Saturday, October 22, 2016

Discoveries from our First Through

On Wednesday, we completed our first complete run-through of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. It helped me to make many discoveries about specific concepts that actors must consider, as well as discoveries that are specific to my character, Mr Beaver.

    While I was onstage, I felt that our biggest obstacle was the lack of energy. One of our strengths at Story Theater Company is typically our strong listening, both on and off stage, and I felt that our listening was strong throughout most of the run. Since we are listening to each other so intently, we feed off of each other’s energy. We always build on each other’s ideas. If somebody has low energy as they share their character’s idea, it impacts the energy of every other actor/character in the scene. If we do not come into the scene with strong enough intentions, it hinders everybody’s ability to fully explore all of our options. We must fully commit to one idea before we can decide if there is a better one. Since it is still early in the process, it is understandable that many of us are uncertain about pieces of our acting and blocking. However, we cannot allow these uncertainties to lead to hesitancy. One actress that was very engaging during the run-through was Morgan Reetz, who is one of the actresses playing the White Witch, because she was able to overcome this obstacle. When she entered for the first time, she exerted an incredible power over Edmund. Not only did her commitment terrify and amaze everybody sitting in the audience, we were able to accurately analyze the blocking and acting of the scene. She truly showed what the characters and scene could be, and it will be very beneficial to further exploring that moment, as well as the character of the White Witch. In a later scene where Morgan gave a speech to her followers, I was fascinated by the way her energy was shared with the ensemble members. It proved to me that energy is contagious on stage.

This scene also helped me understand where your character’s energy comes from. I feel that you gain energy with strong adherence to circumstances, or facts about the story. When you boil down your circumstances and make them as specific as possible, you are able to become more personally invested in the story, since you are able to determine exactly what your character wants in each moment, exactly what may be keeping your character from achieving this goal, and exactly why your character needs to achieve this goal. This was proven to me in this scene, because there was a clear split between the actors who had specified their circumstances in this moment and those who had not. Some of the characters didn’t seem like they really cared about what happened, or their only motive seemed to be their desire to please the Witch. This mindset was a strong contrast from those who had specified every fact until they cared about everything that happened. I came to this conclusion after seeing a difference between characters with a lack of energy, characters with unfocused energy, and characters with focused energy. Those with a lack of energy or unfocused energy drew my attention away from the story and were not leaning in as much, while those with focused energy were incredibly invested on a personal level, making audience members care more about the story.

    Throughout the process of creating this show, I have learned so much from the acting of new artists at Story Theater Company. Each of the actors has a strong set of strengths, and they have helped me understand many important ideas. One of the most thought-provoking actors is Nate VanDyk.  He is always in the moment when he is acting, and every action he commits is related to what had just happened to him. This results in a very honest performance, as he is truthfully considering how his character, Edmund, would react. When you are watching Nate perform, you become incredibly engaged in everything that is occurring in front of you. He is working so hard to achieve his objective, and you are able to feel the importance of every one of his tasks. However, he is able to avoid the trap of becoming unrealistically intense or fighting as hard as possible without a break. He explores various dynamics, making his performance more relatable to the average person, who experiences a wide range of emotions. Nate’s fascinating balance between keeping the stakes high and remaining relaxed has helped me understand more about the potential depth of characters, and he has helped me realize that it is more important to let each obstacle hit you than it is to aggressively pursue your objective all of the time.

    We have been given the opportunity to make an endless amount of discoveries about theater, as well as this specific story, and these thoughts are only the beginning of the explorations we have been able to delve into. I am thrilled to continue to work at these issues and the other obstacles that we will face as we continue this process of creating Narnia, and I am extremely excited to specify all of the specific moments in this piece of storytelling.

Ben Siegel

(Mr Beaver)


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