character research

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Character Research

Lubov Andreyevna Ranevskaya

A Character Timeline in short

Lubov returns to her childhood home in Russia after five years in Paris. She was involved there with a man who bled her dry financially, then cheated on her.

She learns from Lopakhin that the estate will be sold in three months. She and her brother Gaev reject Lopakhin's suggestion of turning the orchard into vacation lots.

Lubov sees Trofimov, her son's old tutor, and is reminded of Grisha's death.

In the second act, Lubov still refuses to come up with a plan for the estate. She continues to spend money unwisely.

The third act finds Lubov waiting anxiously for the result of the auction. Gaev's been sent with far too little money.

She learns that Lopakhin has bought the estate. She is crushed.

In Act 4, Lubov is leaving home again, with the intention of returning to her lover in Paris.

A character timeline is useful as I can break down how my character would feel at each time of the timeline.This will give me more time to think how I would portray the characters emotions.

Workshop on Character

To help develop our character we were asked to walk aroud in the space as our character would.

                                                                       

From my point of view i see her to walk at a moderately slow tempo so she can gloat around her house and observe what she owns.Being at such a high-status she doesn't feel the need to rush however she doesn't look very proud or obnoxious as she has respect to her inferior workers.

She has immaculate posture.

                                                                

Sitting down she looks rather composed but still gloats around with her wondering eye.

When sitting down she also has great posture.
Below is a link on how to sit properly.I might use this when my character has to sit down.
How to sit down

 
we were then asked how would your character act at a party.
I see my character to be alot more lively at parties joining in with the dancing however the tempo of her walk stays the same to represent her status in society.

We were then asked how our character would act when upset.For example when the cherry Orchard is sold.
This relates to me as i'm in the scene when we're told that the Cherry Orchard is sold.
I imagine her to feel quite sick and lost when thinking but trying to hold it together.
I'll try and portray these feelings and emotions when i do it.This can be done through breaking down my cenes into objects so i can in depth understand how the characters feeling then i'll my posture and voice to show sadness and loss of words.
I would like to hopefully cry on cue however i think i'll find this hard as i'm not playing her in the previous scenes and i'm jumping straight into her character so i'm not emotionally completely connected with the character.On the otherhand by reading into her previous scenes in depth i may be able to cry on cue.
I would use a Stanislavsky technique of connecting with emotional memory but something like this has never happened to me before.