Find a Character through Time

When you are hired to play a person living in another time, though we share the trait of being human, that person moves differently than you do now. I am sure you are aware of the fashion discrepancies decade to decade, let alone in another century, so how do you allow these differences to inform how you re-create the world of that time?

Necessary To Do List:

• rehearsal clothing that mimics your costume(s)
• research on undergarments, clothing styles, and garment materials (wool would feel very different than silk - how would that inform how you move?)
• research on that town/area to learn standards of living, culture, belief systems, and where your character would fit both truthfully and most interestingly
  
• what sort of secret might your character have with these given circumstances?
• what sort of props would your character use and how can you create relationships/personalize those props?
  

Your dramaturg is your best friend. Great information will be had through his or her research. Regardless, do your own research prior to your first rehearsal so you can go in with questions, ideas, and fun secrets with which to play.

If you find yourself getting bogged down with the era of the play, you might find tempo of movements free you up. For example, tempo can be the inner rhythm through which your character operates. If you're playing Hedda Gabbler, you might consider her tempo to be that of a persistent heart beat. How would that inform what you do given the time, place, and garment restrictions?

Rehearsal is the time to play, play, PLAY! Use your fine imagination to live in the world of the play; use your intelligence to inform distinct choices about that world.

Copyright 2010 Heather Corwin

Acting Viscerally

Jim Wise, my seminal acting teacher, spoke to me of acting: "You should feel it in your blood." He also pounded into me that all acting should be "the day something special happens." Why else would anyone bother to act?

To successfully attempt both of these necessities, an actor has to know her buttons. The buttons to which I refer are the touchy places in yourself that are highly reactive to other people - primarily instilled by family. For example, don't make fun of my family. Can you imagine how this button might inform me playing the role of Antigone? Add the sprinkle of grief from loosing my mom -- and playing Greek tragedy is second nature.

When you sit with a script and keenly identify with the character, your process when approaching the role may be quick and easy - because you KNOW it. However, not all roles sing so clearly to the heart of an actor.

When you identify the character's need/essential action/overall objective (and for the love of GOD - please go beyond what the script is saying literally unless it's Shakespeare), compare that need to your buttons. Which need can you easily access to accomplish that goal? Who can that other person be to you to make your behavior specific?

Life or death behavior is more exhilarating than anything else on earth! If you think playing in your button zone is scary, keep in mind all actors are control freaks. Why? Actors know the end of the story and every bump on the road. An actor's job is to make that road cost her something and for it to be more exciting to her than any other doing. Make it so!

Copyright 2010 Heather Corwin