Directing and Acting an Extract FromA View From he Bridge Essay Example for Free

Directing and Acting an Extract FromA View From he Bridge Essay Directing and acting in an extract of the book was great fun. Especially the extract that we had chosen as it set a challenge, with many events that have to be dealt with maturely. Plot/ Theme We choose the scene of when Eddie kisses Catherine and Rodolfo because we felt that it was a scene of great importance to the structure of the play. Eddie before hand had shown very little jealousy of Rodolfo and Catherine, but in this scene it is the first time we can clearly see it. This display of jealousy also turned Eddies and Catherines relationship, then again their love and friendship had been rumbling ever since Rodolfo had arrived, but this really was the moment where the relationship had really become obvious that it had completely changed from the start of the book. This fight also results in Catherine leaving the home, another point in the play that is very important. I dont now about the rest of the group, but I also choose this section because it was a challenge worth taking on. I knew that many of the other people would choose the immigration officers section, but that seemed very boring and so I thought this section would be a better, more challenging section. This section really deals with the power of Catherines love for Rodolfo and how the love that once fell apon Eddie had gone. Catherines love for Rodolfo was so strong that she abandons the father she had cared for all her life. On a less serious note it also deals with the seriousness of drunkenness, as it can cause huge problems and can also make you do really stupid things, things that youd never do, like kiss people that youd never kiss. Characterisation This section also allowed us to reveal huge amount about the characters. Rodolfo: Rodolfo reveals a huge amount about his character, especially when it is such a small section, but then again it shows how important this extract is to the play. It is quite clear that Rodolfo loves Catherine, so much so that hed be willing to put his life and dignity on the line just to be able to love and to be with her. This is very clear when he gets into a fight with Eddie, although he already knew that hed be beaten (When he was boxing with Eddie, he had been hurt by eddies punch). Now this is shown particularly when Rodolfo tells Eddie Dont (pulls on Eddies arm) Stop that! Have respect for her! Now the pull of the arm was very important, and the whole way in which Rodolfo acts out his words afterwards. Now through out the play we had all thought, including Eddie himself had thought that Rodolfo was a soft touch, a man who didnt really like the prospect of a fight. But this scene reveals that he is willing and when he says Dont say that to me! Rodolfo flies at him in attack. It reveals a whole new Rodolfo. It is also the first time Rodolfo style in talking about the bird being freed. It shows that he knows how to make a women happy with words saying Catherine. If I take in my hands a little bird. And she grows and wishes to fly. But I will not let her out of my hands because I love her so much, is that right for me to do? I dont say you must hate him; but anyway you must go, musnt you? which is exactly what Catherine wanted to hear. Catherine: Catherine reveals very little in comparison to Rodolfo as she, for most of our extract is in the background of Eddies and Rodolfos argument. But even then she reveals one very important factor, and that is that she wants to leave home with Rodolfo, the past love for Eddie had not gone but the desire to be with him everyday had. Catherine shows this in very obvious places such as when she says Im going with him it is quite clear that she is wanting to get away. She also shows the first sings of being afraid of Eddie (trembling with fright) I think I have to get out of here. The easiest ways to show this desire to get away would be to, when she had has her arm held by Eddie, is to rip it away in aggression I think I cant stay here no more. ( she frees her arm, steps back towards the bedroom). Now this done aggressively would surely give Eddie the sign that she doesnt want to be there anymore and hopefully the audience as well. Eddie: Eddie, out of the three characters reveals the most. He fina;;y shows just how much he wants Catherine by kissing her. He then reveals to Catherine what he thinks of Rodolfo by kissing him as well. Beforehand he had repeatedly told Alfieri he just aint right Of course it is a big issue abut why Eddie kissed Rodolfo. He had always considered Rodolfo to be homosexual Yeah, but if he aint right, Mr Alfieri, you mean to tell me-. He sang, danced, and had blonde hair, mentioning all three to Alfieri, but was the kiss really used to prove that what he had thought was true? The truth was that Eddie didnt want to lose Catherine, to nobody, so he tries in anyway possible to try and put her of him. Eddie also demonstrates just how aggressive he can be. We show this when he repeatedly grabs her arm to stop her from walking away Pack it up. Go ahead. Get your stuff and get outa here. (Catherine instantly turns and walks towards the bedroom and Eddie grabs her arm) Where you goin? But Eddie also reveals a soft side to him. This is very obvious as Eddie starts to cry Im sorry, Eddie (She sees the tears in his eyes) This is the first time we see Eddie with real emotions for anyone, not even Beatrice. We can only hope that in order to show this on stage is to make it as meaningful as possible. Dramatic Qualities Now putting this all on to stage was not easy to say the least. As students it was very hard to get the love scene at the start right, but the hardest was definitely the kissing scenes Eddie had to perform. We as a group had to first agree on the various roles we were to play, Haakon agreed to play the part of Rodolfo, Natasha as Catherine and myself as Eddie. The first hard task we had to overcome was to make the first scene, the love scene between Rodolfo and Catherine to look serious, and to look like they mean what they say, with love and affection. We had to use the basic skills in which to make the scene look realistic. When they spoke, they held hands, looked straight into each others eyes. We also tried to make the conversation very flirty, for instance when Catherine says I love you! Rodolfo. I love you! we made Natasha hug Haakon to try and convey to the audience that the words had deep meaning. I thought the real advantage to doing this section was that if we achieved an atmosphere of tension between Rodolfo and Eddie then it would look brilliant. And all we needed to do was to have some very long, uncomfortable pauses. There were some really obvious places to use silence to develop the tension, but we choose to focus on when Rodolfo walks back into the Main room to discover Eddie, drunk. We tried to make it as if Eddie is shocked at Rodolfo for even being there and that he was even lost for words until he regains his voice, tries to act all hard again and aggressively points his finger at him. We also thought that at this time Eddie would be ready to leap at Rodolfo so we made sure that he couldnt by making Natasha stand in between the two, acting as a sort of a barrier. Another important part to the structure of the play is the increase of Rodolfos aggression. When he comes on, he comes out with Beatrice went to buy presents for her mother Now this we thought sounded very arrogant, as if to say that shes mine kind of way, so we made sure that he looked as confident as he sounds. So by making sure he stood up tall and talked with a deep voice and without stuttering. But this all changes when they start arguing so we have to try and show a little more timid-ness. We tried to show this in the remainder of his lines, the best example being yes, shell by my wife. Here he has just answered back to Eddie, so he knows that hes gone too far. So now he knows a fight is unavoidable and so he looks frightened and therefore starts to stutter his words. Haakon also has to look less rigid in posture to get this effect. So that it looks as if Eddie is bigger again. Things like the voice must be developed, which was hard as it had to sound like a real American Italian accent to enable to make the play realistic. So instead, we agreed between ourselves that wed all say the lines in our natural voices, otherwise the audience would be laughing at our efforts when they ought not to be. The two hardest parts to the extract was the two issues that Eddie had to perform on Catherine and Rodolfo while at the same time having to have a fight scene. The kissing of Catherine was easier. It just took me to have my back to the audience so that when I had my head close to Natashas, the audience could not see if our lips met. But with the combination of Natashas reaction of squirming around, and my body being rigid, it looked very much like we were kissing. Now the fight scene had to look realistic, not just an immature half effort towards another vital important part in the play, but at the same time we had to make sure that Haakon was going to be safe. Our basic plan was to do a judo trip across my leg, then pick him up by his tie and collar and kiss him on the cheek. Review Analysis Now considering how short a time we had to prepare for the performance, I thought that what we achieved was really a great effort from the whole group. In particular things like the kissing scenes where we dealt with the situation maturely, and it was so realistic that a lot of people asked afterwards if we actually kissed. But the thing I was most pleased with, mature approach we took to the challenge of this very difficult extract. There were a lot of places in the section the actors could have laughed through, but we all took the whole situation seriously. I think on a weaker point, that we failed to make the situation with Eddie and Rodolfo tenser then i think we could have managed. We all got very nervous on stage and so we rushed through our lines, creating very little suspense when it really have ought to. Another bad point was we failed to keep Haakon safe when performing the fight scene. He fell quite badly. But in general our section of the play was a great experience to act and direct in.