Mike Alfreds & Meisner

I found Mike Alfred's techniques of using improvisation to help inform and explore different scenes and characters really beneficial. We were able to look at moments from our character's lives that weren't necessarily in the actual play which allowed us to develop in more detail our own understanding of our character's background and additional context to the scenes.

Working with Jack and Lauren on a moment when Su-Lin is told how she was born & what surrogacy was, gave me a chance to both explore a scene with Lauren - who though plays my Grandmother, I don't have a scene with and further look at Su-Lin and her characterisation. It was really interesting to see what her natural instincts were and how I felt she would respond to this. Su-Lin's origins and birth mother aren't really a secret, I feel, in the Hillier-Best family - this is evident when Anthony talks about it at the lunch table. Therefore, I definitely don't feel like Su-Lin would take it too seriously to heart - she accepts it for what it is and loves her two dads either way.

I feel that mine and Skye's workshop on Mike Alfreds really allowed the entire cast to explore their character's in ways that hadn't before. We erased all barriers and had every character - from all time periods - interact in some way. Not only did this provide a chance for people to interrogate their character's instincts and reactions to other characters that they may not get to interact with in the play - it also highlighted the fact that every single character in Table are related in some way, whether it be through marriage or mutual friends.

Meisner's repetition technique would be particularly useful in developing and fleshing out some of the scenes with only two characters - for example, Su-Lin and Gideon, Margaret and Finley, and Gideon and Michelle. Though we've explored Meisner's techniques in our acting technique classes, I think going through the repetition exercise with these groups and really focusing on getting as much benefit from it as possible it would really aid the scene's developments.

As the first scene of the show is between myself and Will, the religion exercise would definitely be useful for the development of our character's relationship. Su-Lin and Gideon of bounce off of one another, Su-Lin in particular repeats the word "that" over and over to prompt a reaction from Gideon. Meisner's repetition technique would definitely allow that scene to retain some freshness as not only do we have to repeat it 3 times for the performances but it's also repeated as the last scene of the show - this gives both me and Will a major challenge to work around to ensure that the scene is as effective and believable both times.