Thursday, November 10, 2005
Wednesday Group. States of Intensity.
Another good day at the office. The 'Casting session' is a very good starter to the work. The pictures are very interesting and we spend a lot of time looking at them as they lie spread on the floor. The Ninas range from the quite beautiful to the dignified to the shy to the quite strong and purposeful to the woman of 'Untouchable' caste.
A lot of discussion about which we prefer - and why. About how casting is a choice. About not getting too hung up on naturalistic casting. How the actor's appearance, gender and ethnicity ALWAYS say something. As does the actor's individuality. The understudy doing the part is going to be different from the main actor's. Not in terms of 'better' or 'worse'.
But different. The casting of the actor, though, is the director's CHOICE, and says something.
Steve then stepped back and asked Margory to 'cast' Nina from the group. She chose two: Hayley and Eva B. She had her reasons; that's how she saw the role.
We talk less about John but the same basically applies.
We then look at the text, as on Monday. Once again, insufficient thought has been given to the Stanislavskian method - as with Monday's group. And insufficient thought to the 'internal dynamics' behind these little black marks on white paper. About their ability to release the detective in the director, the archaelogist in the actor and the imagination of both.
To picture the anguish of the family that night when the sister doesn't return home. To realise the family's frantic attempts to rescue her from the clutches of a brutal military. Nina's thought that maybe 'the English journalist' at the hotel where she worked might help. Her knowledge that he is a lech. That he's known to try it on with all the room service girls.
The fact that she hardly sleeps that night. That every sound in the street that night might be her sister's return - but isn't. That she replays a thousand times in her head the 'plan' before that phone call comes. That her whole life is focused on making sure that when the call does come that she's the one to take the tray up.
And that when she walks through the door SHE KNOWS WHAT HER OBJECTIVE IS. And what's more important, so does the actor playing her.
Second half we run quickly through the States of Intensity and at the end, rather than singing we invent a little sequence for ourselves of a person in the desert who sees an oasis which turns out to be a mirage, so they fall back onto their knees to be confronted by a scorpion which at a second look turns out to be a jewelled scorpion of great worth, which the person carries round in their hand and then puts in their pocket but it turns out to be a real scorpion after all...
To have read Good Person of Szechuan by next week to be prepared to work.
Another good day at the office. The 'Casting session' is a very good starter to the work. The pictures are very interesting and we spend a lot of time looking at them as they lie spread on the floor. The Ninas range from the quite beautiful to the dignified to the shy to the quite strong and purposeful to the woman of 'Untouchable' caste.A lot of discussion about which we prefer - and why. About how casting is a choice. About not getting too hung up on naturalistic casting. How the actor's appearance, gender and ethnicity ALWAYS say something. As does the actor's individuality. The understudy doing the part is going to be different from the main actor's. Not in terms of 'better' or 'worse'.
But different. The casting of the actor, though, is the director's CHOICE, and says something.Steve then stepped back and asked Margory to 'cast' Nina from the group. She chose two: Hayley and Eva B. She had her reasons; that's how she saw the role.
We talk less about John but the same basically applies.
We then look at the text, as on Monday. Once again, insufficient thought has been given to the Stanislavskian method - as with Monday's group. And insufficient thought to the 'internal dynamics' behind these little black marks on white paper. About their ability to release the detective in the director, the archaelogist in the actor and the imagination of both.
To picture the anguish of the family that night when the sister doesn't return home. To realise the family's frantic attempts to rescue her from the clutches of a brutal military. Nina's thought that maybe 'the English journalist' at the hotel where she worked might help. Her knowledge that he is a lech. That he's known to try it on with all the room service girls.
The fact that she hardly sleeps that night. That every sound in the street that night might be her sister's return - but isn't. That she replays a thousand times in her head the 'plan' before that phone call comes. That her whole life is focused on making sure that when the call does come that she's the one to take the tray up.
And that when she walks through the door SHE KNOWS WHAT HER OBJECTIVE IS. And what's more important, so does the actor playing her.
Second half we run quickly through the States of Intensity and at the end, rather than singing we invent a little sequence for ourselves of a person in the desert who sees an oasis which turns out to be a mirage, so they fall back onto their knees to be confronted by a scorpion which at a second look turns out to be a jewelled scorpion of great worth, which the person carries round in their hand and then puts in their pocket but it turns out to be a real scorpion after all...
To have read Good Person of Szechuan by next week to be prepared to work.
