Character Development--1

I remember the first time I really realized that it took time to really develop your character for a performance. I was the lead in a Tennessee William's one-act called "Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton." I played Flora. Here's Wikipedia's summary about the show: 

27 Wagons Full of Cotton

27 Wagons Full of Cotton is a 1946 one-act that Williams referred to as "a Mississippi Delta comedy." In it, Jake, a middle-aged, shady cotton gin owner burns down the mill of Silva Vicarro, a rival in the cotton business. His rival, who knows what happened but cannot prove it, seeks revenge by seducing Jake's young, frail, delicate wife, Flora. Elia Kazan's controversial 1956 movie Baby Doll was based on this play. Incidentally, the play's title is written as a line of trochaic pentameter (e.g. TWENty SEVen WAGons FULL of COTTon).

I loved playing Flora, after I spent hours talking to the guys who played Jake and Silva, trying to figure out how this all could work onstage.  BRAGGING MOMENT: When I auditioned for the part, which was kind of a cattle call for all the student directors for their final project, my director told me she was so happy to have gotten me. All the directors wanted me. (Blushing but not really...)

I admit, I spent so much time on talking to the director and the other two actors in the play that I didn't learn my lines well enough and had one horrible moment in one of the performances where I couldn't get out. It was during the fight/seduction scene and back and forth Silva and I went until I could remember the line that would pull us back on track. Ugh. I remember the total panic about that, right there onstage, being hauled back and forth. Yipes times infinity. (You'd think I'd be better about learning my lines after that, wouldn't you? <sigh>)

The last scene of that play I come out with black and blue marks that I frantically put on backstage to look like the bruises Silva gave me. If you want to do this, just to tell you, it's blue and purple eyeshadow covered with blush. It looks very cool from the audience, or so I was told.

There are whole courses on character development, books about it, and tons of info about it on the net. Essentially, it is essential. Nice redundancy on my part, yeah? I will speak on this further, but for now, I want to say that I appreciate the directors and fellow actors I've worked with who've encouraged me to look into myself and find the character I'm playing. By doing this, when I'm onstage, I don't just stand there like a lump. I respond with actions, facial expressions, even with a spiritual connection, it seems to me, with the others onstage with me.

Keep playing! Play your part until it is you.