Write at least 1 paragraph (4 sentences or more) responding to 1
of the questions below. Then write at least 1 paragraph responding to
another student's response to 1 of the questions.
Questions from Chapter 13:
1.
"In addition to cold, reasoned logic, advice is generally dark in mood. It has something to do with being professional. To get the necessary note of authority into the voice, an actor giving advice assures himself he knows something very important that the person receiving the advice doesn't know."
Drawing from your experience onstage explain what you did vocally and physically in order to successfully give another character advice.
2.
"When Eliza Doolittle finally defies Henry Higgins, Shaw is not just describing a former flower girl telling off a professor of phonetics. He's writing about the servant class raising itself to the level of its masters. The woman who at the beginning of the play couldn't have imagined herself as anything but a servant is now telling the wealthy, well-born man who has taught her and supported her that she's his equal." Give your own example of how your character successfully or unsuccessfully defied another character (include how you used your voice and body.)
3.
"Because it requires losing the present, the action 'to dream' is close to the action of reminiscing, but is different because it looks to the future instead of the past." Explain what differences there would be for a character vocally and physically when they are dreaming instead of reminiscing.
4. "'That's forbidden,' I said. 'Never start a scene by sitting down.'" I say this because most students take away the urgency needed at the beginning of a monologue or scene; Stella Adler says it because it prevents an actor from setting up the environment before they speak. Give an example of how you began a scene or a monologue sitting down and specifically explain what you would do now in order to set up your environment.
5. "I urged him to think about that window. 'That window has a life of its own, ' I said. 'A leaf flutters down outside the window. Birds fly past. The last light of day reaches you through it. You worship that window.'" Describe at least one situation
where you were able to visualize what was going on outside of the room you were in in order to be able to develop a more believable character.
3) I think that dreaming differs from reminiscing in that it is reaching for something you don't have. Reminiscing is remembering what you did have. I think that reminiscing is more static in the way that it is limited. Where as in a dream, anything is possible. The dreaming character's voice would be airy and light. This is their imagination so there is no need for sadness or anything that doesn't bring him joy. He would also hold himself higher and motion just every now and then because this is all in his head. On the other hand the reminiscing actor's voice might move around more. Although he is most likely remembering a happy memory, it is still reality and there would be more ups and downs. He would also create the atmosphere by showing where his bed was or a potted plant-- whatever it is that he recalls. His physicality will probably change more as different parts of the memory are brought up.
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of what's said here. I don't think, though, that reminiscing is 'static' and 'limited'. It does have the limits in that you can't boundlessly create at will, because then that would be changing the memory that you're so fond of and trying to relive, but it's still incredibly fluid and there's a process of rediscovery as that person tries to relive what was special about it. In that way, I don't think it has to be static, per se. I think it can be, and it often will be, but a character can put just as much effort into recreating a scene as they do creating it when they're dreaming of it.
Delete5) I used that window in Night of the Living Dead like nobody's business. I imagined all the gruesome scenes that had ever occurred in horror films outside that window. It added fear and paranoia to my character which then set a tense mood on stage. My character had no conflict with anyone inside the house. His struggles were more mental, and therefore needed this imaginary environment.
ReplyDeleteYou did such a good job in Night of the Living Dead. I feel like you put so much thought into your character, and it really paid off. Tom paid more attention to the window, and what was actually going on outside that house more than anyone, and you made the entire play just that much creepier. I loved it.
DeleteOne of the shining qualities of your character from Night of the Living Dead was the visible emotion. You were so good at emoting subtly through your facial features. I think your imaginative world probably helped with that. I have always admired how in character you get, and Night of the Living Dead is the perfect example of you immersing yourself.
Delete5.
ReplyDeleteSince I've only really acted in a couple shows, I have to keep using the same examples, so sorry. In Night of the Living Dead, I may have been merely a zombie in the background, but I tried my darndest to (sort of the opposite of her example,) show that my zombie was scary because they KNEW what was in that window. Even if they couldn't see in the window at times, we were banging on the door, envisioning the yummy people that were inside that we could eat.
In a different example, in Into the Woods, one of the things that was hard was pretending that the woods were bigger than the tiny stage. When the giant was around, we had to look up, and make her seem tall. When we would run to a different area, we had to run offstage as though we were preparing to run a long ways. We had to pretend that when we saw something in the distance, it was IN THE DISTANCE, and not just in the wings.
Those woods were so hard to see! Mind you the set was great and the stage is fairly big, however when you see stage crew and black walls beyond that it is sometimes hard to keep character. I think in the end we were able to pretty succesfully envision the woods, but not without persistence. By us seeing the woods, it made the audience believe we were in the middle of some scary woods.
Delete5. As Belinda in Noises Off, I had to envision the stage during Act 2, since this all took place behind a giant wooden set that you could barely see through. I had to imagine what was going on at the front of the stage in order to make my character keep the actors going. AT the same time, not fully knowing when I was supposed to come in, added to the frantic air of the whole thing. This added to the frazzled-ness of Belinda as a whole.
ReplyDeleteHaving to imagine something while on stage can sometimes make the actor/actress better in their scene. Making them think more about what they should do can broaden their creativity and interest in themselves as well as the viewers interest.
Delete3. I think that dreaming and reminiscing are different because I feel that dreaming is something that could happen or that just hasn't happened, and reminiscing is something that has happened that you remember or reflect on. The dreamers voice and actions maybe more stiff, like they are trying to remember a dream but are also having to make up a little. The reminiscer's voice and actions would be more loose, as if he's telling a story that he's told hundreds of times, from his life that just seems like it happened yesterday.
ReplyDelete3. I think the difference between dreaming and reminiscing from an acting standpoint comes from how it's treated. When we dream, we create the reality as we see fit. We discover, we mold, we temper our surroundings to be the perfect fit to what we desire. When we reminisce, we're exploring and searching our old path - trying to rediscover things. We try to recreate, instead of making new. So from a physical acting standpoint, the "dreamer" would make the scene around them, and change it as they saw fit, and add details where they want; the reminiscer would instead spend time not changing details but trying to remember how they were, so that's where the 'rediscovery' of their scene comes from - a lot more moments of "Oh yeah, and over there, we did that!" and then seeing that place and responding to it.
ReplyDeleteAndrew- I agree with pretty much everything here. The only thing I would like to add is that when one reminisces, there's always that possibility of remembering something that wasn't actually there or didn't actually happen. So it's almost like dreaming (to me anyway) of a reality that is seen through our eyes. Like if two people are reminiscing about the same thing one person may say, "We were over here! Eating out vanilla ice cream." while the other guy says,"Wait, weren't we over there- eating chocolate ice cream?" That kinda thing. But I agree- reminiscing is recreating. And dreaming is creating. So really good way to look at it, Andrew!
Delete5. In Into the Woods, I would often picture the happenings of the woods, in the depths beside what was shown on stage. I would just close my eyes of stage and picture beautiful, majestic plants all around, along with different characters from other Fairy Tales being meshed in. I often pictured the mysteries of the Woods, because these woods are capable of putting people in a different world. That in itself is just crazy. So when I picture this, my character (The Wolf) manifests in the magic and mystery. Which for me made him more creepy than he already was. He was an animal in these dark, elaborate woods.
ReplyDelete4.) I completely agree with Stella Adler's belief in never starting a scene by being in a sitting position. Every action done on stage is important, but the beginning one sets everything up. It creates the mood and establishes the setting in a very direct manner and pulls the audience into the whole thing immediately without any confusion. Like Stella Adler has articulated consistently throughout the entire book so far, the actions should precede the words, because the words mean nothing without the actions. Therefore, being already motionless and stationary in the chair when a scene opens completely rounds out a motion that could be used to do all of those aforementioned necessary things without any words at all. When I did that little scene for class in which I was a nervous dork calling the girl he likes to go on a date, I started it standing up, because if I hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to portray to the audience exactly how nervous and awkward I was without opening my trap. If I had started it by sitting down, I probably would've immediately stood up, because I suppose sitting sown or standing up from a chair have equal amounts of significance when you do them to establish the hectic environment. Some things I did in the scene were pace, check my hair in an imaginary mirror, and stand up and sit down eighty frikkin times, all things I would've done if I had started the scene sitting down, but it wouldn't have grasped the audience's understanding completely. Being already in the chair would be a passive position coupled with a completely NOT passive attitude,and since there's no action to prompt the attitude, the audience starts having brain hiccups trying to figure out the vibe they're getting from the stage.
ReplyDeleteI think starting the scene standing up, especially yours in particular, gives the scene more energy. When you start sitting down, there's no requirement to move. However when you start standing up, there's no way to avoid doing some sort of action. Your forced to do something and that action is what begins the scene. It makes the scene more current like the audience is watching it as it happens. There's also so much more you can do when your standing up than when your sitting. In Keenan's example, it would be so much easier for the audience to understand his anxiety if he was pacing, than if he was lets say tapping his fingers against the table. It also allows for bigger movement which is easier for the audience to see anyway.
Delete5. In Beauty and the Beast I was as we all know the bookseller. For the most part I was kind of hidden away in my little shop on the side of the stage. To help really create my character I tried to envision the small provincial town outside my shop. I pictured the particular day to be sunny and fairly warm, which would explain the light long sleeve shirts and the aristocratic lady’s parasol. I also imagined an uneven stone block street outside with maybe flowers or some sort growing out of the cracks. I tried to picture all of the shops being close together with little alley ways in-between. Fortunately for me I helped add props to the different shops such as potted plants and candles so I already had a good idea of what I thought the town would look like. By picturing the town it made interacting with the other villagers more reasonable to me and it also helped me to stay in character.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate the little touches you made to your shop and those around it to establish a more familiar attitude towards the set. Stella Adler stresses several times in the book making props "your own." I think that envisioning your environment is useful, but it is so much more useful when you can physically connect with the environment regardless of the fact that it isn't a real place (in this case with the plants and candles and whatever else you used.) When they gave you your shop, it was technically your characters shop, but as the actor you obviously want to become as much of your character as you can. So, by making it feel more and more like YOUR shop, you can still envision the environment and simultaneously place yourself into the circumstances as the character, which just intensifies that feeling of really being there.
Delete3. I think reminiscing has a sadder aspect to it than dreaming. Like Stella said, to dream is to look towards the future. When you dream, anything is possible. There are no 'cant's' yet, and everything seems a little bit brighter and happier. Reminiscing can be happier, especially if your current circumstances aren't fabulous, but I think it has a certain sorrow associated with it too. Whenever you reminisce, you look backwards, at the past. It may be a happy time you are reminiscing, but deep down, a seed of sorrow is planted, a little voice telling you that that particular moment will never happen again. Dreaming also seems to have a certain degree of brightness and clarity that reminiscing does not. It's constant, it's everyday, it hasn't happened yet, the ideas of your dream is still fresh and sharp in your mind. On the other hand, as time passes, your mind shades your memories, and when you reminisce, only the particularly important parts stick out.
ReplyDeleteSo, I think a character would act more hopeful, and cheery when dreaming as compared to reminiscing. While reminiscing, I think a character would be a bit worn down, peaceful and pleased of his memories, but sad that he/she won't get to see them again, and unsure of all the details.
I completely agree with you. When a character is dreaming anything can happen, and anything is possible, because it's not reality. With reminiscing, the character is looking back on something that ALREADY happened, so the circumstances are set in stone and in the past. Also, whatever the character is reminiscing about has obviously affected them in some way,or else they wouldn't be talking about it. It must be important for the audience too, then. Maybe it's a key part in the plot line or in character development.
Delete5. In Night of the Living Dead, the main characters were holed up in this old house, and outside the house, there was a hoard of zombies. There was a window by the front door, that we would use to see the front yard, but the front yard was never actually shown on stage. Whenever we had to look through that window, we'd imagine terrible and gruesome things going on out there, and our reactions would show the audience that the front yard was not a place you wanted to be. An example of this was when the characters of Tom and Judy died in a fiery truck explosion in the front yard, and the zombies went about eating their remains. None of that was actually shown on stage, so when I had to look through the window to "witness" these events, I imagined seeing those events as gruesomely as possible, so I could react in a properly horrified manner,
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good example of how you can portray this to the audience. Facial are really important when doing this sort of reaction, too, because what your face and actions show is what the audience will perceive. Doing these actions confirm to the audience that there is indeed zombies outside. It'd be pretty odd if you guys sat there looking out to the front lawn and started smiling or laughing or jumping for joy.
Delete5) In Noises Off! My character, Poppy, was the stagehand. So in the first act, I would run in and off from the wings because I was coming from backstage. In the second act, I was constantly trying to pay attention to the chaos that was happening on stage from backstage. The characters who were acting would miss cues and lines and my character always needed to be alert and aware of what was going onstage, so the play could continue and not look like more of a mess. I couldn’t always be watching onstage, so I would guess that Philip was on this certain part and to make sure to get Belinda on stage when this happened and so on. I had to visualize what the characters were doing on the other side of the set so that I could push this person on when I needed to or put a certain prop where it needed to be on time. This not only helped my character look more believable by always being frantic and in a rush, but it helped me as well. By trying to visualize what I couldn’t see it kept me on my toes, which is how my character needed to be too.
ReplyDeleteThat does sound like it was pretty hectic. But, it seems like it really helped you get into your character. Noises Off! is a pretty hectic play, especially the second half. Imagining what craziness was going on onstage and reacting to it seems like it was a great way to keep you on your toes and make you energetic. It also sounds like exactly what your character, Poppy, would be doing during that situation. I image that keeping up with everything you imagined was going on onstage wasn't easy, so good job keeping up with everything.
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