Misner and Scene Performance
I met with my scene partner on Sunday night to do our assigned homework with our scene, which involved Misner repetition work. I was probably one of the few people in my class who didn't know what this was, but when I did it, I got a lot of character insight. I was playing a particularly nasty pregnant teenager living with a woman who was infertile and adopting the baby. As I said the lines over and over again, I watched how they affected my scene partner and how she started to shrink and realized how badly I didn't want to have to tell her that I should have given the baby to someone better.
I felt like everything came too late on the development for this scene. There was a big climactic moment in the scene where my partner was supposed to shake me, and I don't think she wanted to go to that place, which is fine, but you could really see how it affected the scene. I got really good feedback, and while initially being disappointed with my performance I think I can say now that I'm proud of the work I've done.
This character was really a stretch for me. I play old people and character bits, I don't do nasty often. But it was nice to prove that I can in fact play really mean and angry; William gave me an excellent compliment that I play grungy well and that I could do Mme. Thenardier from Les Mis. Being told I was a character actress at the start of the semester felt like a huge defeat; I'll never play the pretty roles or the ingenue. But I've become more excited in the prospects of having a career like Helena Bonham Carter, she's one of the most amazing character actresses out there, and that makes me not so scared about finding a niche in acting.