Scene Revision, Act Three


We have now begun to revise Act Three. In this section we made small adjustments to my characters vocalisation and body language.

At the re-entrance of my character with the line “What’s going on?” we discussed the stance of my character on stage. We found that I came on stage in a very relaxed and feminine way, which was very different to the tense atmosphere of the scene (Katurian is about to be tortured here). One possible way, was for me to stand more upright and distribute my weight in order to mimic the stance of Ariel. This would suggest that my character was trying to gain power over Ariel. The other option was to give the relaxed stance a purpose. For me, one of Tupolski’s key characteristics is that they are largely unfazed by social interactions. I believed that Tupolski did not feel the need to gain power over Ariel because he already believes fully in his position over authority. Therefore, I thought that it would be okay for Tupolski to appear relaxed during this moment.

As a result of this the “Pardon me?” line should be delivered more incredulously than angrily (if he was seeing it as a threat to his position) as Tupolski would be more likely unable to grasp the idea of someone undermining his position.

This is part of the reason why I think that the subsequent argument between Tupolski and Ariel is staged for Katurian’s benefit.  I do not believe that Tupolski would reveal that someone was truly getting to him so easily. However, during the moment when Tupolski talks about his father, we decided to alter his relaxed stance and create a tenser body language. His father, is one of the few things that truly affected him in his life and so there is a sense that he is not at ease with it. But in true Tupolski form, he tries to mask this with a joke at the expense of his own alcoholism.

We also added in small things so that the lines made more sense. For example between Katurian’s line and Ariel’s “Do not say a word Tupolski” we added in a small vocalisation for my character in order to motivate Ariel’s response.

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