This week we have been practicing our scenes and have been trying to focus on things such as not using our scripts and trying our best to keep it as well paced as possible.
Research/Development and understanding:
I've mentioned in my previous blogs that i have had difficulty trying to fully define Leonid and figure out a way of playing him but I think it's finally starting to make sense to me. From the research I've done and some experimenting in class I think I'm understanding him now. Since we are only doing extracts of the play it means that we don't have the entire script to read and since I can't find find a complete version of the translated script by Simon Stephens to read every detail about Leo I decided to look up some details about his arc in the play/ his part in the play. One character profile I found stated that they thought of Leo as a "big baby" due to the fact he likes candy, mimes billiards all the time, and generally can't dress himself, However I see him as less childish than that profile seemed to make him out to be. To me he seems like a man who ha been spoiled by being wealthy most of his life but has some level of immaturity. Since he has been wealthy most of his life he is somewhat used to the sense of being superior and he feels like he needs to enforce that occasionally (Similar to some of the other characters) For example he'll moan at Yasha for something smell related or he'll try and undermine Firs by telling him to be quiet but he never does it to the point that he would repeatedly do it/do it aggressively. For example after he tells firs to be quiet, Firs just keeps going on with his speech and then Leo just ignores him and starts messing around with the piano. He even at some points just doesn't listen to things Alexander says. I've even picked up a little cynicism from him as he criticizes certain issues such as Varya marrying Alexander and that Lyuba throws her money around. While they are valid it does stick out from his usual upbeat personality. I think I'm getting better at showing this side of him more. Over the last week of rehearsing I've gone from being a very unintentionally somber character to a much more emotionally diverse one. He shows humour, optimism, upbeatness, sadness, disapproval and even mild fear when he talks about Lyuba's spending habits and even the regret and realisation that there's nothing he can do to help her with the debt. This all started coming to me properly the more I rehearsed my scenes in the theatre, They would just come to me more naturally and this didn't really happen at any specific moment, it happened at a many small moments and gradually improved so I can't pin point any of the moments specifically with the exception of that when we first did my only scene in act 2 where I say "I'm tried, Firs can you help me? I need to get changed." I tried it so that throughout that line or the preceding one so that I would look like I'm finding it progressively harder and harder to hold in my sadness and only just really reveal it as I'm at the very edge of the stage. this seemed to work because the instant I got off stage Karen said "Lovely" so I kept it and I think it works very well. One other moment is when I say to Anya "You look just like your mother.", I tried the line with a lot more energy and enthusiasm more than I did last time and to me it made him feel more alive because saying it the way I did before just seemed very wooden. So I have developed and made him more 3 dimensional in my opinion or at least I have made the 3 dimensional aspects of the written character come out. He's become more diverse and it seems to have worked because I've been getting some very good compliments about my acting from some of the other cast members and even Karen. That was during a costume run when I put as much effort into the mannerisms as I could and thankfully it seems to have payed off. Let's hope I can stay like that for the performance which I believe I will do because at the moment I'm finding it easy to use his mannerisms to age him and it feels natural to me. We also recently had a workshop to give our characters some idiosyncrasies and I had already given Leo some that came naturally as a result of trying to age him. They were, Putting his hands into fists and putting them on his knees when sitting and moving them occasionally along with mild adjustments to how he is sitting. I move around and make like I'm putting a little effort into it so the movements look a little rough like they should do. I also made it so that when he walks or stands his head maybe be slightly lowered when not doing anything but held up enough to see and when he walks he hold his arms in a little and leans ever so slightly forward. I do this all the time during the rehearsals and try my best never to keep him still and thankfully I have got some very positive feedback about my subtleties so it's clearly working and I plan to keep them as they are with no exaggeration or lessening them.
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Strengths and weaknesses:
Strengths: One strength of this week is that I'm completely off book now and not using a script for part or 2 but I'm still using it for part 4 because I'm not being g assessed on it although if i had more time i would've learnt it as well because I have a feeling it will be a little distracting when I read a script in part 4. I've finally learnt my monologue although I may need to change a line of it. I say "I pulled out the bottom draw" but the bookcase we're using has no draws so I'm changing it to "I had a look at the bottom shelf" or something along these lines because it may vary between performances. Another positive is that i have finally developed Leo more and he is really starting to come to life, like i said earlier he is becoming more dimensional and due to me trying somethings out and seeing other interpretations (even though I disagree with the one i saw) has actually helped me quite a bit in realising what suits his dialogue and I'm happy with the results so far.
Weaknesses: One weakness of this week is that I have still occasionally blanked on my bookcase monologue but that was only twice and that was due to lack of focus and the pressure to remember but overall I'm confident i won't forget for the performance. Also there have been a few times where I call it a wardrobe instead of a bookcase which is very annoying but with practice I think I'll be fine. Another negative about this week is that we still have not fixed the pacing in part four because at the moment it is pretty terrible, it is very slow and sometimes unbearable. This may be due to some of us reading scripts and the people who aren't are having trouble with there cues but with the time in the theatre we have left I really hope that we can improve and keep it going because it need to be 20 minutes and I think that it's close to 25 which is too long for this assessment. The next negative just applies to me. When Charlotta has a baby she makes a "Waa" noise. Becca did this during the rehearsal and the first time I heard it I laughed uncontrollably for 3 solid minutes because at the time i thought it was awful and stuck out like a saw thumb. That on my part was awful and I need to show control. since she's done it more I've go used to it but i still have to cover up a massive smile even though my character is supposed to grin I'm not supposed to laugh so I'm going to have to show control. Also the fact I was laughing made me miss one of my cues which again affected the pacing and another reason why I need to get completely used to it.
New learning and self reflection: Initially I tried to age Leo by quite a bit and to me it came off as older than he should have been but when I asked people about it they said that it looked appropriate so thankfully it was more subtle than I thought. At first I thought that the upbeat movements and the subtle movements due to his age would contradict but as soon as I found out that it didn't come across as too frail or too old and tried mixing them up a bit more I realised that they did go together pretty well. Also I have tried to use the system to try and help develop Leo and there have been a few examples I've used this week. Emotional memory, like most people I have reminisced about times past, I even do it about my last course to my current class mates and I noticed that when i do so I always tend to go into a somewhat somber tone yet with a hint of optimism. It's like I'm sad that time has passed but I'm still looking forward to the future and I think that has influenced how I say some of Leo's lines when he's reflecting on times in his past such as when he says "My dear sister, we slept here, do you remember? And now I'm 51. How strange to be old. I don't feel at all different.". That line made me think he was reflecting on the past yet trying to find the positive in it as if yes they are moving on but he's still the same man he always was and that's good enough for him. So my own memories of telling people somewhat similar situations had influenced how I did it and it worked in my opinion although I added a little more upbeatness to the line to suit Leo just a little more. I used the magic if and I thought how I would react if I was in this situation of wanting to do what I can to help a relative but there's very little I can do and dealing with inevitability which is upsetting and quite stressful. If i was in this situation I'd try my best to hide being upset because it would just bring further stress onto everyone involved and I have fit this into certain lines such as when I say "could you help me, Firs? I need to get changed." I'm trying to hide it but end up not succeeding in doing so and that's what came naturally because it's probably what I'd actually do. Another thing I considered when looking at the system was Leo's objective. Now it seems as though he may have varying objectives throughout the play but the one that is the most consistent throughout and the one that sums him up in my opinion is that he's always trying to help/comfort his sister. He's always reminding her of old times to reminisce on, he tells her not to give her money away due to her debt and her spending habits, he leaves the room so she doesn't see him crying and she doesn't get more stressed out and even tries to change the subject when the Paris situation is brought up so that she doesn't get upset which is what leads into that bookcase speech. He always tries to be positive when he can to keep the mood up.
Teamwork: As i mentioned last week some of the class have been helping each other out with learning lines and we're still doing so.and thankfully it's still paying off the improvements to my monologue i mentioned earlier. Me and Chloe have still been practicing our cue lines and it all seems to be going pretty well and we can now respond to them pretty fast. Everyone has also been giving some helpful encouragement for each others performances and I think it's kept the morale of the production up which is helping because everyone seems to be relatively happy and very focused when practicing.
Overall this week I feel I have improved significantly. I have finally developed Leo a lot more than I have over the last two/three weeks of doing this production and it's going pretty well in my opinion. I just hope everything goes well for the performance now because now I'm a lot more confident with the character due to understanding him more and the help from everyone with the encouragement. I have faith that this production will go well and my only concern will be the pacing for part 4 but that's about it.
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