Off Text Improvisation

In order to enhance our personal interactions we got into pairs and devised little off text improvisations. I partnered up with Sasha who is playing Hero. The context of our scene is that I (Don Pedro) is wooing Hero in the place of Claudio. Seeing as this is a moment that actually happens within the play but is never actually physically written it was really useful to get a sense of what our two characters would actually be saying. This exercise was very useful because it allowed us to look further into the kind of relationship Hero and Don Pedro share. When we first attempted the improvisation it came off too flirtatious. This was wrong because Don Pedro's of objective isn't to seduce Hero for himself. If this was to read on stage the audience might get the wrong idea and may think Don Pedro is dishonourable. We tried re-working it so I went down on one knee like a chivalrous knight and kept things more formal. This seemed to work a lot better as we still kept that connection but our statuses where more apparent. Even though Hero is the daughter of very high status character she is still lower than me however placing us around the same height allowed the barrier to be broken and we more free to talk with more equal footing.

When we performed these in front of the class some important things came up that we can take forward with us in the rehearsal process. Even though we had good chemistry something still wasn't right. Our directed wanted to see Hero give Don Pedro a big hug. This would have relieved the weird tension that there was between us. It also meant that I wouldn't give off the creepy uncle figure vibe because there would be an unspoken acceptance between the two characters. Another point that got flagged was that there were too many questions being asked. This meant that we kept going round in circles and we weren't finding the importance in the message I was trying to deliver to Hero. This made me feel like I needed to sit and just watch her reactions when I give her the news. This means I would have time to gage her reaction and calculate what I should say next. This also gave me insight into the way Don Pedro plots and plans things in his head. He never just dives head first into danger. He is strategist.

This exercise was very useful. Because we were under improvisational conditions there was no pressure to get the interaction perfect first time round. It allowed me to unleash my instincts as Don Pedro and see how he reacts to other characters. It also means we can use this work in the actual scene. Instead of just mouthing and pretending to have a conversation on stage we'll actually have real things to say moreover making the acting more rooted in reality and truthful.