WEEK 3 

Sophie:

Playing this character is proving to be harder and harder. Like many of the chararcters Sophie has something to hide which at times, shows through. This underlying theme throughout the play, of hiding emotions with the personas we each put on is a key element to the connections made by the audience between the reactions of each character within the void to the memories selected.

The part I am finding most difficult is identifying times within the void which cause Sophie to go into her shell or come out. The stress of the situation is causing her to let her guard down at times but also tighten up as well.

 Sophie: I have a cut… here.

Alex: What?

Sophie: Nothing… it doesn’t matter!

There are several times in the first scene of the void where we see Sophie unknowingly open up and then quickly cover up what she sees as her ‘weakness’ with a harsh disconnected tattitude and tone. It is essential that the audience sees the difference between Sophie’s real feelings and the persona she puts on.

After blocking the first scene it is obvious that Sophie is filled with insecurity. This again brings up two options:

1. Taking on the ever difficult technique of playing Sophie as if she is covering her feelings about herself and her mother. Effectively acting as someone who is acting. (AAAAHHHHH!!!!)

2. Sophie is no longer herself in her memory and IS the 12 year-old girl. This means changing character completely and conveying youth and innocence.  

The void scenes are dead. Sophie is dead in these scenes. With little lines and not a lot of direct contact with other characters. She is invisible. My personal task for the next week is to bring her to life. I as well as some of the other actors are caught in this mind-set that if we are not being spoken to we are not reacting. Realistically Sophie’s mind is scattering causing a lot of figdeting and the need to explore her environment. There are also these three other people in the space with her who are complete strangers. A good excercise to liven up the space may be an improvisat of the scene so that there are no restrants on movements or diologue.

Lighting:

Adding onto my ideas last week about the use of shadows and through so, changing the dimensions of the stage I have built on the feel for ’Alex’s memory’. The normally bright stage for the void transforms to a blackout with centre spotlight to accentuate the change in environment. As the race goes on and Alex’s emotions run higher the light goes through a series of changes until it hits the climax (perhaps red) and then snaps back to the white void. The discussion in class as to whether it should snap straight back into the scene or have a slow fade was helpful as I was leaning toward the minority. Once a decision such as that is made it cuts down ideas and allows more specific thinking.

There is also some talk among the company as to the assignment of specific colours to each characters memories. This will be a good technique from the actors point of view as it helps the audience to identify with a colour connected with a character. It also helps the actor with their own changes in mood and feeling (something which is at work during any change in set or lighting).

Extras:

Watching class dinamics has been very interesting this week with the first real introduction of blogs as well as conflicts with ideas on various aspects of production of ‘100′. Theatre groups tend to bring together a wide mix of personalities (which is evident), who each react to things in different ways. E.g. constructive critism. The way in which we each take this on board is a good tell of character, as is the way we dispell it. Reading peoples blogs is an excellent way to identify this.

I don’t think there are a lot of clashes in the class which is good but there are a lot of people with leadership qualities which is not good. As a result there are a lot of poeple unwilling to make comprimises when it comes to their deligated area. Be objective. We all need to be willing to sacrifice our own ideas and i recommend perhaps taking a moment this week to step back to look and listen to the other people in the group.

Please feel free to leave feedback.

Pilot.