Collins --> THE REAL DEAL

One thing that I have found has been really useful is that my character was a real person. This has proved really crucial to my characterisation and development process as I have had something to research and provide a bases for my character. The fact that my character was a real person, I feel adds more pressure my performance because I am representing and telling a real persons story and it is really important to me that I convey him as honestly and truthfully as possible. As a result of this I have found that doing sufficient background research into my character has allowed me to be confident in the character and opinions that I am displaying to the audience, as I feel as I am continuing someone's story and legacy in a respectful yet truthful manner. On top of this I have found that having a basis to look into and to explore has really pushed my character development and understanding of him. This has been exceptionally useful to me personally as in the start of my character development process I was completely focused on that fact that I am playing a man and felt as though this was the most important thing physically in my character and that it had to conveyed in a believable manner to the audience. Although this is true, I found that it was consuming my character exploration and the choices that I was making. When I went back to the research that I found on my character, I found that simply exploring him as a real person allowed me to think of him as a person rather than defined by his gender. As a result of this I have found that my character choices have become based around him as a person not solely around his gender. I feel that this has pushed my character development, allowing me to connect to and understand him more clearly which has created a more truthful, real character of which the audience can relate to.

Research:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Collins_(governor)

"but did not enjoy being at sea" --> I think that this is really interesting as a pre-tense to my character before he appears on stage as it has made me consider how his journey had developed on the ship and how this could have affected him mentally and emotionally as well as physically. 

"Collins was responsible, under the governor, for the colony's entire legal establishment." --> This really made me consider the power and status that Collins as a character holds not only amongst the convicts but the officers as well. This made me realise how crucial he is to the colony and how he is creating the very beginning of a society and the legal side of this. It made me think about how much his views on justice would have impacted on the colony as a whole and for years and years after. This has helped me to take into account the importance of my characters views and the weight they hold over the rest of the society. 

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/collins-david-1912

"13 June 1777 he married Mary (Maria Stuart), daughter of Captain Charles Proctor" --> The idea of him having a family back in England I think is hugely important to his characterisation but also to his attitude to his surroundings in the play. I particularly think that it would add heaviness and pain to the line "England" when he is remembering home. It has allowed me to have a purpose and something driving that line, which has really helped me to connect to it as well. 

"n. In March 1790 after Ross had been appointed lieutenant-governor at Norfolk Island, Collins could write to his father, 'Since Major Ross went from here, tranquillity may be said to have been our guest. Oh! that the Sirius when she was lost, had proved his—but no more of that. While here he made me the object of his persecution—if a day will come—a day of retribution'." --> This has really helped me to think about my relationship with the character Ross and how my character feels under his power. I think that this will really help drive the tension and stakes in the scenes that we have with each other. Also it will definitely make me consider the proximities of our spacing on stage and how this physically can tell a story to the audience.  

"Like Phillip he had a compassionate interest in the Aboriginals"--> For the period that our play is set and when he would have been alive, I feel that this view point would have been really fresh and modern and revolutionary. I think this says something about the nature of the character that I am playing and the care that he has within him. I also think it opens a curiosity within him and makes me consider him as a person who loves to explore and learn about new ways and people. 

Research --> The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant

This is a story of Mary Bryant who we can assume is Dabby Bryant in our play: "Our Counties Good". However it also focuses on the journey of the convict and the officers as well and I have found it really helpful to not only get a deeper and clearer understanding of my character but of the situation and the context of the show as well.

In regards to my character development and exploration what I have found most helpful from this clip is the scene with the officers eating and discussing the convicts and their treatment. I found this helpful because this scene is so similar to the Bird scene and the big debate scene amongst the officers. I think that in these scenes there has been something missing from the officers and the atmosphere that they are creating. However this clip has allowed me to see the casualness of the discussion that they are having and it made me think how death was such a normal thing to them. This will have an impact on how I approach the language and how I speak and project and display my lines in our scenes. It also made me think about how I approach the convicts and my opinion to their lives and how we treat them.

Also the shooting in this clip made me think about how I approach the guns as an object but also as a deadly weapon. It made me think about physically I would hold the gun and how I could hold it and use it. I think that this is really important because at the moment we are not approaching the guns as realistic objects and ones that could seriously cause pain and death. Also the physicality of the guns of them being heavy and how that changes how I walk and hold them.

Costume!!!!!!!

As an actor I found that getting my costume was really helpful as it allowed me to tap into my character and to be able to bring him to life. I perticually think that for Our Country's Good, it was really helpful for us to get our costumes as the context of our performance is one that we aren't used to or have any connection with so it allows us to get deeper into the world of the play. 

I found that it helped me get more specifically into the gender of Collins as I am going against my gender in the performance. It has been harder to connect to and on top of that to get into the physicality of my character. I have found that the costume has not only allowed me to connect to and explore the physical character of a man but also it has really helped me with the class of the Collins. I found that it has given me more status ad power within my body and my voice which has allowed me to express this through the performance. It has also made me feel more comfortable within my character and that I can push my choices even further. 

Modern day

In our acting technique lesson we did an exercise where we took our characters into the modern day. As our play is set in the 18th century for us as actors and modern teenagers it could be hard for us to connect with our characters and to understand what they are going through. This exercise allowed us to put our characters into an enviroment that we are used to so that we can connect with our characters more easily.

Through this exercise I made some really interesting discoveries about my charatcer. When I thought about my character in a modern context I immediately saw him in the role of a politician for the conservative party, before having gone to oxford to do law and spent half his career working job the courts. I found this interesting as I imagined him as the type if politician how avoids all questions and had an old school arrogance to him. Before I had always seen my character as a calm and quite reasonable character however I realised that this was only a result of the context and that he still holds these sexiest and bigoted views but because of the context he isn't seen as a bad or hblikeably character. By putting him in the modern day I realised that these views are core to his personality and to his life and career and that they are prominent in his life making him a harsher character.

The exercise also helped me to think about the physicality of my character. I instinctively imagined my character in the modern day to be the stereotypical fat, repulsing, stuck up, middle class man. Although this was a very clear image I was unsure about how it translates to the context of the play. However what I could take from this was the fullness that came with the physicality of the modern version of my character and the power and slight arrogance that came with how he holds himself and his presence. 

Character exercise

In today’s session we did a character exercise that looked our characters physicality’s and how we can apply these to our performance. We did this by exploring our character as a caricature and exaggerating them to the extreme. This allowed us to really discover and learn about our characters, the way the walk and how they hold their bodies, doing this in an exaggerated manner really heightened their movement making it clear to us as actors. I found that this really allowed me to feel the weight being balanced in my legs and for me to be heavier as a man, doing this exaggerated highlighted just where and how the weight was balanced in my legs so that when I toned it down I could still be aware of how to move just in a more subtle way. It also made me think about where I lead with my body as my character and how I hold myself, I found that even though I was being lead by my hips/knees and my legs where very prominent in the movement, my upper body was still very stiff and upright. I think that this shows how his masculinity is rooted in his hips and legs but his status and power is shown through his upper body and his head held high shows how because of his status he looks down on the convicts.

I found that through this exercise I went to the stereotype of my character – the upper class, white, male of the time. Interestingly I had tried to stay clear of the stereotypes as I wanted to keep him original and his characterisation individual. I think that this shows that the stereotype might have some truth in it and where it developed from and that the pompousness and arrogance displayed in his movement could be a small part that I could layer into my characterisation. I think that because of their status it was common for the upper class characters to have the stereotypical harshness and confidence and that I could use this in a way to create my character while still making him an individual.

While we were creating these exaggerated characters we looked at developing some idiosyncrasies for our characters that could be taken into the performance. The first one that I developed was a twitch in the face that included a sniff. I found this one as in the new world I felt that my character would be interested in the new sights, sounds and smells and that this was one way to emphasis how different the world is to him. Also I found that this was a type of way of looking down at the convicts and implies that their dirt repulses him. Another one was the development of a props and I felt that my character would use a pipe, I found that this emphasises the thinker quality within my character. By using a pipe I found that it opened my character to explore the way that he thinks and the pleasure he takes in enjoying thinking. The last one that I found was how I held my hands. I felt that when I was walking and hand my hands either behind or in front of me there was a certain movement/rubbing in them to show how he considers and thinks a lot. Personally I found that it shows the more academic side to my character and his love of books and reading. I moved my hands as if there was something absent, such as a book, this allowed me to explore the inner love for reading and education is important to my character.

I found that doing this exercise was really useful as it allowed me to connect to the physicality of my character and to develop small personal movements that define him. I think that this is really useful as if I ever feel disconnected to my character on stage I can just revert to these small movements that I find define him and reconnect to him on a physical level which leads to a psychological and emotional level. I also think it allowed me to make lots of really strong, clear decisions to my character so that I was becoming more independent in my thinking about him and making him my own and bringing him off the page.

Costume

This is the costume that I will be wearing for my character. Personally being able to see my character in the traditional wear has opened my mind and imagination to him more because I am more able to connect him to the context. I think that it has allowed me to think about the physicality of my character as the costume will effect my posture and the way that I hold myself. I think that status comes with my costume and the upper, powerful class is symbolizes through it making me think about how I would move in my costume. I think that it would make me what to assert a sense of power within my voice and characterization so that I can match the power of my uniform.

I also think that the smaller details on my costume really highlight the status he has within the army and the colony that they are building. The little pieces of gold show a higher status rather than other officers that have less gold. I think that this shows the importance of my characters input into the colony and how this effects what my character thinks about the colony and how he would like to shape it.

CELEBRITIES WHO LIKE THE SOUND OF THEIR OWN VOICE

 

My personal character research was to find celebrities who like the sound of their own voice. It was interesting for me to get this task as I hadn't originally thought of my character as one who was self obsessed and so it showed him in a new light to me.

 

My immediate instict was Piers Mogan, so I started to research video's of him talking and I found that he was especially useful as he is often taking part in debates as my character is, making him relatable.

This video was especially helpful for me as it showed him in full debate and how he acts and still gets his voice heard. Certain characteristics have been really useful for me to watch and analyse as they could be modified to go into my character and to help me create the vocal and physical characterisation of Collins. One of the main qualities that I picked up on was how Piers would interupt when he thought others was wrong and had to have his voice heard to the point that he would continue to talk over the other people to make sure that his point got put across. I think that this is really interesting to see as it could show him wanting to intergect his power into the debate and to use that to give him an advantage. It also shows a stubbon, controling nature within him as a person and that he can't have others making him seem wrong.

However I don't think that my character is as arrogant and aggrsive as Piers is, consquently I feel that I could take certain aspects of him but dull them down and calm them slightly to make them more realsitic to my character.

 

 

Another celebrity that I looked up was Jeremy Clarkson (and yes he is coincidentally talking about Piers Morgan :P ). This was also really helpful for my character as, especially in this interview, as he is slightly calmer than Piers and shows him getting lost in the sound of his own voice but not in an arguamentative manner. Something that really helped me in this video was how he really embelished the story and exagerated certain moments to extend the story and to pro-long being able to be the center of attention. I found this useful as my character does like to go on a bit and I think that I could use this in my characterisation by extanding my sentances through my voice and drawing out the vowls to make words longer. I think that I could enjoy the sound of my voice like Clarkson does and take pleasure in the words that I am saying and the story that I'm telling instead of wanting it to be over with quickley.