Throughout the series of lessons we had concerned with this play text, we often did group work. On many occasions, we were all allocated in groups with our colleagues, and asked to create a scene based on a part of the play text given to us. On one occasion, near the beginning of the course on the text, we were allocated groups and told to incorporate what we thought the characters were like into our acting, using facial and physical expressions. Like in performances previously done, we started the preparation of the scene by doing some group devising. The topic of our devising may have been the characters, the plot or the general circumstances of our scene. However it was an essential part of the drama to enable every one in the group to have some input in the scene, and to make sure all the details of the scene were finalised with everyone. We then created a scene based on knowledge gained through the play text and the discussions and showed it to the class, and received in return their comments.
However our teacher did not believe any one in our group had the characters as believable as they could, and thought they needed improving. She decided upon giving us an extremely beneficial exercise into do as a class, which would make us look deeper into our characters, as so there fore convey a better example of that character in our scenes. We all had to stand up, facing our teacher, in a way we believed our character would stand, also incorporating facial and bodily stance. At that time, the character I was playing was ‘Eddie,’ a respectable legal Italian immigrant living and working amongst the Italian community in New York. I had from previous exploration into the character a visualisation of the type of character Eddie was. The type of man who was tight fisted and bolshy, yet thoughtful of those important to him. This exercise backed up my thoughts on Eddie, and allowed me to make an accurate physical and tonal picture of how Eddie should be acted; tight fisted, yet in no way a mad man, but with a cold expression on his face.
We also used freeze frames in many of our scenes, whether it was to change, open, or close scenes, they were useful to us so we knew when to stop or pause. And they were also useful to the audience so they could see a clear distinction between different parts of scenes, or changes of scenes.
In one scene we used a large amount of stage to allow the use of levels in a creative way around the stage. We were all in a group of four, and had only one speech from one character to create a scene out of. We devised amongst the group, which would be the most effective way of delivering the character’s speech to the class. We decided upon cutting the paragraph in certain areas, into sentences, which could then be allocated to individuals. We then composed ourselves to being character involved, who happened to be ‘Alfieri,’ and mapped out where each of us was to stand. We decided to start the scene in a freeze frame, but to let the end flow, with repetition of the final line, the voice dynamics getting quieter as the words trailed out. We thought this effect would be good in conveying an inner voice speaking, and would also allow for the next group to add their scene, the following in the play, onto it. The use of mime was also rather important in this scene as well. With hand gestures and facial expressions the climax could be reached, the true expression of the person could come out, making a more believable performance.
