Acting Unit 10 : Three Sisters

An Actor Prepares

 LO 1.1 For me the first thing I do when I receive a character in a scripted piece is to read the text, this may sound like a obvious conclusion, how else would I fulfil my role as an actor if I do not know the words?

But I believe there are many ways to read, there is the commonly known sight and skim reading, for me when I receive a script I must skim read it and get to the end as fast as possible (there are exceptions to this rule however), I do this because I do not want to get absorbed in the plot of the narrative that is the job of the audience in a realistic or naturalistic play. 

What I want to get absorbed in is the objectives and subplot of what is being said by and to my character and looking at the relationships of the characters to each other. I do this on a second reading of the text (which normally happens right after the initial reading) in which I take more time to read and look at syntax; I do this because the way the playwright, in this case Anton P Chekov, places certain words are like clues to the actor about an underlying issues for e.g “I remember when they carried father out, the band was playing, at the cemetery they fired shots in his honour [...] but even so not many people came to the funeral.” This was said by Olga, the character I’m playing, in the opening scene: straight away this let me into the world of the character and has me thinking about the influence that father would have had over my character as a person.

1.      He was ‘general and commanding officer of a brigade’ the military background made me think of regimental behaviour that was taken into the home life, so he would have wanted order at home, did that mean Olga and her siblings had to be quite as children, did she loath him and love him at the same time?

2.      Did the lack of such a strong presence in her life make her feel weak and lacking in direction because she no longer had an outside source to tell her what to do?

3.      Why if ‘father’ was so highly esteemed did hardly no one turn up to the funeral and why is Olga making excuse “but of course there was heavy rain and snow” is she making excuses for herself or Irina and Masha as they are in the room listening to her.

4.      Although there are many questions rose for me I already have an idea of how I want to deliver that line, “but of course there was heavy rain and snow”, I can feel sarcasm and bitterness ebbing from the words, that is my subplot but my objective is to sound reassuring for the sake of my sisters. I believe Olga is bitter towards the people who didn’t turn up to the funeral but realising what she had said she didn’t want to make her sisters upset so she tries to make it sound flippant but my subplot is creating an obstacle that makes what I’m saying sound sarcastic.



Bibliography

Three Sisters , Chekov P Anton, Ledger R Gerald translation, 1998, Script