Auditions (25) - Elements & "Look Back in Anger"

This lesson was a workshop run by Tom, entitled "Elements". He said that to add more depth to a character, or even just to develop a role, you should consider the elements. The four elements are earth, air, fire and water. Tom didn't explain how to add the idea of elements to your character, or how to assign an element to a character, but instead made us walk round the room as all of them - all apart from fire. For fire he made us "imitate" the flame.

• Walking as Earth:   Initially we had to walk round as ourselves, but then start walking as someone that made us think of Earth. I found this quite challenging as I wanted more information on what he meant, but I wasn't allowed anymore as it was a case of experimenting. I decided to walk with a slight bend to my knees and pressing my feet more into the ground. My thought process behind this was the "earthy people" are more comfortable and what you see with them is what you get. Therefore I wanted to show that I'm more relaxed by having bent knees but confident by having a stronger connection to the ground. When walking around as "earth" we were told to increase the intensity of what we were doing by 10. This was to ensure we weren't walking as ourselves. It was supposed to look silly and feel unnatural.
• Walking as Water:   I found this one a lot harder as I couldn't think of anyone that was like water. I really didn't know what to do for this so I just thought that the person would be less confident and bold, and so may be quite indirect with their movements.
• House on Fire:   For this exercise, we told that the curtains in a house had a little flame at the bottom of them. We then had to imitate this flame and become this flame as it grew and spread. We then had to be it when it came close to a gas canister and blew up. I found this exercise the most difficult as I didn't understand the task. I wanted a clearer instruction but was told just to do it. Therefore, I was really confused but tried my best at becoming this element in terms of emotion more than movement. I thought about being quite cunning at first, and then proud as I got bigger and then angry and pleased as I then exploded.
• Walking as Air:   I found this task a bit easier as we had done this task for two other elements prior to Air. I thought that someone who could be described as air would be quite free and full of energy. I thought quite literally about this one, and imagined someone whose energy and personality filled the room. However, I was told that an "airy" person would be more "air-headed" than bubbly. 

We were told that these elements can be assigned to different people's characteristics, though some people can be more than one. We were also told that people may have different opinions or views on what certain people would be. I could accept that people could be more than one element, but struggled to connect these elements to people without labelling the elements. I can't deal with things if they are not orderly or fit into categories, therefore I initially found this whole concept of elements very difficult to accept.

Assigning elements to characters & people:   To help me understand the idea of elements more, we discussed different characters and people and what element we thought they would be. We began by taking the characters from the musical "Rent" and discussed what we thought. We said that Maureen and Angel would be air as they are both very free characters. We said that Roger would be fire as he is quite unpredictable. We also thought that Collins and Mark would be water as they both tend to follow the crowd. However, two characters that we felt would be more than one element are Mimi and Joanne. We said that Mimi would be water but with an element of fire too - this is because she can be someone who's easy to get on with and quite mellow and vulnerable, but can be quite destructive too - she is self-destructive. Joanne would be water in the fact that she is submissive but earth as well because she stands her ground at time as well. To ensure I understood the idea of elements I wanted to know what element people thought I was. I was told that I would be earth as I stand up for what I believe, I am grounded and am genuine.

Tom then stated that you should "ALWAYS SHOW THE GENERAL ELEMENT OF THE CHARACTER. VISITING OTHER ELEMENTS IS FINE, BUT SHOW THEIR TRUE ELEMENT THROUGHOUT". This means that characters are almost always one element more than another, but they may become other elements at various points, however, you should always show the true them.

We were then told to do our monologues but with the idea of elements in our minds. We all performed our monologues twice this lesson, once as the element that we thought suited our character the best, and then as the element given to us by Tom:

1. Air trying to be Earth:   I thought that my character is very much air as she is upper-middle class and is very much under her husband's thumb. She is very submissive and gets pushed around a lot by her husband - her husband would be fire. In this monologue, she tries to build up the courage to tell her husband how she feels and that how he has treated her is wrong. However, because I was air, I really tried to show her vulnerability. I think this way definitiely worked better for my character than the next way. However, when I do this monologue again next lesson, I shall show that although she is really trying to be earth, she still is and always will be air. I feel like I got to earthy during this attempt thus losing her vulnerability and how weak she is.
2. Earth dealing with fire:   I was asked to do the monologue again but this time as if I was earth trying to deal with fire. Having this direction in mind, my body language altered. This time, my feet were flat on the floor and my elbows were digging in to my thighs. I found this quite challenging as I had to look stronger than before, but still look weak enough for the monologue to make sense. I was doing okay with this until I ended up moving my feet. It would have been okay if I dragged my feet up on to the balls, but instead I just slid them - this made me look more like water than earth. 

Tom came up with the following quote to summarise what we had just felt: "EXPLORING OTHER ELEMENTS THAT ARE NOT APPROPRIATE FOR YOUR CHARACTER MAKES YOU MORE AWARE OF WHAT IS". This means that it is good to be re-directed and experiment with other elements as by doing this, you learn what element suits your character best.