I have the pleasure of working with Alex Mellor of the script "Deoxyribonucleic Acid" or "DNA" by Dennis Kelly. Together we will be directing the second half of the script with a group of 8 students from N2C.
The Cast:
Jake
Felix James
Freya Turton
Daisy Waugh
India Allatt
Zack Bland
Daisy Veysey
Sam Clugston
We are very fortunate with these numbers, genders and ages as they suit the variety of characters we have in the second act.
Before we received are groups me and Alex sat down and did a read through of our section of the play. By doing this, we managed to get a feel for how we both thought the characters talked and reacted around each other. I think that a certain level of understanding will be key in our roles as co-directors in order to deliver consistent direction and a therefore a slick performance. Are next step was to then discuss the characters within the play and ideally we'd like them to be played.
Characters:
Phil: as the 'unsuspecting nerd', We felt this because of his held back nature and how that juxtaposes with the amount of information and help he provides in the times of troubles. It is his final selection of 'advice' that he gives to Brian and Cathy and his negligence of emotions towards Lea in their relationship that made me and Alex deem him as completely logical and therefore detaches himself from emotions and follows sense rather than emotions. He is analytic and considers every ounce of details throughout all his actions.
Lea: has an overwhelming sense of confidence, shown through her monologues that are directed at the object of her affection, Phil. We think she is also unexpectedly smart but unlike Phil, it is emotions that drive her rather than the logically reasoning which is what, in the end separates them. We also think she has a redeeming comical quality in her over dramatical take on situations in which she talks with Phil. With Phil, we are able to see a 'truer' form of herself showing her emotional connection with Phil.
Cathy: We found that 'ditsy' was not the correct term to label Cathy but rather detached from the seriousness of situations, perhaps as a coping mechanism. There are also aspects of her character that we found self absorbed, especially during the first part of our section. We then felt that as the situation gets progressively worse the realisation is knowing that she has to play a part in resolving the situation, which is perhaps why she is agrees to the end of Adam.
Richard: We felt that Richard was seen as your stereotypical 'rough' child, a hard shell. But we see through the situation that it is in fact a misunderstanding in the character, as if the realisation of the serious consequences of the groups actions allows him to see the faults in the tough façade put on for his peers. We want to show the challenge of remaining with a strong reputation as leader of a group that crumbles under the pressure of a traumatic event.
Jan: we felt that joined with Mark, as if she was non self dependant and that creates relationship she has with Mark to be as if they are so connected, resulting in the quick sparks of their lines in which they fire off each other. We felt that Jan had an element of 'panic' that leaves her flustered and jittery in chaotic situations.
Mark: like Jan, they have the connection which allows there to responses to bounce off each other as they are on the same wavelength. Something we also thought was that Jan and Mark were like balancing scales, so where as Jan becomes flustered, we see Mark as focused relax that understands the situations and instead of panicking - broods in the moment. This juxtaposition with Jan's character will allow a balance on stage and it is their understanding and ability to cooperate that we want to show.
Brian: as we see the group as a teenage 'clique' we feel that Brian is the excitable tag-a-long of the group that often follows in the activity's set up by Jon Tate but doesn't quite necessarily fit in. We feel that the group may allow him to 'tag-a-long' as his weird and slight mental disposition gives the impression he will be up to do anything in order to be part of that group. With this aspect of 'crazy' in the first half, as the situation worsens we see that Brian's mental stability deteriorates and he becomes a slightly hysterical psychotic.
Adam: as Adam is the one that has gone through the traumatic event and received injuries, we only see Adam as a traumatised psychotic which leads him to not fully understand the difficulties in which the rest of the group is dealing with. Suffering from serious head injuries he becomes delusional in the moral thing to do which is to return home, showing his inability to function as a his usual self. This may mean that his demeaner is fairly monotone or dazed as if not really in the moment. If we wanted to look further into the 'previous' Adam, we could conclude that he is fairly naive as he is encouraged into participating and often becoming the victim of the groups rough activities.
The Group - as a whole I think shows the dynamics of the stereotypical 'rough' secondary school group due to the setting of the woods being there gangs location to hang. Using this idea of the secondary school cliques, I see Lea and Phil being the most different personalities and therefore I see them as more social rejects of secondary school and therefore slightly intimidated by the group in which they are utilising their intelligence to help and divert a situation. This adds a certain self confidence to Phil's character as he agrees to help and can show off whilst helping and covering the fact that any of them know what happened to Adam.
After discussing the elements of the characters we decided that over all the script had a fast pace to it and covered the theme of guilt and trauma. From this we decided that we would do workshops covering these in order to to see peoples strongest elements and how they could be cast as well as previous knowledge of what they excel well in.
