The Want in the Scene

SCENE STUDY: The Want in the SceneWorking with director Stephen Jobes hon how to craft the WANT in a scene more clearly.  I was working on a piece from Kingdom of Earth and Glass Menagerie.Kingdom of Earth by Tennessee WilliamsThe character Chicken is basically asking for forgiveness.  I WANT FORGIVENESS but what makes it even clearer is the WHY, why do you want forgiveness.  Chicken is giving a speech of how hard life is and that man has to be hard in order to survive. "I think life just plain don't care about the weak. A man and his life had to be made of the same stuff or one will break and the one that breaks, won't be life"So I had crafted a clear WANT but did not really have the WHY. So what Stephen and I ended up crafting was that I had to kill my son because he was not strong enough or man enough to be in this world. And I am asking for forgiveness from my wife. The piece completely came alive and immediately gave me variety.

• I WANT FORGIVENSS
• WHY? So that my wife will understand why I murdered my son, he's not man enough and the world only accepts men.

Another key thing to remember in Forgiveness is to never play self pity because as in life, we hate to see it, especially on stage. Always fight for forgiveness, don't surrender it.  Much more dramatic on stage. Glass Menagerie by Tennessee WilliamsTom's last speech which is always tricky because you really never know to whom you are speaking. It is up to us as actors to craft it to make really for the audience.Tom was another speech that if you wanted, you could craft the I WANT as I WANT FORGIVENESS which is what I did. But I crafted that I wanted forgiveness from myself. My WHY was because I needed to be free so that I could pursue my dreams.And as always acting is like a pin ball machine in that once you get going on the right track, other things start to come alive and connect you to the speech. As Wynn Handman says, get's in your gut. Specifics from your personal life and your dream begin to affect you and begin to marinate into your work.  Which is what I think acting is, the ability to created a sense of truth and reality of the world your character is living in for the audience.

• I WANT FORGIVENESS FROM MYSELF FOR LEAVING MY FAMILY BEHIND
• WHY? So that I can be free to pursue the life I want.