A Different Show Process
The show, I feel, went without a hitch, in that the acting and the technical issues were non existent; arriving around 1.10pm, I came in to find the beautiful set already laid out and proceeded to get into costume. My costume consisted of black socks and underwear, black trousers, black shoes, a black tie, a black blazer and a white shirt; this obviously made my character look very formal and smart, even more so when the make up was done (my hair was combed over and I was made to look older with drawn on wrinkle lines and my skin and hair shaded pale). With still a fair few hours before show start and during the cue to cue of the lighting/sound and transitions between stages, I was able to think of last minute changes etc. to my character development. Originally, during the start of the module, I actually played the part of the blind piano tuner, and at the time, done limited research on how blind people are portrayed in the theatre and on screen. This was changed however, when it was decided that the original actor who was portraying the Count, suited the role of the Piano Tuner better and so our roles were swapped.
Since I became the Count, there were many things that I needed to Consider; with the help of our Director, we partook in a workshop on developing our characters through a backstory. Even though, it was in a very short amount of time in that we had to improvise a backstory (and that I’m not good at improvising at all), I was able to root a connection within my characters past and begin to find out what made my character the person he is and why he does those things. Because the Count seems like a strong imposing man at first, it was obvious he had a certain emotional state about himself that drove him towards his goals and into getting his own way; it is stated at one point in the script by the housekeeper that the Count had a connection with his father, and so I came to feel like that they had done more together in the past than just what normal father and sons do. I came up with in fact, that the Counts father had been doing the same kind of thing with women, as what the Count does in the present of the time of the play; I had made a story up in that the counts father had influenced the Count and made him an accomplice in the murder of the Counts mother, which in turn starts the root that the Counts madness and depravity grew from. Disturbed by what he had done and ideas’ being distilled to him from his father is what created the Count as he is at the time of the play.
Trying to be a strong imposing character in a play, can be greatly helped by posture and vocal projection; standing up straight with the chin slightly tilted up can create an atmosphere about the character and coupled with a strong deep voice can help set the mood and is instantly recognisable to the audience that the character is important and/or evil. I knew from the point in which my character was changed that I wanted the Count to have an air of importance and mystery about him; when we first meet the Count during the play, he seems quite solemn, keeping himself to himself and speaking short sentences-this helps to keep his agenda hidden. Quite soon though we realise that there is more to the Count than meets the eye; when scene 5 starts at the end of page 5 in the script, the Count and Countess are taking a walk through the forest. The Countess tries to explain about a situation that had just happened but the Count becomes more vocal telling her to be quiet and starts reminiscing about his father. During this whole scene we see a change happen in the Count, two in fact; the first is that he becomes more hostile towards the Countess, telling her to be quiet and generally ordering her to do things, which in turn sets other things in motion for the plot to evolve-the second thing is when he first meets the Snow Child and is engrossed in her apparent perfection.
Even though I had never really thought about why he kills his wives in the first place (apart from the influence with his father), I still wonder why my character becomes so attracted to the Snow Child and lets his weaknesses slip into being known. One theory could be and is said earlier in the same scene is that, the Counts father always used to bring him to the forest and tell him stories, mainly involving the snow; since the Snow Child is found outside in the snow, and that her skin is just as white as it, it seems highly possible that the connection lies between his past memories and the pure innocence that only a child can exhibit. As the story went along, my character loses the Snow Child, because of the cold, and this is the turning point for when he shows who he really is; obviously disgruntled over the loss of the one he truly loved, he starts to slip up and his anger becomes more apparent, with him shouting at the housekeeper and the Countess. By the time the last scene came around, my character had pretty much devolved and his sanity was almost completely lost; his whole persona had changed and any regal attributes he had had disappeared. Despite the fact that I was one of the writers of the play, I feel that the characters and what they do is up to interpretation and no one thing can be exactly right as many other minds had at least some influence over the events that occurred; so while I think of certain backstories to characters, other people have their own ideas, and play their characters accordingly.
The whole process of finally being able to go through the show and do a run through, with all the props, lighting/sound and costumes etc. is exhilarating yet panic can ensue especially when things on the technical side seem to be off. At one point, when the Countess’ dream scene is happening, the song ‘Mr Sandman’ is playing throughout; as we were a tech heavy show we relied on music being played throughout certain scenes, and it had gone without a hitch thus far, but when the song was played the file became corrupted in a way that was obviously noticeable and needed to be fixed as soon as possible. For an actor when things go wrong on stage, such as someone forgetting a line, improvisation can come quick and the scene can be saved, but if a technical difficulty cannot be helped and so becomes very worrisome for an actor especially if things start to go wrong about an hour before the show. Luckily the problem was fixed and the technical side of things seemed to go perfectly.
The DSM set up the props and placed them on two tables on either side of the stage in the wings, although it was made clear to us that we ourselves, were in charge of our own props and we had to make sure we put them back once used and remembered to bring them on in the first place, unless it was someone else’s job to do. One instance in the production where things seemed out of place to me was during scene 15 on page 26 of the script; a chair was supposed to be placed in the ‘bedroom’ next to the bed a couple of scenes earlier, but when I came on stage to do the scene I came around the sides of the wings to see that the chair had instead just been taken offstage. In a split second decision I decided to just sit on the bed and act it out from there; looking back at it now I think it worked better than if I did sit on the chair, so that issue was technically solved and improved which is always a helpful thing to happen. There were instances within the performance where I felt quite awkward, mainly it was the undressing and dressing back up again; at times my fingers became stuck and I wouldn’t be able to undo buttons or pull my shirt off without it being highly noticeable; the scenes in which I had to make out with someone or have sex onstage were fine to me, it was just as long as I could take my clothes off or on without a problem and end up looking foolish in front of a hundred plus people.
There were many moments within the play where people were laughing at points where, we in rehearsals did not find anything funny with the scene; it was always a surprise when this happened and in ways we changed how we acted. During the final scene for instance my first line is said in a way which I find funny; to myself that was fine but as soon as I said it the entire audience laughed and this helped me because I needed to find the situation on stage funny. Near the end of the scene, my character was stabbed and I needed to collapse to the floor with a small vial of homemade fake blood (corn flour, water and red food colouring); the process of tipping the vial in my mouth was unfortunately very hard, and so I had to sit up with my back facing the audience, in a strange cross legged position in order to be able to tip it in my mouth; this process became much harder however, when I had to keep it in my mouth without it spewing everywhere, the taste being awful and nearly gagging on it all the while.
By Lewis Chanel
