Ideas:
Today I had an idea when practicing the script. While reading it I felt my delivery is fairly bland or just lacked something. This may have been due to a lack of energy because of rehearsing at home but I still felt the need to experiment, so something I did was to give the lines a more sexually suggestive/flirty tone. For example when I say "I'm an honest gentleman and thy humble servant", I made it more sexually suggestive by lowing my voice at that point and emphasising "Humble servant". The reason I chose those works to give that tone was because "Humble" can mean "Submissive" and "servant" implies a willingness to do whatever she wants, which in this case he thinks is sex so applying that to those words brings across his willingness and makes his objective much clearer. I did this because it felt fitting to the context of the situation. Blunt does genuinely think this woman loves him and wants to have sex with him, and since he isn't very good with woman he'll pretty much do anything to secure his chance by either romancing her or being suggestive and turning her on, or at least that's his plan.
Line learning:
I must admit I'm finding the lines a little difficult to learn and any time I rehearse them I have at least one blank every run through I have. Today however, when running through I noticed I'm getting better at it, although that's just remembering the lines and not really how to say them. I'm still completely off with remembering the final paragraph so that's an area I'll have to focus on for a bit. I do still stand by what I said, the prose structure mixed with words I mostly don't understand it making it a tad difficult although that can easily be sorted by just looking the words up since there are still sentences I'm kind of unsure of what they actually mean although I have ideas.
31/1/17:
Today Georgia was not in so I had to run through my lines a lot. Although I did also try out what I thought of yesterday and even tried applying it to other lines.
I rehearsed my scene with Katrina filling in for Georgia and I put what I thought up into action and decided to really overplay it since it was more of a line running than anything so I was more just messing around/experimenting. This turned out to be a good thing because when I got to the line "And thou shalt see what haste I'll make to quit scores. Oh the luckiest rogue", she immediately commented that the character sounded horny, which was exactly the point. So I felt that was I was doing was right in overplaying him and making his emotions very clear to the point of being comical. I was doing a much deeper voice than usual during this rehearsal so I don't know for now if I should stick with that because it may potentially sound too artificial to the point where it's not believable at all. It didn't sound far off from a character like Duke Nukem which is way too deep but I feel my mannerisms also played a part in the result, I just need to make the voice a tad higher and then I'll be good to go.
Research/Themes:
A theme I think is prominent in the play and I feel definitely my scene is that of feminism. The play was written by Aphra Behn and she was the first female playwright and this was during a time when women were allowed to be on stage after a long long period of rejection from the stage so it's seems fitting that the women in this play are often the ones who seem in control. I can fully understand why this would be the case since men had been the dominant sex in theatre for so long, it was time to change it up a bit. It does have some strong female character especially two of the leads, Florinda and Hellena, they both have their set goals and do what they don't seem to want to rebel just for the sake of it, they genuinely feel that by rebelling it would better themselves. The way it's reflected in my scene is it's depiction of a woman being fully able to take advantage of a man by exploiting his ego. The character refers to women as whores and seems to degrade them a bit. He is mainly there for sex although he is probably convincing himself that he feels love for her. This is quite shallow behaviour so it's fitting that it backfires on him. Woman acting like this in this era was considered new at the time and it was actually very well received upon release even by King Charles II, so the strong depiction of women was a very good thing for the art of theatre. In the context of the era, this scene does have an advantage since you may only have a suspicion about Lucetta's intentions and it may subvert any audience members expectations or at least at the time. It would both trick the audience and the character potentially so That's an interesting parallel and use of the innovation in the art.
This scene seems to suggest that people should express caution or not be overly optimistic. It does express this in a more light hearted manner than thinking about that theme would suggest but it's honestly what I get from it. It is very stupid that he's in a newer environment to him and trusts complete strangers enough to go to their houses. I see this as a basic message for nowadays but during when it was originally performed this was probably a comedic way to deliver the message for that audience. People back then were very open to meeting anyone they could and sex was rampant during this time so a lot of people weren't really cautious about who they went with. This could have been a scene to tell them to be more careful.
1/2/17:
Today we continued to block the scene and try and nail the the entrance. Georgia was still rather nervous and shy about playing someone manipulatively sexual. This led to us doing an exercise where we run the scene but act as over the top as possible so we could scale it back afterwards to take away the potential awkwardness. I personally didn't feel that awkward when performing but I must say it gave me a greater sense of how overplayed it actually has to be. I thought about it as bit more and considering the context, the extreme manipulation and the intense passion (as well as other emotions) that my characters is experiencing, it does seem a potentially rather over the top and funny scenario even when not taking into account the acting style so when we get all of our movement, posture and vocals to the correct standard it should be ridiculous which will be great.
Something I asked is where would the bed of the scene actually be located and we eventually came to the decision that there will be no bed and my my line "In bed, my sweet mistress?" to "Undressed, my sweet mistress". The reason I originally asked was just so I could get a better sense of what I was doing in the moments where I was fumbling around looking for the bed. Now, my character can't find it and it seems as if I'm going to go for the folding screen/towards where I think she is, so I'll probably have to bumble around the front of the stage and then circle around the whole area and then go towards it ready for the end. Since there is no bed no it makes what I'm doing seem more awkward if I kept it in my dialogue. So to say I have to get undressed and then quickly go into it would be better and just makes it seem as though I'm looking for her. I do mention the bed later when I say I can find neither her or it but the focus is still on her, not the bed so if someone notices the bed isn't there it won't be as jarring or bad.
2/2/17:
Today we had to perform the entire scene to the class in the same style as yesterday, being very over the top extreme. I got some good feedback for my performance and even got a few laughs when doing certain moments.
A note I got is that I'm lacking nervous energy for the character. This more applies to the asides and when I'm getting undressed. Something I'm not properly showing is the real side of him but with a sense that this may mess up but also that it's incredibly exciting. Most characters may try and play it cool all the time but in this case since Blunt isn't very good with women so he'll put on more of an act but then his anticipation will be shown since he can't really control it. It's to help with the contrasting element so it does have quite a bit of importance to improve.
One thing I really figured out today was the line "They are mercenary, prodigal whores that they want one such as". I didn't know what to make of this line, it could've meant two things. He's calling the whores in England expensive and a waste of time. It's who "One such as this" refers to, it's either him or Lucetta. He's either saying that he's too good of a man to waste his time and money on woman like that or Lucetta is a much better alternative to those women or that those women should aspire to be her. I personally am leaning more towards the former for now thought since it's more in keeping with his personality and the self indulgent, arrogant nature of it all. While rehearsing I even gave it a little moment where I gesture towards my legs and point them out as if I think I'm extremely desirable. The only thing that gives me doubt is him saying "One that is free and generous", again that could refer to either of them but seems funnier when being applied to him to big himself up.
A good note we got today was that our aside moments and intimate physical contact has been getting much better but it still needs to go further. I agree, it's just in terms of the energy level and a few nuances that we need to add in to make it more believable and playful, we just need some more actions and details to give it some life. We did have more than usual and our vocal tones more more on the right level of projection and energy than they were last time. Our entrance today was also very good due to all that although, it seemed to dip after that so it was quite inconsistent overall but still an improvement.
My fumbling scene is still fairly stiff and awkward and I found out that I will have to be very over the top with it because it will be very dark on stage and I'll have to over act in order for the funny movement to come across. I am doing OK with certain moments in it though, as I mentioned I did get a couple laughs and they were in this scene, mainly my "I am all on fire already" line so at least I know I've got a few moments that are up to a good standard, I just need to bring the rest up.
Links:
http://www.gradesaver.com/the-rover/study-guide/themes
http://www.gradesaver.com/the-rover/study-guide/the-rover-origins-and-reception
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