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.