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.

Character level 100

This morning's exercise was very beneficial in terms of finding our characters and... creating them.

We had to walk around the space as our characters, thinking about pace, energy, facial expressions and idiocyncrices. I began a slow pace, scuffling my shoes, back straight and my hands behind my back. My eyes constantly wandered as if I was seeking for action. We then had to push this more so that our characters were bigger with our physicality stressed much more. 

I think that everyone assumed because the level had increased, the speed of their character also had to. I figured because my character began walking in a slow, careless pace anyway, my speed would surely decrease further the more I had to push it. My knees were bent at every step and my feet scuffled as if I was having a little tap dance.

We pushed it to 80% so that our characters looked almost animated. It was decided that this was actually a good level to keep it on during the scenes for most characters because it have them a better sense of purpose.

I think this was good because it made everyone think about their characters and separate them from themselves, recognise that Shanon/Faddy, Kitty/Liz, Tyler/Ketch are different people and the audience will be able to recognise this.

Simon, Faddy and Perez should definitely go get coffee some time in the future, I'm sure they'd have a lot to talk about.

Sarcastic celebrities

My character, Second Lieutenant William Faddy is a very, as I've stated before, sarcastic and opinionated direct man when he wants to be. In the case of Our Country's Good, my character directs this attitude and demeaner to Ralph.

With some research, I found some celebrities who have the same attitude as my good friend Faddy. 

Simon Cowell is a main one. Whether it's a front for the shows he appear on, he is known for his direct opinion and sarcasm as a judge on such shows as The X Factor and Britains Got Talent. Although Si and Faddy live in complete different worlds, they share the same attitudes when they come accross something they dislike. Simon Cowell is like the modern William Faddy!! Well... except from the different era, job, level of status, appearance and stuff... Simon quite famously quoted "I'm tempted to ask if you sang that the night before your wife left you" when a man audition for his show with the sob story of his wife leaving him. 

Many celebrity bloggers have the same attitude as Simon and Faddy. When they come accross something they dislike, they make it known for attention and controversy. Although their intentions are different, Perez Hilton has this nature and approach with his work. Faddy uses his comments and opinions and personal dislike to put down others within his work, and someone like Perez Hilton is a perfect example of someone who also does that. 

Off text improv

Off text improvisation

I found this exercise hard to begin with because my character is very opaque character - what you see is what you get and what you can't see you simply do not know.

With my partner Sophie I created my own little back story for my sarcastic rude character. She played my wife and we acted out a scene where I was telling her I was leaving for Australia with the convicts.

I've learned that I don't deal with emotions very well: I cover everything up with sarcastic jokes that can come accross quite bitter. When my wife told me she would miss me I laughed rudely and claimed it wouldn't take her 10 minutes until she was in bed with the next man. I didn't mean it but I rejected her love because I think I feel that's the only way I know - maybe because my own father treated his wife like that. 

My wife is simply an object to me like most things in life. I think I reject her love with sarcasm and spite - and most other things - because I'm actually quite insecure with myself. I hold a lot of dislike for myself so I shed that on everyone else, including my wife and Ralph.

This has helped me get into my character even more.