My Name
In searching the name of my character I
found it’s meaning and origin-I have managed to piece together a lot of what
maybe Buchner was trying to instantly say about the character just through
name.
Friedrich is of German origin and
suggests ‘a born leader’, Johann is a rather macabre word. It is the idea of
getting enjoyment from pain. And finally Woyzeck is a ‘warrior’ by meaning.
The only name that doesn’t have any
origin or meaning is ‘Franz’- it’s just definitely of German origin. This made
me question why Marie calls him ‘Franz’. An empty and vacant name. I feel it
has some reasoning behind it- the meaning I have established is that being a
warrior, a leader and even macabre seems something of the past for Woyzeck, he is
definitely a lost and confused soul and identity. I think this is even an
explanation as to why he has so many names and nicknames and different
relations in the play show he is a man who is divided into different
personalities to please others and therefore his predictability in the play and
his rationality in decision making is minimal. I think this manages to piece
together some reasoning behind the ‘paper’ or script version of woyzeck.
Accent
Due to the place in which we are setting
the play, which we are still keeping open to interpretation, although it is
definitely seen as a warped twenty first century council estate. I felt in
order to ‘common’ myself up and to feel closer to a man that has lost
everything and has very little in the way of luxuries, health and money- I decided
to work an accent that would place me a little more into London territory and
away from RP/ OR Surrey. I have massively enjoyed working on this- finding
different levels in terms of how it can work. An amazing discovery I made last
week was when not warming up my voice and having an actual ‘morning voice’- I
found a really nice tone for him to be played at. Obviously I will need to warm
up my voice and use my vocal strength to my full ability. So moving forward
that is my challenge; to find the balance between this rough and ready vocal
quality and a technically well rehearsed and used voice.
Shaving
my hair
This role has been my toughest role yet
in many ways. One issue I have massively felt is getting in to the mind of not
only a man that has seen what he has seen, but a man of the age he is too. It
was massively important for me to build a backstory for this character and to
see what he looked like, where he lived, who he grew up with and why he went in
to the army. When visualising this character whilst using the Michael Chekov
technique in our acting technique classes, imagining wha your character would
look, smell and be like- I saw a young man who had his head shaven. This image
never left my head so it felt right to bring myself as close to the image I had
of the character as possible. It was also the most accurate decision I could
make as someone playing a man who has recently left the army- as this is often
part of the duty- to have shortened hair.
Actioning
I felt it was really, really, important
to action my script this term. It’s the first large part that I have been given
all to myself and it felt amazing to have the journey of this character! It’s
been so hard to get it right, and I don’t think I ever did. But through the
work of objectives and actioning I knew why I was in every scene and what I
wanted. It’s the first time that I’ve ever actioned every line in a script or
applied other techniques to them in order to make them weighted in technique
and hopefully truth. I also used LABAN to add physical objectives to my
monologues where I was essentially alone and not speaking to anyone but myself.
I have massively enjoyed using all of the techniques I learnt in year 12 and
applying them to the script this term-
from breathing exercises to physical and annalytical techniques- I
haven’t ever felt this prepared and confident about a performance.
The
Set
THE SET IS AMAZING! When having our
Michael Chekov sessions we managed to build the atmosphere’s of different rooms
and scenes of the play and the set couldn’t of grasped these feelings any
better than what it has. The concrete and cold feeling is present with a
horrible and yet somewhat hopeful stretch of grass covers the front of the
stage. The backdrop is overpowering in the best sense possible. It has the
presence of a large tower block in the background that towers over the stage.
The metal fencing manages to create an odd divide between the outside and
inside of the flats- and again creates a cold and slightly unsafe feeling to
the play,
Performance
Three
This performance for me is a bit of a
blur.( sorry Sarah I know that isn’t the best start to an evaluation) :) It’s
the closest I got to what I wanted to achieve with the journey of the
character. I loved the fact that I found fresh objectives and alive decisions during
the scenes. Really spontaneous and instinctual choices were made from the cast
in this performance. I remember watching ShowWoman drop a twenty pound note and
I couldn’t help but want it- and I made Marie get it. The way Rhianne knew her
character so well was incredible and almost distracting to watch at times- the
tactics she took to get the money was so seductive and under the radar- nothing
was obvious. Which looking back was so right!
As a character, I knew she was my way of
getting it and that’s what I wanted.
I also remember during this performance
that the Showwoman really got under my skin; more than ever. She really got on
my nerves and I have no explanation why- all I can put it down to is that the
words she speaks must of resonated with me the most on this performance. I
just know that all i wanted to do was leave and for her to stop talking.
Even the mistakes that happened in this
performance were new ones- mistakes that have never happened before e.g. forgetting
to splash the lake at the start of the show. I think this was the closest thing
we were going to get to experiencing longevity too. It would have been lovely
to perform it a couple more times just to get a sense of repeating the same
thing and it getting better and worst- but this is something I’m sure we will
get to learn further down the line. Overall I feel like the journey of this
performance was more tiresome because I made changes to how much I was going to
stretch both ends of sanity and insanity at the start compared to the finish,
and I would hope this was successful.
