Monday, February 28, 2011
Run-Through
I must admit I'm a little worried about the run-through. Most of us believe that the first half of our play is a completely different tone to the second half. I'm still confused on the unity of the play and have no clue exactly where the world of the play resides, traditional or modern. I'm excited about playing multiple roles, but so far have not received any acting advice on how to differentiate my body or maybe change the energy in my body and voice to achieve a different character quickly. I took this class in hopes of getting acting advice...so it would be great to get some!
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So, since you're posting this on the blog, I'm assuming you're open to advice from the peanut gallery, and will i'll feel free to give some. Take it or no, I offer it freely:
ReplyDeleteI have played a few roles in my day that require me to switch characters frequently and have them be distinct (Orin in Little Shop of Horrors, Cat in the Hat from Seussical, Lecturer in Reefer Madness, etc.) and the way that I go about creating distinct characters is I first develop the character's voice. I generally start with the most stereotypical voice I can muster, make it as big as I can and pull back from there. Of course, as always, you should use the text as a basis, but sometimes the text offers little clues. When I was Snout in Midsummer, I played him like a Boston roughneck because of the west country phrase he says, "Byer'larkin a parlous fear." A small thing helped blossom out a huge character choice. After I develop a voice I let my body try to match it. For characters who don't appear for very long, I don't tend to try to get into Freudian analysis of the character, but, rather, stick to a simpler archetype character that the audience can grasp onto easier.
I hope that was at least a little helpful.