Common Ground 2014 has been a beautiful beautiful experience, and I'm lucky to be apart of it.

Unfortunately the photographer didn't actually get me in any of the pictures he took during my scene in the dress run, which I am disappointed at. However the other pictures are great:

Evaluation of performance

So all three shows are finished!

I think they have all gone really well together as a company and as myself as an individual actor.

During the first show, there was an error during my only scene - scene 6. Somewhere in the middle, one of the actors muddled their line and ended up skipping two pages and carrying the scene on from a later moment within the play. This unfortunately cut out most of my lines which was disappointing, but I took it on the chin and as an actor continued to make it a really good scene. This wasn't noticeable to the audience which is a good thing, but of course to us actors. This was a good thing in a way though, because it made us work even harder as an ensemble to ignore the error and pick up the scene. I think that the slight mishap did knock me off balance slightly though, as I am never addressed directly in my scene, I rely on other people's comments as a cue for my own. So because of this, I felt I had to think harder and faster than usual, scanning the script in my head and attempting to work out what part we were on and what my next line was. I appreciated my role as an assistant director here. Due to the fact I felt I had to know the play inside out with this job, it wasn't hard for me to remember my whole scene and within a matter of moments I had picked out the check point and continued.

The second and third show was brilliant again and my scene went really well, all lines included this time. Already having done the show the first time, I felt my initial nerves were out of the door and I could really begin to have fun with the scene. I felt like I did things I didn't do in rehearsals, which I'm not sure if that's an overall good thing or a bad thing. I made myself listen to the scene with fresh ears, like I had never done it before or heard the speeches the other characters were giving. This kept my acting fresh, I believe, and gave me more enjoyment when doing the scene. I acted on gentle impulse and completely felt I was drunk, sarcastic, rude William Faddy, not just Shanon playing William Faddy, you know? I held on tightly to my physicality as this character and made sure my lines were clear, loud and direct. As most of my lines are sly rude comments to Ralph, I thought it imperative the delivery of my lines portrayed this perfectly, otherwise the direction of them could have been lost, so I believe I did this to the best of my ability.

Rehearsals/Feedback

I think the rehearsals have gone really well, not just for me but for the company as a whole. Due to have our first show in just a matter of days, I think we have a strong cast, best director and a very good play on our hands.

In terms of myself as an actor, I think I have gone on my only little journey as an actor despite my part not being as prominent as the characters. I've had to think about my own voice a lot, having spent quite a bit of time helping the other 'officers,' I forgot I should be taking my own advice. As a natural 'cockney' myself, I found it easier to talk like one of the convicts and not a high class officer, which was funny because certain convicts like Harrison and Catherine felt it more natural to talk like one of the officers, than their part as a convict.

This was one of the main points I received in my feedback - my accent. When saying the line "Second Lieutenant  Clark change society!" I naturally dropped the t's in my speech and my rhythm was more of a.... "commoner" than a high class serving officer. Our director informed me of this so I practised and altered my speech for the next rehearsal. 

I also had to change my physical stance as well. In my scene, many of the officers are sitting and I am one of the ones that stands. I struggled at first to make myself seem like a man and keep my physicality going throughout the entire long scene, so I wasn't just stuck in the same position like a statue the whole time. I shuffled on the spot a lot with my feet shoulder width apart in a bored and frustrated manner, which I think suited my character.

I think I have remained fully engaged in each rehearsal. Not always saying much, but popping outside to work with the different actors or updating my blog on my phone. I didn't think it was possible for me NOT to switch off, so I am pleased I have remained focused and a helping hand throughout, taking over warm ups and working with different characters.

Timberlake Wertenbaker

A British writer, born in New York and raised in the Basque area of France, she is the daughter of Charles Wertenbaker - a foreign correspondent for Time Magazine - and Lael Tucker Wertenbaker - author. She graduated from St. John's College, USA in 1966 and began her career writing for Time-Life books. She then went on to professional teaching, lecturing in both Greek and French, before moving to London in the early '80s, where she first developed an interest in writing for the theatre, and became a resident-writer for the small theatre companies Shared Experience in 1983 and the Royal Court Theatre from 1984-85.

Having been the Royal Court Theatre's writer-in-residence in 1985, she had her most successful play, 'Our Country's Good' performed there in 1988. She is the author of many plays for the stage and for radio, and has translated works by authors including Jean Anouilh, Racine, Sophocles, and Euripides. She has won many awards, including, an Evening Standard Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, a Drama Critics' Circle Award, a Critics' Circle Theatre Awards and a Writers' Guild Award. Her other works include the plays 'The Love of the Nightingale' and 'Three Birds Alighting on a Field'.

Crossing Actors

During the plays original run in The Royal Court Theatre, my character was played by a woman, which surprised me. Even more so when that same woman also played Mary Brenham.

I believed that, with the original production of such an intense and politically fuelled play and based on a true story, everything would have to be precise in order to keep the play as true as possible. If the character was a man, it would have to be played by a man. Especially as this was in a society where men had more authority and a bigger hold on women. It didn't cross my mind that there would be a range of different factors that would stop the director and casting director from hiring a seperate actor to portray a character with 6 lines and in only one scene. So, they cast one of the bigger characters in the play to take on one of the smaller officers during the scene they were not in. I thought this was clever and efficient. 

However, I do believe this could have ruined the illusion for the audience, had I watched it in 1988. Due to lack of time within each scenes, Louise Arnold (who played both Mary and Faddy) had only a jack to represent her change of character for The Merits of Theatre - Scene 6. Looking at pictures, I was drawn to the fact every other character in that scene who played the officers had a full costume and looked exactly how they should do. However, Louise had her full convict uniform on that was clear to the eye and the jacket wasn't enough to keep the imagination alive.

Helping the actors

Today I embraced my assistant directing duties and took the actors involved in Scene 3 out to do some character work and line runs.

Scene 3 is the scene where the top officers go shooting birds and embark on a discussion about the object of hanging convicts for punishments. 4/5 actors are females playing males, so I decided to start by helping them embrace their inner male. We focused on altering their movement, their voices and the way they carried themselves.

I started with Sarah. I watched the way she walked as her normal 18 year old female self, then told her to do it again but take certain things into consideration - her weight as a man, her authority and status, and the given circumstances in the scene. Automatically, her head was lifted higher, her knees wee bent slightly and her pace quickened like she had a motive. I reminded her that she would be holding a gun in this scene, and so her arms felt heavier and she took the position of a gunman.

We then focused on voices. I understood that it's difficult for a woman to speak like a man as well as hanging onto volume and pitch. I started by doing breathing exercises with them, feet shoulder width a part, hands by their sides and taking deep breaths in. Then we began by saying the simple line of "Shanon went to the shops" and focused on speaking from the stomach. Each time their voices dropped an octave. Having done the research myself before embarking on this activity with the actors, I knew it was important not to just change your tone and growl like a bear when playing a man, because that wouldn't be believable nor healthy for the throat.

We then did line runs which consisted of the actors putting down their script and simply saying the lines to each other with their new found voices, myself prompting them had they forgotten a line.

I'm not sure if I have helped the actors today, I'd like to think so. When going back into the rehearsal space and them showing the scene again to the director, I did myself actually see an improvement, and it is all about progress.