Scaramouche Jones Week 2

Chorus Preparation

The second week on our ‘Scaramouche Jones’ assignment began with us having a rehearsal of the dialogue and the chorus preparation.  As the play of ‘Scaramouche Jones’ consists of one man on stage telling the story of the main character, and there being twelve members of our tutor group, our teacher came up with a clever method of being able to divide the script amongst the twelve of us so we all have a part to play.  Having a least two pages to perform each.  However the big question was what were eleven people meant to do when one member of the group was to be acting?  The answer was a chorus.  As a group was learnt in last week’s Physical Theatre lesson what the purpose of a chorus is and how they were to be presented on stage.  Knowing that a chorus’ purpose is to present the main characters thoughts and feelings and their position on stage is to be the shadow of the character.  But this week we were to be having a proper rehearsal of how we were to pronounce the dialogue and how we were to present the chorus and receive feedback from our teacher as she was both giving advice and telling us what she thought from an audience’s perspective.  We began as simply as we could with giving a good layout of the stage.  Alongside me reading through my opening lines, with the chorus members analysed each word and discussed how they could present the characters thoughts and feelings as he was saying the dialogue; this was all to be presented through a series of mimes and quiet sounds.  For example, the opening line states: “God, what a day!  What a day,” which is to be delivered with the tone of exhaustion and tiredness.  This was to be the perfect starting point for both the actor and the chorus, as well as a good starting point for our rehearsal.  Because we ended up with presenting the character to walk on stage slowly followed by the chorus and delivers the lines and have the character rest himself down onto a stall, whilst the chorus was to present the feeling of exhaustion.  So their part was to simply collapse onto the stage flaw.  This was very handy as it was a good starting point for the chorus rehearsal and it gives the audience a good understanding of what age the character is.  The next step was to take a look at the very next line: “Good crowd, quite a good crowd, not bad for a swansong.”  This line is to show the characters comments on tonight’s circus audience, demonstrating that he has a long career of performing and has seen many crowds; but at the same time we wondered how we could present the characters thoughts and feelings.  But it was a couple of people in the chorus group who had suggested that they should nod in agreement and make silent comments about what the character has just said.  Again this was handy in the way that the chorus is his thoughts and feelings and at the same time the people acting the chorus would soon perform the same character from the past.  So the silent comments would represent what the younger Scaramouche would of thought about these comments, and how he would of responded.  The whole chorus in a way is to represent Scaramouche himself and almost in a way, they are the elephant in the room, because the audience can see them and the chorus assists Scaramouche on stage but he never really notices them.  Which think is very interesting, and very handy to have choruses in a play such as this one.

     As we went on we came up with many strategies as to present the chorus with the use of movement and whispers to echo to highlight important moments within the dialogue.  But once I had finished reading my part in the play, which was the first two pages, we had to come up with a strategy as to how we were to change actors on stage without it crossing the audiences mind.  This is where out teacher suggested the use of a mirror frame on stage.  A mirror frame is used in stage productions to represent a mirror, but have no glass in it, so the actor may look into the fame and act as though they are looking at their own reflection, and have the audience see what the actor sees.  So for our performance our teacher wanted me and Alicia, who was to perform the next two pages, stand opposite each other with the frame in between us as if to represent the character staring at his own reflection.  But in order for us to switch places we came up with a strategy, a strategy that required me to say my final line and Alicia was to say certain parts, which would give the audience the knowledge that we are playing the same person, alongside us reflecting each other’s actions.  Then we were to take each other’s hand and I was to pull her out of the frame onto centre stage.  Placing her as the next actor performing as Scaramouche Jones and I was to join the chorus and we were to begin performing the thoughts and feelings of her portrayal as Scaramouche Jones.

     The next day we began performing the same technique, but I was in the chorus and it was Alicia’s turn to deliver her lines as Scaramouche Jones.  This time we came up with more mimes and sounds to create an environment that the character is describing.  As this dialogue was more about telling the story of the characters birth, rather than my part, which was just opening the play and introducing the character.  Again this was all very helpful as we managed to create an ideal image as to how we are to present the play in both dialogue pronunciations and chorus presentation for when it comes to our main performance in November.