Miss Sunshine

My character in ‘It’s all business’ was a hippie woman called Miss Sunshine who invaded 2 of the stands, Mr. Totsy’s and Mrs. Middleton. She truly believed in the spirits and she always followed her destiny. When I first imagined my character I thought it wouldn’t be difficult to build it up, but that was the hardest part.

To help me build my character I investigated how hippies were like because what I already knew about them was not much. After reading some information on the internet I realized that Miss Sunshine was not only a hippie, but kind of a witch too, because she performs rituals and changes personality (like being possessed). Thus, one of my big influences for this character was Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter, because she was the character I could relate Miss Sunshine the most.

In terms of body language Professor Trelawney thought me to focus on the movements of my hands and arms. Miss Sunshine had to have very big, but soft movements. This was difficult for me to portray because I am used to rapid and short actions.

Face expressions are my favourite thing to do when building a character; and I think it’s kind of easy for me to try different face expressions. The problem is that once I find a face expression that I like, it is very difficult for me to try other ones. I played Miss Sunshine with my eyes wide open. I was trying to show that she truly believed in everything she was talking about (spirts, destiny, etc).

Voice has always been my weakest point at character building. I have always worked with a high pitch voice in all my previous characters, so for this one, Roberto and I wanted to do the opposite. It was impossible for me to maintain the low pitch voice in the rehearsals, so we decided to try the high pitch again but with the ‘ñe’ (voz nasal). In some of the rehearsals I managed to go through the whole play without forgetting the ‘ñe’ sound; but in most of them, Sandra’s voice took over Miss Sunshine’s. Unfortunately, this is what happened in the final performance. Voice is one aspect of acting I really need to work on.

As in for props, Miss Sunshine carried a guitar bag where she kept the scarves she sold, a carpet, a perfume, leaves and a dead rat. I should have planned step-by-step the actions with my props because in some scenes I took too much time to take out the carpet from the bad, and that affected the whole timing of the scene. Additionally, I didn’t have the dead rat until the final rehearsal, so in the final performance I basically had to improvise how to carry and use the rat. As an actor, I should also be responsible for the props I need, so if the Prop-responsible people have not given me the prop I need, I should find a way to get something that is similar to the prop I need so I can practice.

At first, my character was very superficial. But after lots of rehearsals, and the help of the costume and the wig I wore, I managed to believe in what I was doing and that I was Miss Sunshine. In the final performance I didn’t show my best Miss Sunshine. I know that Sandra often showed instead of my character, mostly in the aspect of the voice.

How much research do you need to do to build a character? Did I ignore many possibilities of voices, body movements and face expressions when building Miss Sunshine? Who is the judge of my performance... the audience? The director? Myself?

It's all business

Every play has a process of creation. In my opinion, I didn't contribute much in this process. We arranched several meetings to write the play, but I was not fully concentrated. As we had little time to work on this, we decided to do what we are good at: comedy. We had to focus in the type of audience we were going to have: students of our age and parents (which most of them do not speak English), therefore the play had to be very visual and the story easy to understand.

What I believe that worked in this play was that all the characters had contrasting personalities: the little tomboy girl, the hippie, the bipolar flower-seller, the pervy japanese, the videogame addict, the pervyvideo addict, and the british shoe-seller lady. This contrasts keep the audience entertained and makes them have a good time watching a play that does not try to deliver a complicated message. The play was not telling a story, it was just a set un fun situations in 4 scenes.

Another thing that worked was the structure of the play. While one scene was being acted, the other 2 were done in mime. Only in the last scene the characters used all the space in the stage. I don't think that any other school used this technique before because the whole audience was impressed by the way we managed to coordinate the 3 scenes. (Of course, there were lots of mistakes done like, people doing their scenes faster in mime and very slow while we talking, but the audience did not noticed. Only us, the actors, Roberto and Melissa).

While discussing about our performance in class, we were remembered by Roberto that this was the first time we ever had a dressed rehearsal without anyone watching. This affected significantly our performance on Thursday because we were never given advice or comments from espectators. The day of the final performance was the first time we faced an audience with our play. The adrenaline and the nervousness, in my opinion, did not let us really feel our characters. Honestly, we performed our play better during previous rehearsals.This reminded me of the difference between presenting a play 3 nights on a row, like 'La Vida es Sueño', and only presenting it one night. When you do several presentations, you get better everynight. On the other hand, the One-Act Play Festival only gives you one chance to prove the audience your talent and habilities.

In 'It's all bussiness', we represented people who form part of our world and our society. We represented ourselfs by showing others, because they form part of our culture. We were not trying to change the world, we were just showing our point of view. Some theatre traditions, on the other hand, have the purpose of changing our way of thinking and living (our culture). Last Tuesday in class we got the conclusion that, if threatre in Lima had that purpose, nothing would change because people in Lima are not used to go to theatre. In this case we would have to use mass media methods like T.V., cinema, etc. The role of theatre (role of representing ourselfs) is an import role in society beacause in theatre is where you see yourself. The play belongs to the audience. Theatre is an immediate art, that is why we focus on getting to the people.

Does every play have the same process of creation? Do we really need a process to write a play? Or can it come our of nowhere? Is the process the same for comedy and dramatic plays?