Friday 12–Sep–08

Today we started trying to develop our characters. What physicality would they have? What quality would their movements have? To help us discover this we started experimenting with the Laban Technique. The Laban Technique is a system used by dancers in order to make notes on performances. Essentially it defines actions into direct, meaning the action is straight and has a clear goal and indirect, where the action is more physical and experimental and not necessarily goal driven. Actions are also classed as heavy (a strong movement) and soft (a lighter movement) as well as fast and slow. An action combines all of these for example it could be direct, heavy and fast or indirect, soft and slow. These are known as Laban states and embody a distinct quality. An action which is direct, heavy and fast is known as a punch and is quality normally adopted by an angry or dominant character. Movements can also be bound (meaning they have a definite end) or free (meaning they can go on.) We each chose an action our character would perform and played around with various Laban states to see which suited our character best. I think from a basic understanding of my character he is direct, heavy and fast. Yet, I am having problems with my character. I can’t seem to get a sense of his mindset. Some line seem to say he is angry, others that he is more vulnerable and at the moment I can’t seem to unite the two. He has such a strong political vie I struggle to see how this would not be ever-present in his mind and yet he has gone to the theatre showing he has other interests. I’m also unsure about his tone. His language ranges between the formal and the theatrical making it difficult to find a voice suitable to play both with. Still it’s something to work on. I reckon once I’ve learnt my lines it’ll be easier because at the moment I’m losing fluency by having to constantly looking at my script.

: 23 Sep 2008 00:48 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem