So friends, I have some trouble. I can't become my character in my prose. The piece is called Tone by YZ Chin, it's about Sandy, a deaf girl and her trials with her boyfriend. My problem is that I'm not deaf so I can't exactly know what this girl is going through. I finally managed to get the voice down pat (my coach says it's so good it's scary) but the emotion just isn't there yet. I need help.
In the climax of the story Sandy and her boyfriend break up. It's a rough scene and she's really hurt. At one point she says that she never told her boyfriend how it felt to realize that his voice was never like he'd imagined because the only time she ever heard it was when he was yelling and cursing at her. And dammit I just can't get emotional enough!!!! I don't know how it feels to have that happen.
One of the coaches told me to just think of something that's happened to me like that. I mean yeah I've been disappointed and hurt...but I just don't feel like I have a comparable experience to draw upon. And I want to soooo badly. I want to get in her head and know how she thinks, how she feels, how much this guy means to her, but I just can't!
I'm taking the piece out to competition this weekend and I would love it if I could get some suggestions before then.
My whole point in picking this piece was to spread awareness of a) the difficulties of the hearing impaired and b) exactly how fragile ALL of our emotions are. I know that the piece is good enough to compete with, but I just don't feel that I'm doing it justice. I don't feel that I'm doing all the deaf people and all those that have ever been hurt justice. So, please help. I want to...no I NEED to get this message out.
Finding Sandy in Me
By vern - Posted on September 30th, 2008
The fact that you care so much about this part and the message behind it shows that you have the right emotion for this character. As for being able to display it, the only thing I could suggest is that you talk to some people who have gone through some rough times. Try and get them to explain exactly how they felt and why.
Your very fortunate to not have gone through some tough times yourself, I definately wouldn't reccomend trying to put yourself through a tough time in order to get in part for the role eaither lol. good luck
Thanks for the advice. It's not that I haven't been through rough times, I have (read some of my older blogs and you'll understand), it's that I can't imagine how it would feel to love someone only to realize that it's nothing like you'd imagined. I'm just hoping I can muster it up and make it work.
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Do you find it odd that you are not as strong as you once thought?
For one of my classes, we did this "deaf for a day" thing. We popped in a pair of ear plugs and some of the students then wore the cushiony headphones over their ears. It was definitely a different kind of experience. Something similar might help you get more into the character if you have time to do so before the competition. I'd also suggest doing all communication via sign language or writing (if you can't sign) to really get a feel for how it can be.
As for getting into the emotion of the piece, have you tried any of the method acting techniques that are taught in various acting classes? The TheaterGroup website has a primer on techniques that you may be able to delve into over the next few days. It may help you find that element that is missing.
Good luck!
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Slán agus beannacht leat,
~Fallon~
O, happy the soul that saw its own faults -Rumi
People of the world don't look at themselves, and so they blame one another -Rumi
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Thanks. I'll definitely check out the acting techniques thing. I hope that will help. As far as the signing, I lucked out because she even says in the piece that she doesn't sign because it's too hard for her.
Thank you so much for the advice, it's sure to help.
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All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it p
I suck at this kind of thing.
If I remember correctly the Deaf have a diffrent culture and so she probably would not express her ideas and emotions the same way we would try to express those intangible pains in words. Is it possible to use silence in the writen word to describe her emotion? Express the pain in physical terms. How to do that? I guess if you had some one you wished to thank for saving your life but had no idea who it was, or a time when you felt out of control and took drastic actions to feel strong... you could use some of those feelings to approximate a description.
Thats the best I could do and I am not sure if it made any sense.
Good luck
~T