Category: Acting

Further Character Development

During the rehearsal process for Cagebirds, I found that I felt more comfortable and free with my character development once we had begun to rehearse with both props and costume. As Cagebirds is such a highly visual, physical piece, attempting to achieve the correct level of characterisation when having nothing to physically work with was particularly difficult. Not only this, but so much of the birds character traits are revealed in the way that they interact with things, meaning that once I had the props, I was able to develop my character as I was forced to decide how she would utilise the various toiletries that were available.

The main prop that I had consistently throughout rehearsals was a small compact mirror that I had been instructed to use as and when I felt it was appropriate. As my character was so painfully self-obsessed and constantly concerned with looking perfect I felt that she would probably be looking into the mirror for the majority of the time, even when talking to others. I played around with this within rehearsals, varying when I looked into the mirror and when I primped and preened with the make-up and hair supplies that were my other props. I felt most confident in my characterisation when using the mirror, particularly to deliver my lines to. I felt that my character would be more concerned with how she looked when she was saying things to others, rather than being concerned with how they took what she had to say. I also felt that this added another layer to my characterisation, as constantly looking at myself in the mirror when I was speaking became almost painfully difficult. The self-obsession of my character had to be at the highest level in order for me to match the other, more distinctive birds on stage. By forcing myself to consistently check my appearance at any given opportunity, it allowed the slightly darker themes of the play to come out. The themes of obsession, of trapping yourself and not wanting freedom felt extremely applicable to the Gazer, and I felt it was appropriate to never sit still, to always be looking in the mirror then finding some kind of beauty product to utilise. This became an almost frantic sense of never being satisfied, of attempting to reach an unachievable level of perfection, which I think added more depth to my character.

When attempting to create the physicality required for this production of Cagebirds, I undertook some research and was influenced by the work of Meyerhold, particularly his system of biomechanics which was a form of actor training involving using the physical body for expression. I was particularly interested by the way he wanted actors to acquire “the skill of expressive movement: to improve awareness of tension- relaxation; to subordinate movements to rhythm; to shift the balance; to fix positions,” (Kuzina). Meyerhold wanted to train his actors using etudes, which are defined sets of movements that allude to a certain activity. The “basic skills developed here are precision, balance, coordination, efficiency, rhytm, expressiveness, responsiveness, discipline and playfulness” (Pitches, 2003, p. 126). This seemed applicable to our production as we were all developing our own rituals for each individual character, similar to Meyerhold’s etudes. Meyerhold wanted biomechanics to “be a collective, not an individualistic, training and the idea of the actor fitting into a group was seen…to be healthily creative” ( (Leach, 1989, p. 73). This was extremely applicable to Cagebirds as although we were all involved with our own rituals, the overall effect was of us all participating in one large ritual, collectively.

Alicia had also suggested that each character had their own personal vocal ‘tick’, a sound that could signify the bird and allude to its personality through sound alone. These ‘ticks’ then grew to be more prevalent within the show, being overlapped and blended together to create different atmospheres at pivotal points during the production. My personal vocal ‘tick’ was difficult to create, some other actors decided that they would imitate the bird that they were portraying. I did not feel that this suited my character, who would want to appear as self-satisfied, contented and confident. We experimented with several choices during rehearsal but both Alicia and I felt that the noise that best suited the Gazer was a high-pitched, drawn out, contented sighing noise. This allowed the audience an insight into my character before I had even begun to speak, something which felt appropriate with the style that we had gone for as a company.

 

Works Cited

Kuzina, E. Biomechanics of V. Meyerhold for Contemporary Theatre . Available: http://www.biomeyer.com/main_en. Last accessed 25th May 2013.

Leach, R. (1989). Vsevolod Meyerhold. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Pitches, J. (2003). Vsevolod Meyerhold. Oxon: Routledge.

 

An Introduction to the Gazer

When I was first introduced to the play, The Cagebirds by David Campton, I was immediately stuck by the scope that it allowed for the actors playing each role. The simplistic nature of the text and the lack of many stage directions meant that there would be a lot of characterisation work required throughout this process in order to create both an entertaining and coherent piece. This characterisation work would be a combination of my own personal research and opinions on the character and the director, Alicia’s vision for the overall piece.

At the initial read-through, Alicia had prepared a preliminary cast list for the actors and had assigned us each to a role. The character that I was assigned was that of the Gazer, who as a character has certain obvious attributes. On the first read through, I made some notes on my initial impression of my character:

  • Self-obsessed
  • Obsessed with appearance
  • Very proud
  • Fishes for compliments
  • Likes to think she is better than everyone
  • Materialistic
  • Shallow

These were very basic notes that had been jotted down as the read through was happening, but I wanted to ensure that my initial impressions were noted so that I could develop these as the rehearsal process went by.

During our initial discussions as a group, it was made clear that a lot of the pressure was on the actor’s portraying the ‘birds’ due to the plays static and at some points boring nature. This meant that a lot of individual research and character development was required. This seemed like quite a daunting task, so I researched actor training and looked at Stanislavski’s An Actor Prepares. It is said that “becoming acquainted with a part is a preparatory period in itself. It begins with one’s very first impressions from the first reading of the play” (Stanislavski, 1961, p. 3). I had made initial notes on my character and used these as a basis as they “are unexpected and direct…unpremeditated and unprejudiced” (Stanislavski, 1961, p. 3). Although this absurdist play perhaps does not allow for such a naturalistic way of preparing for a role, I wanted to dig deeper into my character in order to allow for an authentic portrayal.

We had agreed that the production would have a highly physical element, with all the characters having a particular bird assigned to them. This was a collaboration between the actors, the director and the costume designer. The bird that I was allocated was that of a peacock. I undertook some preliminary research into the behaviour of the bird, as it had been suggested that each actor would take on the ‘walk’ of their particular bird. I used the following video as a reference point:

I noticed that the peacock has a dinstinctive shuffle where it ruffles up its feathers whilst displaying them. I thought that this particular trait would really suit my own initial characterisation of the Gazer, as it comes across as attention-seeking, self important and proud. I trialed this movement during rehearsals, and got positive feedback from the director, Alicia so decided to keep it as part of my physical characterisation.

Whilst watching this video, I also took note of the particular head movements that the peacock makes, as we had been informed that we would all need our own personal head twitch throughout Cagebirds. I took note of how the peacock tends to move with its head first before its body, and attempted to copy this during rehearsals when examining the props surrounding me. This particular process was very difficult, as the non-naturalistic jerky movement was hard to maintain throughout. It required a lot of practice to get the right balance of head twitches, so that the impression of a peacock was given, without it being too much of a caricature.

I found the walk to be the most difficult part of my characterisation as the movement of a peacock is not particularly elegant, sophisticated or attention-seeking, something that I knew my character had to embody. During the rehearsal process, a lot of time was spent perfecting each birds’ individual walk, and many ideas were trialled. We explored the idea of a direct copy of the peacocks walk, but found that it did not give off the correct air of superiority, we also tried a strut, but felt that this was not bird-like enough. In the end, we settled on a slightly swaying totter, with more emphasis on the ‘shuffle’ than the walk. This was not only a character based decision, but a practical one, with my character having to navigate different levels frequently throughout the performance, this walk allowed me to do this quickly and efficiently.

Works Cited

Stanislavski, C. (1961). Creating a Role. New York: Routledge.

 

 

A birds eye view on the final show

Evaluation

During the final performance I had total awareness of my body at all times this made it capable to continuously move a part of my body be it head, foot, shoulder, arm or hands and even my face. This awareness also helped me make my bird noise when my character felt the need instead of just when it was remembered. My walking I believe still could have been improved, I struggled to go from one place to another without rushing, this was because I felt my character would want to because of nerves and I automatically rushed without doing the movements I had previously planned as much. Having the full costume helped me with my character as I felt more like her and I had the extra use of my rosary beads and my foot tag.  All in all I felt the performance went well but there is always room for improvement. It was difficult in our dress rehearsal as the stage space was actually a great deal smaller than we had been rehearsing in but we adapted easily and I believe it was actually easy to create the chaos we had been aiming for, using a smaller space. I feel happy with the work we have done for this production and have received much positive feedback about it from various audience members. We aimed for visually exciting and stimulating theatre, and I, as an actor, used my physicality to do just that.

Creating the Canary

Physical study and exploration.

‘Many actors use a walk, a posture, or a style of gesture as a starting point for their creation [of character]. No amount of intellectual or psychological analysis will replace the actual experiencing of the character which can occur when you begin to adopt his physical traits’  (Benedetti R, Wangh S, 2000, p241).

Once the casting and bird choices had been established we began by having several read-throughs of the Cage Birds script. After this it was my chance to go away and start building my character. I began with the canary’s physical portrayal as apposed to the characters personality. This is because I believe in this characters case, that physical posture, gesture and movement would draw out the characters identity as my characterisation process went on. From talks with the director we formed the idea that the Twittering Canary would always be twitching and moving as the name suggests. I began forming a tick with my head loosely based on an example I had seen of a turrets sufferer. This continuous head movement resembles the canary who, on observation, continuously twitch their heads as many small birds do, to focus their sight. This movement on its own however was not enough and I began to draw on my knowledge of physical theatre to try and focus on the body. I started with re-examining the theories and practices of Jerzy Grotowski, realising as I did so that I had not gained consciousness of my full body.

‘…it should be as difficult for the actor to enter the stage on his feet as on his hands…In other words, every step we take with our feet and legs should be as meaningful, as justified as conscious as if we were walking on our hands’ (Grotowski, J. Wangh, S. 2000, p43).

With this is mind I tried to focus on other parts of my body and began adding twitches and repetitive movements to my shoulders and arms. This affected my stance and I began drawing my head towards my chest as an impulsive reaction, almost out of agitation and frustration from the twitch. This was a pleasant surprize that my physical movement had caused an emotional reaction and thus my characters personality began to take shape.

 

The person inside.

‘When you have an impulse, feeling, or idea, it arouses an energy at your deep center that  naturally flows outward, reaching the outer world in many forms: words, sounds, motions or postures’ (Benedetti, R. 2009, p27.)

Physical impulses were very important to my character because much of my characters nervousness was shown through twitching and ticks. I used the Stanislavskian technique of reading the given circumstances in the script to determine what my character was like and why. Information given to me by the script about my character revealed important information about the human side of my character such as personality traits, my characters opinions and feelings, and her feelings towards the mistress rather than just the bird like qualities.

‘Given circumstances include the plot of the play, the epoch, the time and place of the action, the conditions of life, the director’s and actor’s interpretation, the setting, the properties, lighting sound effects- all that an actor encounters while he creates a role. A     persons psychological and physical behaviour is subject to the external influences of his environment’ (Moore, S. 1984, p26).

By examining this side of my character I could then use Stanislavski’s technique of the magic if, to ask myself questions such as; what would the Twittering do if approached? What would the Twittering do if asked a question? and how would my character react to change and why?

After reading the script and discovering the tense, awkward and nervousness of my character I looked to see what human conditions caused such traits in people. I discovered many of the characteristics of my character were similar to those of autism but even more strongly related to Asberger syndrome.

‘People with Asperger syndrome can find it harder to read the signals that most of us take  for granted. This means they find it more difficult to communicate and interact with others  which can lead to high levels of anxiety and confusion’ (Larches community, 2013).

Learning about my characters personality lead me to think about vocal delivery, how would the Twittering sound? I decided that my character would have a stammer and struggle to get words out. This decision was made after viewing online videos of children that were affected by Asberger syndrome. In practice this way of delivering the lines was frustrating and added to my physicality, which tensed and visualised the effort and frustration of the characters internal struggle.

When decided on set and props all the other birds were given lots of clutter and items that reflected their characters. My character however was harder to cater for, The Guzzle had lots of food and rubbish, The Gloom had many medicines, The Thump had piles of books, The Gazer had many beauty products and mirrors, The Gossip had lots of magazines and mobile phones. All of these thing were representatives of the characters personalities but we could think of no objects that would show nervousness for my character. On discussion of the script with the costume designer Woody, we realised that the Twittering prays to god in one of her most anxious moments. This lead to the idea that the Twitterings’ sole prop would be a bracelet of wooden rosary beads with a Jesus on the cross. This would be a bold visual statement against the yellow and white backdrop of the costume. It would also add to the characters physical movement as she had no reason to use her hands for human purposes, up until now.

 

A hybrid, bringing together the bird and human.

‘Like people in real life, characters often act out of impulse or habit without conscious   choice; this is what Stanislavski called “automatic” action.[…] identify the automatic actions of your character’s behaviour as soon as possible, for it is your task to recreate the  characters habits in yourself for the purpose of rehearsing and performing’    (Benedetti, R. 2009, p136).

Having now found my characters physicality and personality I had to now try and fuse the two together, my canary and my human. This was actually relatively easy as the habits of both were similar as the twitching and movement crossed over between both. However the vocal delivery was hard, it was very human and showed a lot of the mental illness that I wanted to capture, but I was missing a link to the root of the bird. After a group rehearsal that consisted of testing and playing with are bird qualities I noticed that others in the group had chosen to use bird tweets and other bird noises, this gave me the idea of also using a bird sound. Having watched clips of canaries on the internet I knew they made very high noted whistles and tweets, using this information I decided my bird would make a high ‘HO’ sound. This crossed over from bird to human like as I implemented the sound into the stammer, by this I mean when my character got overly nervous and struggled to get her words out she would make the bird noise and then carry on with speech. This mixing of bird and human voice was just what I needed to fuse the two together.

Whilst rehearsing I tested how my character might walk. I believed that I should move very quickly and precisely because of her nervous characteristics, however on practice I was told this was unbelievable and didn’t reflect the character that I had created very well. After our lecturer Wez had seen a rehearsal he suggested that my character be indecisive whilst moving. By moving in a scuttled and indirect manner my character could show her confusion and stress. Having meaning behind the physical movement was extremely important, I did not want to spend all my effort building a character only to have it be unbelievable when walking.

‘An actor must never move for movements sake, e.g., to look good. The character moves as a result of his intentions, in order to achieve what he wants. A step or walk is meaningless if   it does not reflect the characters need to move. A state of being cannot be presupposed.  Rather it emerges, depending on what has gone before, what is happening now, and what  may happen in the future’ (Dennis A. 2002, p29).

Each time she had to walk she would take a few steps then change direction. This was a wonderful idea in theory but very hard in practice and although I tried very hard to do this movement every time, I did struggle when moving into the group clusters during the most nervous moments. Interaction with the other birds was difficult as each was in its own little world and never really spoke any relevant conversation to each other. This meant all communication between the birds was really based on body language. This was practised intensely during rehearsals as it is quite hard to say one thing and mean another.

Works cited

Benedetti, R (2009). The Actor at Work. 10th ed. U.S.A: Pearson. p27,136.

Benedetti, R and Wangh, S (2000). An Acrobat of the Heart. New York: Vintage Books. p241.

Dennis, A (2002). The Articulate Body. London: Nick Hern Books. p29.

Larches Community. (2013). Learn about learning disabilities and autism. Available: http://www.larchescommunity.org.uk/Learn-About-Disabilities(2512110).htm. Last accessed 23th May 2013.

Moore, S (1984). The Stanislavski System. 2nd ed. U.S.A: Penguin. p26.

The performance/Looking back on the cage

 

With our performance now complete it is time for a look back and reflection on what we have learnt from this module. I think we were successful in our aim of providing an entertaining spectacle with our performance. We wanted to create something that didn’t challenge perceptions, or raise political issues. We wanted to create interesting theatre, with an emphasis on the visual. On the day our set was a lot more constricted than it had been in rehearsal, we were used to more space and this caused worry among the cast. However, fortunately, this worked in our favor as the smaller space made it easier to create the chaotic, claustrophobic atmosphere we wanted in the piece after the wild one begins to stir the cage up. We finally had access to the rostra and the levels we were on as performers created a unique and vibrant stage space, surrounded by large amounts of darkness on each side representing the unknown outside world for those caged inside. I was pleased with my performance on the day, combining my preparation of the vocal, physical and psychological attributes of my character. During the performance itself it occurred to me that the Thump would have a sense of ownership within the cage which might propel him to take other character’s items from round the cage. Strangely in the day leading up to the performance I found myself thinking heavily about Stephen King’s The Shawshank Redemption and the film which is based on it, and more specifically the experiences of Brooks Hatlen an elderly inmate of the prison who, after forty six years inside, is paroled. He responds to the news violently, out of character, attacking a friend. When released he finds the outside world scary and in fear decides it better to kill himself than live on. This thought brought me on to the issue of institutionalisation and despite being a work of fiction, influenced my eventual performance due to the links I saw between Brooks and The Thump. That fear becomes present within him, and thinking about it in this way allowed me to portray the experience better than I had before. If there was anything I could change, or do better it would be to have utilised our time better as a group as I feel we could have created an even stronger performance with more focus and dedication to the project. As a company I think we spent well, and worked together successfully as a group, in the end.

Becoming a character/Learning to fly

The casting process was short and sweet, you might say. We sat down, Lil told us which characters she wanted us to portray, and we had a read through. Afterwards Lil and Jamie declared themselves happy, and so we were cast. I was disappointed as when I had first reading the script I was worried I would be cast as the Thump, and I wanted to attempt something outside of my comfort zone. I had hoped to have a try at reading for the Twitting, but I did not get this opportunity  On reflection I have to agree with what Lil and Jamie did. Time was short, and we could not waste more of it by over prolonging the casting process. I came to find some enjoyment in playing the Thump, and though I felt being cast in this part was somewhat obvious, there is a reason that this might be so. That you simply suit the character. Also Philippa was well cast as the Twitting. I began looking at the character in a basic way, how would he move? How would he speak? And found a very early starting point, I walked with a hunch, and my steps were large but slow. I had been assigned the task of utilising the characteristics of the vulture into my performance, and I felt the character should be old, an elder of the cage. I asked that a walking stick be part of my costume very early in the process so I could begin rehearsing with it as early as possible and attempt make this prop an extension of my own physicality. The stick became my leading movement of my character, my body would follow it. The sound it creates when it hits the floor is an authoritative, brash, noise.

Having received feedback that my physicality would require more work I looked at Paul Elsam’s five variables of performance for the actors body. Tension, height, openness, space and eye contact. Or THOSE, as he refers to it. Due to the nature of the Thump as a character, he is old and prejudiced on a widespread scale, even though he doesn’t understand what this prejudice is, or why he is acting towards it in such a way. He is always in a form of conflict within himself, which I feel would create tension. Paul Elsam warns that

‘The actor in performance should use tension with care. The voice is especially susceptible to damage from tension, so try to avoid, even when playing a very tense character, centering your character’s stress in the throat or neck’ (2006, p48)

Heeding this advice I have chosen to apply tension through my hands, and the stick I carry throughout the performance. Their is already a lot of tension in my back and legs simply from the physicality I am applying to my performance, and by applying them through a more visible part of my body, such as my hands/fingers it will be more effective at showing my characters growing mental unease  Vocal tension is a risky task to undertake as you can damage your throat and voice if ill prepared. I made sure throughout the rehearsal process that my body, and most importantly, my voice was in a condition to be performed. Group warm up’s were rare in the process, but this did not bother me as I am happy to stretch and do vocal exercises on my own. Displaying tension through voice is difficult, but I feel have developed a way of speaking for the character that is both uncanny and displays his tense nature. With sharp note changes occurring in certain lines, and by varying my inflection, pace and delivery I feel that I have created a voice for the Thump that is unique and my stylistic variations will be able to present the changes in tension and stress that my character is under.

I feel it is important for me to discuss the adjustment of height in the performance,  it is an important development, and one of the major challenges and difficulties I am having within Cagebirds. Standing, and moving, with your back bent right over like mine is for the entire show is a strain on both my back and legs, and to combat this I have had to work the muscles in both areas regularly in my own time, as well as resting them sufficiently in between rehearsals. The over exaggerated style I developed eventually led to an idea of duality within the character’s psyche. That the Thump overplays his frailties, this becomes more apparent in moments of fear, and completely so at the climax of the play when the Thump kills the Wild One. Being as tall as I am manipulating my height so that I never stand completely upright until the end of the play assists in adding to the highly dramatic outcome at the end of the play. Forcing myself up slowly I then arched my back and stretched out my arms to convey a bird type mannerism of aggression before swooping forward to grab Alice by the neck. Elsam states ‘People alter their height in relation to others in social situations’  (2006, p52) In my portrayal of the Thump I use my height to adversely effect the scene around me. My character is the most powerful within the cage before the Wild One arrives, and this status qou is restored at the plays end, yet instead of displaying this power through my height I am hiding it underneath a veil of frailness.

The ambient sound we have created for our performance comes from the need of an extra texture to give a convincing insight into life within a bird cage. Before we added this layer the scenes lacked a certain energy, but now the ensemble, rather than struggling to remain focused throughout rehearsals are constantly involved. This both provides atmosphere for the piece, and stimulus for the cast.

‘To create an atmosphere, through improvised sound and movement, which has a direct and visceral effect on the principal actors: the ensemble can improvise strange and abstract moves, rhythmic or atmospheric sounds which help the actors experience aspects of the world of the play such as danger, misery, jealousy, or sensuality’ (Mosely, 2006 p98)

This ever changing atmosphere being triggered by the sounds of the actors brings a sense of an animal like response to the occurrences of the play. Such as the death of the Wild One where the noises will rise and express a wider vocal range to express panic and danger. I developed two main sounds to repeat throughout the performance. One a sound close to the noise a vulture actually makes, and another contrasting low growl like sound to display his age and aggression.

While researching vultures I discovered how they are not so much a bird of prey, but a scavenger despite their large threatening appearance. This fits with the characterisation of the Thump who only finally attacks the Wild One when given the ultimatum of kill her, or leave the cage. This violence is one of necessity, in his mind, rather than an attack of a bird of prey.

Thump

Elsam, Paul (2006) Acting characters, A&C Black publishers limited

Mosely, Nick (2006) Acting and Reacting, Nick Hern Books

The birth of Retold Theatre

Sitting in a room with 23 or so other individuals each with their own artistic morals, principles and visions and being told to choose between two varying, but vague ideas was both an intimidating and challenging way to begin this module. The room became split between political theatre, and visual theatre. Two broad ideas of which you had to choose which appealed more. To be honest neither appeals to me, and my choice came down to me simply being put off by the idea of doing Political theatre more than I was at doing visual theatre. I didn’t really know what they meant by visual, I had originally hoped it meant visual in a more basic sense. That we would create visual theatre with our bodies, and it would be a very experimental performance. But the ideas were based more in spectacle, and though not originally too excited by the proposal I came round to it, and the idea of adapting fairy tales. Fairy tales have that grand appeal to them, and the adaptability of the work is obvious. This is our groups aim, adaptation. To take the stories you know and retell them. Hence a name was born with this, Retold theatre. Having toyed with the idea of devising we had chosen to instead adapt Carol Ann Duffy’s Grimm Tales, I was against this at the time, and I voiced this opinion. I believed that the writing of these adaptations did not fit with our groups aim, to retell stories in a unique way. However a majority of the group were in favour of Grimm Tales, and considering this I stated that I would support the project despite my misgivings. I was later appointed as writer for the group, and I attempted to create a beginning and ending for the piece, a framing device for the stories to be set in. The rehearsals for Grimm Tales were a struggle with opinions on what the theatre we were creating should be differing. These differing goals led to a fracture in the tone, and a complete mess to be honest. I do not exclude myself from the debacle that became Grimm Tales, the framing device I wrote was an attempt to mirror the style of the play and ended up feeling like a piece of children’s theatre. I was disappointed with my input, and we all felt demoralised. A change was needed. So we have sat down and agreed unanimously that we want to choose a different play. We have abandoned the fairy tale idea entirely, due to frustration with the concept, and discussed what we want from our theatre company as individuals. What direction do we want to take the company in? We feel we can re adapt existing dramatic works, popular one’s, perhaps those at which people feel are cliche and revive them. Or retell them if you will. Finally it came down to two plays, Cagebirds by David Campton, or Road by Jim Cartwright. I was favorable for Road, being a keen reader of Jim Cartwright, and convinced that the play could be adapted to fit our purpose. However again the majority of the group were favorable for a different option. I was not as disheartened as I was with Carol Ann Duffy’s Grimm Tales, as I could see the positives of choosing Cagebirds, and the play fits our aspirations of creating spectacle. Creating the cage, and bringing these characters to life seems to genuinely excite us all as a group, and I feel like I have my ambition to approach the project back.

The Cage Birds – Rehearsal Process

When I first got given my role as Guzzle despite the fact that I had to get used to the fact that I was going to play a bird which I had never done before, I also had to get used to the fact that the play is of an absurd nature. Over the Easter holidays we were given the task of learning our lines, however I found this task very difficult, along with many others of the cast due to the fact that none of my lines linked to any of the others. Everything that I said was completely random apart from the one section towards the end of the performance where the Wild One enchants the Guzzle to leave the cage.

Rehearsals started off with us playing around with our characters, and it wasn’t until we were all more familiar with our characters that we started to feel more comfortable with experimenting and trying out new ways of creating an absurdist piece. Becoming more confident with our bodies, and more confident with each other was a crucial turning point within our rehearsal process.

Our director wanted us to project our voices and create big creative movements with our bodies so that the portrayal of the birds on stage was one which was obvious. The people on stage were obviously playing the role of a bird and although we were still playing a human character the bird like elements where supposed to be ones which should stick out from the humanistic characteristics of the cage birds.

Another element to the performance which came out towards the end of the rehearsal process was the hilarity of the performance. At the beginning of the rehearsal period I personally didn’t see the play as one which was funny. However throughout rehearsal, our director highlighted that a lot of what we were doing on stage was funny and so this should be played on for the audience.

The hilarity of the play was not due to the fact that we were having funny conversations, it was more to do with the point that the play was so random that there was room to create humour from the actions us as birds where doing during the long monologues the Wild One had to perform. Once this became more apparent to all of the actors we felt that we could play on the humour the play provides its actors to experiment with.

For my character, Guzzle, I was constantly eating food throughout the performance. The way that I was able to make this funny was by playing around with the food. Tipping packets of crisps over my face so some crisps went down my top, throwing skittles in the air to try to catch them with my mouth (often missing), picking previous crisps spilt from my top out and eating them and also when going over to the other birds areas trying to eat their props. Eating Glooms ‘pills’ and spitting them out onto the audience and trying to eat Gossips magazines are just some of the things that I did with my character in order to develop it into one which fitted in with the humour our director wanted for the piece.

 

Looking back over our time in the cage.

Within Retold theatre I had two roles, therefore must look back over the process of both to show my opinion of the success.

From a marketing point of view I was pleased with the feedback and response we got from our posters and flyers. I overheard many conversations where the theatre companies were being discussed and ours was frequently described by the posters “that one with all the eyes” and people knew which performance were speaking about from the description of our posters. People have commented on how interesting and intriguing our performance looked from our marketing approach, which was exactly our intention.

From the point of view of an actor, I always am of the mind that performance can have always have gone better, and there is never a place where improvements cannot be made. However, having said this I feel that the final show was the best performance of Cagebirds that we had ever done. The energy was the highest it had been, as was the focus. I think part of the reason for this was the introduction of the audience, and knowing it was our last show – but also the fact that we were improving with every time we worked on the piece.

Personally I feel my character developed greatly in the last few weeks, there were certain changes that opened up doors for my character and this then allowed me to experiment more with my character, such as the idea of making my character have a bit of a God complex, and make them self important, and truly believe that they can help and cure the other birds of their vices.  The more human attributes, and more logical thinking pattern of my character meant that I was able to understand the motives and needs of my character a lot more clearly, and realising the revolutionary stance of the character and making parallels with real world examples of this behaviour. I spent a lot of time watching speeches online and taking inspiration from many different places:

This video, although from a film, shows the quiet passion and depiction of power through using quieter tones and the change in emotion without the change in volume. I tried to emulate the same intense passion that this character has, for my character in reference to freedom and escaping the cage.

This speech however, shows the more loud and excited passion for freedom. Within the second video clip however the audience react to his speech giving him more buzz and support and confidence in what he saying, whereas within Cagebirds, the fact the birds are ignoring my attempts to widen their mind means sometimes it was hard to reach such a level at the beginning, but by the end of the process I felt like I had managed to combine the two approaches to make a convincing revolutionary influence within the cage.

I think personally my performance improved greatly as the rehearsals went on and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring my character, the play and the allegorical context of the performance. I was proud of the end result on performance day and hope that the audience enjoyed the show, and enjoyed reading these posts from our company!

 

Character Development

As soon as Retold Theatre decided that the play we were going to put on was Cage Birds by David Campton within a week our director, Alicia Ravensdale, cast me as the character of Guzzle. My character within Cage Birds is on who finds her comfort in food, obsessively eating and creating her ‘nest’ with the remains of the one thing that keeps her ‘safe’.  Shortly after the casting, within rehearsals we were all told which type of bird we would be playing, I was given the challenge of creating my character on a Pigeon, and so this is when my research began.

I was lucky with the type of bird that I was given due to the fact that there is so many pigeons in Lincoln, everyday I was able to watch them as I was walking to and from rehearsals, in town or walking the dog. They are everywhere.  At first it was just something that I thought was quite amusing, and then I started to watch them in more and more details as I realised that studying the way that they moved was a crucial part for my development of my character. Watching the way they would approach other birds, watching how they went about getting food off the pavements, looking out to see how they behaved when they were being threatened, how they walked and the sounds that they make.

After watching pigeons in the wild, I was able to use this information within the rehearsal process. Taking the quick, precise head movements in particular. During rehearsals, our director specified that she wanted our head movements to be going on throughout the whole performance either increasing or decreasing depending on the situation that our characters where in. I thought that it was important that as an ensemble it didn’t just look like we were moving our heads for the sake of moving them, or just so it looked like we twitching nervously, and so one of the most important things for my character development was making sure that my head movements looked as close to a pigeons as possible. After all, we were all allocated different birds so therefore it should be obvious for the audience to see that we were not all the same and took the time to make up different visual ‘personality’ traits.

One of the biggest challenges of my character development, was how to make my whole body look as close to a birds as possible. Obviously it was never going to look exactly like a birds, because I am not one and I had to try to get over the restrictions my human body made for me. The main thing that I had to do with my body was to make sure that the way that my body moved matching my head movements. Quick, sharp movements with my body to create as much of a bird like character as possible. Whilst walking I needed to make sure that my all of my body was being used at the same time. My head movements, using my neck and back to ‘peck’ as I walked. As my character was constantly looking for food, and rummaging around to get it I needed my walk to portray this aspect of my characters. Therefore resulting in my bend as I walked.

Another aspect of my character that I needed to develop was my voice. The noises that I needed to make and at what points of the performance was most suitable for which type of noise. From my research I found out that pigeons made a ‘cooing’ noise and so this is the type of sound that I used for my character. Making sure that the noises made were when it was relevant for my character, for example when my character was in distress I would make more ‘cooing’ sounds compared to when it was content, in the case of Cage Birds this would have been when my character was in her section of the set within her nest.

My voice was also supposed to portray bird like characteristics, I would vary the tone and sound level of my voice depending on the situation my character was in, when my character was directly being approached by the Wild One I would make my voice quicker and higher pitched whereas in a more relaxed environment my character would speak slower and in more of a consistent tone.

 

 

 

 

Creating Our Aviary: Vocals and Bodywork

When the process started we wanted to make sure it was clear to our audience that the actors they were seeing on stage were pretending to be birds. We wanted the line between human and bird to be very blurred and so we had to do a lot of research into our birds and a lot of work finding ways of amalgamating bird like mannerisms into our voices and bodies.

Elsam suggests that “…an audience may sometimes forgive less-than-brilliant acting, but if you speak too quietly and deny them access to the story, they’ll not forgive that.” (Elsam 2006, p.81), therefore even with the distortions we were considering adding to our performance to extenuate the bird like qualities we wanted the messages we were trying to show to be clear. We wanted the audience to still think about what they were hearing, and be able to gain – even a broad – feel for oppression and the idea of being trapped.

We knew that even when playing a human, in a naturalistic play you have to “…keep your voice interesting by varying the notes” (Elsam 2006, p.84) but we wanted to edit this process to make the performance more absurd. I did a lot of research into vocal performances, as I speak a lot throughout the play I wanted to make sure that my vocal work would have enough range to keep the audience interested. Patsy Rodenburg noted that we “…live in a society which places value on not showing passion or joy in debate or ideas. More and more, the voice’s tendency is to stay trapped in the throat and chest only.” (2002, p.93). The range within speech is so important to get across not only meaning in what the character is saying, but their emotion and subtext. We experimented with a lot of ways of saying particular lines, and it could change the feel of an entire section of the performance. Rodenburg said that “…range can also reflect emotional and intellectual excitement in a speaking voice. If we sound dull it is either because nothing is going on inside us intellectually or emotionally…” (2002, p.96), therefore I made sure that the internal monologue of my character never stopped and throughout the performance I was thinking of ways to escape, and thinking of ways to get the other birds to react to me and to escape with me.

Although this helped greatly and made my speeches a lot more interesting to listen to we still at the beginning wanted more absurdity in the speech patterns for the cast. Elsam notes that “Once you become aware of vocal inflection in speech, you can start to use inflection consciously.” (2006, p.85) We looked at playing with the intonation of words and going up or down with our voices where it didn’t follow the meaning. This also added to the idea of the characters not understanding what they are talking about as they are birds and are merely repeating things they have heard without any real idea of the consequences. For my bird we played around with repetitive sounds such as any time my character says “I” I would repeat it. Although this sounded more like a stutter, which could have suggested nervousness to our audience and we didn’t want this impression of my character. We also looked at making any lists of words, such as “endless, beautiful, complicated, useless…” or “…comfortable, satisfied, non-communicating, slave society…” really fast to imitate the pecking of a woodpecker. However we lost some meaning by doing this, and we also enjoyed the sounds of the words when they were slowed down, and to some lists, such as “delegation, investigation, confrontation” there were pleasant rhymes that we didn’t want to lose.

We then however decided as a contrasting element that my character would have a much more human like speech pattern.  We still worked on keeping my voice interesting, as you hear a lot of it during Cagebirds, but we started to do work more on the emotions behind the speech and the loud and soft tones, than playing too much with an absurd way of speaking. One of the main pieces of feedback I received during the process was to “go for it” and exaggerate what we were doing, this worked fantastically in rehearsals, and helped with a lot of other blocking once we saw how the other actors would react to my speeches when they were exaggerated. Rodenburg notes that “The other potential hindrance to the range of the voice is the speaker’s fear of being ‘over the top’, or sounding too committed to the text… And range is vocal colour.” (2002, p.97) I definitely felt this worry at first and, as Rodenburg put it, I had to “…not let the voice of restraint whisper in [my] ear to stop [my] vocal experimentation.” (2002, p.98) but once we saw the reaction from other members of the group this was a lot easier to achieve. We worked with the soft speeches being almost whispered and the angrier speeches being bellowed into the faces of the others actors, this process meant we were able to scale my performance to the level we (‘we’ being the director, assistant director and myself) wanted it once we had produced the right level of reaction from the actors.

When we were working on bodywork, this again started a lot more birdlike and then progressed into something more human. When researching woodpeckers there were many videos with the pecking movements and when they actually moved position it was always with sharp fast movements, with twitching of the head and flitting from place to place.

We looked at the tension in bodies and ways of moving that didn’t feel natural to us at first, I found that Elsam defines the physical attributes that create a personality “…are tension, height, openness, space (or rather use of space) and eye contact…” (2006, p.45). I then looked at each of these in relation to my character, and found a way of holding myself and moving that was indicative of a woodpecker. I worked on holding the tension in my shoulder back so that my chest was exposed and moving my neck with my eyes as they moved, rather than smooth movements. I also spent the entire performance on tip toes giving my legs tension and a fidgety urgent energy to my movements, and a sense of height, and a suggestion of self importance. The use of space was also an interesting variant within my character compared to the other birds, I needed to use a lot more of the space than they did and I needed to behave as if the space was a new and foreign environment but still command it in a confident way.

 

Works Cited:

Elsam, Paul (2006) Acting Characters, A & C Black Publishers Limited: London

Rodenburg, Patsy (2002) The Actor Speaks: Voice and the Performer, Palgrave MacMillian

Looking at the Play: Preparation, Power and Perceptions

According to Paul Elsam, within his book Acting Characters, “…as part of the planning stage of acting, you should comb through your script to work out which types of power your character possesses. “ (2006, p.41). Within our performance power is a strong idea that is constantly fought for, or against, and “…power is at the very heart of storytelling.” (Elsam 2006, p.37) Especially with my character of the Wild One, who spends the entire play fighting for freedom and fighting against the power of the Mistress and the cage. The distribution of power is also very interesting within our performance as there is a hierarchy within the cage itself, and even though my character has an effect on the birds they rarely interact with The Wild One, making the power that my character holds within the cage interpretive and unclear from the outset.

Katie Mitchell believes that before too much work starts on a performance you need to organise the information about the text, and the world the play is set in,“…about what exists before the action of the play begins will help you map the physical, geographical and temporal certainties of the play…” (2009, p.12). However not much is shown about the world of the play, the given circumstances are quite scarce within Campton’s play.  Mitchell suggests making two lists about a performance, one of certain facts and one of questions that have been brought up. The facts of Cagebirds as I can deduce are as follows:

  • There are a group of characters in a confined area with a locked door.
  • There is a woman, seemingly referred to as the Mistress, who is in charge of the locking them in the room.
  • The Wild One is introduced who doesn’t want to be locked in but has no choice
  • The Wild One tries to convince the other characters to join together and escape.
  • The Wild One creates unease in the enclosure
  • The Thump kills the Wild One
  • The Twitting is confused and is more taken in with the speeches of the Wild One.

The list of facts about Cagebirds is pretty small; a lot of what is put into the performance had to be the questions. Very little is given away about any existence of the world before or after the action of the play, so all the information has to be taken from the script. I couldn’t discover the reasons that Campton had my character behaving the way they did due to her past, so we were able to come up with our own concept about what has happened previously. “A concept is something that the director imposes on a play. An idea is what the writer focused on whist writing the play – either consciously or unconsciously.” (Mitchell 2009, p.47).

“For an actor, awareness of power can really help to clarify why your character behaves the way he does, and why others allow him to do so.” (Elsam 2006, p.41) so it was important that I found out the exact reasons why my character was behaving in the way they did. The first point was “…conflict in plays often comes from a character losing, or gaining, social status” (Elsam 2006, p.20) so I looked into this. For The Wild One her status is put into question from the minute she enters the cage. She refers to the place she was before and asks the mistress “Why have you brought me here?”  Showing that the Mistress had power over the character to make her do leave the place in which The Wild One felt happy.  Therefore as TWO enters her status is already impaired by the mistress.

There are many different types of status, as Elsam says there are three types of status, social, verbal and physical, and “…when you pull together the three types of status which a person uses …you’ll have a pretty sophisticated understanding of that person, and your feelings towards them.”  (2006, p.36) from this I tried to work out how my character felt about the other birds and how I should react to them.  From Elsam’s six “types of power” I went through and worked out my character’s status, and this also helped with working out how to perform certain extracts of the speech.

The six types of power as discussed by Campton are: “ Agreed Power – power which a person is allowed to use as a result of their position within a culture…Abuse Power – power which a person uses to force another person to do something…Reward Power – the power to supply something which is valued by another person…Knowledge Power – power which comes from having information or expertise which is needed by someone else… Connection Power – power which comes from being close to someone who has power… Personal Power – power which comes from a person’s attractiveness to others, because of their looks or their personality…” (Elsam 2006, p.38)

The clearest powers that my character posses are abuse power and knowledge power.  The abuse power isn’t fully used by the Wild One, but she does try, she feels bad about trying to force Twitting to act as she tries to justify her actions “I wouldn’t force you to do anything…I might try to persuade you, but that’s different anyone is open to persuasion.” Shows that she is exerting this type of power even if it is to no avail. The knowledge power comes mainly with the Wild One’s conversation with Twitting, but because my character posses the knowledge of the outside world, it has a slight effect at different times over the other birds, especially during the speech about “…out there, where the sun shines and the wind blows.” Where we showed this power by having the speech delivered subtly and yet having all the birds totally focused on the Wild One.

Elsam also provides a character profile within his book, which I found really helpful to fill out, as it showed me patterns about my character.

Elsam's Character Profile

Elsam’s Character Profile

The piece I found most useful, as my character isn’t discussed much by the other characters in the performance, was the character traits located at the bottom of the image. They suggested how stale/neurotic and how extrovert/introvert a character is. The traits listed that I felt most applied to my character are the following:
– Lively
– Talkative
– Leader
– Thoughtful
– Active
– Optimistic
– Impulsive
– Excitable
– Restless
– Moody
– Anxious
According to Elsam’s profile this meant my character was a lot more extrovert than introverted, and slightly more neurotic than stable. This fit with the idea of my character that I had got and therefore this pointed me in the right direction for how to perform as a character with those attributes.

 

Works Cited:

Elsam, Paul (2006) Acting Characters, A & C Black Publishers Limited: London

Mitchell, Katie (2009) The Director’s Craft, Routledge: New York

Character Development for The Gloom

Developing my character throughout the rehearsal process was not the usual process as to which I am used to. I found this more difficult than usual because it wasn’t simply human characteristics that I am used to working with in a performance, it was a birds. Once all of the actors in the Theatre Company were off script, we were able to play around with our bird twitches and calls more, however we still found ourselves not feeling comfortable with how our bird traits were being portrayed in rehearsals. For example, we felt that they didn’t fit in with the performance when other characters were speaking and we were overall a little unsure as to what to do. Instead of just having a rehearsal where we did a couple of runs of the play, this led to the director making the decision to focus one rehearsal on the actors playing with our bird calls and twitches to make our characters more eccentric. This was successful as after this rehearsal we as individuals had more confidence with our characters which made the rest of the rehearsal process more useful as we didn’t just focus on the bird traits.

After studying my character by thoroughly reading the play and doing background research I was able to make decisions on how I personally saw my character being played in our performance. As The Gloom is constantly complaining about all the things which are physically wrong with her, yet I question is it really her body that is ill, or her mind? Another characteristic of The Gloom that I picked up on when researching her was her dialogue. Nearly every line she speaks in The Cagebirds is an excuse for something. It is as though she does have serious things to worry about, however she finds it easier to block these important things out of her mind by just talking about her health and how worse for wear she always is. For example, when The Wild-One separates The Gloom from the rest of the birds pleading her to break out of the bird cage, The Gloom goes into panic, and straight away blames the fact that she cannot exit the cage due to her ‘cramp’. Another characteristic in which I emphasised a lot in the final performance was how The Gloom is absorbed by her pills. She had so many pills surrounding her area for all her different aches and pains, these were almost like her comfort blanket, without her pills she would be lost. The few occasions where The Gloom leaves her area and travels around the stage, it isn’t long until she is back in her designated spot re-assuring herself with her pills, counting and checking them to make sure that they are all there.

Overall, I portrayed my character The Gloom as a hypochondriac, not able to go a few seconds without taking her pills, blowing her nose or counting her pills. I personally felt that these characteristics fitted well with the gagging bird call, the stiff and rigid travelling around the stage and the twitching of the upper body and head.

The Great Thick-Knee

Devising the Great Thick-Knee

“[Observing] People we know. Examining closely what we really see or may have taken for granted. Their actions, habits, mannerisms and appearance and how these relate to their backgrounds, their class, education, family job, position in the community, religion, nationality, and the psychology we’ve experienced. Imagining ourselves in their circumstances and how they must sense and feel things.” (Gillett, J. 2007. p.29)

The first step I took in developing my character was to research the bird, the Great Thick-Knee as this was the bird I was given, by our costume designer. I was then to focus on the stereotypes of this bird and how I could link it to my character- The Gloom.

Whilst researching a Great Thick-Knee, I was able to pick up on its characteristics. The movement of the bird when it walks, with each footstep sharp and stiff and the head twitching vigorously, yet there are moments when the Great Thick-Knee keeps its head still for a few seconds, then the vigorous twitching comes back. This was a challenge I found myself dealing with as I struggled to realise why a bird with such distinctive movement would be given to a character such as The Gloom who comes across as a complaining and whining woman. However, through the rehearsal period I found it easier as an actor to portray the Great Thick-Knee.

“Only by feeling something can actors be satisfied that they are intimate with it with a fullness that approaches the required condition of being that thing.” (Mitter, S 1992 p.10)

Personally, I found myself facing many challenges when trying to link the Great Thick-Knee to The Gloom. The majority of The Gloom’s dialogue in the play is mostly complaints about aches and pains; the decision was made later on in rehearsals for myself to deliver the lines in a whining, complaining way. This was challenging at the start of the rehearsal process, yet after rehearsing this tone of voice many times it became easier to work with. As I already speak with a northern accent, the director instructed that I should exaggerate it for the purposes of my character. This wasn’t particularly a challenge for myself, however I did not want the audience to have trouble understanding what I was saying, therefore I had to be careful with how I went about exaggerating my northern accent.

 

Physical Study of the Great Thick-Knee

Relating back to the Great Thick-Knee, I wanted to emphasise the characteristics of the Great Thick-Knee as much as possible when it came to the performance. During the rehearsal process, I played with different characteristics to see which worked and which didn’t. At the beginning of the process, I was travelling across the stage stretching my legs out as much as I could, to emphasise that the Great Thick-Knee has long legs. However, after a number of rehearsals doing so, I found that this movement did not match my character. The Gloom first interacts with the audience by telling them about her bad knee and how it ‘locks’. So I was struggling to understand why a bird with bad knees would be able to stretch her legs out? This then led on to the movement changing into a sharp and stiff shuffle when it came to moving around the stage.  When it came to The Gloom standing still, I felt that I still needed to show some movement. My reason for this is from watching videos of the Great Thick-Knee standing still, they still seem to twitch the upper part of their body and head. In the parts of The Cagebirds where all of the birds are huddled together as The Wild-One is interrogating them, we all individually did subtle movements with our head and upper bodies, just so that these parts did not look as static.

Another way in which I developed my character of The Gloom to be as realistic to the Great Thick-Knee as possible was to make an occurring sound throughout the performance that was like the animal itself. This proved to be more difficult than I originally thought. The call of a Great Thick-Knee is very much similar to the seagull and I personally found this to similar to the other bird calls that other characters had chosen, for example The Gossip with her Parrot call. I then decided that a suitable sound for The Gloom to make would be that of a gagging sound. I found that this related a lot more to my character and was still similar to a bird call as my character is a huge hypochondriac and always has to have something physically wrong with her.

To distinguish a difference in moods with my character The Gloom, I tried to do this in many ways. In my opinion, the main places in the script which drastically changed The Gloom’s mood, was the entrance of The Mistress, and also, later in the script, the entrance of The Wild-One. When we first hear the mistress speak, all the birds freeze and then go into panic mode. The Mistress comes across as a strong powerful woman, however in our version of The Cagebirds we never actually see The Mistress. To signify to the audience that The Mistress makes The Gloom nervous, I stiffened my body and pulled my props in closer to my confided space. I also changed the way in which I spoke, making my voice shake and seem uneasy in order to portray the power in which The Mistress has over The Gloom. When The Wild-One enters onto the stage, this was also when I felt that The Gloom’s mood would change. The Wild-One enters the stage rocking the rest of the birds’ world. They are all very unsure, nervous, scared. I wanted to show this both physically and vocally. I did this by emphasising my bird call a lot more, making it louder and more repetitive. Physically, I made my bird twitches greater, and faster which led to the necessity of the increase in my personal bird call.

Work Cited:

Gillett, J. (2007). Awareness. In: Gillett, J Acting on Impulse. London: Methuen Drama. p.29

Stanislavsky, K. (1992). Stanislavsky: To Find the Face Constructed in the Mind. In: Mitter, S Systems of Rehearsal. London: Routledge. p.10

Creating a Character

An essential aspect in developing my character was the research into the behavioural and social traits of a parrot. To do so I researched studies and watched videos of parrots.

 

Physical  Characterisation

One of the most obvious behavioural traits of a parrot is their ability to copy, this trait in my character was not established until a later rehearsal. When it was decided that I would be using this behavioural trait, it became a massive part of my character development. It began first off by copying other birds sounds, however as my character developed throughout the rehearsals I began to copy the physical aspects of the other birds.

The biggest challenge for me when developing this character was understanding the circumstances to which I would be saying my lines as a parrot, as a lot of what the Gossip says, as well as the other birds speeches, do not make sense in the context of the play as a whole. It was then recognised that the speeches are just copied versions of what my characters had previously heard or read, and consequently so was the movement. A large part of developing this characteristic was experimenting in rehearsals; I would play with different ways to use a phone and a magazine in order to portray that my character was, like with the speech, copying what I have previously seen but not doing so correctly, as “although there is a great deal of debate as to just how well these birds actually understand the meaning of the words they speak, there is little doubt whether they and other parrots […], are highly intelligent in comparison with other birds” (Anieti, 2007). This characteristic not only allowed for comic elements but also established that I was not the most intellectual of the birds.

One of the essential parts to physicalizing my character was showing a distinction in my moods from when I was relaxed to scared, and finally when I confront the Wild One at the end of the piece. What was even harder was portraying this physically as a parrot. To portray the fear and vulnerability of the birds when the Wild One is, in their minds, attacking them, I changed my degree of openness, which describes the amount of concealment or exposure of the front of the body, “Animals’ degree of openness tends to reveal how vulnerable they feel to attack by hunters. The ultimate degree of concealment and self-protection – the favoured defence posture among many animals – is the ‘foetal’ position” (Elsam, 2006: 55). Therefore as the Wild One got closure, physically I aimed to make myself smaller and consequently had a smaller degree of openness. When my character became more aggressive however I wanted to have a large degree of openness and full exposure, for this scene I also researched the social behaviour of my bird and found traits such as “Peck threat: aggressor pecked at opponent but did not make contact” (Seibert, 2006: 49), which these birds do when attacking or threatening another bird, other aggressive physical traits which I adapted for this scene were ‘wing flapping’ and ‘charging’. This change in behaviour had to be portrayed through my physical characterisation in order for the audience to recognise what my character was thinking.

 

Vocal Characterisation

Vocally it was important for each of us to create a bird noise, which was not established until later on in a rehearsal when it was recognised that both physically and vocally we needed to be more like birds. To do so I watched videos of parrots to get a sense of the noise they make and this also aided the physical characterisation. As I developed my character more I realised that the noise I made changed its volume and pitch depending on the situation, as if I was using it to signal to the other birds. One scene which this worked particularly well was when the Wild One corners off the Guzzle, parrots call to each other and “in case of danger; they signal the danger with powerful, raucous calls” (Anieti, 2007). I used this trait to signal to the Guzzle, and consequently with all the other bird noises it created a tense, chaotic atmosphere.

For the final scene when the Gossip confronts the Wild One, the direction was to portray a complete shift of character throughout the speech, to show how the birds were beginning to be taken over by instinct. This was something that vocally I found challenging to distinguish a difference. Elsam suggests that changing the speed of a speech can change the dynamics and meanings of it. He states that:

Different speeds of speech create different perceptions of the speaker. Fast speech can suggest confidence, quick-wittedness, spontaneity, energy…fast space can also suggest nervousness; and slow speech can be the sign of a confident person who chooses to dictate the pace of communication. (2006: 99)

When the Wild One began to confront me the speech was fast to show that I was nervous, however when the instinct began to kick in my character became more confidant and aggressive, so I used this change in pace to portray the shift in my character.

 

Works Cited

Anieti, S. (2007) Ten Outstanding Parrot Traits, [online] accessed from : http://news.softpedia.com/news/Top-10-Outstanding-Parrot-Traits-57698.shtml accessed: 3rd May 2013.

Elsam, P. (2006) Acting Characters, 20 simple steps from rehearsal to performance, London: A & C Black publishers.

Seibert, L. (2006) Social Behavior of Psittacine Birds, Manual of Parrot Behaviour, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Rehearsal Process and Final Performance

In the initial stages of the rehearsal process the main challenge was creating a character that had human and bird traits, and having the confidence to physically and vocally portray a bird. Therefore an essential part to the rehearsal process was the development of characterisation. Once we had developed our characters it was important to create levels in the piece as a whole in order to create tension and portray change. To do so, once we had blocked the piece and created these characters we would run the play and receive feedback. Once we had learnt the lines the characterisation developed, however we were still not getting the correct individual ticks for each character. To discover these specific ticks for one rehearsal we played with our characters, we would move and speak in different ways to discover which way best suited the individual and would also work as an ensemble.

After feedback it was apparent that we were not reacting enough to the changes in situation in the cage, in order to ensure I was portraying this reaction in the best way I researched changes in parrot behaviour, a study on this stated that, “our results illustrate that one parrot species can alter its movement and spatial and habitat use patterns to adapt to human induced changes in habitats.” (Salinas-Melgoza, 2010). The idea that the species has a specific pattern was interesting in creating this reaction as all the birds in the cage are part on their own ritual, and when the Mistress introduces the Wild One, it changes these patterns. Therefore in order to make a distinction in the rituals before and after, I used this idea of movement, spatial and habitat use to frame a change in my character. For example as the Wild One started to show my character the emptiness to what we were obsessed by I began to almost become bored with my own objects and was more fascinated by the other birds.
In order to create tension in my character and portray mental unease, I took Peter Elsam’s advice and used small subtle movements in my hands and feet (2006: 48), so for example when I was sat in my area to portray mental unease I would rapidly tap the phone, if I was stood however I would shuffle my feet repeatedly and increase the pace the closer the Wild One got. On the final performance, these movements got bigger as the piece in general became tenser.

As we approached the show date, our bird characters became bigger and consequently became physically and vocally more demanding. Elsam states that “The voice is especially susceptible to damage from tension, so try to avoid, even when playing a very tense character, centring your character’s stress in the throat or neck” (2006:48). Therefore in order to avoid this we began to do vocal and physical warm ups leading up to the show, and on the final performance a member of the group conducted a fifteen minute warm up in order to ensure that we could deliver and perform our character to its maximum potential without any strain.

Some aspects to my character I did not implement until the final stages, for example, when researching captive birds, I found that many are prone to “Feather damaging behaviour (also referred to as feather picking or feather plucking) [which] is a behavioural disorder that is frequently encountered in captive parrots” (Zeeland, 2009). In our full costume run through I decided to use this information to express how my character had subconsciously become oppressed by the cage, to do so I attached extra feathers to areas of my costume that I would pull out during the performance.

The final performance, for me, was when my character had the most energy throughout the whole process. As the characterisation was so physically and vocally demanding I wanted to save that extra bit of energy for the final performance.  As it was the first time we had performed the piece in front of a large audience, throughout the performance it was important to keep in mind how the piece and my acting looked from their perspective (Miller, 2010). This was so important especially when portraying to the audience how we felt at different moments in the piece, as the text didn’t clearly explain this we had to portray our feelings to the audience physically. For me the hardest element was keeping the energy throughout the piece as even in moments where we were more purposefully static, it was crucial that we kept our postures and ticks constant. The increase in props also aided my character in the final performance as it allowed me to increase these ticks, such as pressing the phone repeatedly when I was nervous.  Overall I feel that the energy of the piece was lifted due to the presence of the audience.

 

Works Cited

A. Salinas-Melgoza et al (2012) “Behavioral plasticity of a threatened parrot in human modified landscapes” Biological Conservation, Elsevier, 303-312.

Elsam, P. (2006) Acting Characters, 20 simple steps from rehearsal to performance, London: A & C Black publishers.

Miller, B. (2010) The Scene Study Book, roadmap to success, New York: Limelight Editions.

Zeeland, Y. (2009) “Feather damaging behaviour in parrots: A review with consideration of comparative aspects” Applied Animal Behaviour Sciences, Vol 121, Issue 2, 75-95.