In the first part of our lesson today we explored improvisation and how we respond to certain situations as actors. The main exercise we did today was called park bench. This involves everyone thinking of a character- gender, age and occupation. One character sits on the bench and another sits next to them. They follow on to have a conversation in their character with one another. The aim of this exercise is for the new character on the bench to make the original character feel uncomfortable sitting next to them, so much so that they have to make up an excuse to leave. The new character will have to verbally convince the original character to stay through persuasive language. This keeps running until each member of the class have been up to the bench. We did this exercise as it helps to improve improvisation skills as it makes you as an actor react to situations and ideas quickly and efficiently. It is also beneficial working with another character as you allow yourself to feed off of their reactions and actions. This is a key skill to own as an actor as it allows for you to be spontaneous in any role given to you.
My characters name was Alice and she was a late teen who had a shy and timid personality. She found it difficult to communicate with people through the typical means of communication therefore communicated through the idea of giving people constant compliments. I played Alice to be very in your face and she likes to touch your clothing and hair when complimenting. For example on of my strategies to make the other character feel uncomfortable was to pull at her trousers whilst saying “I really like your trousers” “The material is so soft” “where are they from” “please tell me where you got them”. This technique is bound to make anyone feel uncomfortable as it is an invasion of personal space. I also grabbed hold of the other character’s hair and started smelling it and saying “hmm… your hair smells really nice” “do you wash it often?” “what sort of shampoo do you use on it, it is a lovely colour”. All of these phrases I was repeating to the other character, touching her hair at the same time did indeed work to make her feel uncomfortable. Following this, a drug addict character joined Alice on the bench. Her character was very open as she was constantly asking where to find drugs and how she could get her hands on some drugs. This made my character feel uneasy and quickly pushed Alice away from being in that situation for any longer.
I found this activity fun as it was interesting watching other people’s character ideas and seeing how they used their improvisational skills to create an ‘annoying’ character. Despite feeling slightly apprehensive when waiting to go up to the bench, I did feel confident however in my character and how I had chosen to portray her. However the next task pushed my slightly out of my comfort zone as it included quick fire responses which responded to another person, which I found more difficult. This highlighted to me that I need to work on the quick reaction side of improvisation acting as this seems to be something I am not so strong at. The task was that each person was given a sentence that we were to walk over to someone else in the room with and read out in whatever way seemed correct. Some examples included “It really smells over here, was that you?” which was delivered in a disgusted and almost humorous tone and “why don’t you love me anymore?” which was responded to with sympathy and compassion for the other party. Sam came to me with the statement “Why were you with my sister last night”. Looking back on the question I could have created come backs with wit and humour behind them such as “I wasn’t with your sister last night” which would have had scope for a whole conversation to spark you which could have turned into an argument. However the answer I gave was “because she is my friend”. I panicked in my head and said the first answer that I thought of which seemingly didn’t have a large amount of inspiration for conversation behind it. Quick fire come backs are most definitely something I would benefit from working on as this gives me as actress, more ideas to deliver in spontaneous situations.
The second part of the lesson involved us all as a class, contributing key words that you need to do/ have when putting on a musical. This included everything from the sort of attitude you must have and the way you interact with others involved.
All of the words we listed come under the heading of team work, which, coincidentally was the first word listed on the board. Working together as a unit is the key to making the experience of staging a musical enjoyable and successful for everyone involved. Having a positive attitude is one of the most important parts as your attitude can easily determine how the rehearsal runs; if it is productive or not. Treating everyone equally is another key part to success, without equality, some members of the cast will be able to get away with behaving in a way others might not be able to. For example everyone should all take responsibility of their own line and song learning as it is unfair to allow some individuals to put more effort in than others.
Two things I want to work on this year from the board of words that I was perhaps not so strong at last year are enthusiasm and tolerance. At times I found it challenging to tolerate the behaviour os other students as I don’t feel as though the dynamic in our class was always equal. I also found it difficult at times to stay enthusiastic about the musical as I was not happy with the role I received as I didn’t feel as though it challenged me or pushed my ability enough. However two things I feel as though I was good at last year was creativity and supporting others. Being creative last year was a strong point for me as many groups of people had performed their own versions of west Side Story in the past. This meant we had to think on our feet and ensure the ideas and choreography we used was original and stayed interesting for audiences. Supporting others in my class is something I am strong at, especially last year as a large amount of us found some aspects of our previous musical difficult to deal with. This year I am very much looking forward to developing my skills through acting, singing and dancing with my class mates. I hope for a more challenging role in this year’s production which will push me out of my comfort zone and to the best of my ability.
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