Ch. 1, 3, 4 response

Gwen Stephan

Ch. 1, 3, 4

For me, one of the most interesting and fun things we have done so far in class was the “I shall live on the __ floor” exercise we did. I thought it was really interesting to see all the different ways that line itself could be said, as well as to watch the different tactics people chose to use to get their way. Connected with this, the open scenes were also a very interesting for the same reasons. I thought it was fascinating to see the different directions people took with the exact same text. Just changing where the emphasis is placed in one sentence can change the entire meaning of the sentence. There were several times when a fellow classmate said a line and I realized that I had never thought of that line being said that way.

One of the more difficult things that we have done was the work with objectives. While I understand the basic idea of objectives, and I understand the paradigm we were given, putting my thoughts into it is often difficult. Beyond that, it is sometimes very hard for me to think less “selfishly” and come up with an objective that includes the other person in the scene. For example, on our midterm the first objective was “I am cold.” I, like a lot of others, put something along the lines of, “I want to get a blanket.” Then, when we went over it, I realized that not only did this not fit into the paradigm, but it was a rather useless objective. Getting a blanket is so easily over with that it doesn’t really help to even list it as an objective – it’s too obvious. Find a way to include the other scene partner in that objective and not use a prop to fulfill it was difficult. I am still working on thinking this way, but I think I am starting to get the hang of it.

-Quizzes/readings: while I found some parts of the quizzes hard and have a hard time grasping some part of the reading (specifically, remembering all the Stanislavski chapter’s information) I believe that I am starting to grasp the concepts we have been reading about more fully.

-Objectives: I am still having a hard time putting objectives into the paradigm and including the other characters in the scene in my objective, but I am beginning to get the hang of it.

-Insights: I think just realizing how important subtext is to the meaning of the play and how objectives make acting so much easier is the biggest insight I have had. By figuring out the objectives and the subtext before hand, I don’t have to think so hard and I don’t trip myself up because I’m overanalyzing.

Chapter 7 response

Gwen Stephan

Response to Ch. 7

            One of the first questions I had about this chapter was about the section on page 213 where Barton is talking about analyzing the scene. He mentions looking into the play’s production history as a good way to discover more about the scene. “Were there any choices made by previous performers that you might also try?” in particular stood out because it was a direct contradiction of what we were told in class. We were told not to look at how other actors had done these scenes. I would personally agree more with doing it without knowing what others had done, although I do think knowing something about its production history might be a good idea. I think finding the balance between doing too much research and too little is important.

            Beyond that I agreed with most of what I read. I was especially draw to the section about coming up with a past for the character and making inferences from the scene about what the character’s life has been like, so that you can draw on those ideas for objective. I don’t know that I completely grasped the idea of abstracting, in that I had a hard time coming up with some of the answers for my scene, but I like the idea of fleshing out the character so that it is easier to portray him or her. Obviously, most of what you come up with should come from the script, and you shouldn’t let you imagination run wild with the character, or you’ll get completely off track. But I think filling in some of the gaps in the play and inferring about the character’s past is both fun and useful, and a good way to get to know the character you have to portray.