Anatomy of a Suicide - Part 37

The past week has been packed with tech and dress rehearsals and with three performances of Anatomy of a Suicide. I have completed both performances that I had to do as Anna in Cast A but we still have one more performance of Cast B on Monday before we move on to the interviews for this piece and then onto Berkoff.

Monday - Tech Rehearsal

We worked through the play methodically from Scene 1 to Scene 16. At the end of every scene, the lights go dimmer and music plays - if there was music playing in the previous scene then that is used for the transition. If scenes are omitted from the following tech list, then assume the only tech part of the scene was the lights and music at the start and end of the scene

Scene 2
The telephone rings on Carol's side of the stage.
Carol switches on the radio - Pale Blue Eyes by The Velvet Underground plays.

Scene 3
Anna switches on the radio - Venus in Furs by The Velvet Underground plays.

Scene 8
A baby cries on Carol's side of the stage.

Scene 15
Lights dim at Anna's line "Lights are gone."

Tuesday - Dress Rehearsal

There was little to be said about the dress rehearsal apart from a few small adjustments and a rather big adjustment for Scene 15.

In Scene 3, I had no sponge for the shooting up sequence which meant that I was inaccurately 'taking' heroin. Before I take the heroin, I should put the bag of sugar into the larger bag that I take on stage. This is practically done so that Bruce doesn't have to pick up a large number of props off the floor - during the scene 3 to 4 transition, I saw Bruce drag a lighter across the ground with his foot which we don't want to happen. In Anna's mind, this is done so that some other person steals her bag of heroin. I was also told not to fiddle in changeovers.

During the Scene 4 to 5 transition, I take too long getting the dungarees on even with the help of Bella. As I am centre stage, this meant that the audience's focus would be on me. Chipp introduced a simple walking sequence for the characters of Tim, Jamie, and the Nurse. This distracted from the changing of my clothes in this transition.

Scene 15 Adjustments

We decided to change Scene 15 completely before the dress rehearsal. This is because the bath has awful sightlines for the audience when placed behind Anna's door. It also doesn't make it obvious to the audience that Anna is committing suicide. We changed it so that now Anna is holding Bonnie as a baby and is also holding a knife. This makes the scene much more worrying as a mentally healthy person wouldn't hold a knife that close to a newborn baby. It also shows that Anna is severely mentally ill and needs professional help that doesn't involve ECT.

At the beginning of the scene, Anna like before is sat at the bottom of the stage holding Bonnie but this time is rocking her violently whilst holding tight onto the knife. She is looking straight ahead at the audience rather than looking at Bonnie - this is where she says the first two lines of the monologue. Now when she tells Bonnie not to cry and go back to sleep, it is more like a plead for her to do so. Towards the end of the lines of "To sleep" Anna begins to become hysterical because she herself can't sleep.

At the line "Lights are gone" the lights change. In my version of Anna, she slows down her words and her movements and looks up at the ceiling. This directly contrasts with the following line of "Hello" which is said after a quick look down to Bonnie. This word is softer than what has been said before - perhaps Anna does love Bonnie and doesn't want to harm her in any way. There should be a gap between this lines and the following lines so that Anna has time to put down Bonnie on the floor and leave her there - which is concerning for a mother to do.

After Anna has put Bonnie down, she is still rocking back and forth. This lets the audience know that Anna is rocking for herself rather than for the sake of Bonnie. At this point, Anna's grip on the knife is hard allowing her hands to turn whiter. The following lines are said whilst Anna is in the process of standing up. The line "Wrist has gone" is said when Anna is stood up and has put the knife close to her wrist to further emphasise that Anna is going to commit suicide. The "finger and thumb" lines are said whilst Anna is backing away to the door, knife still held firmly in grasp, and Bonnie left abandoned on the floor. Before she exits the door, she relaxes and has a sense of calm as she looks into the audience. She then walks off stage - I am allowed to walk straight through Anna's door to offstage right showing that Anna has died.

During the dress rehearsal, the knife wasn't inside the Moses basket for Scene 14 which meant that Joel had to go off again and bring it on again, meaning that the transition went on for a longer period of time and almost resulting in me not having the knife for the scene which would have been disastrous.

For the dress rehearsal for Cast B, I was doing transitions. I still find them quite difficult as I haven't practised these sets of transitions for as long as other people have practised the Cast A ones. In the dress rehearsal, I put the New York tee on Bella for Scene 15 which we had agreed on beforehand. However, this extended the transition for far too long and it didn't look as effective as all the other transitions we had done before. Scene 15 still looks effective with Anna still wearing hospital scrubs.

Anatomy of a Suicide - Part 36

Throughout this rehearsal process, we have been making small and large changes to the scenes which allow for a better viewing experience for the audience. The following changes are only applicable to Anna's scenes and notes that apply to Anna. 

Scene 2

This scene works well overall but there were a few adjustments that needed to be made in order for the scene to be better. When Anna says that she "could wait" for Dan (Peter), she should rub her hand 'sensually' (or as sensually as she can whilst high and drunk) across his chest. This shows that she is propositioning sex in return for the IV to take the edge off her come down.

 On the line "Massive fucking burn" Anna should move right to the edge of the stage. This keeps the audience's attention and moves the scene forward so that we aren't constantly at the back of the stage. this also means that we are much more likely to be heard by the audience.

After Dan has said "you fucked my fifteen-year-old brother" Anna should pause for a second, allowing what Dan has just said to sink into the audience's mind and allows Anna to look confused and become defensive after this line and the following lines.

Scene 3 

This scene is technically complex as I have to burn sugar in order to make it appear as though I'm burning heroin ready to inject. We decided to used heroin as a substitute for heroin because its white and when it is burning it gives off smoke which will draw the audience's attention to Anna's scene. When I was practising for this scene, it took me a while to learn how to use the lighter which may have become a problem. Now, however, I can light a lighter if I use two hands. When heating the spoon, I have found that my hand shakes a lot which although does look as if I'm more of a heroin addict, it also means that I am more likely to burn myself on the lighter or spoon. In this scene, I also bring on a bag and the radio. I have to ensure that the bag that I use is behind my head so that my face isn't blocked from audience view.

Scene 4 

There were a few adjustments in this scene which made the scene much better than what it was before. Whilst running this scene, I realised that when John says "But not since you were a little girl, not since you were-" about Anna calling him dad he is talking about when she called him that when he told her Carol was dead which is the final scene in Carol's part of the stage. This certainly should have a larger effect on Anna than what I was showing before. I think that much like John she should also be holding back tears. In my opinion, I think that this is the most emotional scene in the play for her as she is reminded of her mother and of the immense pain she has caused her own father.

When John says "I'm very proud", Anna should have more of an adverse reaction to it. She should be internally questioning why he's proud of what she's done to herself and to him. Anna has been a mess for years so John shouldn't be proud of her at all - maybe a bit for attempting to recover but she doesn't want to recognise this. To be proud of her is very forgiving of John. He may be forgiving because he doesn't want her to end up the same way as Carol and wants to build a positive relationship with her that he didn't have with Carol.

After John's monologue (which I think I need to react to a bit more), he takes his time to place the balloon on the floor and comes to a squatting/kneeling position in front of Anna. At this moment, the two share eye contact and attempt to smile at one another. He puts his hand on top of her knee and she then places a hand on his hand. this would show that the two are almost reconciled and are promising to get a better relationship with one another again.


Scene 5 

There were a couple of additions and changes to this scene. The height of the camera had to be lowered because it was blocking Carol from view from the audience who are sat near Bonnie's side of the stage. It also made it easier for Jamie to reach up as though he's going to turn the camera off during the scene. Additionally, it meant that it was at a height that looked as though it was actually pointed at Anna rather than pointed over her head.

The line about "Communards" in the middle of the scene is a reference to a popular band The Communards which were active in the mid-1980s which places the time period of this scene about this time or a little while afterwards. I would have to add more humour and 'pizzazz' to this line to indicate that Anna was making a reference to the band rather than making a joke about it being a commune which was what I was suggesting before.

In this scene, Jamie (Bruce) hands me a coffee mug which I would need to use a bit more during the scene rather than just using it in the middle of the monologue - I use it just before the line "But that's not what you're asking". 

An issue that appears during the monologue is that Anna is drowned out by Carol's hysterics on the other side of the stage. In order for Anna to be heard, I would need to increase my volume which I think I achieved in the last run through of the scene that we did. Before the monologue, Anna should move around a bit on her seat which would prompt Jamie to believe that she's camera shy and that she wouldn't be good for the film hence giving him a reason to attempt to turn off the camera in the scene. I don't think that Anna is necessarily camera shy. The nature of her past and what she reveals in her monologue would make her be anxious about whether to tell Jamie or not but once she starts speaking about what has happened to her, she can't stop and spits out words as fast as she can find them which makes her seem more alive which would explain why Jamie is so attracted to her.


Scene 6

There has been a lot that has been changed in this scene as well. Jamie gives the flowers to Anna when he says "Thank you for meeting me" which is when they've had the discussion about the flowers. We have done this because it doesn't make sense for Jamie to be holding onto the flowers for such a long time. This does mean that we lose the physical humour of Jamie trying to hold onto two takeaway drinks and flowers but it doesn't seem realistic for him to be holding onto the flowers for such a long time. Anna should be happy yet surprised about the flowers and I think that I should admire them by looking at the petals in more detail.

After this, when Anna reveals that she bought Jamie two drinks, she should become much more flustered than I am portraying her to be. It is strange for someone to order two drinks and also shows Jamie that she was overthinking the situation too much, giving an inkling that she likes him just as much as he likes her.

In this scene, the direction has changed so that Anna becomes angrier when Jamie says that he "can't stop thinking about" her. When he says this line, he kneels next to the chair that Anna is sat on and has to quickly stand up when she starts shouting about "abscesses in my leg and injecting fucking heroin into my shoulders". At this point, Jamie is trying to stop Anna from shouting so much as they are in public so he goes to touch her which forces Anna to push him away. I think that he should attempt to touch her shoulder during the silence when he says "I don't" because that would give Anna a reason to react and to go on her next spiel/big monologue.

When Anna says "I've come a really fucking long way to be here" before the big monologue at the end of the scene, she throws the flowers down. Even before this when she's making the decision to leave, she puts her 'lit' cigarette on the ground in order to put it out. When Anna is shouting at Jamie behind the chair, she shouldn't be there for as long as she should. In order for Anna to have such an adverse reaction that she walks away when shouting, she would need to be touched more. the suggestion above about Jamie attempting to touch her shoulder in the awkward silence would prompt the monologue and also the reaction to move to the front of the stage and to say the monologue out to the audience.

When Jamie says his monologue about "wanting to hold you (Anna). Very close. Just here" Anna should be slowly getting won over by him. This is because Jamie os offering her the normality that she craves and that she ultimately achieves with him in the end before she becomes pregnant with Bonnie.

Scene 7 

There was little to change during this scene. When running the play through with Cast B, Chipp pointed out that the Orange Pod wasn't placed in the correct position which was my fault. In Carol's scene, the Orange Pod needs to be placed next to Carol's chair so that Laura can reach behind Carol and get into her personal space. In Anna's scene, Anna needs to move slightly more to the right so that she's not blocked by Jamie who's stood near the front of the stage when she comes onstage again.

Scene 8 

A lot was changed in this scene in a short amount of time. Over the course of the week, we went from having bridesmaids on in this scene to having no one on Anna's stage apart from Anna to keep loyal with the script. We used the idea of bridesmaids so that Anna could have help getting ready - into her dress, and have her hair and makeup done. This didn't work too well because it was artificially silent. The audience will be used to words from the scene if there is more than one person in it. Additionally, we had issues finding a wedding dress as the dress that we were going to use had a broken zip.

We found a solution pretty quickly. We scrapped the bridesmaid idea. Instead, Anna gets changed from her dungarees (leaving them unfolded in a way that they are easy to get on for Scene 9) into the wedding dress with a broken zip. Anna zips the dress up as much as she can which she finds she cannot do so resigns to doing her makeup. When John enters at the end of the scene, he 'zips' up her wedding dress and puts a hand on her back so that the gap in the back is not as visible. During the dancing part of the scene, we don't move around as much which means that the back of the dress can't be seen. The lack of zipping on the dress also means that it's much easier to get off during the following transition. During the dancing part, Anna leans on John's chest to show that they are once again close and implying that John is going to give her away. The dancing is more about the emotion than it is about the accuracy of the dancing.

Scene 9 

There were only small changes given in this scene. When Anna goes off throughout the scene, I have to make sure I'm not visible to the audience so they believe that I've gone into a different room within the house. When Daisy (Maya) is talking about the man she met - "Scientist. Real one." - Anna should toss or dress the salad so that she has something to do in that part of the scene. The issue of not eating within the scene because it was too awkward to be eating air has now been solved with the introduction of carrot sticks. The Pragmatism monologue at the end of this scene should be slowed down so that it appears as though Anna is thinking about the words before she says them.

Scene 10

The addition of the pilates ball in this scene made it easier to rock back and forth to suggest that I was in pain and having contractions. Contractions come in waves, so I tried to manage my breathing so that there was the suggestion of contractions that were coming quite close together. At the end of the scene, Anna screams in pain. During the run through of Cast A, I managed to scream in pain at the end of the scene. As I was slightly embarrassed about this before, I think it was impressive that I managed to time the scream correctly and to scream at all.

Scene 11

There was little changed in this scene. The line about "Smack" in response to the nurses' question about whether Anna would like some tea should be said with a hysterical tone as it's funny to Anna due to her past. When the nurse - Lola (Lauren) - tells Anna to sit down towards the end of Anna's description about the nightmare she has, Anna should sit down. I and Lauren staged the end of this by Lauren having her legs to the side of the chair that she sits on and my head is rested on her knees. I would be able to say the rest of the monologue while staring out from my position at her feet with my head on her knees. This is because previously Anna didn't move during the whole scene, standing in one place. It seems much more natural for her to soften into the nurse because she appears to be craving comfort especially after the nightmare she has experienced.

Scene 12

The speech about having Bonnie in Anna's arms should be thought out more than I have been saying it. The line "And in that moment I have never felt so profoundly lonely" should be said slower than I have been with a pause just before lonely. When women have children, they are expected to feel a profound connection to their child rather than feeling lonely. This would allow the audience to be surprised about what Anna feels in this scene as she is the opposite of what would be typical for a new mother to feel.

Scene 13

Now that we have a hospital bed onstage and able to use, we have been able to practise the ECT that is present in this scene. At the start of the scene, the nurse should inject anaesthetic into her arm which is why Anna says that it feels cold.  There are specific lines where Anna should be shocked for ten seconds which will have the best impact on the audience. There are two instances where Anna gets shocked in the scene. the first shock occurs when Carol says "so beautiful" when she's talking about Anna on her side of the stage. This directly juxtaposes what is being done to Anna on her section of the stage and will shock the audience even more as Anna is no longer the seemingly innocent girl that Carol knew before she committed suicide. The second shock happens when the doctor on Carol's side says "In that case, we do have to talk about hospital again". This leaves enough time between the first shock and the second shock for the nurses to look over Anna's vitals and see if she is okay to be given another shock.

Scene 15

There was nothing major that was done in this scene. When Anna says "Cut it out" during her monologue in this scene, it was suggested that she isn't telling Bonnie to stop crying. Instead, she is begging for the part of her that wants to love Bonnie or perhaps the part of her that doesn't love Bonnie to be cut out so that she can be 'normal' again - she wants the sense of normality that she had with Jamie in earlier scenes which has been tarnished by Bonnie. There could be an issue with sightlines for the bath. The bath is located behind the door which means that the door will block off sight lines from the right and left of the audience. The bath should be placed closer to the door entrance so this doesn't happen but due to the structure of the set this would be impossible.

Cast B run through 

This run through went okay but it certainly isn't performance ready. This is because Cast B haven't had as many opportunities to run through scenes as Cast A have done. Additionally, the transitions were poor because we haven't had a chance to run through them properly. I think that we need to focus on Cast B more over the next two days so that it is performance ready. Moreover, people kept forgetting to take objects on/off stage resulting in people having to do transitions that weren't their transitions.

Cast A run through

This run through went much better than Cast B. This was because we had practised the transitions more which meant they were a lot smoother here than they were in Cast B. However, we did run out of time as we only got half way through Scene 11 when we had to pack up. In the next couple of days, we will finish this run through with the full set to make sure we are performance ready. 

Anatomy of a Suicide - Part 35

In order to get props and costumes on and off stage, we have to complete transitions to music in a fast but controlled way. The following image shows how I am presenting the transitions on a piece of paper so that myself and Bella (who is playing Anna in Cast B) can easily find what we are bringing onstage and taking offstage. During the transitions, we are expected to walk at right angles as though the stage is a square piece of paper which allows the transitions to look more effective and a lot smoother. I have made two copies so that we can put a copy on each side of the stage so that the transitions on our part are much better and quicker. These can be seen on the following images: 

There are severe issues that keep occurring for both casts in some of the transitions. For example, large objects such as chairs remain onstage or clothing isn't removed/put on during them. This could severely impact upon the performance and lower other people's grades if we don't put the objects in the correct place. It also means that the flow of the performance could be lost resulting in people forgetting their lines, of which their cues are important for other people's lines.

Thus far, I have made some mistakes regarding transitions. This is because Cast B is the cast that doesn't get to rehearse their scenes as much, something which has happened throughout the rehearsal process in my opinion. This means that I don't get to practise the transitions as much as I'd like to, to get them accurate. This has happened in the transition into Scene 11 where I forgot to put a cup and saucer inside the Orange Pod which meant that Marlon had to go off stage in the middle of a scene to find a coffee cup that shouldn't have been used in the scene.

We created the transitions in stages. To begin with, we moved the big props on stage such as the hospital bed and worked out what side of the stage we would need to be on to move the big props. After that, on Saturday, we added the small props into the transitions which were dubbed 'Saturday Problems' throughout the week. Surprisingly, these weren't as hard as I had expected and the transitions were completed within two hours.

The main thing during the transitions that were found to be complex for me was the removal and the putting on of clothing, particularly the dungarees that Anna wears in Scenes 5, 6, 7, and 9. It is important that the dungarees are folded in a way in which they can be unfolded on stage and put on Anna easily.

The above transitions shown on the piece of paper are transitions that myself and Bella do when we aren't performing as Anna. When we are Anna, we do have some transitions that we complete ourselves on stage. These are the following:

Scene 5 into Scene 6: Put on Cardigan that was taken off during Scene 5.
Scene 6 into Scene 7: Pick up cigarettes from the ground and put them back in the packet.
Scene 8: Remove dungarees and put on the wedding dress.
Scene 11 into Scene 12 (offstage): Change from nightshirt into a hospital gown.

It should also be noted that in other costume changes, I will unhook some parts of the dungarees and take some clothes off so that it is easier for other people who are dressing me to put on clothes and take them off of me.

The transition from Scene 12 into Scene 13 is a lot longer than the other transitions that happen. This is because a hospital bed and the hospital pod have to be brought on stage. To distract the audience from this transition, Jamie (Bruce), Anna (myself), and Carol (Izzy) stand at the front of the stage staring out (something which happens in all transitions for the three main women). In this transition, however, Jamie turns slowly to face Anna. When he has done this, Anna turns slowly to face Carol. When Anna has done this, Carol turns slowly to face the door of her stage. we then proceed with the scene. This allows the audience to be distracted by anything that is happening behind us.

On Thursday of last week, we attempted a line run, mostly for the benefit of Cast B. This allowed for any scenes that we were struggling with to be sorted out. The line run didn't go as well as planned. This is because we were all tired from previous nights rehearsing. Additionally, people who weren't in scenes get bored quite quickly which meant that it got harder for those running lines to concentrate as those who weren't working kept getting quite loud. Moreover, on Thursday it was sunny and hot which meant that people got uncomfortable rather quickly and so got angry because they wanted to go home and cool down. If we were to do a line run unattended again, we would have to make sure that people who aren't involved with the main line run are involved in running over their lines separately or are quieter. The lack of concentration meant that we didn't get through the line run for Cast B as quickly as we had hoped which also meant that Cast A only got to run through Scene 11, although, this scene is one in which as a whole we struggle with. 

Anatomy of a Suicide - Part 34

Over the past week and over the following weeks we have been preparing AOAS to be performed to four audiences with each cast taking 2 days. This means that we have been building the set and organising props and costumes which will be explained in this blog or in future blogs. We have also been adjusting some scenes due to difficulties with props and have been creating transitions to get props and costumes on and offstage. It has certainly been stressful thus far but I think that we are currently in a good place and in some aspects are performance ready.

Staging

The type of stage that we have chosen to use is a Proscenium Arch as shown below.

The dotted lines shown on the diagram indicate where one stage ends and another begins allowing the audience to differentiate between time periods and allowing the actors to not step into the wrong time period - this sometimes does happen but can easily be rectified if the actors think about where they are standing onstage or by moving props slightly so that each actor can remain in the correct time period.

A Proscenium Arch is the best type of staging for a Stanislavski styled play. This is because it maintains a fourth wall whilst the audience still being able to feel as if they are involved and are feeling some of the emotions that the characters are portraying.

The following image depicts the full stage when it had been built and painted:

When I took this picture, the staging hadn't been completed yet but you can still see what we are trying to achieve through this. The yellow paint that extends on Carol's side on the stage is also on a section of Anna's door in the middle. The bare wood that can be seen on Anna's door has been replicated on Bonnie's door. This is to represent scene 7 where Anna repaints the family house from Carol's yellow colour to Bonnie's neutral, natural colour. The flooring has a gap between each stage so that the audience and actors can differentiate between each time period as described above. The flooring, particularly on Bonnie's side of the stage has gaps in it. This is to show how the legacy of each woman has impacted on one another creating mental illness and profound sadness. The polythene sheet that can be seen on the image above is the only polythene sheet that can be lifted on a pulley system so that large props such as a hospital bed and the hospital pod can easily be brought on stage.