THE SEAGULL BLOG WEDNESDAY 17TH DECEMBER 2008 – THE ACTORS CENTRE

We begin with TC asking those of us who were in the first session to tell us one by one what happened to their characters in Act One. An interesting exercise in memory retention; what is forgotten often being as telling as what is recalled. Then TC asked those actors who had played a character in Act One to cast another member of the company as that character for the second Act. Our first run of Act Two took place in silence. TC called out the skeletal action of the scenes, who walks in and out, when people stand or sit, laugh or kiss, who is speaking to whom; but not what is said. We performed these actions with each other as called, but with no acting, blank faces and in total silence. Some story already seemed to be being told, and one which seemed to ask for interpretation, so the next time we ran it, at every juncture TC asked those watching to offer suggestions for why things had just happened, for what was being said. Patently nonsensical suggestions, or those that went for a cheap laugh led to that person being forbidden to make another suggestion. (which to my mind seemed to lead to a side game to see who could make the most nonsensical offer which would still seem legitimate enough to prevent you getting slapped down by TC. It passed the time). We got through to the end of the act, as ever in the usual morass of nervous funnies and pedestrian offers, occasionally illuminated by some really profound suggestions which catch everyone off guard and shame us all slightly, and make us think “oh yes, it's not embarrassing when you take it seriously, it's quite the reverse – in both directions”

We were given twenty minutes apart time to go through the whole of the second act with our character partners and agree on a “trigger word” for each speech. One word per speech that could be spoken from the side of the room by the partner watching, to the partner playing, to cue them into their next speech, and give them an indication of the content of that line. With this done we set about playing Act Two again, for the first time now with actors speaking text, in their own words and prompted by their Geppettoes from the edge of the room. As always, the rule to not stop, to not play the cheap laugh of “oh it's gone wrong, oh isn't funny when it's a bit ****.” But to plough through, to keep going, keep talking, find a way out, a way back to the scene. For the actors playing it's a double game, of simultaneous recall and invention; trying to remember what happens next, where you have to manoeuvre the conversation to, and the danger that your concentration is as much on the edge of the room where you're being fed from as on the scene itself. The simplicity of the moments when just two characters are on stage seems to benefit most from this technique, perhaps because the task of knowing when to come in is less fraught – if it's not them, then it's pretty certain to be you etc... - giving the actors more time to focus on each other, or perhaps it's just structure: these scenes – the doctor and polya, nina and trigorin, - are deeply moving after the bickering and self interest of the first group scene.

The last of – incredibly – four runs of act two in this three hour session, is with a partner swap; watcher becomes player, but with a twist. All the cue words which had been called out from the side when it was each actors turn to speak, are now written down for each actor on a piece of paper in list order. These lists are in the actor's hands throughout. They will act as a rubric for the scene, but the actor must decide when each cue comes, and when to stop. The whole of Act Two therefore has been boiled down to as many single words as there are speeches in the Act. One hundred and twenty one, I've just counted. It's terrific, especially again - in my opinion - the duologues. Tevans as Trigorin describing his artistic failings comes up with the line of the night “It's like I'm a painter. I'm good. But you know, I'm not Damien Hirst. I'm Tony Hart.”

Afterwards there's a good feeling in the room TC make some observations, mainly about the task not just of remembering when to come in and what to say, but that we have to be convincing in our justifications for WHY we come in, for WHY we speak. That we have to make our shameless, childish snatching of the talking stick (which is what all conversation is, really: “how interesting. That's just like me. Let me tell you...about me...” ) look like a progressive development of the exchange. This might seem to counter last weeks pointer from Jess Drader “I added that the actors needed to stick to their guns and be brave. Allow the non-sequiturs to exist as they do in the text and try not to segue into and out of them for the sake of things ‘making sense’” (Seagull blog - Dec 9th 2008). But perhaps the important thing, even with the terribly ham-fisted interpolations is that YOU think they're good at the time, that they seem like the most debonair badinage in your head, even as everyone else groans. That even in losing, you can still have played to win, and let dramatic circumstance or audience judgement decide if you lost... An example of these opposing thought processes when approaching a typical Chekhovian non sequitur would be: “I know this is quite irrelevant , but I have to say it cause it's in the script, so I'm just going to drop it in”, versus, “This is going to come totally out of left field, and all the better for having no introduction, since it will really blow their socks off!”. For example. The axioms of nothing happening for no reason, everyone playing to make things better for themselves, to change the other people in the scene, to end the play in the next two minutes - all c/o Mr Louis Scheeder - seem relevant here.

jopkins

Playing were:

team one – the first 3 runs

Colin Hurley as a doctor
Tyne Rafaeli as an actress
Kate McGuinness as a young woman who acted in Alastair's play
John Hopkins as Tyne's brother
Steff as Jopkins's stick. Sorry Steff.
Jack Lasky as a schoolteacher
Scott Brooksbank as Jopkins' manager
Yolanda Vazquez as Scott's wife
Ellie Beaven as Scott's daughter
Alastair Sims as Tyne's son
Simon Muller as a writer

Team Two - the fourth run

Jacob Krichefski as a doctor
Susannah Wise as an actress
Susie as a young woman who acted in Alex's play
Joe Morgan as Susannah Wise's brother
Alan Morrissey as a schoolteacher (was it you Alan? If so, then was Steff just a stick all night?)
Faye Thomas as Joe Morgan's manager
Leila Crerar as Faye's wife
Elena Pavli as Faye's daughter
Alex Hassell as Susannah Wise's son
Tim Evans as a writer