Hello Good Person!
Welcome to my first post! I can’t thank you enough for choosing to give this newsletter a try. Thank you, thank you and thank you.
Since I’ve somewhat promised to keep things short, lets dive right in. Here we go.
One of this year's greatest joy was revisiting my copy of The Lord of the Rings that my sister gifted me way back in 2006. I’m seeing (or maybe receiving) things differently after all these years.
Here’s an extract that got me thinking. In this, the character Bilbo has to let go of “it”. Click to enlarge.
I feel Tolkien beautifully captures the energy and articulates the mental dialogue of someone with an addiction or a conflicted mind. Do read it again a few more times. Observe the back and forth, the struggle, the inner turmoil… traits I feel relevant to playing a conflicted mind. Even Gandalf’s response is very very insightful with respect to Bilbo’s heart…We know what we must do, but can’t… or won’t.
Exercises
Replace “it” with the drug that your character may be addicted to. Modify and say these lines out loud (don’t memorise).
Maybe, act it out! With no dialogues, leave an object on your table and walk away. Stop, come back, pocket the object, and walk away again. Stop again, return, keep the object on the table again and leave. Do this five times(or more till its uncomfortable). Do it with an object you feel connected to. (This may be a cliché but if you’re a movement artist, I’d love to see your experiments with this prompt!)
Important : Apply the energy of the mental back and forth, and the strong desires…no… compulsions, as a background layer to the above exercise, your scenes or dialogues.(Of course, you must run ideas with your director before implementing) . Also once you’re done with this exercise, physically and vigorously shake yourself , pat your face gently and “come out”. (Self care)
In short I think this extract, if “felt” and understood well, can help you create a relevant state of mind for the character you are playing. There are obviously various degrees of intensity to play around with. It depends on the context of your script.
One can argue that this could also be used to touch upon being obsessive, but that’s not very accurate in my opinion. I feel I may arrive at obsession in the later pages through the character Gollum. (Maybe I will address that in a future post).
That’s it. I hope this was useful to you as a performer. Once again, thank you for subscribing. I’ll see you in the next post and leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the book. Bye now. (Consider hitting the share button below!)
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us” -- Gandalf
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