Acting - Week 8 - Life is a Dream 2
Today Thiago and I did the scene from Life is a Dream. We had already done it before reading from the text, and today we did it partially off book, but not quite. We were both into it a lot, and I think that the audience could see it, especially we were pretty good with the expression of restrained anger.
During rehearsal, Thiago made a good suggestion around a certain line that I should change my presentation from being angry to being kind of hurt. Initially I resisted his suggestion, but on further thought I saw the opportunity to express a different more complex set of emotions and I tried it out. I’m not quite where I want to be with that line because it’s such a quick change of feeling, but I think I’ll get there.
One thing I want to do more is try to play with space more. Thiago is a powerful person and he approaches the scene with the idea the that father/king is the dominant person in the scene. This shows in his body language because he is always approaching and getting into my space to show his dominance. The only thing about this is that it doesn’t give me any room to play with the distance between us for dramatic effect - in a way this dramatic choice shrinks the stage.
I guess my choice at this point is to either convince Thiago to lay back a little bit, or to take the comfort zone that he’s created and push it even more.