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.