Acting Workshop

Meisner

we started by looking at another person then thy changed something about themselves and we had to say what. This was about be observant, as meisner is all about being in the moment and observing the other actor so you can play of them. It was quite hard to notice some very subtle changes in the persons appearance. We then went on to look at the repetition game

The Drum Major as a Brechtian Symbole

The drum major represents much more than just a man in many ways he is man or what some men have become.

The Drum Major represents the Identity crisis many men go through - as society currently stands the clear defining gender roles of men and women have faded, you could say it is more equal and excepting (although in many ways women are still not equal to men). No longer are men expected to be the emotionless, drunk breadwinner you'd find in a 1940's suburb. I don't believe that this identity crisis is just specific to our time, In the past is seemed necessary to prove manliness and I think that still holds today, What is a real man? For The Drum Major in 2014 how knows? The clear guidelines of what makes a man have faded and men must find that themselves. To me it seemes the Drum major is striving the most obvious version of a man; a walking penis looking for anything to fuck, Sex constantly on his mind for the pure selfish pleasure of it and not love, Strong, powerful and has command over others

Character


The Drum Major has been a tough roll for me to find truth in and commitment. In his nature he is vile and disgusting, he has a huge ego and a strong desire to prove he is a man. In particular I struggled with the rape scene with Marie. So to try and deal with this I tried to invent a character that I could somehow justify. I wrote a back story for the Drum Major; he had forced into the army by his father and that he actually wanted to be an artist. after spending or time with the character it become apparent to me that this story just didn't fit the text and his true nature.

slowly I began to realise that I was trying to make myself feel better about this character, to find truth in the character I need to reassess how I was to approach the character. throughout the processes of rehearsing scenes especially the rape scene I became more comfortable as this character. In particular it was a meisner workshop that helped the most. We did the repetition game, what this did for me was furthered my understanding of noticing and reacting. All the time in rehearsal were I try to react as my original back story told me to I found my self completely missing the point of the character. I discovered that if I saw The Drum Major as more of a brechtian symbol of society rather than a real person I could find the commitment I needed to play the role the Drum major takes in the Narrative.

As a whole i believe this processes has exposed to me that to play a character like The Drum Major you need to get your own head out of the way and look at the bigger picture of the piece and what we are trying to say with the piece and not how I individually feel about playing such a vulgar character. Sometimes to make a statement you need something that evokes a strong feeling in people weather it be pity for Marie or disgust at the Drum Major.