This was my first experience with the blocking process. The primary focus during this process is where when. I.e. what is my character doing at this point, move here, more there, stand, sit, etc. Some focus is on character development.
Lane, the director, allowed me, until last night, to kind of explore JOEL in the way I felt he was. JOEL is divorced, with two kids, has a successful (or at least I thought so) psychology practice and can be impatient with family. Maybe this was a little too much me. But what I never have thought is pompous. So the path I was going down was not what Lane had in mind. This makes a big difference in line delivery. Actually some of the lines are better because of this. Pompous and impatient with family changes the presentation of a lot of lines as well as physical attitude. This could be a major reason for the divorce. “I am the educated psychologist. I see and understand what is really going on here. It really annoys me when I have to explain these things that should be so obvious to you.”
The question for me is did I just misinterpret the character? I suppose I need more training on character development.
The worse thing about this is that I feel like I am doing a terrible job. Everyone else has lots of experience. For Sean (BOB), this is his 30th performance. I was really nervous the rest of the night. I suppose the confidence will come with more experience. This is only my second show after all.
One thing I need to do early on is get director input on his basic vision of the character I am to play. I think this will put me on the right path to begin with.
To be honest, I was having trouble finding who JOEL was until this adjustment.