Fun Challenges

In this play we face several challenges, all of which are a little hard and mostly fun, and some of which I’d like to talk about.

There is the challenge of acting honestly onstage, using our given circumstances to make a character real.

There is the challenge of memorizing and blocking the whole play, not only for the sake of performing but also getting to know the story and making it our own. Specifically to this story, there is the challenge of staging an entire battle as realistically as possible.

These things are not only challenging, but also fun. We tackle each rehearsal with a willingness to learn and discover. One of the things we discover more every time is how to become a character.

To become a character honestly, you have to understand that character. One of the hardest things for me to do is to actually be the character, instead of analyzing every action the character would do, and what exactly would make it most realistic. This challenge is different for each of us, but we all understand the importance and difficulty of it. Every time we are set to work on character discovery, I try and find out more about my character; things like: What are my character’s objectives? How does she walk and talk? Is she confident? Trying to define a character in this way helps you become them; think like them; act like them.

I think Kivan’s dramaturgy really helped most of us with defining our character and understanding how they think, move, and live.  Doing research on the kind of animal you are, or what London was like during the Blitz, helps to find out about the environment your character lives in. These new discoveries are very interesting, and I can’t wait to keep learning to live out my character as if I was she.

Another challenge we face is creating the story. By this I don’t just mean memorizing and blocking, but really understanding the story and making it ours. We can use the script for most of this, going over it and thinking about the scenes; but it also depends on how you interpret it. It’s up to us to take the written lines and make them our own, to turn the whole thing into something spectacular. Each new play is a new learning process, whether it is your first, your last, or somewhere in between. With every new script and character, we have fun with experimenting and discovering what the play really is. A good way to do this is the kind of read-through we’ve done for the last few shows, which means we not only read the lines but we also get up and move around, making actions as we come to them, and taking risks with what we do and how we do it. Taking a risk with one of your lines or movements is a really important part of staging. If we all flatly said the lines written down for us, then wait for Kivan to tell us what to do, the play would be very hard to do and very boring, indeed.

We have all done a great job of jumping in and using the script to create a wonderful experience, and a fantastic show. For some of us this is our first show experience, and I hope all of our newcomers feel welcome and excited. You’re not newcomers anymore, you’re one of us now!

A third challenge we face is the stage combat involved in this play. So far we have learned the basic punch and some sword movements, and I’m excited to see what we can do with them and what else we can learn. This is another instance where knowing your character comes into play, because if you have no idea how your character fights, it might be very hard to move forward in staging the battle.

STC has not done much stage combat in shows before, especially not a battle in which almost the entire cast is involved. As this is a new experience for most of us, it’s fun to discover new fighting styles, who works best together, and the like. This battle may be one of the biggest challenges we face, but it can also be one of the most fun. As we move forward, it will be interesting to discover the intricate blocking and the right movements to make the battle awesome.

Even though we are still early in the rehearsal process, we have already grown together as an ensemble, and we’ve been working together fairly well. As we continue to learn and discover, I believe we will work through each of these challenges, not only taking them seriously but also seeing the fun in them. Let’s make this play awesome!

~Bethany VanDyk (Unicorn)