Directing Journal Entry Three: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” was a very interesting play. It had a very basic set and only one location, and is performed by only four actors. Ultimately, the play gets deep into the minds of the characters, and dissects the two marriages prominent in the play. Because this play focuses a lot on what is going on in the text, it seems as though this might be a difficult play to direct. For one, as a director, one must be able to explain to the audience what is happening in the play, for as I read it, I had trouble even understanding which characters existed. As a director of this play, I would have to be able to make it clear that George and Martha’s son did not exist.

Another thing one would have to make sure of as one put on this play is that the drunkenness throughout the story must not be played too over the top, for the play is certainly not a comedy. However, it must be clear that the characters are drunk, for much of what they do and say would not make sense if they were not. One thing I have learned through Shakespeare camp is that the best way to act drunk is to try to act sober. A drunk person, does not try to convince friends that he is smashed, but instead tries to persuade them that he is still capable of using his inhibitions and common sense. To play drunk as if one is trying to stay sober lends an authenticity to acted drunkenness that staggering around on the stage does not.

Also, as a director, one must be careful not to let the amount of sitting and talking in the play make the play stagnant. Though the actors might be sitting, one has to make sure that the speed is kept up, that there is enough movement, and that the show stays interesting, because the moment the audience gets bored, it becomes thousands of times harder to recapture their attention.

Another thing I would focus on if I were to direct this play would be following who holds the power in a certain portion of the play. It seems to me as though it should always remain clear to the audience who is I charge at a certain point. At the beginning of the show, Martha holds the reigns, controlling her husband and the social scene, but she trades power positions with George throughout the play and by the end, George has all of the power over her. At some points, nick even holds some power, as in the end when he begins to piece everything together. When he remains the only sane and functioning person on the set, he has all of the power, and through blocking, line reading, intonation, and volume, the bearer of power in a scene should be clear.

A final thing I would watch for as a director would be to not let the actor playing Honey fall through the cracks. Though she often seems small, pitiful, and at times, even unimportant, she is a vital character. Her interaction with George at the end of the play before Nick and Martha return from the kitchen is extremely important, revealing important parts of her nature and the nature of her and Nick’s marriage.

All-in-all, this extremely psychological play seems as though it might be hard to direct. It has many deep themes and other important aspects which need to be emphasized. It also needs to be clearly portrayed so that it is understandable to an audience while still keeping them on the edge of their seat and making them think. The play should kindle fear, outrage, and pity within the audience, but should also be frank and honest. Full of opposites, this play should be played to the fullest.

Directing Journal Entry Two: A Practical Handbook for the Actor

“A Practical Handbook for the Actor” was a useful guide, and I will be able to use many tips from it when directing, especially when directing less experienced actors. The first seven chapters of the guide were on technique: Physical Action, Analyzing a Scene, The Truth of the Moment, Externals, Preparing for a Scene, Trouble Shooting, and The Tools of the Craft. The first chapter, on the physical action, specifies the nine things an action must be—physically capable of being done, fun to do, specific, not an errand, not presuppose any physical or emotional state, not be manipulative, be in line with the intentions of the playwright, have its test in the other person, and must have a cap. The action is an extremely important part of analyzing a scene. Throughout a scene, an actor must have an essential action to carry him through the scene. He must be able to identify what the character is doing by reading the lines and the play, and figuring out the main goal of the actor in a specific scene. If an actor knows, for instance, that in the scene, his action is to “get a friend’s forgiveness,” he can then inference how his lines might be said. The tools he might use to carry out his action could be begging, explaining, or yelling. They don’t necessarily have to be effective, for not all people are effective at doing what they mean to, and therefore not all characters are either. While an actor’s action might be trying to gain forgiveness, the character might flub up and insult the person they are trying to get to forgive them. The intent, however, should be to get forgiveness.

One important rule of an action is that it must not be manipulative, but it must have its test in the other person. Your action cannot be “making someone angry,” but might be “explaining why a friend is wrong.” The actor cannot aim solely for a certain response from his scene partner, but must instead try to do something he can do alone, and can accomplish without the scene partner. A scene partner may read his own lines in a way that yields tears instead of anger, and the actor’s action will never be finished, but if the actor uses a non-manipulative action, he can respond to however the scene partner responds. However, the actor must be able to look at his scene partner and know if the action has been completed yet. The action does not need, necessarily, to be completed, but the scene partner must be able to show whether the action is effective of not.

The action is an important tool one can use in directing. If an actor aimlessly paces or stands completely still, the director can ask the actor what he or she is doing in the scene. Is the actor trying to convince their scene partner of something, or trying to prevent them from doing something? Both actions will can lead to specific movements that have purpose so that an actor does not look as if he or she is just following the blocking their director assigned. If the actor understands what he or she is trying to do with a movement, they can better perform blocking so that it looks to be purposeful, instead of aimless.

Directing Journal Entry One: Summer Camp and Lessons Learned

This summer, I went to a camp called YCTC (Young Company Theatre Camp) at the Blackfriair’s playhouse in Stanton, VA. There, I acted in a shortened performance of the second part of Antony and Cleopatra, and during those three weeks I spent working on the show, I made many mental notes on what I liked and disliked from directors, actors, and stage crew, as well as what shapes and images I liked to see on stage.

In Antony and Cleopatra, I played a vast number of roles (8), ranging from Mardian the eunuch to Decretas to messengers and soldiers. While I understood that the situation of the play—way more characters than actors, and many characters with very small roles—I generally prefer when actors are single or double cast. If a single actor comes on stage in so many different costumes as so many different characters, the audience begins to get confused. Even my own parents, who were honing in on me throughout the performance couldn’t keep my characters straight. I think if I were to direct Antony and Cleopatra (with an unlimited number of actors at my disposal) I would leave Mardian as Mardian and Decretas as Decretas. I wouldn’t double cast those characters, partly because it requires a difficult quick change, and partly because their loyalties are in completely different places, and to double cast them would be to confuse the audience. Also, because there is so much side-switching built into the plot of the play, I would try to eliminate as much doubling as possible that crossed between camps. I would try not to double cast a supporter of Cleopatra as a supporter of Caesar, and if it was truly necessary, I would make it obvious that it was an actor playing two roles and not a character who had switched sides through very different costuming and physicality. I would also try to help actors with multiple characters create a different personality and physicality to distinguish them, not only for the audience, but for the actors themselves.

Another tricky thing about Antony and Cleopatra is the scene where the wounded and dying Antony is lifted up into Cleopatra’s monument. How to get Antony onto the balcony in a realistic way seemed impossible, and we were all stumped. However, we employed a bit of mime work and some trickery to make it work. Cleopatra and her maids were on the monument with one rope, and Antony in the discovery space with another. A person stood behind the curtain in the back of the discovery space with the second rope, and as Cleopatra dropped hers, the boy behind the curtain dropped his, in perfect timing with the lines. A servant then helped tie Antony into the knotted rope, and as Cleopatra began to pull her rope “taut,” the boy behind the curtain pulled his completely taut, again, timing by the lines. Then, the two people holding open the curtains to the discovery space closed the curtains, Antony pulled himself out of the rope and booked it up the stairs to the monument and tied the upstairs rope to himself while Cleopatra and her girls covered with lines. Then, they “pulled him up to the monument,” while he lay on the floor, hidden by the balcony, eventually standing where he could be seen.

While I’m not sure if there is a better way to perform this almost impossible feat (one wonders what in the world Shakespeare was thinking), I do think the method our director employed was too indirect a science. We worked entirely based around a few lines, and the two rope holders could not see one another. Also, while the audience could hear both groups well, the two groups had a harder time hearing cue lines from one another because lines aimed outwards to the audience were having trouble making it through the floor to the people below in the discovery space. Because there were so many variables in the action, a line could be dropped, or someone could move early, the whole illusion could easily have been shattered. Though I have heard of a cast who tied a rope thrown over the balcony to Antony and pulled him up while he also pulled himself up, I think that is also a difficult way to perform it, though there are less variables to worry about botching. When I first read the scene I imagined a group of soldiers holding Antony on his back above their heads in a style akin to “light as a feather, stiff as a board.” I then imagined Cleopatra looking down to him over the balcony when they speak, and making her “how heavy weighs my lord” comments in response the shaking arms of the soldiers lifting him up. I think my imagination miss-judged the height difference between the floor and the balcony at the Blackfriars, though, for what I imagined next was him being lifted up by the soldiers on the ground and soldiers up above into the monument. This would be possible if I were able to design my own set, but not at the Blackfriars. However impossible it might be at the playhouse, I love the image of Antony being lifted by his soldiers above his head in a way that seems to symbolize death. It might be how he would have been carried after he died from the wound he has already given himself, reminding the audience that he is about to die.

All-in-all, the experience playing in Antony and Cleopatra was a fun one, a chance for me to improve my acting skills and play with different physical traits and voices. I was given a chance again to study the way boys walk, sit, talk, and stand as opposed to the way girls do, for all of my characters were male. I also got to see professional performances of Othello, Taming of the Shrew, and Wild Oats, and take notes about what I liked and disliked. I discovered an annoyance with actors who note one another or argue with a director, and discovered that I cannot stand when an audience begins to clap along with a song, for while it shows enthusiasm, it makes me and other audience members cringe about how some people can’t keep a rhythm. Another thing I dislike during shows is lines—unless the line is well-done, and formed purposely to create a certain image, the actors should avoid standing in one, for an unintentional line is usually slightly off, and it looks as if the actors have tried to do something and failed, while in reality, they only forgot to try not to do something.

Altogether, I think I gained some great tools to begin work on this directing study!