Stages of character

My character

Rachel Hicks

She is 19 years old.
She is serving a year in prison for possession of drugs.

Voice
Rachel has quite a quiet voice. Its rare to hear her raise her voice. Very often when seen she is upset or nervous, this gives her voice a slight stutter. She raises her voice slightly when she is talking to Jim about things that have annoyed her, this is party due to her feeling comfortable around him.

Movement
Because of her young age you would expect her to be very lively and energetic but in fact she is very placid. She doesn't hold herself very confidently, she is naturally very hunched. This is from having her head tilted down as her eye focus is most often down to the ground. She stands with her feet slightly turned in and her hands in her pockets.

Appearance
Rachel isn't someone who stands out from the crowd, she has a very plain and a person who happily blends into the background. Her hair is not in a bad condition yet as she is new to the prison. She has it messily tied up in a very simple way. Her clothing is all plain colours and cheap. She wears 3/4 length plain blue jeans, a plain vest top and a light coloured old hoodie. Her footwear is white trainers which aren't in the best condition. She has a very plain looking face, no bright or crazy makeup.

Back story
She didn't have a very good upbringing. 
She has a baby named Maddie to man who died of an overdose just before she was born. Rachel's mother took Maddie in but she had to put Maddie into foster care as she was unable to look after her and wanted her life back.

Here is a timeline explaining Rachel's major life events

This timeline is based on our production of bad girls being set in 2002.

Vocal confidence

A challenge I found when working on learning my script was confidence in my voice. When learning the script I try not to even think about the physical or blocking side of things, this means my voice is my main focus so I can really work on this. I felt very unconfident in how to say my lines, which to project, how to pronounce them, when to say them. To help with my vocal confidence I went through my script very thoroughly looking closely at what I say. I then chose scenes where I felt I was struggling and went through the lines, without any blocking, with the other characters in that scene. By running them again and again I began to understand the script more and also make it more into a conversation rather than just line after line. I feel having confidence in your voice and how your saying your lines is so crucial. The audience don't want to watch a performance where the actor is obviously nervous as this makes them feel uncomfortable.

Prologue scene

My prologue scene was set in the prison when I first arrive. I am new to the wing and am currently going through the strip search to check I don't have anything I shouldn't have on me. This scene is performed by me, Rachel, Sylvia and Helen. This is the first scene to the whole musical so its important its performed well and creates a good first impression to the audience. This scene took a while to block as we couldn't decide the best way to do it.
My character needed to somehow show that I was having to be fully naked while being looked and judged at by a prison officer. We wanted this scene to look at realistic as possible and create a really eerie, horrible atmosphere but while also not fully exposing myself to an audience. We discussed a few different ways of staging this scene. The first was to have the strip search done behind a screen, we thought either with the screen just blank or by having my shadows, but we felt this wouldn't give across a strong atmosphere of how horrible this would be to have done. So we then looked at various ways we can use costume to show this scene. I did some research into skin coloured leotards to see if we could get an outfit that would make me look totally naked. I found that although this would be easy to get hold off from online I felt it was too extreme to seem totally naked to the audience. I then came to the idea that a good way to block this scene would be to use a towel, this way I could cover up my body. Then after some peer feedback I came to the conclusion of how to stage it. I will wear a strapless bra and top so there is no straps on my shoulders. I would also wear short shorts so that I could wrap a towel around me and it would give the impression I'm naked. Then by facing the back of the stage I could open the towel up and to the audience they would get the impression I'm naked without the uncomfortable ness for the audience or me. I feel this was a very successful way of blocking the scene because it cleverly gives a very horrible atmosphere which lets the audience know how uncomfortable my character is feeling and what a stressful and horrible environment I am in.

Pace of vocals
A problem I began to notice was the effect my nerves have on my speaking. When I have dialogue and I feel nervous I begin to speak faster and faster. This is a problem which needed sorting as due to me rushing lines this could mean the audience would miss out on crucial information to the storyline. I also can feel my self slipping out of character more and more when I rush lines because my character, Rachel, is so shy and nervous that her lines are spoken more gentle and slow.


Returning in act 2

My character dies at the end of act 1, so to increase my stage time and ensure that I don't have nothing to do in the second act we introduced the idea of me coming back on as one of the prisoners but in disguise. At first I thought it was a bad idea as wasn't sure if would be able to disguise myself enough. Also another challenge I would concerned about was jumping to acting as another character so quickly and stopping myself from acting as Rachel. After discussion we decided it would be posible for me to do this and would be made easier if I created a character very different to the one I'm already playing. The scenes in act 2 that I would be involved in are all group scenes featuring all the prisoners. So a big character change I could have would be interacting with the other prisoners and being one of the more confident ones. When playing Rachel I have minimal contact with the other prisoners so by interacting, talking and being part of a group this is already a big character change. Another way to hide the fact of who I am is to use costume. When playing Rachel I wear mainly light blue clothing so in the second act will wear more dull, dark colours. Also I will wear a hat which will hopefully disguise myself well. I feel its important, if you are coming back into a show as a different character, to try as hard as possible to not let the audience realise this. If they can very easily tell its me then they may think I'm still playing Rachel and this would obviously cause a huge storyline change to them. Also it would simply take away the realism of the fact I am meant to be dead but am already back on stage.

Blocking movement

Once lines are learnt the next stage is the blocking process. We go through scene by scene and make decisions on where characters should go and about set and props. The second scene to the performance is a whole cast scene featuring the first song of the musical. Because of the amount of cast on stage a decision had to be made about how to keep that realistic busy prison feel whilst also ensuring the attention is mainly on what is being spoken and acted by the main characters. We tried staging this by having all the dialogue said at the very front and this worked perfectly. When blocking its important to keep all characters in mind, not just those with dialogue. So in this scene we blocked movements by all the prisoners. They are currently having food so they were put into groups of around 2 or 3 prisoners and they have to go from their position to go and get food/drink from the sever and once finished take the plate/cup back. This worked effectively because it kept the scene from being too static and also gave a chance for character interaction. A scene I found hard blocking was my final scene where I get raped. Its a very crucial moment in the storyline that had to be performed in a way that really sticks in the audiences mind. Also it had to be dealt with in a respectful way. We tried staging it centre stage, near the front as its such a key moment but this wouldn't work with the fact Him is meant to be saying his lines at the doorway to my cell. We couldn't block it using the cell door as these only became available to use near the time of our first performance. Blocking movement for scenes is important as each character needs to know where everyone will be but also blocking movements for any dance routines. The dance routine I'm most in as my original character is ' A List'. This song features all the prisoners and is vocal lead by Yvonne. Its a very upbeat and happy song. There were small parts of movement that I changed to suit my character. The lyrics mention touching breasts with other prisoners. The original choreography was too, all in partners, push their bodies against each other. I then decided that my character isn't that close with anyone and is still quite new to the prison so its unlikely would be that comfortable with anyone yet. So I adapted the choreography and at the point where everyone did that movement I step away and single myself out. I also use my hands to cover my upper body to show that I don't agree and don't feel comfortable doing what they're doing. Its important when doing a musical that you stay in character at all times. When performing a dance its easy to just smile and perform it perfectly but if you character is not happy or angry or shy then you have to keep that up even when dancing.

Character interaction

Its important that a bond is created between characters who interact because the audience need to believe the friendship. Through rehearsals I got to get more into character allowing the interactions to come naturally. Rehearsing a run through is when I began to create more of a character when I didn't have lines. Its easy to just blend into the background if you don't have lines but I wanted to ensure I kept in character by interacting with others. I learnt how important it is that you remember your relationships with each character. In the second scene Crystal vocalises that she isn't happy sitting next to me because of my involvement in drugs. This immediately caused some un comfortableness between characters. Later on in the show we are both mingling around with all the other prisoners just improvising. I often bump into Crystal and the first time both acted in a very friendly way but then realised that this was actually very out of character for both of us so next time we bumped into each other she kept in a very distant and disgusted way while I kept quite nervous around her. 
Here is some overviews of her relationships with other characters.

Jim - she instantly builds an attachment to him. She is totally unaware of his
        ridiculously bad reputation. She opens up to him and ends up taking her
        own life because of him raping her.

Shell &
    Denny -These two are like the double act bullies of the wing. They see
               Rachel as an easy target to show off their empowerment too. They try
               to encourage Rachel to buy illegal substances off them but she
               doesn't give in.

Yvonne - She is seen as the mother of the group. Also she is like a new lease of
              life to the prison, someone to liven it up. She is immediately shown as
              a very caring person. In her first scene when everyone is talking about
              going drinking and to a prison party she notices Rachel on her own
              and says "And who's little Cinderella, then? and says "And who's 
              little Cinderella, then?". This then made Rachel come along and get   
              involved.