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.