HOW HE LOOKS
Peaseblossom’s missive of “farewell thou lob of spirits” in our first exchange BEFORE he realizes who I am leads me to believe he’s making that assumption off of my physical appearance.
DEFINITION OF LOB according to the Arden - “country lout among…”
So here’s my math.
Peaseblossom is Titania’s servant, all descriptions of Titania’s activities throughout the play are dainty/dancy/ephemeral kindof the traditional “fairy” behavior.
So the simple circumstance is a member of that “class” or group looks at me and sees a country lout or hick or bum or other that is somewhat scruffy and less than.
Extrapolating from that, my first simple decision is to let my beard grow, including the area below my neck, for about a week and a half/two weeks prior to the show. I’ll look unkempt, a little wild.
Also, I want Puck to feel as if he doesn’t quite belong in this world, that this is where Titania dances, and Oberon keeps his revels, and Athenians sometimes come, but he is from elsewhere, someplace darker, someplace older. I’m taking his descriptions of humans not as bemused “oh aren’t these fun things to watch” but as his own superiority over them. He looks down upon them, especially bottom for some reason. So I want him to feel somewhat alien.
So if our venue is this beautiful, somewhat sleepy lakeside resort town of nice-upstanding people, I feel I have to look like I come from the opposite environment. I’m unsure of the particulars but I want his clothing to appear somewhat stolen and maybe even a little hip and metropolitan. Like he killed a hipster than wander off the beaten path in the wood somewhere and stole their clothes and doesn’t quite know how to wear them correctly.
I’ve also been thinking about tribal tattoos and mystic symbols. I think I want tattooing to be visible beneath his clothes, specifically “sleeves” and a slight bit creeping up the side of his neck. Again seeming rough, tough as opposed to the typical bouncy, mischief-maker. The tattoos themselves (if i can come up with a way of applying them that a) i won’t sweat through and b) doesn’t take me 4 hours a day to do) I think will look vaguely celtic, rune-ish like they’re from a distant, forgotten time. So though he has this modern clothing, there’s something ancient about him. Like he’s existed forever.
NOW I can throw away any piece of this in an instant. None of it helps me do my iambics, my rising line, my antithesis or my rhyme better.
What it DOES do for me personally, is make me less self-conscious, and makes me feel more emotionally connected. It gives me a place from which I feel I can invent and refine better. So if I combine our text work, with the overriding belief in positive action and playing to win, and these simple physical/visual cues help me emotionally invest myself further in the scene, I feel they contribute and open doors as opposed to shut them.
Other things I’m concentrating on -
PERFORMING WITH EASE
Learning my little song so well that I can do it subconsciously while I do a bit of physical business. The way people sing to themselves at work or under their breath.
Relaxing physically even in the extreme moments of emotion and movement, so my voice can maintain with no reinforcement whatsoever. I had some trouble last year maintaining even over the week. I hope to avoid that issue this year.
His moments of magic being smooth and simple, the way we open doors, or drink coffee, or move about in our daily lives. Casual use of telekinetic abilities contrasted with one or two moments of transformative, fearsome magic. That the threat of it comes from a much easier place, the way great practitioners of the martial arts expend very little effort but have a great deal of impact.
BUILDING A CHARACTER ANTITHETICALLY
I’ve also been thinking that if my main scene partner Bill/Oberon goes on a large journey during which he profoundly changes I feel I, as his opposite for a great deal of the play, shouldn’t.
Shakespeare often has characters that defiantly continue to be themselves at the climax of the play (Toby from Twelfth Night, to some extent The Duke in Measure).
They have learned small lessons, but overall they remain themselves. I think Puck, who describes the time of night that he frolics as one filled with lions roaring, wolves howling, and the time when woeful people think of death, is something primal and animal. Who looks at people with the same moral indiffernce that wolves look at their prey.
His biggest emotional relationship is with Oberon, and I’m enjoying unpacking it and seeing what it transforms into. We have moments of debate and anger and hurt as well as cruel detachment.
I’m approaching it with an open mind, not looking for answers but for whatever the truth of the scene is today at this particular rehearsal. Soon I’ll need to built and become reliable, I’m holding onto my freedom for as long as possible
We do the work so we can forget it and play, and I know I need to do all this other ridiculousness so I can buckle down and do the work.
—Steve/Puck