´In what way have you used your research to inform your choices for the development of your character?
My character research mostly revolved around watching the episode in which our sitcom scene came from, which was episode two, season three of the British dark-comedy series “Inside No. 9”.
This assisted my choices in character development by giving me a further insight into the personality of my character, Craig, as I was able to witness the mannerisms and behavior intended for the role and analyze them. Craig is a wealthy, divorced father from London who is quick to respond to most situations with a witty quip and sarcastic banter, usually making some form of innuendo or explicit joke.
I used this information to better inform my portrayal of Craig’s role via attempting to properly match his laidback and humorous energy, as well as his delivery and tone in the lines he delivers. Being given a reference for his background and a further explanation for his behavior helped me give him underlying intentions. This allowed me to ensure that my representation of him was not entirely baseless or two dimensional as the scene leads to an argument about who will pay for the bill. The analysis of these scenes, and his behavior specifically, also allowed me to thoroughly pinpoint his intentions and his goals.
Craig desperately insists that he should pay off the bill, however it made me question why he was so adamant to be the one who paid for their meals. He seemed as though because of his divorce and his lack of connection with his kids (assumed by the fact that he seems to just leave them with a hired carer rather than spending time with them himself) that he wants to feel needed, reliable and strong; if he is able to pay for everyone’s meals, he has done a service, meaning for even just a brief moment, he was important to someone and was able to be of use, maybe even appreciated. All feelings he seems to lack with his family. This is why it was so important to him: he only really has money and acquaintances left. His relationship with his wife deteriorated and ended in divorce and he seems to have little presence in his children’s lives aside from the bare minimum when he has custody of them.
So I attempted to channel that importance that these men he had newly formed a friendship with clearly had to him, if even just for such a brief period. He needed to impress them. He needed to feel important and powerful, so he tried his best to make them laugh and be a gentleman by taking care of the bill.
´How have you applied your research towards the development of the overall project?
I have applied my research towards the development of the project as a whole by using the same method of researching into the episode the scene derives from and applying the underlying themes of Craig’s character to how the entire performance laid out; Craig’s reaction to the other three men’s stories, being the new one of the group as we find out throughout the episode, he is able to act as a placeholder for the audience.
We find out facts and information through Craig, he knows just about as much as we do regarding these characters. Without his relative cluelessness, the audience would not get to hear the stories that lay out each group member’s personality and actions, leaving us to jump into it head on and guessing. Playing Craig, it was imperative that I emulated that same quizzicality for the sake of potential viewers so they were able to project onto him that small bit and view the other three through his same lack of knowledge, which I feel was an important part on my end to the development of the performance.
´In what way have you used your research to develop your skills in performing arts?
Through playing a character I was not previously aware of, of as well as the script, I feel as though I have improved slightly on my ability to quickly pick up on new sources and scripts. This lowered my requirement for a long adjustment period to find my character and how I will portray him.
With the few performances I have done, I was usually made aware of the source material beforehand in some way, such as my first official performance in my previous college, in which I had been given a book of monologues at the start of my course to give me an idea as what to perform for my audition to the class, and had seen an excerpt from the play named “Two”, which I later had to perform a duologue from with a different scene. Or, it was something I already knew, such as A Christmas Carol which I have read and analyzed multiple times throughout high school.
I have had few performances with big roles in which I was not already aware of the source material in some way, excluding improv or a script written by myself/all of us as a class. The times I had, however, I usually needed a long while to figure out who my character was and how I was going to emulate them in the performance.
Alternatively, through playing Craig and the research I conducted through analyzing the source material, I found myself adapting much faster compared to my other performances in which I felt that I required every moment I could savor to scramble my thought process and next course of action on how to go about fully embodying the role in a way in which I felt was satisfactory to who he is and honoring true enough to how he was intended to be portrayed. Playing Craig was different; I felt that I picked up on him much faster and that my simplified of research of going through the episode and analyzing seemingly minor things about his mannerisms and actions made it that much easier to determine his motives and intentions. Being able to decipher those made it a much swifter and less arduous process of getting his character down and how I felt he should behave and react.
As an actor, if you are recreating a scene it is always simple enough to just “copy what you see” and reassemble verbatim how the original actor had depicted their role, however it is strongly and positively encouraged in this course to go deeper than that. Question your character’s motives, their intentions, their goals, even if they are just a minor role because you can never not benefit from doing a deeper dive into who they are; it allows you to embody them with much more ease, you don’t act as them, you become them in a way. Your performance will most definitely strengthen and appear much more natural and raw, as opposed to being evident that you are just reading off of a script and repeating the words given. You truly make it seem as though you really are that character and those thoughts and feelings written for your role are truly authentic. The character becomes real if not but for a brief, fleeting moment and will resonate with your audience.
´Give us a brief synopsis of the plot.
The Bill starts out with four men seated around a table in a restaurant, indulging in anecdotes as to inform their newest acquaintance (and the audience) of each individual’s character. There’s Malcom, the clear leader, Kevin, the know-it-all, and Archie, the more down to earth of the group. As well as of course Craig and Anya, the former being the new member of the group who is quite well-off and friendly. As they tell their story of a failed attempt at gambling, they receive the bill for their meal, proposing the dilemma of who is going to settle it. They all fight to pay for it, however each present problems that postpone a final decision. One tries to use expired coupons, two of the other men refuse to let the other pay out of need to be courteous.