Weekly Blog Entry (06/03-09/03)

The objectives for this week were:

• Use Brecht’s acting style to bring scene to life with humor;
• Try out movement and voice ideas for your character;

 

On the 06/03 (Monday) we rehearsed Act 1 Scene 1. It’s the introduction of the show. This time we, as an audience, don’t know anything about the characters so we have to introduce ourselves. When rehearsing I was trying to understand how does Harry connect to people around him. As an example, he senses Hope entering the scene. Later on, will be revealed that Harry wants to kill Hope. These little details may not seem very important in the bigger picture but help to create a layer of complexity. Plus if someone in the audience notices, in the end, will be rewarded with that “easter egg”.

Here is the moment, at minute 3:45 to 4:00.

 

I do not get to speak in this opening scene, so all my experiments were in a lower voice with a sense of urgency. Hot Blades Harry needs revenge he needs to shed Cladwell’s blood. The way that he moves comes from an idea that “all” homeless people have this “funny” walk.

On the 08/03 we finished choreographing Cladwell’s song. In this piece, my character (one of the staff people) has to make sure that he does everything perfectly.

Here’s the result:

 

Another example of how UGC staff (Act 1 Scene 2) has to be portrayed, from 3:23 to 5:00:

 

On 09/03 (Thursday) I had a new direction. “He is a psychopath!” Judith said. I decided to try something new. Harry is disturbed. So I tried a neck movement. Like something is actually bothering him.

We can see a bit of that direction and the neck movement in this video, from the beginning to 0:25.

 

Overall I think I am on the right track to truthfully portray Harry. But I still feel that, at some points, I am exaggerating. Especially in this last video.  Also, when Bobby says “Look at sky!”, Harry would not react to that. He wants revenge. Although, he likes the idea of being able to pee for free once again. But is my portrayal of Hot Blades Harry over the top exaggerated? Is it funny? Or is it just truthful?