LESSON EIGHT. 21|11|12. 'The Pillowman' & Stanislavsky Workshop

Sir wanted us to get to grips with our characters, thinking more than what on the script, but their past. He lit the room low and told us that we were our characters from now on. We had to lay on the floor and then went through certain steps. 

First, he told us to image a room, any room we liked, but it was dark. 
- I imaged a small walk in wardrobe/closet type thing, that had a picture at the far end of the family I had. It had a chair with a desk underneath the picture and clothes down either side. I thought this because I imagined a family for Tupolski, and this impacts onto why she feels sickened by Katurian's story. 

Then, we were told in this room there is a place we keep secret things. 
- I immediately thought behind the family picture frame at the back of the room. I thought this, because although Tupolski has a family, she works for the police, and use violence even when that would be classed as police brutality. She hides this from her family, so I thought behind the family would be a good place to hide something. 

Then, we had to think of the object that was hidden here. 
- First I thought of another photo frame, but then thought that would lead to complications. And then I thought of a key. To emphasise how much she hides things. I thought it would go back to her old childhood house, to show she thinks about childhood memories but keeps them locked away because she has to be strong.

Then, we had to imagine we saw something left by someone and then remember that we thought they were coming to visit.

- I imagined a drawing done by my child left on the desk underneath and thought to when she would return to pick it up and put it in her room. I knew my child wouldn't come while I was at work and as I spend a long time there I knew she would come as soon as she could.

Then we were told that when we opened the door, it was not the person we were expecting, but the police, and then we blank out.

This helped me think of Tupolski's life outside of the work and how it might affect personal life and why that would make her what she's like at work and found it helpful in the development of my character.


We then we sat in a circle around a chair that was put in the spotlight. We were told whichever character was in the middle had to stay in their character from the moment that sat down and they couldn't leave until he said we were. And we could ask questions from the previous activity to find out more. I knew in my head that I wanted my character to come of as confident and not afraid to query what anyone asked.

When I went to the chair I knew that a lot of what they were going to ask me I would have to improvise most answers. When they asked why I kept the key to my old house, I said I still had some things there. They asked what were they and why I didn't get them, and I said they were dolls with notes in them I hid them under floorboards and in small places I found when I was bored as a child, and I wanted people to find them, I kept the key because I felt the house still partly belonged to me. Although this would never be mentioned into the Pillowman it shows I have a strange attachment to my childhood, similar Katurian's. I know that I'm an alcoholic like my father, and this could be why I hate Katurian so much. Because I feel guilt for my job taking over my life and then being drunk when I'm home, but that I feel guilt, and I assume Katurian does it on purpose and writes stories about it as if it was nothing bad, giving me a reason to hate Katurian.

This role play hot spot activity really helped me think of my character in a different light, making my character more than just a 2 dimensional character from the script I gave her back story and reasons to treat Katurian the way she does.


Returning to 'The Pillowman' 

After our break, we returned to script. As Emily had to leave for this part of the lesson, it was cast one's turn to block through it. For parts I stood next to Ciara to get the positioning into my head, but I thought it would be better to write down certain stage directions and then when Ciara had to leave I could take over and that way Ciara was more focused and I wasn't getting in the way.

Katurian gets to confident in the way she's speaking, so when Tupolski stands up and does a flat hand gesture it shows her attempt at gaining more power, and making it clear she's intelligent as she does understand the story. Using the reassuring tone allows Katurian to be confused because Katurian doesn't know if Tupolski does get it or not. When Tupolski says the line stood behind Katurian, I must emphasise 'who' because that gives the hint later on when we mention the child murders we suspect Katurian doing all of the actions of the stories. Although Katurian does not understand this implication, it will make sense to the audience once all the pieces fit together.

I say this into Katurian's ear, and lean in, to make sure it sinks in that what I do is planned, I know how this investigation is going to work and she simply needs to cooperate. When I pull the gun out it creates an intense atmosphere and lets Kelly react to it and splutter her words more making it a more intense. But because I smile when I have the gun in my hand and stare at her, it creates an element of comedy because there's no immense part of conflict before I go to the gun. When I put the gun away and instead return with a box it brings curiosity to the stage and therefore the audience now have something else to discover. The loud scream that comes from off stage gives Tupolski a perfectly good reason to not answer Katurian's question, and can simply put the box on the table.

The sarcastic reaction when I'm 'listening' creates comedy, because I make a gesture that I can't hear the screaming, even though it is obvious. The next line is also comedic even though it's sadistic and uses taboo language. The way Tupolski asks Katurian the question at the end when Tupolski doesn't know something puts Katurian in an awkward place. I emphasise the 'I' to show the comedy of Tupolski's word play. She never said Ariel wouldn't hurt Michael. When Katurian finds the extra part where there is no clever word play at hand, Tupolski simply lays down the truth whilst cleaning her work, showing her work is more important than honesty. This makes it clear to the audience that Tupolski can't be trusted, and raises questions within the audience to if Tupolski is lying or keeping anything else held back. 

This whole sequence is 'play acting'. It creates black comedy because we're winding Katurian up and the audience have to find it funny because we're being so light hearted about something that in truth is quite sadistic. At first, I avoid answering by picking on Katurian's mistakes in her speech because of her power standings. When I answer, I'm more vague and talk more about Ariel than her brother. I also say it quite casually as if it's not a bad thing to do which winds Katurian up and could make the audience feel sorry for her, or laugh at how I'm putting it across to her. When Katurian goes for Ariel, Ariel swings around and creates a little bit of an action piece, this is done while I'm still casually speaking about Ariel's choice of torturing methods and their faults leaving Katurian a wreck. The audience may not feel sorry for Katurian any more  because they may have made up their own minds on whether they think Katurian is guilty of something. Whether it being her sick stories or another crime.

When I emphasise 'definitely' is creates humour because we've already been brutal to Katurian and the audience have witnessed it. This shows the last bit of humour before I abruptly change my tone to asking the next question introducing an extra feature to the plot, and showing what we really want to know from Katurian.

This is where we ended the lesson before the introduction of the next story. We then went over the blocking of everything with our cast teams to make sure we knew what we were doing.