Peformance and Developments

The shows in which I played Mr Grey and a Homeless character when very well, I think I managed to help show the audiences what kind of contrasting lives these different characters have. The Homeless character as a fed up, grumpy hungry persona, giving the impression of a tough life, his ruined clothes, odd movement and exaggerated gestures all contributed to the success of this character's intensions; ensuring the audience understood and could interpret the life of the character and atmosphere of the current song.

Mr Grey on the other hand, having few lines contributed in the performance as I played him as a slow, exaggerated snobby character, he was more of a symbol for all wealthy people in New York's Upper East side, giving him this persona meant in songs such as La Vie Boheme other members of the cast could direct actions towards him and the audience could understand the relationship further into the rich and the poor.

We performed two public shows where I performed my main character Benny on the second day (Thursday).

Thursday 4:30 (School):

Act 1

Act 2

Thursday 7:30 (Public):

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Evaluation of the Shows

The first showing to the schools was successful and I could see everyone was more in tune with their characters compared to the rehearsal runs. Personally I support this, becoming a character whilst having full attention of the audience allowed myself to further express and perform my intentions, something that my character Benny is all about; intending to build a Cyber Studio; collecting rent; causing havoc; making money etc.

My main intension as an actor though was the allow audiences to understand the ambitions of Benny, due to the success of the first run on Thursday I think this came across very effectively. One area of improvement for myself for the school performances was to allow further diction placement so younger/older audience members who would have trouble understanding or hearing the lines would be able to clearly engage into the dialogue.

The evening show was smoother and sung more confidently than the afternoon showing overall as a cast. Although for myself I felt this performance lacked characterisation; personally I didn't think I managed to indicate what Benny's intentions were through his movement as effectively as I could have done. An example of this is in the first appearance of Benny in Mark and Rogers flat, my movement around the space seemed to wonder and still I'm not 100% sure whether than was due to being too confident with the piece and trying to own the space as my character a little too much or the focus on lyrics in the show and catching my breathe distracted me away from the choreographic blocking I devised.

Overall my confidence and presence in the rest of the show I thought was believable and I approached the second act with a professional calm manner. Act two was powerful, as a cast and independently as I felt we all understood that this would be the last showing of Rent as a cast at Worthing College, we gave it our all.

In the second act I struggled with Benny as the shows before began to take it's toll on my voice, unfortunately something which happens often around shows, even after excessive vocal warm ups and drinking water.

In conclusion the as a cast both performances went incredible and it was a pleasure performing with such talented actors, although for myself in comparison to the show before (4:30) the later showing suffered but was still a huge success.

This show has allowed me to further develop my confidence and understanding of musical theatre, not to mention of course learning massive amounts of information into the era Rent was set, AIDS and HIV and characters around the time which I could relate visually through costume as well as helping develop the character of Benny.

The performances were overall a well casted, well balanced and well directed collection, the double cast helped, from an audience perspective if they saw both nights show the interpretations of the characters by the actors and the contrasting intentions of the relationships between characters throughout the scenes.

Script Analysis / Blocking and choreography

Since receiving the script, the task arose to assign ambitions, pauses and emotion to each of our lines. My first solo line in Rent was 'Ho ho ho, dude's I'm on my way' I wanted to sound as friendly and welcoming as possible, attempting to win across the audience before they are completely aware of my characters evil intentions.

Reading the script allowed me to create a personal interpretation of the character Benny; I saw him as someone who has left himself in his past and is trying to be a person he always wanted to be but ended up becoming selfish and arrogant. A few lines stood out especially to show this such as:

''Rent my amigos is due, or I will have to evict you, be there in a few'' - Benny, Tune Up #2

Also his entire song about 'You'll See' makes him seem like a Mr Know-it-all, arrogant rich guy; you do have to admire his optimism.

Toward the end of the script I felt this character accepts that his friends and family are more important than his ambitions for CyberArts which would lead to harming/ruining poorer peoples lives. This change I had to try to show through my performance. Throughout Benny's performances giving the sense that I was beginning to understand the reasons behind why Roger, Mark, Angel and everyone else protested and developed a hate for CyberArts whilst trying to maintain my high status. The death of Angel obviously was a massive impact on Benny, although they never share dialogue the presence of Angel was also a positive one and at times I think had an affect on Benny.

For Benny the ending of the script allowed him to take the next step from accepting the situations of others by seeing it through their perspectives but then taking action to help them (''A rehab... ...I'll pay''). Besides Roger and Mark I think Benny takes the longest journey throughout the play, learning, accepting, understanding and then helping; this process is why I enjoyed playing Benny so much, each time I came back onto the stage I had to portray his character to have a closer connection with the other characters on stage whilst still keeping that space.

Blocking and Choreography - Homeless Character

Blocking movement in Rent, for me was mainly through my Homeless character at the beginning of the play during the opening song 'RENT.

I didn't expect the extent of how much movement we wanted to incorporate into the Musical until beginning our first rehearsal on the opening sequence.

The song 'RENT' introduces the atmosphere and scene of the musical, so it was crucial that this came across in our dance through dynamics and choreographic devices. Focusing on pedestrian stylised movements, more specifically homeless stylised movements, we began movement by movement devising the piece as a class.

Developing a strong character background and persona for my character was important to maintain that level of realism in the movements of my character. A few ways I did this was deciding what it was which meant I ended up as a homeless person on the streets on New York Cities East Village. Research being the first key to creating anything I turned to Google. I then discovered a selection of the main issues which cause homelessness (Source):

1. Personal causes such as individual factors (lack of qualifications, no social support, debts, poor mental/physical health, crime or relationship breakdowns); family background (family breakdowns/fights, pervious experience of parents with alcoholic, drug or homeless issues or sexual/physical abuse in their childhood); an institutional background (being sent to prison, being in care or having been in the armed forces).
2. Structural causes such unemployment, poverty, lack of support or closure from long-stay psychiatric hospitals.

Due to the nature of the musical I decided my characters history would include being overrun with debt (rent) and gave up everything to try to pay it off, next step was to use the drama movement technique to change 3 things about my current posture and movement to become my homeless character.

Posture

1. More shrugged over, less straight standing
2. Bigger surface area, further leg gap and pushed back elbows
3. Steady eye-line
   

Movement

1. Walk leading with the head
2. More exaggerated movements
3. Larger height when stepping

The dance was slowly pieced together through many rehearses in Dance lessons, due to the song being long and including a wide variety of tempo changes and numerous song climaxes it took us all a great deal of time to master.

Overall - Homeless character

The start of the song had us all in our everyday homeless lives, drinking, sleeping, eating or trying to keep warm scattered under scaffolding and on staging around the stage. When the music starts we burst into the 6th state of tension from our original 3rd or 4th and begin to get into a rhythm.

My character starts asleep spooning another homeless member (trying to keep warm), before springing up, sharing a drink with another homeless and starting to mime eat something out of a plant pot.

As the music continues I begin to have a fight over a bottle of (probably) vodka with someone which causes them to fall into the main stage and start a devised battle with another homeless member from the other side of the stage. We had to show conflict between the homeless characters to allow audiences to imagine the lives we faced and to gently immerse them into the world of Rent.

The core duo/trio pieces were included in the middle of the song. Numerous fights break out amongst groups of homeless people. Initially I devised a sequence with two others where I would purchase drugs from a duo of suppliers before being beaten up and stolen from by the same people; although after the character list was released we realised this would have to be changed. Instead I took it in turn with my double casted character to participate in a duo fight with Sophie whilst homeless and swapping whilst I played my main character of Benny.

A fight scene with Sophie wasn't too difficult as she's a talented dancer and the moves (stunts) were already devised, it was just a case of making sure I didn't make a mistake. The movements included rolling over the back of Sophie, throwing a few punches and kicks and movement on the floor, I think overall the fight sequence was effective.

To end the entire cast of homeless persons came into the centre into a purposefully messy circle facing outwards as we sung 'How we gunna pay, how we gunna pay, this years rent, last years rent, next years rent, rent (x6)'. Luckily the lack of movement (walking backwards in character) alongside the homeless persona and singing wasn't too difficult to perform.

In conclusion the whole performance contained a balance between homeless (pedestrian) stylised movement, dance and a clear understanding of the characters/situations around the characters through the movement. I found this beginning sequence especially difficult to grasp but once learnt, quickly managed to incorporate my characters movement chorepgraphy.

Blocking and Choreography - Benny

My character Benny isn't featured much but creating movement for him wasn't too challenging and I quite enjoyed the process.

La Vie Boheme

Before being allocated our character as a class we worked on La Vie Boheme one of the happier upbeat songs of the musical to give us an understanding of the dance rehearsal process. After completing the initial sequence of the song (before it being changed numerous times before the final performance) I received my character parts as Benny and Mr Grey, two characters who are featured in the song but are not involved in the happy atmosphere/dancing of the song; although the rest of the cast is there in celebration, Benny and Mr Grey are there in sorrow following the death of Akita, the family dog.

Although I could no long be in the song in either cast now, it did obviously allow me to understand the vibe of that song and how my character would respond to the dance/movements and lyrics.

As Benny I had to enter the stage, sit down, occasionally stand up and then leave through the song. Due to being the main antagonist character in the musical my movement and posture was crucial in keeping the audience aware of the relationship and differences of the characters in comparison to Benny, similarly to Mr Grey who has zero dialogue which meant his visual impact alongside Benny needed to have a powerful presence.

You'll See

Blocking in this piece was important to show the relationships between the characters with Benny and the status of his character. In this song Benny says to Roger and Mark that he shall forget about their rent if they convince Maureen's to cancel her protest (SPOLIER: It doesn't work).

Entering from the entrance of the flat (up the scaffolding) presented a immediate high level in status, as Benny I tried owning the space by holding onto the scaffolding bar whilst speaking. Walking down the steps in Benny fashion I think had a really recognisable visual understanding of the status and 'importance' of this character for audience members.

Attempting to own the space again I walk around, going up to characters and interacting such as pulling my arm round them, pointing at things, trying to manipulate the other characters. My intentions were to make clear that this character thinks that he is the most influential and 'in control' in the room.

Moving around the space with my Benny stride (Walking chest first, slower movement) with the occasional change in levels demonstrate a wide variety of contrasting habits and flexibility around the space in comparison to the other characters.

A strength of my performance in 'You'll See' personally would be the balance between movement choreography and singing as any more would take it's toll on my breathing for singing and any less might have looked too static and/or not reached my intentions of the song.

On the other hand a weakness of my movement in this song is trying to keep my eye-line with the character fixed, something I wanted Benny to use to exaggerate his status and 'power'.

One thing I improved upon in the movement was from audience feedback, my movement looked a little messy so I had to assign meanings into why I move somewhere, to argue, persuade or inform other characters in the space. Another piece of feedback was to interact with only Mark and Roger and ignore the others, showing that I'm a busy man and I'm only there to see and do business with them and leave; this I did incorporate into the movement blocking of the song.

Happy New Year B

This viewing of Benny in the second act shows contrasting aspects to his first appearance in the flat in 'You'll See' as he's angry followed by a sense of forgiveness towards the end of the song. This second part of 'Happy New Year' shows relationships being destroyed and Benny entering and making things much worse unintentionally, accusing, getting pushed and disturbing what's left of the peace.

Positives lack when it comes to movement in this scene, movement was still and contrasted with the lyrics, weaknesses of this scene included the final set of 'It's gunna be a happy new year' being sung still facing in a circle.

Improvements would have been to contribute as a group movements for our characters or us all as a group to keep the tension going visually alongside the aural atmosphere.

Movement Choreography

Using techniques listed below* I was able to effectively portray my status to the audience as said by feedback in the initial run-through.

Unlike my homeless character, Benny doesn't have many dancing opportunities which meant I could further focus on blocking for my character. In the opening sequence movement is restricted as I'm standing on scaffolding at the top of the stage and also only spotlighted during my solo lines 'Draw a line in the sand, and then make a stand'. My posture though was important and movement into this space too; using the technique of changing three things of each my posture and movement I managed to create the visual aspects of Benny:

*Posture

1. Stood straight (considers himself the most powerful and influence in the room)
2. Lowered shoulders
3. Fixed eye-line
   

*Movement

1. Walking chest first (Shows confidence and power)
2. Habits such as pushing up glasses, itching face etc. whilst walking
3. Slower movement to show importance
   

Overall - Benny

Although I wasn't featured in the beginning of the song, I did have to stand in darkness ready to be spotlighted for the rest of the song and to sing my solo lines.
Being 'in the wings' but also in faint view of the audience I had to remain in character and the song playing allowed me to grasp a rhythm for my lyrics. Stood with a straight but calm posture I waited.

The core of the song featured me walking into place and singing my two lines. Having to remain there for the rest of the song. By slighting my movements into 3 positions I managed to rotate between them at random orders to continue to show character.

1. Holding onto the scaffolding bars
2. Folded arms
3. Neutral Benny standing position
   

In conclusion although little dance based movement was incorporated I did try to contribute as much focus as I did on my homeless character. Overall I wanted to communicate with my blocking proximities and posture, a sense of status and power amongst the other characters, the use of a high level greatly supported my movement choreography to achieve this.

Early Development / Working with the script / Characters with and without script

Early development started through exploration of the musical RENT, learning the storyline, characters and relationships between them. I managed to get hold of the Rent film (2005, Chris Columbus) which allowed me to see another intention of the storyline I had otherwise not thought about. For example, seeing the characters visually without imaging them from the synopsis gave me a foundation to base character and character relations with.

We were told aside from our roles most of us would have to play a homeless character at some points in the story. Characterisation for a homeless person included a large amount of research into the historical, political and social aspects of the time Rent was based in (1989), times then, in Manhattans East Village was populated by homeless people and drug users. After thorough research, the homeless character creation process (HCCP) began. The HCCP included making a name and a made up backstory about how we became a homeless and/or drug taker in Manhattan's East Side. My character, George became homeless after excessive gambling which ruined his relationship and caused his parents to sell their house as they through he needed the money for college tuition. He has became depressed and hopeless, something I wish to portray in lazy movements and focusing on only wanting the basic necessities in life such as food and water.

Audition's were an exciting process, having to learn the song 'One Song, Glory' from the play was quite the struggle as unlike many others I was new to Rent the Musical. The feedback given after the audition, helped me to understand what kind of persona they were looking for, for each character. Roger a rock and roll loving but past his time kind of character, and Benny a business and money driven outcast, something although I didn't audition for I now realise would have been a better choice.

Once we received the script and casting list we were away; being chosen as the role of Benjamin Coffin III (Benny) and Mr Grey was of must excitement as these were characters, with Benny specifically who contributed much to the progression of the storyline. Benny is portrayed in the film as a business orientated character who's main ambition in the storyline is the construction of a cyber studio, once he somehow convinces Roger and Mark to leave their apartment. This motive and antagonist position I was quite looking forward to performing.

Through a set of characterisation workshops such as writing around our characters key words to describe them, their general looks and their long term and short term ambitions.

Another workshop included focusing on movement, changing three things about my character walk and posture to match of that of my character, for myself Benny would stand more upright, leading his walking with his chest. Proximity would be important as Benny would usually have the opposing opinions on the stage compared to other character so I would try to position him in the largest space facing the other characters on the stage.

Some things I would try and focus specifically on when creating my own interpretation of Benny is outside college practices, such as trying to applies Benny's status or 'mind-set' into aspects of my life, for example conversations, how my opinion of something is different or similar to Benny's and therefore try and create a more detailed character which wouldn't be seen by audiences but would help myself to become the character more easily.

Hot seating was a very good tool I used more than once along the characterisation process as it allowed to be placed in a position where I'd have to think fast in character and perform in a completely improvised way. Although I enjoy these methods of learning they do come with difficultly such as being asked questions in character which your interpretation of the character would answer different to someone else's. Questions such as 'Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?', in which I replied '...living in a world where CyberArts and myself are twice as successful as we are today, owning cyber studios all over Bohemian Alphabet City...'

As for my other character 'Mr Grey', the characterisation process wasn't too different as these characters were similar in more than one way, the same ambitions and status amongst other characters. A few aspects I did have to change when becoming the character of Mr Grey was the posture and walk speed as how I envisioned Mr Grey he was a rich and powerful but old and fragile character. I saw this as a better way or portraying him otherwise Benny and himself would be too alike, although I did imagine Benny as a younger version of Mr Grey, something I did take into consideration when I played their roles.

From the workshops and tasks, feedback was important and assisted massively in creating the persona of my characters. Common feedback I gathered from peers in my class about my Benny character was that he didn't have to move around to own the space due to his already high status, from this I decided in a few appearances of my character I would keep him standing still, owning the space he was in. Other feedback included smaller things as to his tone of voice and eye level, I adjusted by keeping his tone of voice more consistent and eye level direct and still most of the time.

The success from the workshop tasks were a main contributor to the success of the production overall, the energy and life each of us as actors put into the characters we were portraying seemed to bring not only the characters alive, but the relationships, heart breaks and issues of the characters into a engaging perspective for audiences.

A rehearsal process schedule was important, Rent being such a densely populated production every member was critical to attend every rehearsal, a matter sometimes caused issue. A weekly rehearsal outside college, alongside our 6-8 hours of class time generated a positive and more energetic atmosphere towards the final performances and personally allowed us to understand and very much appreciate the storyline and the issues addressed such as AIDS, acceptance for people in more difficult positions then us and a clearer understanding of the reasons behind the actions of these characters.