Rosie Allen - BTEC Acting
Research - 'Memory of Water' by Shelagh Stephenson
The play is a comedy written by Shelagh Stephenson and was first staged at the Hampstead Theatre in 1996. It tells the story of three estranged sisters reuniting at the home of their recently dead mother to organise funeral arrangements, reminiscing about the past.
Shelagh Stephenson read drama at Manchester University and 'Memory of Water' was her first stage play, having written extensively for radio before this. The play focuses on how the death of their mother affects each of the sisters individually and their differing memories of the same events of their childhood. The main theme of the play is memory and the characters' individual outlooks on the events of the past that they are forced to remember after the loss of their mother who suffered from severe Alzheimer's Disease.
In the year 2000, the play received the Olivier Award for Best Comedy and, in 2002, it was adapted into a film that was retitled 'Before You Go', directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Julie Walters, John Hannah and Joanne Whalley.
Character Profile: Teresa
Teresa is the oldest of the three sisters and runs a health food supplement company with her husband Frank, who she met through a singles advertisement.
She has a typical Type A personality, very uptight and practical in a lot of ways. However, she is also prone to anxiety and the stress of single-handedly looking after her dying mother in her final few years really took a toll on her and, when we see her in the play, she is more strung-out than ever because of this.
These personality traits are ones which I can really draw on from my own experience as there are many similarities between myself and Teresa in many ways. I can relate to her tendency to panic and feel more responsibility for things than is absolutely necessary.
Relationships With Other Characters
The scene that my group is focusing on involves the three sisters who form the foundation and main action of the play. My character interacts with Mary and Catherine in different ways, depending on her objective and the tactic she wants to use to achieve it when talking to her sisters.
I think that, as she is the eldest of the three, she sometimes adopts an almost maternal attitude towards Mary and Catherine, especially when it comes to the funeral arrangements and her need to sort out everything as quickly and efficiently as possible. She definitely resents her sisters to some extent due to their failure to share the responsibility of looking after their dying mother. Her reaction to this is, in my opinion, a mixture of resentment/bitterness and superiority that she was the 'martyr' in all of this and is somehow a better person because of it.
Log 1
We spent the first few lessons working on our scripts in our scene group, marking in the different units and actions that make up the scene. We established our character's objective and I identified mine as wanting her sisters' help to get everything done for the funeral. It was interesting to discuss with Charlotte H and Charlotte W, who are playing Mary and Catherine respectively in the scene, what their objectives were. We realised that each sister's objective conflicts with the other two - for Mary, it's wanting Teresa and Catherine to leave her alone, and for Catherine, it's to get attention from Mary and Teresa. These conflicting objectives will make the scene incredibly interesting to watch as the three sisters struggle to get what they want. I feel that this script work has been very beneficial to the group as we can now use these principles of acting when we begin rehearsing the scene.
As a group, we divided the script into units, marking when something changes in the scene like a change of topic or a character's entrance or exit. We also went through and applied a different transitive verb to each line in order to clarify exactly what we wanted to do to the other people in the scene by saying that line. For example, when I say the line "I'm the one who dealt with it all", my transitive verb is 'TO GUILT-TRIP' as I want to prove to Catherine and Mary that I took on the full responsibility for the dying mother, playing the martyr and making them feel bad about leaving it all to me.
Log 2
When we first got the piece up onto its feet, it really helped having the set partially set up, as it allowed us to interact with the space (a bedroom) in a more naturalistic way, fitting with the style of the play as a whole. However, I am aiming to have learnt my lines as soon as possible so I don't have to use the script in rehearsals as I believe it gets in the way of truly accessing the emotions of the character. We devised most of the blocking for the scene, which I found really helped as we rehearsed, as I could mentally apply each line to a movement, making the lines easier to remember and the piece flow much better.
Log 3
Today's rehearsal mainly consisted of continuing to run through the scene, blocking and staging it as we went along. It was interesting to observe in all three of us how different actions and mannerisms began to emerge, differentiating the three sisters and allowing the characters to come through and be discovered naturally. We also focused on the last unit of the script, where the phone rings and all three of us rush to answer it. We clarified our personal objectives and reasons for wanting to get to the phone first. For example, I assume it will be my husband, Frank, whilst Catherine hopes it's her boyfriend/fiancee Xavier and Mary thinks it is Mike, the man she is having an affair with. This was very useful as it really brought out the comedy of this section of the scene and the sisterly relationship that the three of them have.
Log 4
Initially, it was difficult to get back into the scene after a two week break. I had, however, managed to learn my lines over half term so I was able to run through the scene for the first time without my script to prompt me, although I was not entirely clear on the cues and other lines that are spoken by the other characters, so we all had to adjust and work out when we were meant to speak, with several lines being mixed up in the first run-through. This meant that today was a fairly frustrating rehearsal, as it felt like we had taken a step backwards instead of progressing with the scene and our inter-character dynamics and relationships were slightly rusty, having not rehearsed with each other for two weeks.
Log 5
Today was far less frustrating and much more productive than our last rehearsal, despite the fact that we had limited space as another group was using the big space to rehearse their scene. Due to the fact that our scene involves a lot of movement around a large area, we thought that it would be more productive to focus on our lines and cues as opposed to rehearsing in a small space that would not be able to fully facilitate all of our blocking.
We did a voice recording of us reading through our lines, which was really interesting to listen back to, as it highlighted some aspects of my vocal qualities that I was not aware of before. I noticed that my voice sounded much more monotone than it did in my head and I realised that I needed much more vocal dynamics and 'light and shade' to make my performance more interesting for the audience, especially since I have a lot of text and it is important that the audience is kept engaged and doesn't shut off during my lines. I also need to work on my pace and projection, making sure that every word is clear to translate the full meaning to the audience. This exercise was incredibly beneficial to us as a group as it made us infinitely more aware of our vocal qualities so we can concentrate on working on them in future rehearsals.
Log 6 - Mock Assessment
Today we performed our entire scene without scripts for our mock assessment. I personally feel that it was a successful run through overall, although there were some errors where certain lines got mixed up or missed out completely. I also found it really beneficial to perform for the first time with some elements of props and costume, as I was able to immerse myself in my character more effectively and my characterisation and use of props in this performance was postiviely commented upon in the feedback.
The main areas that I need to work on personally in terms of my feedback are:
- When I enter the scene, see the state of the room and react to the mess and then see Mary lying on the bed not clearing up
- Go over the text and clarify my transitive verbs so that the audience doesn't shut off during my long sections of dialogue
- Be aware of volume and projection, especially when moving around
- Make eye contact with Catherine and Mary more to show the sisterly relationship that they share
After watching back the video recording of my mock, I agree with all of these things and, now that I am aware of them, I will work on them for the actual assessment. I also personally noticed when watching it back that my overall energy was quite low and I understand now why the audience might become disinterested and shut off. I think this is partially down to my vocal and physical qualities not being varied enough, and this is definitely something I will aim to fix before next week's assessment.
Final Performance
Overall, I am extremely pleased with how the final performance went. The adrenaline of performing for the first time in front of a live audience really boosted the energy of my group's scene and that, combined with performing in a completely new space made the piece seem fresh and not over-rehearsed, as we had previously been feeling in the final few performances before the assessment. The audience reaction was incredibly positive and the comedy really came across as a result of the distinct characters that my group had created throughout the rehearsal process. With the benefit of hindsight, the initial script work that, at the time, seemed monotonous and unnecessary, was actually incredibly beneficial as it established our objectives and clarified our individual characters through uniting each section of the script and applying transitive verbs to each line. It also helped create an authentic sisterly dynamic between the three of us as tension was created as a result of our conflicting objectives and the obstacles we had to face in terms of what the other characters wanted to achieve in the scene. I look forward to the challenge of approaching a contrasting character in this way in the next Contemporary Theatre assessment and will definitely aim to apply all that I have learnt in this assignment when tackling my next role for this unit.