inspiration I had was towards the works of Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson for their performances in both 'Bottom' and 'The Young Ones'. The kind of attitude that the actors had for their characters in these productions are along the lines very similar to Skin-Lad's: very forward, aggressive. At any moment, they would beat themselves up for any or no reason. Even Ade Edmondson's appearance in 'The Young Ones' is along the lines what I'd like to interpret in 'Road' for Skin-Lad:
There will a few differences against this picture, things like the hair, the various bits of metal on the clothing. But the things that do match the look of a Skinhead is the denim clothing and the overall look of the character. We can see that he has a kind of 'butch', 'bad-boy' attitude. If someone was to see this kind of person in modern age, they would not want to go near him as they would think he's a danger to society. This is what I'd like to portray for my interpretation of Skin-Lad.
Going back to Luke's feedback on my performance, he had said that my physical characteristics were so much different compared to Skin-Lad's.
I come across as a sort of calm, quiet person. I like to absorb information and be able to express it as detailed as possible in written work, which is hopefully what I'm doing here in this blog. I'm not a violent person, I like to resolve situations through words, not actions. Skin-Lad, however, is much different. He wants to take the action everywhere he goes and for every person he encounters. Before he heads out everyday, he picks that one target which he'll be aiming for on the human body if he does come into a combat situation. Skin-Lad is similar to me in the way of detailing things the best way possible, but not in the same way. He expresses his information through words and overthinks a lot throughout his sentences. He can be calm at times when he's not thinking about fighting someone, but he's definitely not quiet, he'll argue at someone without reason, even if he doesn't know them.
This will be one thing that I'll obviously be graded on, so I hope this difference of characteristics will stay with me and continue progressing until I come to performing the monologue to a live audience in May.
Luke had also stated that my interpretation of Skin-Lad had familiarity with Brad Pitt's character in the film called 'Fight Club'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGzdusxI5XA
This scene in-particular is what recalled this familiarity of the two characters. I can see what Luke means since the character is just getting beaten up by his opponent but he isn't giving up the fight. He's simply stalling by stretching and practicing his tactic whilst fighting, much like how Skin-Lad focuses on his fighting - "Tactics, new Techniques."
Feedback Given to Luke:
When looking towards the character of Bisto, since he's a DJ, I'd imagine him to be a little bit cheesy, but also classy and elegant, whilst he is announcing his lines. He should have a real connection to the audience as some of his lines are quite funny to read and they're even more funny when performed by Luke because of his slightly unique personality.
When looking at Luke's performance of Bisto, I thought that it was "alright." There is much more that he can do to enhance his character since, at present moment, he's not really looking that overall confident as he's looking down quite a lot. There are moments in the script mentioning that Bisto dances along with the music that's playing in the background, although Luke didn't portray this for his showing. I feel he should be dancing or at least use much more of the stage space whilst speaking his lines as I'd think Bisto to be quite an energetic person because of his 'fun and dance all the time' persona.
One inspiration that me, him and our lecturer discussed was that he could match the performance style of Paddy McGuiness. He can add some punctual jokes within the monologue like he does and also do a lot of pointing towards the audience - this could be used for the moments where he says the line "You'll get used to me. You'd better."
I find Bisto to be one of my favourite characters within 'Road' and I think that having Luke being chosen to portray him is a great decision by my lecturer. I look forward to seeing what Luke can come up with for this great character.
Character Ideas Gained From Inspiration - Work for Character Profile:
After talking about one of my inspirations for Skin-Lad, I had an idea that maybe Skin-Lad has a psychiatrist behind the scenes of 'Road' since he seems to come across as having some sort of mental problem; he finds the need to fight people randomly without any cause beforehand. Psychiatrists diagnose the pain of their patients and treat the whole person, not just the one area, with a constant active lifestyle. From the stage directions, I had read that Skin-Lad does come in jogging for scenes and through his monologue he talks constantly about how "you've got to be fit to fight, and practice tactics every night."
Skin-Lad also could of had, or still have, a job in fitness. He could be a professional trainer, maybe a boxer since he's keen to get to fighting people and practicing all day, every day. Skin-Lad could of been this before the events of 'Road' and sometime throughout his boxing career, he could of received a head injury which caused him to act relentlessly and not think maturely; he acts before he thinks. Even if Skin-Lad does think a lot about everything, particularly where he thinks about his target on the human body: the neck, he still doesn't think about if what he's doing is the wrong thing.
Fitness and fighting others appears to be the only thing that Skin-Lad cares about during his monologue, this could be evidenced by this line:
"I don't want Christine Dawson, I don't want my mothers love, I don't want to work in the engineering firm. I want the neck, this vein right here. Tactics, new techniques. What does he think? What do you think? The neck, and that's that."
But I feel this ends until this 'figure' he speaks of says the line "Over to you Buddha." His whole lifestyle changes to that of what a real Buddha would do. He has now committed himself to the Dharma. Everything he would of done before this event happened has now changed with him continuing to read the Dharma:
"So now, I just read the Dharma. When men at work pass the pornography, I pass it along and I read of the Dharma. And when my mum makes eggs, bacon, and chips for me, I pass it along towards the salt cellar and read of the Dharma. And when the men on the bus push I continue with the Dharma."
This leaded me to believe that maybe Skin-Lad dies during the events of 'Road' since we never see him again after his monologue ends. None of the characters even talk about him after his monologue ends also. This can lead back to one of the questions I had come up with through my analysis of the script. I had questioned whether the characters in 'Road' actually care about each other. This links to one of the key themes I'd discovered: Relationships, as there are obvious relationships within 'Road', but these are mostly romantic/family relationships. The relationships that Skin-Lad has with the other characters appears to be very pale, he doesn't seem to be friends with anyone on 'Road'. There is of course Mickey Isherwood, the Bouncer of the Disco, but he isn't a real character within the script. This leads me to believe that maybe Mickey Isherwood could be a figment of Skin-Lads imagination, much like the 'figure' he mentions later on that leads him to change his lifestyle and become a Buddha.
Since this monologue, for now, is my only real time on stage, I want to be able to play with it as long as I can. I want to express all of the knowledge and research I've done for this character in my performance by making my time on stage go as long as possible.
Week 4
Personal Management/Strengths and Weaknesses So Far - Feedback Received:
When thinking about my own personal time management since the beginning of this new project, I'd say that it has gone quite well. I say this because I arrive to each session with something new for my character in mind. This could be things like work on character physicalisation and work on the accent.
As for the strengths and weaknesses, I have a few that has come up consistently with my show back to the group.
Strengths
- Good Physcialisation: Many members of the group say that my overall physicalisation of Skin-Lad is "Brilliant", "Excellent", "Interpreted very well".
- Good Use of Stage Space: During each show back I've done, I take the whole of the stage space to my own advantage. This helps my character talk about his journey about how he has to be fit to fight.
- Great Sense of Atmosphere: For each show back I present as Skin-Lad, I've always been complimented on my performing skills by coming across as "Intimidating" and/or "In Your Face". This is something that I will continue doing for Skin-Lad as I think this will be the way the audience will remember me after the performance is given.
Weaknesses
- Work on the accent: I'm still in a position where I need to work more on the Lancashire Accent. At present moment, I seem to have a crossover between a Scottish and Irish accent. I hope that by studying the accent more, I'll be able to master it before the main performance date arrives.
- Confirming my Movements on Stage: Another weakness I have during my show backs is that I tend to do things differently each time by means of where I'm walking or sometimes how I say my lines. My lecturer wants me to keep in mind what I want to do on stage carefully and to try and not come out of character during it.
- Work on the Pace: My lecturer thought that my time on stage could do with a little tweaking, I seem to be dragging moments by using long pauses. I'd initially done this to create more tension within the scene, but this may be viewed differently from their perspective.
These have mainly been the same strengths and weaknesses since the very beginning of this new project, but I do hope that I'll be able to overcome my weaknesses, the accent especially, before the performance date of 'Road' is due.
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