Fem Character Development
Character Development
Whilst performing in the Fen, I play the part of May whose Val’s mom and Mrs Finch who is the ministers wife. May looks after Val’s kids while she attempts to start a new life with Frank, whom I gather, May doesn’t like. May appears in a few scenes alongside Deb and Shona whom she is looking after. She is a wise and caring woman who wants the best for her daughter as well as her grandchildren which relates back to why she doesn’t like Frank. Mrs Finch only appears in one scene (scene 14) where she welcomes Val to the church and explains that God can help everyone no matter the sin. From what I discover when performing Mrs Finch, I believe she is loving and forgiving of everyone. To contrast the two different characters, …show more content…
To create the character, you need a relaxed mind by clearing all thoughts and any obstructions that could interfere with the thought process, to concentrate. Chekhov admitted that if you “Work with imagination, concentration, relaxation and the development of a sense of truth are all aspects of training” (Chamberlain, 2004: 47). Using our imagination, our mind draws and rectifies mental images that we use to construct a character. We develop the imagination by identifying gestures our characters might have, and by asking ourselves questions in relation to the character to build more of a backstory and personal design, for instance; “What are you wearing? What are you doing? Walk me around your house. What is your relationship like with this character? Show me how you would approach this part of the scene.” Stanislavski agreed that “As actors and human beings, we can only have our own thoughts and feelings … But we can change bodies” (Benedetti, 2014: 95) this implies that that emotion that we portray through the character has to be original and not from anyone else. (Benedetti, 2014: 95) Stanislavski also believed that there are unwanted traits within our personality that we dislike and would rather other people didn’t know about (Benedetti, 2014: 95), however, we would feel safe in portraying these traits whilst in character, as the audience would associate these traits with the character rather than ourselves, thus acting as a mask to hide our true self
Whilst performing in the Fen, I play the part of May whose Val’s mom and Mrs Finch who is the ministers wife. May looks after Val’s kids while she attempts to start a new life with Frank, whom I gather, May doesn’t like. May appears in a few scenes alongside Deb and Shona whom she is looking after. She is a wise and caring woman who wants the best for her daughter as well as her grandchildren which relates back to why she doesn’t like Frank. Mrs Finch only appears in one scene (scene 14) where she welcomes Val to the church and explains that God can help everyone no matter the sin. From what I discover when performing Mrs Finch, I believe she is loving and forgiving of everyone. To contrast the two different characters, …show more content…
To create the character, you need a relaxed mind by clearing all thoughts and any obstructions that could interfere with the thought process, to concentrate. Chekhov admitted that if you “Work with imagination, concentration, relaxation and the development of a sense of truth are all aspects of training” (Chamberlain, 2004: 47). Using our imagination, our mind draws and rectifies mental images that we use to construct a character. We develop the imagination by identifying gestures our characters might have, and by asking ourselves questions in relation to the character to build more of a backstory and personal design, for instance; “What are you wearing? What are you doing? Walk me around your house. What is your relationship like with this character? Show me how you would approach this part of the scene.” Stanislavski agreed that “As actors and human beings, we can only have our own thoughts and feelings … But we can change bodies” (Benedetti, 2014: 95) this implies that that emotion that we portray through the character has to be original and not from anyone else. (Benedetti, 2014: 95) Stanislavski also believed that there are unwanted traits within our personality that we dislike and would rather other people didn’t know about (Benedetti, 2014: 95), however, we would feel safe in portraying these traits whilst in character, as the audience would associate these traits with the character rather than ourselves, thus acting as a mask to hide our true self