The warm up we did today as a class, I found beneficial to my character understanding and development.
Our first order was to walk around the room at a neutral speed, drop to the floor when told, touch a wall when told and stretch as high as possible when told. This exercise warmed our bodies up and got us thinking about our spatial awareness which is an important part of being on stage with others.
Walking around the room in character was our next order. I thought about what state of tension Lisa represents and I went for a 2, which reflects her attitude towards life in the second act in particular. I made decisions about what facial expressions Lisa will be pulling in act two. These are going to be a mix of anger and confusion towards her friends family and doctors.
Next, we had to carry this movement on however this time in slow motion. Looking around the room at my classmates at this point made me consider how they were walking and how I could take some of their ideas and incorporate their ideas in to mine.
Next, we went up to other members of the class and greeted then with one of our lines from the script. I chose 'Um, hello I wonder if you could help me, I've lost something?'. The aim was to over power the other person's line with our own. For me, this confirmed the meaning and importance of both my line and the other persons therefore made me decide who's line was more important and had more meaning to the context. This also made me realise how powerful some lines could be when said with a raised, for example 'Biffer will know' said by Luke for The goat sounded very powerful as when Luke delivered his line, he looked away. The projection and movement pushed me towards believing he was actually looking at Biffer and my eyeliner naturally followed his.
From this starter activity, it has helped me think about how Lisa May greet and speak to people she comes across, especially in act two, in particular the doctors and nurses.
Today we also decided on what staging we want for the first half of Dissocia. We have gone for a simple look, of staging blocks around the outside if the stage, layered up randomly. We built this, making Rachel's idea come to life, this is our staging.
Photograph taken by class member, Henry Marshall.
We have also decided to place black cardboard (not pictured) on the side of the blocks and to have the characters write and draw on them, their emotions and thoughts in character as the act goes on. In the big transition from act 1 to 2, we will pull the seating back and move these black pieces of cardboard filled with drawings, up on to the surface if the seating. The audience will then see these pictures as they come back in to act two, with them being the only link between Lisa's world of Dissocia and her hospital bed. We have done this so hopefully the audience will work out what is going on in Lisa's head and make the connections between the characters in act 1 and 2.
The final part of the lesson involved the staging of the first scene, between Lisa and Victoria. I made annotations all over my script to ensure I remembered the staging for future reference.
Photographs taken by myself from my Dissocia script.
We decided to make Lisa protective in this scene over herself and question the fact a strange women is in her home making her feel a certain way. I do this by pacing across the stage, sitting down in a staging block and using strong thoughtful facial expressions to convey her thought processes and act out a moment with Victoria when we both pretend to see a spider on stage and follow it across the stage with our eyeline.
Ultimately, today I made decisions affecting Lisa's attitude towards strangers, which is cautious and she shows this through the language she uses and facial expressions she pulls. I also decided how to convey to the audience that she has a mental illness and I am going to do this through the fact she let's a stranger come in to her home and speak to her in a certain way. I will so this through her tone of voice to some sarcastic comments Victoria says. Finally, I think I have developed Lisa as a character today through how she interacts with other, in a cautious and protective manor and I believe the starter activity really helped me do so.
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