Throughout the piece it is very important for me to connect with the rhythm. Frantic Assembly, a renowned theatre company believe rhythm “carried the audience along confidently” (Graham and Hoggett, 2009, 27). Due to the bike being a central part to the performance, it is imperative to gain a simultaneous link between the rhythm on stage and the rhythm on the bike. Therefore, during rehearsals I plotted out the rhythm of each scene to date. Upon completing each graph, it was necessary to talk to the director to speak about parts of the scene where my pace on the bike greatens. After discussing and highlighting specific areas where this could happen, it was down to trial an error to see if it fit.

Above is a rhythm graph from the awakening scene. As you can see from the graph, the overall rhythm of the scene is very intense. After trying to match the rhythm on the bike we noticed it would be too hard to match the pace. Furthermore, the director believed there would be too much to observe in the scene and it would become confusing for the audience. Therefore, I suggested to juxtapose the rhythm of the bike to that on stage. Upon trying this, we found it to be very effective as when the rhythm slowed on stage it gave me purpose to pedal faster. After all, my character powers the show and projects his thoughts and imagination for the audience to view.

Above is the final rhythm graph I made for the awakening scene. As you can see from the two lines, the rhythm between what is happening on stage to that of the bike is heavily juxtaposed. (Ensemble in red, bike in blue.)

Works Cited:

Graham, S. and Hoggett, S. (2014) The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre. 2nd edition. London: Routledge.

In order to fully immerse myself into the performance, it is vital I know my character inside and out. In order to fully understand my character, I needed to do some basic ground work immediately. John Abbott believes, “actors have to understand what it is like to be someone other than themselves – and that is very complicated” (Abbott, 2015, p.86). Therefore, I decided to use one of Abbott’s exercises called ’85 Questions’. This exercise poses questions such as ‘what is your favourite food and drink?’ and allows you to gain authentic knowledge to your character’s physce.

Due to our performance being very physical with little spoken word, it is very important I connect with my body. Stanislavski states “the language of the body is the key that can unlock the soul” (Hadnagy, 2014, p.81). In order to understand my character’s inner workings, I therefore had to experiment with what my body was capable of doing. Once again, I used an exercise from John Abbott called ‘animal identification’. According to Abbott, the actor should ‘get inside the head of an animal. The way it looks at you, the way it looks at other animals. The way it tilts it head or moves its neck.’ (Abbott, 2015, p. 92). Due to my character being very vulnerable I chose to study a fox. To begin with, foxes are very light on their feet with a short burst of pace. I am hoping to replicate this characteristic on the bike, as I will be nippy on my feet but will have short bursts of pace when the tension on the stage gets higher. Furthermore, foxes are usually seen by themselves and are very apprehensive in their movement. The fox often leads with its head first, then the feet shortly follow. This characteristic is useful for when my character is caring for the orchid as he is apprehensive and unsure of the object. Therefore, leading with my head builds up a suspicion of the flower. This is important as the question becomes clearer as to whether the orchid is the object making me sane or insane.

Works Cited:

Abbott, J. (2015) The Acting Book. London. Nick Hern Books.

Hadnagy, C. (2014) Unmasking the Social Engineer: The Human Element of Security. USA: John Wiley & Sons.