Under Undershaft

Realism will require an actor to create an entirely new individual to present onstage. Becoming another person takes a lot of work. For Andrew Undershaft I had to spend a few hours finding clues as to who he was in the script. I would look at how he reacted to other people in various situations as well as how they reacted to him. I also looked into what he said about himself along with what others said about him. These clues helped me to construct a foundation and skeleton for the character of Undershaft. Next, I needed to dig deep into his motivations. I understood the type of person he was but I wasn't still exactly sure of he was individually. To do this I needed to construct a life for Undershaft by inventing his given circumstances both large and small. I needed these so that I could figure out why he does the things he does. I began this section but I did not take it as far as I generally would have liked. He is a very complex character, but I only really focused on what was immediately important for the scene. I feel that if I had created a more solid world around Undershaft, the character would have been more easily produced.
For the performance itself I felt that certain things worked well, while others were a little wanting. I felt that Undershaft's disgust of the 'common mob of slaves and idolaters' was well shown. A cetain small thing that I liked was when Undershaft threw his hand wide and proclaimed that the army was worth buying becasue it was the church of the poor. I aslo felt that his general confidence and control of the situation was well percieved but I could take that a bit father still. This is an area I will help to strengthen for the next performance. There were several areas I felt could take out all together or at least improve. One area was the still blocking. I was too concentrated on what we had rehearsed and was not letting it happen natually. I also felt that the scene was a bit sluggish. Nate and i have worked on picking up cues so that this sort of thing wont happen again, or at least not as bad. And one final thing I think could go was Undershaft's apparent anger. He isn't supposed to be agnry but maybe a bully or at the very least calcualtaing. With these things in mind, I think the next perforance will be much better.