I began my rehearsal process by going through my script and fining the units for each of the scenes. Finding my units allowed for me to find my characters intentions throughout the scenes. An example of this would be during scene 9. This scene involves my character John checking up on his student Lily, the scene begins with John just trying to find out where Lily stands on her preparation for her exams but as the scene progresses John’s intention switch from trying to find out how prepared Lily is, and the intentions begin to be John trying to bring out Lily’s confidence in herself. As the scene develops his intention changes again, now john is trying to find out what Lily wants to do with her Life. When I found this intention it allowed me to invest in Johns emotions. When Lily begins to get excited about her clothing designs John begins to invest in her excitement and get excited for her. The whole scene shows the Student-teacher relationship John has with Lily shift because John has become more of a mentor to Lily and she now has begun to open up to him in a way which she has not to other teachers. This enhanced relationship then begins to develop how the characters react around each other, the two characters relationship grown to the point the next time the audience see them the relationship is at its strongest point. A point where Lily is the student John is the most nervous about because of the amount of time he has invested in her. When John does see Lily in the scene 11, after his lessons with her are finished and she has taken her exams. Because the two have spent a lot of time together preparing Lily for her exam when the to do see each other the John initial intention is to find out her exam results and when he has found out she’s past Johns intention becomes to congratulate her and find out her future plans, through this the amount of time John and Lily have spent together has become apparent with inside jokes being shared and the two are having banter with each other. This attitude towards each other shows the growth or each character as individuals, for Lily she has become more confident in herself where as John has become a better teacher, guiding Lily to a passing grade.
Another technique to help me find my character was finding his posture. At the beginning of the play John is a nervous individual, scared of being in a new environment. In a way this nervousness of being a new teacher starting school mirrors being a student starting at a new school. Because of this fear john begins by being inward, often keeping himself to himself, trying not to show much emotion towards his girlfriend often shooing her away, this is so she doesn’t embarrass him, this mirrors how Students starting school don’t enjoy having their mum accompany them because she may embarrass them (this is certainly my reaction when I was at school, I would want my Mum to leave me do my own thing and not come too close to the school with me, so I couldn’t be embarrassed by her). As the play developed John begins become more confident in his environment and when he had established himself in the school hierarchy he stop being so closed off and begins to embrace the people around him. If John was to be like an animal I would compare him to a house cat. When in a new environment he is timid however after spending time in said new environment he begins to embrace those around him he stops being shy and starts to be himself.
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