Awesome day today.
Car is better. Fridge is stocked. Wednesday plans to see friends magically morphed into Friday plans to see friends... and rehearsal was a blast.
Today we did select scene work. Our two actors that are in the other show, had the other show tonight. This is their closing week. We only have the final scene left to block, but we need Emilia in that final scene so we put that off and did work on a few spots including the drunken fight. That was all I was called for today.
I often tell my students that comedy is like math. There are these comic equations where if you do A + B you'll usually get C... C often being a laugh. Fights are similar except C isn't usually a laugh. C is the illusion of actual violence. The stakes of the "math" are also a little higher when working on a fight as opposed to working on comedy. An error in comedy might lead to no laughter. An error in stage combat might lead to a real injury. The hardest punch I ever took to the face was in a "fake" fight on stage.
Before, we had a rough idea of what moves we wanted to do for this fight... we sketched it out. Today was about figuring out the math of each move. A simple punch to the gut may have five or six little checkpoints along the way. The stance... the prep... eye contact... the move... the reaction... the retraction of the move by the assailant.
I could go on and on about this but... I think for the sake of the blog, it's enough to just say we were working on the math. It's a pretty wicked fight. They took some pictures today and if I can get a hold of a few of them, I'll post them. I've got a great move where I jump off a bench, wield the sword around my head, land on one knee and go for the guys knees. It's flash and trash fighting... but it's fun and, if executed well, is fun for the audience.
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I keep talking about working on movement. Here's how I have been breaking it down.
The first thing I like to do is look at 7 oppositional pairs and see which half of the pair better describes my character.
The 7 pairs I use are:
Quick/Slow
Strong/Light
Advancing/Retreating
Widening/Narrowing
Bound/Free
Direct/Indirect
Rising/Falling
I use the text and my own ideas on the character (the more it comes from the text the better) to start to pick which word of the pairing best describes the character.
Cassio is definitely an advancing character. He advances on women. He advances in fights. He is advancing through the ranks of the military. This character advances and so my Cassio has an advancing quality about his movement. He pursues. He is not on his heels. He is on the balls of his feet.
Cassio is widening. He does not hide. He likes to be seen and he likes his presence known. He's a bit of a male peacock in that regard. Cassio's a bit cocky. He is respectful and knows his place... but he fills "his place" up quite a bit. hahaha He'd drive a sweet sports car... probably red.
Cassio is direct. He goes from point A to point B in a straight line. He is not curvy in his movements... he does not beat around the bush.
Cassio has a strong energy. He has a presence... a force. It is not a strong as Othello's but on the spectrum... Cassio is more strong than light. His connection to the earth is solid.
So I do this with each of the seven pairs. However, it is quite likely that I will also play the opposite of the pair at some point in the play. If I craft this effectively, it can make for a good moment, simply through movement.
For instance... Cassio, when things are good and he is all prim and proper and official, has a rising energy. Chest up and out. Chin up a little. Energy is going up and out. I keep a rising energy throughout the first few scenes until the drunk scene. All of the sudden the alcohol gives him more of a falling energy. The falling energy really starts to hit even harder when he gets stripped of his position. Chest sinks a bit... chin drops a bit... steps may be a little heavier.
Actually the drunk scene is a great example of the benefits of using these pairs. How do I "play drunk?" I am exploring it by playing some of the opposites of what Cassio usually is.
Cassio is advancing so when he is drunk, does he leak a few steps backwards (retreating)?
Cassio is direct so when he is drunk do I move from one place to another or use my arms in more curvy lines (indirect)?
Another place I can use this is with status. The highest class character that I really deal with in the play on regular basis is Othello. The lowest is Bianca. I try to show a difference in movement in how I deal with those two.
Cassio with Othello is more of a bound energy. With Bianca it is more free.
Cassio with Othello is more of a strong energy. With Bianca it is more light.
These oppositional pairs give me a vocabulary to discuss and shape my movement choices rather than just leaving it all up to instincts.
Another thing I am looking at are Cassio's stances. There can sometimes be a lot of standing in Shakespeare plays. haha So, how can I use those times to communicate something? What is Cassio's official, business stance? (Stole that one from one of the William pictures. By the way... after further exploration... Cassio is definitely not William... hahaha.) What is Cassio's casual stance? Etc... My "official" stance is what I mentioned Iago is already making fun of in one of his monologues (in a great way!)
Finally, I like to look at gestures. I mentioned Cassio's hands a few weeks ago and have started to build into this character a few moves that he likes to use with women. Iago has a monologue where he talks of Cassio kissing three fingers on his hand over and over as he talks to Desdemona... (and kissing Desdemona's hand too. Cassio kisses hands.) I've crafted something that I use a lot in scenes with Desdemona and even Emilia and Bianca, that, I think, will track through the show and become a recognizable gesture of Cassio's.
So... oppositional pairs... stances... gestures... informed first by the script... then I fill in the blanks. Then I practice my "dances" to make sure I am locking the choices in.
Have a great Friday!
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