20140087

A Reflective Study into Ways an Actor can Quickly Switch Between Character and Mindsets.

We spend a phenomenal amount of our lives following stories: telling them; listening to them;
reading them; watching them being acted out on the television screens or in films or on a stage.
They are far and away one of the most important features of our everyday existence. (Booker, C.
2004 p. 2)

Whether it be a play, musical or contemporary dance piece a performers job is to communicate a

story or message to an audience. At the core of a story lies the plot and character which work in
harmony to further one another towards the climax of the story. One of the most in demand careers
for a performer is musical theatre, the perfect example of story telling in the dramatic sense, where
both song and dance are used seamlessly to help progress the narrative of the story (Naden, C.
2011 p.1). The genre demands the highest level of performers and one of the most important
aspects to help tell the story of a musical is the role of the ensemble who help provide the
backdrop and give life to the world around the lead characters. Without strong characters to tell the
story, the piece can become emotionless and flat, lacking dimension and drama that grips
audiences and so a strong chorus of actors are needed to accurately bring to life what is written
(Deer, J. and Dal Vera, R. 2015).

Throughout this reflective journal I will be looking at the role of the ensemble, coming from my
experience as working in an ensemble during our acting project module. Given the nature in which
musicals can quickly shift time periods, emotional states and so on I will in particularly be looking at
how an an actor can quickly and effectively change mindsets to help portray the various
characters, and what techniques that can be used to help get into a character. The techniques and
skills will be drawn from the acting project whilst also reflecting upon my personal experience of the
process and how they have helped me grow as a performer. I will first begin by discussing my
feelings towards the project and the text that was selected by our director, whilst also providing a

20140087

contextual background for the text. After which I will then begin to explore the different skills
acquired throughout the course starting with accent and voice work, looking at why it is important
to utilise this as an actor and my experience with exploring characters voices. I will then continue
with the use of physicalisation to give character identity, and a martial arts technique called HungGa and how these have helped me personally. The final focus of the journal will be on the internal
objective of the character through the use of Stanislavskian inspired techniques to help simplify a
character down to the basics that allow us to quickly access their wants and desires. I will conclude
the journal by looking at how these techniques can be used together and applied to the various
aspects of the musical theatre genre using experiences from my training as examples.

My training so far has pushed me to develop a wide variety of skills with a main focus on dance
and musical theatre, so when given the opportunity to enrol in a concentrated module on acting I
was eager for the chance to progress my acting skills to help improve my overall stage craft.
Despite having no ulterior motive for selecting acting over dance other than wanting to improve, I
was surprisingly rather anxious as to what we were to be focussing on throughout the project but
hoped for something that would be out of my comfort zone of the comedic roles I have played in
the past. Our director James Palm spoke about his aims for the course; to give us an acting toolkit
that helps us make strong, committed character choices by using a piece of text which is grotesque
in both context and language, but similar to the heightened, unrealistic style of a musical.

We were to be performing Steven Berkoffs play Greek which is based on the Greek tragedy of
Oedipus, where an adopted boy murders his birth father and marries his birth mother and ends
with him tearing out his eyeballs once the truth is revealed. Berkoffs' Greek is one of his best
known plays and differs from its basis by following Eddy around the East End of 1980s London
and has a variation on the original ending (Green, M. 2003). Out of his expansive range of
dramatic works Greek is one of his most controversial works and draws upon features stereotypical
of Britains In-Yer-Face theatre movement that Berkoff is heralded as one of the founders of (Green,
M. 2003). In-yer-face theatre is characterised by its shock factor and is designed to unsettle

20140087

audiences through extreme use of language and images. The movement began in alternative
theatre of the 1960s, a time where Berkoff was prevalent in British theatre, but became a more
prominent part of the scene from the 1990s and onwards (Green, M. 2003)(Sierz, A. 2010). In-yerface theatre does not shy away from taboo and no subject is off limits for discussion whilst sex and
violence help progress the narrative, all of which form part of the structure of Greek.

The majority of my training has been targeted towards a career with the musical theatre industry,
which is typically not done in a style as shocking as Greek, therefore upon first reading through the
play I was left feeling really disappointed and worried. Despite wanting something that would
challenge me I felt that Greek would be too challenging and that I would look ridiculous and
unbelievable trying to portray the characters and story within as I felt there was no comedic facade
for me to hide behind. Whilst reading through, our director was also separating out the lines and
dividing the play up into units. Instead of doing the piece conventionally by casting people into
specific roles we were going to perform the entire piece as an ensemble with us all playing both
lead characters and supporting roles. This provided some reassurance as it took the pressure off
of learning huge sections of text and allowed me to concentrate on improving characterisation and
the unfamiliar cockney accent.

One of the first methods used to help us quickly get into the character was the use of the cockney
accent and the linguistic style of the play. Before I began the project I saw the voice and accent
work as an additional element you add in for effect, however I quickly became aware of how
important accent and voice is to the integrity of the character.

Just like we have our own voice, a character has their own voice that wants to be heard and our
job as an actor is to bring that character to life authentically. The voice is a fast way for an
audience to understand the various aspects of a characters history such as social and economic
backgrounds, their location and also age amounts other things (Alberger, J. 2015 p.160-163).
Therefore it is important that an actor responds to the text accordingly and delivers a vocal

20140087

performance that works in harmony with the telling of the characters story, and not just a
generalised stereotype of the accent that is superimposed on the character like a funny
walk (Gutekunst, C and Gillett, J. 2014. p. 239). In reality no two people are alike and even those
who come from the same region will have variations in tone, pitch, tempo and timbre and so it vital
that these things are taken into consideration when creating the characters(Gutekunst, C and
Gillett, J. 2014. p. 239)(Alberger, J. 2015 p.160-163).

To help us understand what kind of result our director was looking for from us accent wise, we
watched the film Made in Great Britain by Alan Clarke (Clarke, D. 1982) . We were asked to make
notes on the what qualities we found within the accent of the lead character due to the
characteristic similarities to Eddy in Greek. One of the most prominent features of the accent was
the consistent use of diction which gave the words the feeling as though they were being spat out
through gritted teeth. The diction helped form and shape other aspects of the voice, giving an
overall sense of arrogance, harshness and helped express the anger the character held within. We
also noted that the accent was not as strong as a stereotypical cockney accent, it sound far more
percussive with a heavier focus on hitting the end consonants.

As well as the initial concerns with character portrayal, I quickly became concerned with how I was
going to switch quickly between the scenes and get into character. The accent of the project was
my first tool that swiftly allowed me to access the character but also was one of the first obstacles
I had with the project. As someone who is generally quite confident with accents I was surprised to
find that for a long time I was not able to accurately merge character and voice into my body,
resulting in me feeling un-natural and disconnected. The character is the opposite to all the
aspects of my personality however our director was persistent for us to over articulate our lines
during speed runs of the text. This constant over articulation was was of the most beneficial and
allowed me to distinguish between myself and the characters; for Eddy I would focus on attacking
the ends of words and using my tongue like a whip, whereas for Dad I would not grit my teeth as
much and lower the pitch of my voice to signify older age, yet retain qualities of Eddy. To help us

20140087

get the Shakespearean poetic rhythm of the text and retain the harshness and brutality of the
accent we spent one lesson creating and performing rap songs to one another. This helped me find
my natural flow with the text and I found that from each lesson onwards, my level of playfulness
with speech and ability to connect quickly and naturally developed far beyond my initial
conceptions.

As well as ensuring that our voices matched character there was a strong focus on physicalisation.
This piece had already challenged me beyond anything I had done before and found the same
issues arose within physicalising the character as it did vocalising the character. Generally I am
quite an expressive person and combined with my dance training I am not shy to communicate
through my body, yet suddenly I found myself unable to move.

In a process Jerzy Grotowski calls the via negativa an actor must learn to recover an inbred ability
to physicalise emotions rapidly from deep within (Schechner, R. and Wylam, L. 2001. p. 239). Via
negativa translates to road backwards and Grotowski uses it to describe how we as children have
no inhibitions and will freely express their emotions, shifting from anger to sadness and back to
laughter within minutes. For many different environmental and social factors we begin to establish
a barrier between ourselves and our emotions as we age (Wangh, S. 2000. p.xxxix). As an actor
we are trying to bring real emotions to the stage and so must learn to undo this as part of the via
negativa. In Stephen Wanghs book, An Acrobat of the Heart, he draws upon techniques and
exercises based upon Growtowskis ideologies to help release our inner emotions through
physicalisation. His exercises are known as Les Exercises Corporels and are designed to give an
actor the freedom to move within their entire bodies so that is is as easy to enter the stage on your
hands as it is your feet. (Wangh, S. 2000. p. 43).

Also in his book, Wangh talks about the importance of using tension to give characters a presence
on stage. In a large number of acting techniques, such as Stanislavskian based methods, ask that
the actor be completely relaxed when on stage. The negative impact of this is that an actor can

20140087

become too relaxed and give a de-energised performance (Wangh, S. 2000. p.100-103). The
conclusion that Wangh came to was that there is neither good or bad state of tension or relaxation,
but instead that an actor has to know when to use either of them to effectively to tell the story.

One example of an exercise we used that reflects this was when we took part in a modified version
of a traditional Chinese martial arts method known as Hung-Gar (Kong, B. and Ho, E. 2008). Our
director took some of the philosophies of Kung Fu, such as discipline and the various animal
stances that are prominent within martial arts, and the physicalisation aspects of Grotowski and
Wangh and combined them. His aim was to push our bodies beyond its extremes to get us to the
same emotional level as the character through physicalisation. Despite undergoing intense
physical activity during my everyday college programme it was extremely demanding on my body
with us having to spend ten minutes in Horse-Riding Stance (Kong, B. and Ho, E. 2008. p.40),
before alternating between press ups, abdominal planks and sprinting for nearly forty minutes
before returning to the Horse position. Halfway through the exercise we began running through the
lines of the play. This was a critical moment for me as the pain and emotions I was experiencing
throughout the exercise directly influenced how the lines came out and I began to feel an instant
connection to the character. The process of undergoing physical movement to feel emotion, whilst
not perfect, helped me quickly access the character and emotion when I needed to.

Both of the elements I have looked at so far is only possible after an actor undergoes the process
of character analysis and are fuelled by objectives. The idea of character analysis was developed
by the theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski, whose methodologies which are grounded in
creating a believable character on stage, provides the foundation for many other techniques and
training methods (Stanislavski, K. 2003). The methodology we were using as a technique
throughout acting project is known as Practical Aesthetics which was developed by David Mamet
and William Macy and is adapted from Stanislavskian ideas. The system that was developed by
Stanislavski involved exploring the emotional state of the character and asking an actor to draw
upon their similar emotional experiences to portray the character in what is known as Emotion

20140087

Memory Recall (Stanislavski, K. 2003). Stanislavski also asked actors to answer seven questions
about their characters history to help build up a character profile and also brought to light the idea
of objectives. An objective is simply what the character wants to achieve within a scene and gives
the character a motive for all their actions within. A characters objective can change and they can
also have many, some many span the entire length of the story and some may only be for a few
moments.

Practical aesthetics progresses upon Stanislavskis work and removes the more psychological
elements, condensing the original method into four key components which are found through script
analysis (Bruder, M. 1986). The first is identifying what the character is literally doing at a given
moment; this must be written in the simplest way possible so that the actor does not defer from the
scene, thus avoiding audience confusion(Bruder, M. 1986). The second is the characters objective;
these are always targeted towards another person whether it is the audience or an actor on
stage(Bruder, M. 1986). This is followed by the cap of their objective; this is what must happen for
the character to achieve their objective(Bruder, M. 1986). The final main criteria is the as if; simply
a psychological element for the actor that allows the actor to relate to the situation of the character
by imagining a scenario that could actually happen to them personally(Bruder, M. 1986). It
removes the attachment to personal emotion which could potentially result in the actor becoming
overwhelmed by revisiting previous emotions. There are also other elements that can be added
such as tactics; the different ways your character can achieve their objective, and some are not
always necessary such as physical externals; usually given within the text, for example does your
character have a limp and so on(Bruder, M. 1986).

Because we were working as an ensemble and often all played the same character we would work
together to identify many of the practical aesthetics, which formed the central part of all our
characters. Everything that we did on stage stemmed from us having a clear objective and was
driven by our desire to win the game. Before the course started we had been taught about
practical aesthetics however I was rather unsure of how to properly use all the elements,

20140087

particularly the as if and making a clear objective. Working so intensively helped overcome this as I
learnt the importance of playing the game. To help us understand how to play the game we were
often asked to play games with one another that focussed around objectives. Our first exploration
into this came at the same time as the rap songs we created, after which we were asked to stand
opposite someone and intimidate them without physically touching them. The game was to get the
other person to look away and make them feel uncomfortable through subtle facial expressions,
and then was developed by adding physicalisation. Upon reflection I realise that this game was a
pivotal moment in my acting training as I really began to understand the importance of having
simple, clear objectives combined with a desire to win.

The skills I have acquired over the course have helped me make sense of acting. Creating a
believable character quickly was something that I thought was impossible; and what I once thought
was a highly complicated process can be broken down into smaller, easily accessible elements.
Whilst a deeper psychological understanding of a character can help, for the role of the ensemble
sometimes it is not always necessary as the audience need to be able to understand what is
happening as quickly as possible. It is not always clear to an audience what the psychological state
of a character is, and if your choices are not clear and committed then the audience can become
lost. The three methods, voice, physicalisation and objectives can work individually or together; for
example putting physical tension into my voice helped me feel the emotions of the character whilst
also accurately reflecting the personality of the character. I have also learnt that these skills are
transferrable to other situations; such as my recent singing assessment where I had to switch
between two polar-opposite characters, songs, and vocal qualities, or a jazz class where we switch
between different styles. I feel that acting project has helped me understand how to combine all
aspects of my training together giving me an acting backbone that influences my dancing and
singing choices, as if acting was my own musical book for which everything must revolve around.

20140087

Bibliography

Alberger, J. (2015). The Art of Voice Acting: The Craft and Business of Performing for Voiceover:
Fifth Edition. Focal Press. Burlington.
Booker, C. (2004). The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories. Continuum. London.
Bruder, M. (1986). A Practical Handbook for the Actor. Vintage. USA.
Clarke, D. (1982). Made in Great Britain. Central Independent Television.
Deer, J. and Dal Vera, R. (2015). Acting in Musical Theatre: A Comprehensive Course. Second
Edition., Routledge.
Green, M. (2003). Oedipus Revisited: Steven Berkoff's Greek. Available at: http://
www.iainfisher.com/berkoff/berkoff-study-greek.html (Accessed 23 May 2016)
Gutekunst, C. and Gillett, J. (2014). Voice into Acting: Integrating voice and the Stanislavski
approach.
Kong, B. and Ho, E. (2008). Hung Gar Kung-Fu. Black Belt Books. USA.
Naden, C. (2011).The Golden Age of American Musical Theatre: 1943-1965. Scarecrow Press Inc.,
Plymouth UK.

Schechner, R. and Wylam, L. (2001). The Grotowski Sourcebook. Routledge. New York.
Sierz, A. (2010) In-Yer-Face Theatre. Available at: http://www.inyerfacetheatre.com/what.html
(Accessed 23 May 2016)
Stanislavski, K. (2003) An Actor Prepares. Routledge. New York.
Wangh, S. (2000). An Acrobat of the Heart: A Physical Approach to Acting Inspired by the Work of
Jerzy Grotowski. A Vintage Original. New York.