Exercises

Afterwards, we did a few exercises to incorporate Mike Chekhov's teachings into our work. 

We started off with a movement exercise to start distinguishing how our characters in Our Country's Good would move, slightly like the Laben exercise, however also using Chekhov's methods of establishing how our characters were different.

Through our beginning movement exercise, I learnt how to distinguish many different characters simply by the format in which we moved and used our physicality.
We started off the exercise by walking around the room in neutral. During this, I must say I didn't make any observations, as I was 'playing' myself. Firstly, we were instructed to walk 'vertically'. To me, this walk felt very different to myself, very structured, very ordered, very purposeful. The character I assigned to this way of moving was Major Robbie Ross. I believe his character is quite a harsh character, constantly pushing through spaces to get his own way.

Next we switched around and began walking horizontally, being allowed to look left and right and search around the space. I could relate to this way of moving, as often, especially when there is a lot on my mind, I become very self conscious and I am constantly taking in and being aware of my surroundings. I assigned the character of Captain Campbell to this physicality and movement as in the play, he is constantly pissed, therefore I imagined him to be swaying viciously from side to side.

The third way we began moving was experimenting with our mental and physical blocks. For example, we would start walking towards something, then by some personal obstruction, we would be blocked from our path.

The character I am playing is called Dabby Bryant. I personally believe that she is quite a vertical character. She is very strong willed, exceedingly stubborn, strong minded and she is not afraid to take risks to get what she wants. She cuts through the space in a very domineering and defined way, which fits into vertical movement perfectly. Being vertical is also a good contrast to Dabby's somewhat 'partner' in the play, Mary Brenham, as she is quite a floaty, horizontal character who is overruled by her someone bolder friend. Mary's movements portray indecisiveness, whereas I am discovered this is a trait that Dabby certainly does not suffer with.