developing physical theatre

Sarah Brown
Edgar Allen Poe's A Tell-Tale Heart

lesson two of Adding stage blocking and movement to 'a tell tale heart' script

Todays lesson we went over the part we did in lesson one, we wanted someone to be the mysterious character 'the narrator' to be watching the old man sleeping because that was the scene we was acting out, I volunteered to play the part of  the narrator because I think the character is so interesting and different I was really interested in the role, also we didn't know whether the narrator was a man or woman because it is never revealed in the story, there would still be a clock because Skye was playing the other clock so the build up was still there, I had to stare at the old man for a bit before the build up was happening and say my lines that were given to me, I start of with the line "it is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain;" up to line of "thus rid myself of the eye forever"  the furniture is moving at this point calm and steady,  I had to build up my voice with the building movement of the bed furniture at this point I added more anger to my voice and slightly louder as if I was being irritated by something I think this showed  how mentally ill the character really was, I do all of this while saying the next lines "I undid just so much that single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. And this I did for several long nights-every night just at midnight--but I found the eye was always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his evil eye"and as the furniture melted up to the bed to create demons and angels, I had to move closer. I carry on looking at the old man becoming louder and say the next lines "never before that night had I felt the extent of my powers--of my sagacity" I add more nervousness and anger to my movement and voice and said the next lines louder but not to point were I was shouting "I had my head in, and was about to open the lantern" up to the line of "the old man sprang up in bed crying out" I stop immediately and Reece who plays the old man says the lines as I walk past the bed staring at him because he cant see me that well "it is nothing but the wind" up to the line "it is merely a cricket which has made a single chirp". throughout this scene I tried to stare and look as sinister as I could I also wanted to try and show the need in my voice to get rid of the eye but also talk intrigued like my character is with the eye , that's why I wanted to go over the scene so I could get a feel of different ways I can be as my character, maybe there all weirdly calm on the outside but mentally unstable within, but I tried to make a sinister face as much as I could and work with what facial expressions I thought was needed and best fitted for the scene or what I was comfortable with.
We went through the scene multiple times so we could memorize the blocking and movement and the build up. I enjoyed this lesson because I loved the character I was playing, very mysterious and interesting, rehearsing also really helped with getting into my character more and becoming comfortable within the scene.