I am always amazed at how each show that I am in at STC is different from each of the previous shows. Every show, I learn something new that I have never learned before. This show, we have been focusing a lot about circumstances and how we can apply circumstances to our acting. We have also been focusing on some other very cool things that I am excited to share with all of you!
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has been a fascinating play to work on so far! I can already tell that with all of the work that the actors and actresses are putting in that this is going to be a great show. Compliments aside, this show has also served as a portal for many new members to the Story Theater Company community and it has been such an honor to work with all of the new members! I love watching all of the newcomers act, I learn so much from seeing fresh new faces at Story Theater Company! So many things have been going on during rehearsals and I have learned so many new things through the course of this production.
On our read through day, we continued a read through style that we did for some of our more recent productions. When we were in scene, the actors and actresses would go up on the stage and work together to create a scene that went along with the lines that they were reading. This read through style is better than just reading lines for many reasons. One reason is that it gives actors and actresses a chance to lay out a scene’s framework and get ideas out at the beginning of the rehearsal process rather than waiting until the middle of some random day to finally say “Hey, I’ve been thinking...” It is also a great way to build the start of different relationships with different characters. When we just read from a page, it doesn’t build anything other than some line memorization or some honesty practice. When we go out and perform a scene, it builds more things than just honesty and line memorization. The read through was great and gave us a chance to really utilize this new type of read through that we have created and critiqued over a big window of time.
So far, there have been so many different cool aspects that we have used during the rehearsal process. One of my favorites is the stage combat. Almost every rehearsal we have a specific amount of time allotted for working on our battles during the end of the show. Stage combat hasn’t just taught us how to safely fight onstage honestly, but it has taught us about trust and cues as well. The most important aspect of stage combat is trust. If you don’t trust your partner, you will get nowhere in making a successful stage fight. It’s as simple as that. Trust is the foundation on which stage combat is built upon. Cues are another important part of stage combat. You need to make sure to make your cues big when you are fighting. When they aren’t as big as they should be, the fighting can be unclear and unconstant (and unsafe!). We can apply both of these things into normal acting. It’s surprisingly simple and concise. You have to trust your fellow actors and actresses onstage and offstage and you need to pay attention to cueing and how you cue other people. It’s that simple and that’s why stage combat is a great way to work on trust and cues.
We have worked tremendously on our circumstances for this show. On Wednesday our director told us to discover another circumstance for our character. At first I was a little puzzled. As an ensemble member, I already have so many circumstances for my character, so why do I have to think of more circumstances? Then I remembered somebody saying that day that since Narnia is a fictional world, the circumstances are more extreme due to all of the different things that can take place in a fictional world. Some of my circumstances are that it has been winter for hundreds of years with no Christmas because the witch is in power, the witch’s spies are always watching every move and every decision I make, and the Pevensie children are here to fulfill the prophecy that can save us from the endless reign of the White Witch. Because those circumstances could never be true in the real world, people usually don’t take them as seriously as they need to be. When we acknowledge that these circumstances are more extreme in a fictional world due to absence from the real world, we are able to understand why they are important and apply them better to our story.
Now it’s on to finally discovering a new circumstance. Most people think about the mental circumstances that different characters have, but I feel like some of the overlooked physical circumstances need to be acknowledged as well. As a part of the ensemble, my character has probably been through a lot of battles with the witches spies already. This makes me tired, hungry, thirsty, and physically wounded. I feel that it has been a while since we have been in a battle, but this doesn’t mean that all of our wounds have been treated or all of our needs have been filled.
Something related to physical circumstances are body centers. I remember that my director Kivan really liked to talk about body centers in some past shows that I was in, but lately we haven’t really been talking about them too much. We have talked about them here and there and I’m pretty sure that everyone takes them into consideration, but these relate to our physical circumstances more than most people think. Body centers are points on your body where your character leads in walking and in basic movement. Because Aslan’s army has been through countless battles, our body centers could be towards our head or shoulders to make it seem like we are tired and weary. Because we are proud of our work as soldiers, our body centers could be towards our chest or stomach. We also have to take into consideration our characters physical appearance and mental state while choosing our body centers. Our body centers can also change throughout the story because of our character’s physical and mental state as I mentioned before.
Thinking about all of these things has given me a whole different perspective on how circumstances are handled, how they are applied, and how physical circumstances can be applied to body centers and other aspects. When any theater company takes these aspects of theater into consideration, they can turn their shows from good to great!
Now I should probably stop writing before this blog post takes up another page! If you have read this far you must be very committed. I admire you for reading my long long post.
Ryan Hinderaker
(Battle Boar)
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)
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)
Risk Taking
Risk: A situation that can involve exposure to danger. A situation that can, not will expose us to danger. Can and will are two very different words, and we often get that mixed up on stage. In theatre you have to take risks. They don’t always go as planned, but if we didn’t take risks, how would we tell the story? How could we build off of each other's ideas? At STC risk taking is one of the key ingredients to a great show. We have to be comfortable with trying something that may not work.
In rehearsal we play this game called the number game. Everyone sits in a circle, with their eyes closed, and we have to count as high as we can without two people saying a number at the same time as someone else, if someone does say a number at the same time as someone else then we have to start back at zero. This game often gets very stressful, but it wouldn’t get anywhere, unless people take a risk.
There are often long pauses of silence and no one wants to say a number, because they think someone else will say that number at the same time as them, and if we didn’t take risks this silence would go on forever. Nobody wants to go see a show where nothing happens. That is exactly why we take risks, to make something happen. This is where we need to remember that we don’t always get exposed to danger, and when someone remembers that they count up another number.
They may have successfully taken that risk, or someone may have said a number at the same time as them. But it’s ok if it doesn’t work, that’s how we fix it. Sometimes all it takes to spark an idea is a small mistake. So don’t be afraid to take a risk, because if it doesn’t go your way, it could create something even more beautiful than what you expected.
In the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe it’s especially important that we take risks. There are so many creatures that aren’t in our world, therefore we don’t know how they act, or what they’re like in general. So we pretty much just have to get up on stage and try it. For instance, my character is Mother Christmas. Santa Clause isn’t a very uncommon character, but it’s a little harder for me because I’m a girl. I have to take everything I know about Santa and alter it to fit me. We also have creatures that some of us have never even heard of. Like Hags, Boggles and Spectres. The only resources we have are the stories that we've heard about them. Our director recently gave us the privilege of a presentation giving us more information about our characters. So now that we know about our characters, we have the challenge of figuring out how to portray them on stage.
Looking back on the previous shows I done with STC I get to see how much I’ve grown, and I can honestly say that STC is one of the most amazing things that has happened in my life. If anyone is thinking about going out for a play, or going to a workshop, please do it, because you will be so happy you did. I’m so excited to be apart of more STC productions and I can’t wait until you can all come see The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Libby Gens
(Mother Christmas)
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