AAS (5) - "An Inspector Calls" performance

In this lesson we performed our scenes. Before the performances, we were given time to work on them for a bit longer. Firstly, we ran through our scene and decided that we should add a bit more movement to it. As I was playing the part of an upper-class Victorian lady, I decided that I should stay seated throughout the scene - Kat also remained seated for the same reason. James moved a lot throughout the scene to imply that he didn't belong there (as it isn't his house) and to also show that he was nervous as he was desperately trying to please everyone. Lewis moved around a little bit as well to show his higher status and to show that he owns the place.

After running the scene with our new staging, we decided that we would do the scene again but as different characters - Kat and I swapped roles and Lewis and James swapped. The purpose of this exercise was so we could see how someone else would play our role; we could then bring what we liked about their interpretation to our own performance. I really liked how Kat said the line "much nicer really". Before, I said the line as if I wanted my voice to be heard and was warning Arthur not to say something he'd regret. However, Kat almost said the line as a statement, as if she's thinking aloud. I decided that I would say this line in this way, as this would create less tension at this point, thus making Arthur's discussion about business instead of Sheila's happiness more tense.

Self-observation from the video:

• I maintained my posture throughout
• I liked how I didn't move at all apart from my head, as it shows that my character has quite a high status and is refined 
• I articulated the majority of my lines
• I should have done a character profile and worked out what my character felt about certain topics of conversation - for example, how does she feel about Arthur thinking Sheila is calling him a "purple-faced old man", and what does she think about Sheila's expression of "squiffy"?
• If I had learned my lines off by heart, then I could have worked on my eye contact more and improved my facial expressions
• Although I maintained my stern facial expression throughout, I think I could have varied my expressions a little bit more.

I enjoyed Victorian melodrama as it is similar to naturalism but is heightened and over-the-top making it more similar to musical theatre. However, I found this quite challenging as I didn't want to make it to over-the-top as I kept forgetting that it was melodrama. If I were to do this again I would completely relax and just go for it, rather than trying to make my character as convincing as possible.