MOVEMENT
In lessons I learnt how movement can alter the portrayal of certain characters. By comparing the differing roles in Streetcar to animals, in their actions and gestures, I was able to improve my own performance. In pairs we were told to act out a scene three times; once solely as a animal comparison of a character, once at a midpoint of this, and then once as a human. By doing this, I was able to broaden my understanding of how the characters in Streetcar can be represented. This is because when analysing them it becomes very easy to identify certain traits shared by, for example, Mitch and a bear. When performing, I was able to find likenesses between the way they both slowly stagger around and become unpredictable in their sharp turns from peacefulness to violence. By making these realisations, I was able to recognise and connect more successfully with the character whilst performing.
VOICE
We spent time learning about how varying the pitch and tone of our voice can help improve and enhance our acting skills. When working in pairs, we were told to perform a scene from Streetcar whilst speaking in a very exaggerated style and see what effect this had on the audience. I discovered, while performing in the role of Stanley, that by overplaying certain aspects of a character I was able to turn a scene where Stanley realises that his wife’s family have lost Belle Reve from being serious to being incredibly humorous, and creating a happy laughter-driven atmosphere from the audience. This taught me, as an actor, that voice is a key factor in controlling the ambiance of a scene, and when used correctly can become a vital factor in deciding whether a scene has the desired outcome it is intended.
CHARACTERISATION
When we began reading Streetcar, one of the first things we were told to do when we looked at scenes was to explore characterisation and the interpretation of characters. One way we learned to do this was by actioning the text in our scripts. Everything anybody says in a play has an objective or aim, and to ‘action the text’ meant that we needed to study every line said by a character in a particular scene we were looking at, in order to gauge what they were trying to gain from it. For example, when Blanche refers to being kept out of harsh light, her objective is to stay away from anything which could expose her age to the rest of the characters. By looking at actioning the text we were able to improve our understanding of characters and their underlying, ‘hidden’ beliefs and thoughts, which provided evidence and pointers about how we should attempt to portray them.
NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
During our course we studied non verbal communication and how using it could give us a wider understanding of how the characters could display their emotions through facial expressions and body language. This is an important aspect in theatre because gesture can completely effect how believable somebody is in their portrayal of a particular character. When performing as Blanche in some group work, I found it to be difficult at first due to the obvious lack of the ability to use voice to get a point across whilst acting; despite this however, I was able to suitably adapt and manage how I should portray Blanche in this way. I successfully played the role of Blanche by using very promiscuous gestures whilst at the same time seeming slightly disturbed by fidgeting with my hands a lot and constantly looking worried and nervous when around any of the main characters, especially Stanley.
VISUAL/ORAL/SPACIAL
When looking at the visual, oral and spacial components of the play which we could use, we split into small groups and attempted to direct one of the scenes in the script ourselves, taking these three aspects into account. My group decided to look at the poker game scene and chose to position our scene in the corner of the room. We did this in order to make it all seem and feel very claustrophobic and cramped, making it uncomfortable for the audience, especially when tension starts to develop between Stanley and Mitch. We used a curved, end-on style staging in order to immerse, focus and engage our audience into our piece by making them feel like they were involved in the performance, watching it and feeling shocked and surprised by the way I treat Mitch, as Stanley, and forcefully push him to his chair when he tries to escape.
LANGUAGE
In lessons we looked at the language in the text and how it can be interpreted and performed in a successful way. We were given monologues from the play and placed into pairs where one of us would direct the other, who would act. Whilst directing my partner, I selected lines and words for her to put emphasis on during her performance. For example, in the line ‘you’d never suspect there was the struggle for breath and bleeding’, I told her to highlight and intensify the words ‘breath’ and bleeding’. I chose to do this because they are very powerful and contrasting words, one having connotations with life, the other with death, and by using strong accentuation on these words, it allowed them to resinate with the audience and keep them in their minds. The feedback I received about this accentuation helped improve my knowledge and understanding on the effect of language in text.
CONTEXT
When we began looking at the context in Streetcar, we were told to create an off-text performance implementing ideas from the text into our scene. In my group, we decided to create a piece based around the predominant male characters in the script playing poker around a table. Our objective for our performance was to use the ideas from the characters of the time and let them contrast with a new character we created who held modern views. This way we were able to show the audience the difference between the two belief systems of the time, and show how much opinions have changed. In our piece we tackled inequalities such as race, homosexuality and sexism, and were able to gauge affirmation of the fake character, over distaste of the rest of the characters’ views within the audience’s reaction.
EMOTION/MEMORY
INTERPRETATION
