Masterclass on Meisner

We had to run workshops in acting technique where we got into groups of people who were in our scenes in the play and we made a masterclass which we presented to the class. We did ours on Meisner. We decided to explain a little bit about Meisner, by giving them some facts to listen to and then we ran our scene. We then told them to look for the differences as we applied Meisner's repetition exercise to the scene.

This was a fairly simple workshop, but it allowed them to effectively understand his teachings, why he thought these things and how they would help a scene come to life. I think we showed this really effectively, as we got some great feedback.

People said there was a good balance of information and acting for them to stay interested and to understand what we meant. They also said that we made it really clear the differences and the development in the scene and you could clearly see the difference in relationships start to come through.

They also said that watching it, helps you to understand it more and really see the point of it. It helps you to visually see it, as well as understanding the difference in just the text. It was a lot more interesting to watch and clearly showed how it works.

I think we did an effective masterclass, as everyone seemed to understand what we have done and why it does help to show the ways in which it can improve a text and generally speed a text along and give the whole play a good pace to keep the audience interested.

Imagination Exercise

We started today's lesson by doing an imagination exercise and picturing our character. We had to picture their build, looks, hair colour, eye colour, clothes, weight, height etc. This was quite hard to do as I found it very difficult to picture Shannon with a face. I kept choosing people that I know and it made it very difficult to try to connect or become her.

We then had to picture our character in a certain situation performing an action of some kind of task or activity. I pictured Shannon cleaning No.10 Downing Street. She was dusting all the pictures of the previous prime ministers. We then had to ask her questions about what they like doing, how they live, what they're doing, who they hang out with, what they like to do outside of work etc.

This helped me to get a better idea of my character and helped me to understand a lot more about her background and although I did find it really difficult to picture her face, once I had, her image came really easily to me and her looks became obvious, which has really helped me to understand some changes I should make to my physicality, for example, walking slower, being a bit more flustered etc.

We then discussed how important our character is to the play and what the play would be like without our scenes.

My character is quite important because I am one of the 12 people that receive the bad dreams and although some of my scenes are not essential to the story-line, I feel like the comedy that comes through my lines in the play breaks up the political language, which could be too much for the audience to take in at once. I feel like I work as a comedic buffer to allow the audience to rest in-between the intense scenes.

Throughout my scenes, I manage to keep a continuous story-line. The hoover works as a lead-on to other scenes and makes the scene changes flow onto one another quite smoothly. This allows for scenes to be connected to characters and the story-line continues, without a break.

Character Differences To Me

We focused on how important it is to separate the differences between you and your character, to fully allow you to go with what the text describes and become another character.

Shannon:
Mid-20's
Cleaner
Lives on her own
Single
Lesbian
Academically Challenged
Cleaned No.10 Downing Street
Smokes
Working Class
Recurring Bad Dreams
From London
Met the Prime Minister

Pip:
18
Student
Live with my family
In a relationship
Straight
Academic
Never cleaned No.10 Downing Street
Never smoked
Middle class
No recurring bad dreams
From Suburbs
Never Met the Prime Minister

This really helps to see your character as an individual and by seeing your character and really focusing on your differences, it makes you more aware of your differences and heightens the change you should make on stage to become this character.

We did an exercise which involved using our imaginations and allowed us to visualise our character and to ask them questions like what they were doing, what they were wearing etc. This really helped me and allowed me to see deeper into my character and make a connection, so that I will be able to become Shannon on stage and leave myself in the wings.

About Michael Chekhov

Michael Chekhov was an Academy Award Nominated Russian/American Actor, who was born in Russia. He was also a director, author and theatre practitioner. His acting techniques have been used by Clint Eastwood and Marilyn Monroe. He was nephew to the playwright - Anton Chekhov, whose work includes, "The Three Sisters" and "The Cherry Orchard".

Chekhov worked with Stanislavsky in the Moscow Art Theatre as an actor from 1912, however in 1928, he was forced to leave Russia, as his teachings of theatre were seen as radical and threatening, in their experimental way, by Stalin. He was exiled to Berlin and Europe, where he continued to study Theatre.

His book, "To The Actor" was published in 1953. It was a landmark in actor training, as no one had ever made a handbook for the actor, whereas "An Actor Prepares" by Stanislavsky is more like a fictional story, with a narrative. At the beginning of the book, Chekhov makes it clear that he wants the reader to get up and try the exercises and not just to read the book. He believes that to understand something fully, you must experience it.

Some of the themes of his work include, atmosphere, the actor's creativity and physicalisation of inner experience. He believed that acting was not a system it was a free-er. He believed that actors are creative artists, creating characters distinct from themselves. He believed actors should understand the whole composition of the play, just like the director, rather than immersing themselves in just their role. He believed, creating a character should be Objective, not subjective. So it should not be bias and from your own memories, it should be you seeing things from a bigger picture.

He thought that the actor should use their imagination to create a character by utilizing their "Higher Ego", which is a different self, to the everyday self. It's about finding a different ego/identity.

Simon Callow's foreword in the 2008 re-published edition of "To The Actor" states that, "We must overcome our fear of the theatre theatrical when it comes to acting." - which means that acting takes you to this flamboyant, magical world where there is no truth behind your, there is a fear of being too theatrical. Callow said, "Profound importance of Chekhov's work is that it's aim is to breed such a race of just actor poets, who know the theatrical ways.

Actors should, seek characters in the realm of their imagination and they shouldn't try to intellectualize it, or research it, but they should engage their imaginations. They shouldn't use concrete life stories - actor's dreams and fantasies are much more useful than biographies, images or books.

An actor lets the body and imagination reveal a character in the play. You have to grasp the initial ideas of how different you are on stage to your character. Ask what the difference is, no matter how small or subtle that may be. Go with purely what the text describes.

Michael Chekhov

Michael Chekhov (1891-1955)

Targeting My Lines

This lesson we focused on targeting lines. We went through the text and went through each of our lines and placed a clear target to the words that we are saying. For example:

Shannon looks up, leaving the hoover on. - I look up at Ruth.
"Oh hi! You alright?" - I notice Ruth. I greet Ruth. I question Ruth.

We did this for all of our lines in the text, which really helped me to understand my given circumstances and realise my objectives for the scene. I feel like it has put a lot more meaning behind my lines and will allow me to develop my character further.

A Target for the actor is what you are doing and seeing. It should be:
- specific
- moving
- external
- changing
- active
- waiting to be discovered
- needing to be changed

Declan Donnellan said, "The stakes open to offer the best escape from the block. The actor muse see the target, and before it vanishes, the target must be split in two."

This means that you must acknowledge the outcome of the stakes. At every moment, there is something to be won and something to be lost. - positives and negatives in life. What you can gain and lose in a scene are always just as important as each other.

Double Takes

We also did a little work on double-takes and how they work and what it makes you do. We had to get into pairs and create a scene that involved a double take. Some of these were incredibly funny and contained a lot of humour. Such as, Nora bending down to pick up a folder, whilst I lent on a wall and did a double take when I saw her. This was very comedic, but allowed us to analyse them to realise that they can be broken down into:
Looking
Comprehending
Looking again
Confirming

We saw some other very funny examples, such as Jordan meeting Katie, the talking rabbit and doing a double take and Liyah meeting her long-lost neighbour in a shop down her road. This allowed us to really see how double takes have become instinctual to us and have allowed us to create comedy in (some) everyday situations.