You are on page 1of 9

c  

    
Characterisation

The Crucible
In lesson we focused on the characters John and Elizabeth Proctor and their relationship. We
also looked at the development of characters roles and how our facial expressions and body
language could change the character. We focused on different Stanislavski techniques to prepare
actors to take on roles. In the warm-up we did an exercise called ³Point and Express´. In this
exercise, someone would call a character¶s name and point at someone. The person she pointed
would then have to act like that character and say a line that, that character would say. We found
this hard because we didn¶t fully understand the character and we didn¶t know who he/she was
talking to. Stanislavski believed to truly play a character unless lived the life of the character
(Given Circumstances, Magic if). We explored characterisation in the ³The Crucible´ by getting
into groups of two and looking over a conversation with John Proctor and Elizabeth in act 4. We
then used Stanislavski techniques such as magic if, emotional memory and given circumstances.
With these techniques we changed the circumstances to different times and settings such as when
they first met, 2 years, 5 years and 10 years down the line and at parents evening and at a party.
When we rehearsed the first scenario, I realised that my character (John Proctor) had true
feelings for his wife. When we done it 2 years later I realised that the relationship was
unintentionally falling apart because of the stress from John¶s Work. By doing this we found out
more about our characters history therefore we knew more about the characters and had better
idea of there feelings they had. This made it easier to play the character effectively.
I found it much easier to play my character after I had done the different activities as it gave me
more control over my character.

The Caucasian Chalk Circle


In This lesson we focused on the differences between the characterisation in naturalistic and epic
theatre. In the first activity we walked around while the teacher would call out a characters name.
We would then have to become that character using our body language, facial expression and our
voice. He would then clap his hands for the second time and we would over exaggerate our
character. He would then clap his hands for a third and final time and we would pick an animal
to that likened to the character. One of the characters he said was Baby who lost toy. I used my
facial expressions and body language to represent the child. When he clapped the second time I
found myself using my voice a lot more. When I likened it to an animal I chose a monkey as its
small and moves around curiously like its looking for someone. This activity helped with my
spatial awareness as we were moving around the room. It also helped me use different parts of
my face and body that I don¶t normally use. In this activity I used gestures to show the attitude of
my character. In the next activity, we had do a scene from the text where Grusha marries a man
she doesn¶t love for the child, or when Simon has to leave. We had to perform it in
naturalistically of epically. When it was done naturalistically, the audience showed sympathy for
Grusha and looked at the man as rude. When it was done epically, the audience didn¶t show
emotion as humour was used. For example, one group used an oversized necklace which was
suppose to represent a bond between Simon and Grusha but instead created humour.
Language
In this section we focussed on applying our voice to our work on texts. We focused on how our
voice relates to the characters background/ education/ experiences, the situations the character is
in, the style of the play and the character¶s objectives. The following elements are important in
finding a character¶s voice: pitch, range, pace, pause, tone, volume and articulation.

The Crucible
In this section we only focussed on spoken word. We focused on what the characters say,
punctuation, rhetoric, repetition, hesitations, sentence structure and ungrammatical
phrases/sentences.
The lesson we took a passage from the play, ³The Crucible´ and acted it out while using the
different language techniques. Below there is a list of the different techniques.
Old Fashioned Formality The type of dialogue used according to
what time it is set. E.g. Aye, Goody,
Thee, Thy
Convention of Time All the things that would be going on in
that time. E.g. bowing, positioning of
women sitting.
Dialect The type of accent or phrases used,
according to when play is set. E.g.
Mom, Dude
Stage Directions This would give the character
motivation to speak and move.
Grammatical usage Type of punctuation used according to
character. E.g. commas might be used a
lot for a nervous character
Therapeutic purpose The idea that the actor must have a
purpose in order to have motivation.
Supernatural language E.g. Spirits, witches
Religious Language

We first read through the text while only using some of the techniques, we then later explored it
physically whilst using more techniques. I found it difficult to do this because when I tried to use
all the techniques, I couldn¶t fulfil the techniques to there full potential. I also found myself
forgetting them whilst acting it out. The Grammatical usage In Giles Corey speech revealed
information about his character, ³I¶ve not said a word. No one here can testify I¶ve said a word.
Is she going to fly again? I hear she flies.´ In the quote he uses short sentences; this tells us that
he is nervous and possibly excited. This helped us when performing.
At the end my class and I were asked to place the techniques in order of how important they are.
We found this hard as we soon realised that the techniques were equally important.
In this lesson I learnt that the techniques used are all equal. Stanislavski believed that to play a
character you would have to become the character. I learnt that these techniques helped me to
become my character. I also learnt how hard it was to properly act the Stanislavski way, as there
are many techniques.

Caucasian Chalk Circle


In this lesson we explored the language of Caucasian chalk circle through reading and physically
acting it out. We first went through highlighting the different techniques that Brecht uses such as
singing, Repetition and Proverbs. For example, ³I¶m my own master´, is used when Azdak and
Simon are arguing. They are both using proverbs to argue at each other. Brecht uses this
technique to make the audience concentrate on the actual situation instead of the emotion of the
character. This was Brecht¶s main aim in theatre. When we performed it, my group chose to rap
serious lines. This would in turn makes the audience focus on the wording which makes them
think about the situation rather than the emotion.
Non Verbal Communication

In this Section We Focused on Non-verbal communication. This refers to any form of action on
stage which conveys meaning to an audience. We focused on body language, facial expression,
gesture, movement, mime, tableaux and physical theatre.

Caucasian Chalk Circle


In this lesson we focussed on communicating without talking, but by using body language, facial
expressions, tableaux, gests and movement.
For the first task, we had to create a tableaux to represent scene one, (fighting for land), with
each person having a different gesture, this was` an example of getting our points across to the
audience without talking. Our next activity was to act out scene two without talking and in the
Brechtian style. We were first told to act it out abstractly to get ideas to act it out non-verbally.
One of the techniques I found useful when doing this was over exaggeration. This made it easier
to get the characters aims and objectives across to the audience without using voice. It also
helped us to alienate the audience because the scene became unrealistic and the audience was
unable to relate with it. To alienate the audience was one of Stanislavski¶s aims. One of the
things exaggerated on was the baby as it was the most important thing in the scene. We acted as
if the baby was bigger and much more precious than normal. This made the audience feel distant
from emotion to the baby because it was exaggerated to the extent that instead they just laughed.
We then done the same thing to scene six but we were given placards to help communicate to the
audience. By using the placards we alienated the audience because we made the set unrealistic so
they couldn¶t relate with it and instead concentrated on the situation. To alienate the audience
and to make them concentrate on the situation was also one of stanislavskis aims. In This Lesson
we learnt that the communication in Brechtian theatre is more than about spoken language

The Crucible
In this lesson we focused on the relationship between Proctor and Abigail. We first familiarised
our selves with a conversation they had in Act 1. We then debated about with our partner what
there subtext was. Subtext is the unspoken thoughts and motives of your characters (what they
really think and believe). It was interesting to see how subtext can be interpreted in so many
different ways. An example of this is when Proctor says, ³Abbey, that¶s a wild thing to say´, this
could be interpreted that he thinks on it as unreal, or he could actually like it and see it as some
sort of game. This was important to Stanislavski because he thought that when people act
without using subtext, its the same as jus reading a book; he said. This reiterated the importance
that subtext played in the Stanislavski System. We then did the same thing with another scene
with the conversation between Proctor and Elizabeth but focused more on the proxemics and
body language. When one grouped performed, the wife kept trying to make physical contact but
Proctor didn¶t seem to be interested. This Portrayed to the audience that Elizabeth was trying to
sustain the marriage and Proctor wasn¶t. Another group portrayed the same thing but instead of
Elizabeth making physical contact, she was constantly fiddling with her fingers, implying to the
audience she was nervous while Proctor just carried on as normal as if he didn¶t care his
marriage was empty. I learnt that Subtext is an important part of Stanislavski system because it
shows what the character is feeling without saying it, which might have given of more emotion.

Vocal awareness

In this section we focussed on applying our voice to our work on texts. We focused on how our
voice relates to the characters background/ education/ experiences, the situations the character is
in, the style of the play and the character¶s objectives. The following elements are important in
finding a character¶s voice: pitch, range, pace, pause, tone, volume and articulation.

The Crucible
In this lesson, we started of by doing a Stanislavski exercise called circle of attention. This is
when someone sits in the centre reading lines while the rest try to distract them by shouting at
them. Stanislavski done this, so the person completely becomes the character, therefore not being
distracted. We were asked to choose a character and write about the characters background/
education/ experiences, the situations the character is in, the style of the play and the character¶s
objectives. We were then debated on how these elements could affect the characters pitch, pace,
use of pauses, tone, volume and articulation. From this I decided that Proctor voice sound proud
and higher than others as he is very proud of his name but in certain situations sound bored as he
had an affair current wife because of empty marriage. After this activity, we acted out a scene
with the chosen character. We as a class acted the characters much better as we had a better
understanding of the character.

The Caucasian Chalk Circle


This lesson was very similar to the Crucible¶s lesson. We first did a tongue twister exercise
which warmed up our mouth. We then went on to complete the same sheet but for a character
from this play. The character I done was Grusha. We were then debated on how these elements
could affect the characters pitch, pace, use of pauses, tone, volume and articulation. For some of
the things I wrote about the character was that she is not very educated, works as maid, poor and
doesn¶t seem to have high status. These factors might make her voice sound slightly more
depressed, and of a lower class.

Visual, Aural and Spatial

Caucasian Chalk Circle


We started of by doing an activity to show how proxemics can affect a relationship. For example,
a clock was put in a high place while Joe and I looked up at it. The rest of the class interpreted
that the clock was higher us as if it was some sort of god. The clock was then moved down with
Joe and I looking down at it. The class then interpreted that the clock was lower than it as if it
was a child being told off even though our facial expressions didn¶t change.
In lesson we looked at the three different types of drama elements which are, Visual, Aural and
spatial, and how they affect the audience. Below is a table of what comes under the different
elements:
Visual Aural Spatial
Everything an audience Everything and audience The use of space,
sees: set, props, costume, hears: sound effects, including the acting and
makeup, masks, lighting music, singing, sound audience areas, the
scapes, vocal sound (not actor/audience
dialogue). relationship, proxemics,
grouping, levels.

In lesson we made a play which described Grusha¶s journey in scene three. For visual we were
given masks, Placards and Costumes to create an atmosphere for the actors and audience. The
masks hid the iron shirts faces from the audience, this kept the audience from seeing the facial
expressions (which were scary) towards Grusha. In turn this made the audience feel less emotion
for Grusha. The Placards were used to describe the different places and state the obvious which
created humour; this made the concentrate less on the emotion which was Brecht¶s aim. To help
us make the scene we were given Bamboo sticks. This was easy to move which meant that after
we finished using it for one scene we could easily move it. For aural we made a sounscape to
describe to the audience what Grusha must of heard when wondering through the woods. We
used sounds such as her heart beating, iron shirts coming (chair clashing on floor), wind and
weather (whistling) and chaos behind crossing the bridge (humming). The sound scape got
louder and faster until it ended suddenly, this created an atmosphere which made the audience
feel part of the actual performance as if they were actors themselves. For spatial we split the
stage into three to represent Grushas journey. This made it clear for the audience to see where
she was at each time.
I learnt that how a small movement of staging or character could change the meaning of the
scene
I don¶t think that our soundscape was good as we only had three people doing. I think to make it
more effective, I would have to have more people doing it to make it sound more authentic.

The Crucible
This lesson was similar to the last but we focused more on visual. We were given the task to act
out act2 from The Crucible where Elizabeth is taken. We were split into two groups; one had to
act it out in modern times, and the other, where it was set. This was to see if the audience had a
different reaction to the situation. We were given props and had to specifically choose them the
character we were playing. I was playing proctor and I chose a hat which helped me to show the
audience that I was superior in the house. We were also given stage blocks which we used to
create a fire place and a mantle piece. This helped create a feel for the audience.
Unfortunately our performance did not work as it was not naturalistic enough because we over
done it. But as an actor, I felt more my character when with the props.
Cultural, Political, Historical and Socially
The Crucible
Cultural

Time play was set.


In this time, the women were always lower than the men and the communities were very
religious. Most people were puritans which meant there was no real way for the people to
express themselves. At this time racism was around and the family name was very valuable and
important. People were very much oppressed. The bible also played a key role in the law.

Time play was written


In this time people were still very religious and racism was still around. There were racist groups
such as the KKK but black people were rising with their input into the musical genre jazz and the
sport, boxing. Fast food started with diners and burger bars and the world had a major influence
of wealth and money.

Political

Time the play was written.


The play was written in 1953, this is when the cold war was happening. Accusations of
Communism was being thrown around which led to groups such as the NAACP. Also round this
time there was a soviet expansion and the communist repression. America was threatened by
communist and the civil rights were improving for black people.

Time when the Play was set


Religion was very strong and there was hanging against crimes against god. Lynching against
black people was not illegal and America was seen for its democracy and branded the name
³Land of Opportunity´. This was at the end of Truman¶s reign.
Historical

Time the play was set


People were lynched for serious crimes. At this time European settlers where coming to America
to try and live the American dream. Witch trials were held regularly.

Time the Play was written


The People were oppressed and communism was around. The place was racist with KKK
lynching Black people. It was in the middle of racial tension in America because of the civil
rights for black people, which were very poor. They weren¶t allowed to vote and the rights and
education for white people were far more superior to blacks. At this time the black and white
people were fighting against racism. Bertolt Brecht and Arthur Miller were caught up in being
accused or involved with communism

Social

Time play was set


This is when Repression was around and people had to hold in there emotions. The woman had
to cover up there bodies and was not really allowed basic social tasks that we do today. Dancing
and other kinds art was seen as a taboo and all other free expression tasks were banned. Every
one had to abide by the bible and the men played the head of the house, even though they mostly
concentrated on their lives at work, but it was to provide for there family. Woman were mostly at
home cleaning or looking after the children.

Time play was written


The place was racist with KKK lynching Black people and McCarthyism was around which was
against racism. There was inequality of women and communism was around. There was also
development of atomic weapons.

You might also like