Evaluation

Last night we performed our version of Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen. We rehearsed over six weeks and began by studying the text, breaking it down and looking at context. Our aim was to focus on naturalism for this project, so we looked closely at the work of Stanislavsky and we applied his techniques to our work. In rehearsal we did exercises on emotion memory, relaxation, circles of attention, given circumstances and objectives. We were each given a scene and character to focus on, giving us the opportunity to look closely at it and interpret in our own way.

I think that our performance went well, but because we didn't have very long to rehearse in the space and it was the first time performing it to an audience, there were lots of things to improve on.  The energy levels were good and we kept up the momentum throughout the whole play. However there were some technical issues and some of the scenes weren't rehearsed enough.

The piece began with the audience streaming in; with the whole cast lying on the floor, with our eyes closed. When the audience had settled, a dramatic piece of opera music came on and we began to embody our character from our core. The emotion of our character was first internal, but then we began to channel this emotion with an action, that was first in our hands, and then came into our whole body. This was Stanislavsky's psychological gesture work, were you find an abstract gesture that is a hook into your character; the action should help you to spread the core of your character into your whole body. I think that this was a really effective opening because it helped us, as actors, to embody our character, but was also a very interesting, dramatic scene for the audience to watch, Even if they didn't fully understand the purpose of the gestures, it was still effective because it was being done on a large scale with music, which was interesting and captivating. It fitted with the mood of the play, because the play is full of mystery and deception, much like the strange psychological gestures.

I came into the space a few pages before my scene. When I entered the space I stood behind the audience, facing the wall. During the time I was in the space before I came on stage, I focused on my breathing and releasing all the tension from my body. This was helpful because it allowed me to leave myself behind and become Thea Elvstead, taking on her breathing pattern and physicality. I also went over her intentions and the thoughts that drive her through the scene, which was the desire to find Eilert and make sure he was safe, this being my priority over everything else.  Although it was good to enter the space and centre myself before going on stage, it was quite distracting for the audience to be constantly hearing the doors open and close, during people's scenes. We performed in quite a small space, which didn't have proper seating, so the audience could hear everything going on behind them. If we had performed on a stage, with the seats set back, it would have been easier to come on earlier, without causing as much distraction. I think if we did it again in the same space, it might have been better to have the cast standing behind the audience the whole time, still facing the wall, but it would mean that it was less obvious when the next scene was about to happen and the transitions may have been sharper.

I felt that when I came on stage I had a lot of energy and felt fully present in the scene. I tried to think about proxemics and I felt that I  kept the scene interesting by moving around, but made sure when I moved, I moved for a purpose, although there were a few moments when I was just wondering around, which  felt weakened my performance. I made an effort to take on the notes from the director, the most important was to allow time for your character to feel the emotion before a beat change and before they say the lines. I had some points in my scene where I had a big beat change and I focused on trying to feel the emotion before I said my lines. I felt that I did improve from the run through, however if we had had more time to rehearse I could have made these beat changes much stronger.

Further into my scene I skipped out a few of my lines and answered Hedda with a line that I was supposed to answer her with for another question. This put Sybil, playing Hedda, off for a moment, but we made the pause seem deliberate and she moved on and continued to question me. Although I forgot a line, it showed that we were fully in character and working from our character's instinct and objectives, because we made it work and continued as our characters would. 

I felt that my vocal quality was clear and strong, and I managed to project my voice without straining it. I tried to make my articulation very clear and talk in a posh accent, however if we had had more rehearsal time I feel that I could have developed and improved my accent. I was nervous so I didn't focus on my pace as much as could and in some parts I talked too fast. I could have avoided this by spending more time focusing on my breathing and getting completely relaxed before going on stage. I need to channel my nerves into giving energy on stage, instead of getting my lines out as quickly as possible.

I think that the costume we all wore was very effective and made the play look much more professional. It also brought the audience out of the modern day and into the late 1800's. The costume helped to unite all the characters, because although there were lots of actors playing one character, they were all in a similar costume, which connected them all.

There were some technical issues at the end, when the gunshot didn't go off. Although the gun shot was effective, the actors still reacted in the same way when it didn't go off and they weren't put off by it. If we had more time to prepare, we could have rehearsed more with the sound effects and the person controlling the sound could have got more familiar with the cues.

I think that our version of Hedda Gabler was a good example of a naturalistic piece of theatre. I feel that we managed to portray the intentions of each character clearly and used our own experiences to build our character. We managed to apply Stanislavsky's techniques and use his methods in rehearsal and performance. With more time at the beginning to do a detailed analysis of the text, we only had one or two rehearsals to do this; we could have added more depth to the piece. We needed more time to experiment and try things out, but with the time we had, we gave a strong and powerful performance.

Notes from director

General notes 

• Keep the voice loud, don't drop volume, even in the thoughtful, more internal moments.
• Don't play the emotion, play the objective.
• Have clear and precise pronunciation, use your tongue muscularity.
• Earn the beat changes and pauses- to do this you have to come into the scene with energy and pace, driving your objectives.
• Be confident to pick up your cues and interrupt people- this will come with careful listening and being in the moment.
• Learn the thoughts as much as you learn the lines, if you know the thoughts, the lines will come.
• The characters are very posh, so make sure you have a straight, stiff posture. 
• All the characters have very high stakes, they all have a lot to lose and gain. Make sure that you find your stakes and play them! 
• Find the opposites and contrasts in the text, if you find these the text becomes alive and makes more sense. 
• If you say more than one of the same word, for example 'No, no, no!', make sure you colour the words and make each one different. 

Personal notes 

• Find the nerves that Thea is feeling 
• Find the difference between the outer and inner feelings- on the outside Thea is trying to remain calm, but on the inside she is churned up and panicked
• Drive my objective, which is to find Loevborg and keep him safe. 
• If I forget my lines, I cant come out of character. 
• Feel the beat change from inside, the beat change can't come out of no where. 

Rehearsal 2

Naturalism

• Naturalism is about being completely true to your character. 
• It doesn't mean that you should play your character in a dull and boring way, your character can still be weird and exciting, as long as it is truthful.
• Doing the 'what if' exercise helps to be naturalistic, because it makes you entertain what life is like for your character.
• Part of doing naturalism is making sure that you, as an actor, can observe and experience life, to gain knowledge for characters you may play in the future. 
• Doing a naturalistic performance can only happen if in rehearsal you have tried things out and experimented, working out what thoughts and actions feel the most truthful to your character. 
• You have to work out every element of your character and make sure you now every detail of their life. How do they speak? What opinions do they have? What sort of an upbringing did they have ? etc... 

Emotion Memory

• The most important element of emotion memory is using all your senses because the senses are the direct route to accessing a memory or emotion. 
• It involves tapping into a memory in your life which has similarities to your character, however it is most likely not to be exactly the same situation. For example for my character, Thea, I have never left my husband, but I have experienced losing friends because of conflict, so I could use that memory to understand how Thea feels. 
• The memory doesn't need to be the same as what the character has been through, but it is important that the emotion that was felt is the same and at a similar intensity. 
• You can experiment in the rehearsal room with accessing different memories and different emotions. Emotion memory is for rehearsal, not necessarily for performance, because it helps to develop your character, but when used on stage, actors can sometimes begin to do internal acting, which shuts off the audience. 
• Make sure that you identify the emotion required by the character, before doing the exercise. It has to be the right emotion otherwise  the character goes in the wrong direction. 
• Work out the subtext, otherwise you get caught up with the surface emotion. In order to find out the character's true emotion, you have to dig deeper and look beyond the text on the page. For example, Hedda isn't angry with Tesman, like she appears to be, she is angry with herself for marrying him.
• In order to arouse the emotion during a performance, you must find  an action to go with it. The action will bring it out of your head and onto the stage. 
• Learn how to control the emotion, master it so that it doesn't begin to take over your performance. Make sure you can turn it on and off when you need to. 

Subtext

• Stanislavsky said that only 10% of what is in our head, is said in words, proving that subtext is key to good acting and a lot of acting is internal. 
• Subtext is looking at what is being said underneath the lines, stage directions and been the silences in the play. 
• The internal thoughts found from reading between the lines, mean that there is never a dead moment in the play. even during the silences, your character is constantly thinking and making decisions. Silence is as important as speaking. 
• The characters don't always say what they mean because it adds drama and conflict, but this also means that actors have to study their character in much more detail to work out what they are really feeling. 
• Often, what isn't said is more important than what is said.
• The subtext is the impulse behind every decision and action your character makes, it gives a reason for what is being said. 
• Subtext can be conveyed through body language, eye contact, silence, pause or the disparity between what is being said and what is being thought. 
• Subtext is the key to making the character your own, because you can decide what you think the character is thinking and feeling. It gives you the opportunity to personalise your character.
• When you study the script you can find your own meaning in the words.
• If you can successfully interpret the subtext, you can open a window into the soul and mesmerize the audience. 

Uta Hagen's 9 questions

1) Who am I ?
My name is Thea Elvstead. I am twenty six years old and married to a high sheriff, who is twenty years older than me. I live with my husband and his children, but I barley see my husband. I am cheap labor to him and he only married me because I am convenient to him. My step children's tutor is Eilert Loevborg, who I am in love with. I have some sort of power over him which made him stop drinking and which led him to write his latest book, which I helped with. 

2) What time is it?
It is about 10 o'clock in the morning. I woke up early and hurried over to the Tesman house because I arrived yesterday and am desperate to get in contact with Eilert. It is autumn, September, and the leaves are falling off the trees, the light is bright and it is sunny but the air is cold. It is the late 1800's, which was a time when Norway was flourishing economically and the population was increasing.  

3) Where am I ?
I am in the Tesman household, which is very grand. The house has land around it and is a walking distance from the town. We are in Norway. 
I am standing in the drawing room, which has large windows on three sides of the room. There are two small sofas in front of a grand fireplace. Behind the sofas is a small table, with vases of flowers on it. There is a larger table at the end of the room. 

4) What surrounds me?

I am with Hedda and George Tesman, and they are standing in front of me, Hedda on my right and George on my left. Half way through my scene I sit down and Hedda sits next to me.  

The sofas are  covered in a floral material and the rug in the floor is red, with detailed patterns running through the middle of it; it is something that Tesman and Hedda bought on their honey moon. There are flowers around the room and the table at the end of the room has a blue chine jug in the middle and a tray of glasses next to it. 

5) What is my relationship to the people around me and the things around me?
Tesman used to flirt with me before he met Hedda. We have known each other for many years and about five years ago  he began to bring me flowers and take me out. It stopped very quickly because he went away to do research for a book, then when he came back, he met Hedda. 

I know Hedda because we went to school together. She was two years above me and I was always intimidated by her. 

6) What has just happened?

I have just come from my hotel room where I stayed the night. I rushed to the Tesman's house as soon as I could, as I was so anxious to track down Eilert. 

Yesterday morning I packed a bag of my clothes and most valuable possessions and left my husband's house in the north of the country. I left my old life behind and don't intent to ever go back. I found a train that went to where Eilert is and travelled down the country to find him. This was the biggest decision I have ever made and I know that this decision will affect me for the rest of my life. 

7) What do I want? (the objective)

I want to find Eilert. I am desperate to find him and make sure that he is safe. I want to keep him away from any temptation because if he goes back to his drink, he won't care about me any more. I need Eilert to keep me safe, because I have now left my husband and have no security. I also want to make sure the manuscript is safe (our child). 
8) Whats in my way? (the obstacle)

Society's view on the independence of women is my main obstacle. I have left my husband, which is very disapproved of, because women are only seen as their husband's property and get no respect if they are divorced or single. If I was to go out and look for Eilert myself, I may be mistaken for a prostitute and no one would help me because I don't have my husband with me. This is why I must go through George Tesman to find Eilert, because he is a respected man and no one will question him getting in touch with Eilert.  

9) What am I going to do to get what I want? (the action)
What I want is to find Eilert, because I am very concerned about how he will deal with being away from home and having alcohol and other temptations, such a prostitutes, available to him. In order to find Eilert I have to go to the Tesman's house, where I will pretend that my husband has sent me and I will ask George Tesman to write to Eilert and invite him round, so that I can see him and check he hasn't started drinking again. 
I am in love with Eilert and am afraid that if he begins to drink again, he won't want to carry on seeing me and working with me. I need to find him to reassure my self that we can still be together.