Introduction
To assist us in establishing effective characters for the forthcoming assessment, we began by exploring what is meant by Character Motivation This is a fundamental tool for any actor, as it gets them to consider many facets of a character's living situation, as well as how they can use physical and vocal skills to embody these things in the true nature of said character.
The three core elements of character motivation can be remembered using the acronym DAB:
Desire - what is it the character wants the most at this given time?
Achieve - what is the character striving to do in the scene?
Barriers - what are the obstacles lying in the way of them achieving this?
As time was limited, this was difficult to consider, as all of our characters have flexible and diverse character motivations throughout the show. However, as a plenary to the lesson I will spend time assessing these criteria for each scene my character is in!
Section A - Improvisation
Preparation
For our improvisation examination, we made use of a rehearsal technique known as Hot Seating. This exercise consists of one person being - as the name suggests - sat in a chair, being asked questions by the other members of the group, as if they were their character being asked said questions. They must think on their feet, and respond in a way which they believe their character would.
However, as we discovered, there are certain questions that are more useful to improve one's improvisation skills and strengthen their understanding of their character. These 'core/deep questions' require a greater deal of consideration and planning, which can throw less experienced improvisers off, and cause them to stumble; hence why this is such an effective exercise!
Examples of these sorts of questions include:
-What are your plans for the future?
-What is your relationship/status like compared with [other character]?
-What is your relationship with your parents like?
-Why did you choose to do [job/decision in show?]
In order to prepare for this task - although it will always be one that is considered spontaneous and unpredictable - we were put in pairs and asked to trial the questions on one another, before we moved onto the actual assessment before the full class.
Assessment Evidence
Section B - Working from a Text
Preparation
The second element of the assessment is a performance of a scene as a group. In this instance, Act 2, Scene 1 was decided upon fr the majority of the class, with a few other student performing a separate scene.
We were only given 20 minutes to block this scene, and the duration is rather long. As such it has since been refined and improved for our full school stage adaptation; it acted, however, as a decent framework for us to base the new blocking upon.
Moreover, at the end of the scene, each person was asked to describe their status in the scene (along with one way they demonstrated this), and one aspect of their own performance that they would change/improve on as a Plenary. I will include a transcript of my individual statement below my evidence.
Assessment Evidence
''I feel like Vivienne, at the start, thinks she has more power than she does... So she's trying, you know, to appeal, and be more gentle with her movements; but she keeps continuously getting pushed down by other characters.''
''And I was showing that by, you know, decreasing distance between people, trying to assert herself using my build to sort of lean into people.''
''But to change that, I would have more of a gradual decline, so start with my posture more open and slowly close off as she loses her (presumed) power.''
Results
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