AQA A Level Drama Play Guide: The Glass Menagerie

AQA A-Level Drama Play Guide: The Glass Menagerie 10 What do performers do? In his book, The Art of the Actor, 19th-century French actor Constant Coquelin describes an actor as an artist, whose materials are the equivalent of a painter’s canvas and brushes or a musician’s musical instrument: ‘his own face, his body, his life is the material of his art; the thing he works and moulds to draw out from it his creation.’ Actors must have an understanding of their own inner life, voice and physicality as well as the play, its context and style. Portraying a role Actors are responsible for inhabiting the roles in which they have been cast. They will research and rehearse their roles, learn their lines and blocking and, using their physical and vocal skills, create and interpret their character. Their character may have motivations that drive their actions and obstacles that block them, which they will attempt to overcome. The actor will know any subtexts that lurk beneath the lines of the play. Through their stage interactions, they may form a rapport with the other actors and the audience, and they will help to create the world of the play. Consider the pace of movements and the use of pause. To surprise an audience, for example, you might use a very sudden action; to create suspense you might have a pause, where the audience has time to wonder about what might occur. Task Think of a performance you have seen in which there was an important interaction, such as a ght or a love scene (for example when Romeo and Juliet rst meet). • How did the actors establish their relationship and make the interactions clear and interesting? • Try to recall the pace of the scene, the pitch and volume of the actors’ voices and their use of gesture and expression. • Were the characters close or far apart? Did they make eye contact or touch? Did their movements mirror each other or were they different? Write a paragraph describing the effect of these choices. Why this is important You might be asked to write about a character’s interactions and spatial relationships and will need to know the correct terminology for analysing these. Theatre maker insight Peter Brook in There Are No Secrets ‘For an actor’s intentions to be perfectly clear, with intellectual alertness, true feeling and a balanced and tuned body, the three elements – thought, emotion, body – must be in perfect harmony. Only then can he ful l the requirement to be more intense within a shorter space of time than when he is at home.’ Theatre maker insight Chelsea Walker, director, on a decision that had a strong impact on the audience ‘At the end of A Streetcar Named Desire, Stanley goes to touch Stella, who is in oods of tears after Blanche has been taken away. In the nal beat of our production, he reached towards her, and she ercely jolted her shoulder away, rejecting him. Tennessee Williams didn’t give Stella a line at the end of the play, but I wanted it to end with her having the nal word: a protest.’ Key terms Motivation: What a character wants, the driving force behind their actions. Obstacle: Something that prevents a character from achieving a goal. This might be external, like an enemy working against them, or circumstances such as poverty or oppression, or internal, such as their own fear or indecision. Subtext: The deeper meaning beneath the lines. Interaction: Reactions and give and take between characters. Rapport: A connection or sympathetic reaction. Pace: The speed at which something is done, such as slowly or quickly. Relationship: How characters are related to another character, such as a family group, romantic pair, colleagues, antagonists or servant and master. Pitch: How high or low a sound is. Minimalist: A pared-down approach that uses only a few items, colours or shapes. Scale: The size of something, for example, how large a piece of scenery is. Transpose: Move a text originally set in one context to another, usually to make the play more relevant or interesting to the audience. Tip This insight from Chelsea Walker is an excellent example of how a director’s or performer’s interpretation can go beyond the playwright’s stage directions. Copyright: Sample material

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