As an actor, in grappling with a text, I always go back to actions. What is the character trying to do with each line? What is driving them to speak? This has been my biggest obstacle in creating this work. I think that with this play, I started out thinking about "oatmeal" verbs when describing my actions to myself- things like "I want to discuss, I want to reveal," but I think that there is way more in the text that I have yet to uncover. What I need now is repetition, repetition of my segment of text in connection to the whole play. A big question that I asked myself, what is the character's objective in telling this story or even talking at all? If I can fully answer these questions, I think that I will be in much better equipped to bring this play to life.
Another thing that has been an obstacle is my curiosity. I am really fighting the urge to search online for other people's interpretations of the text. I generally like to read the play that i'm working on and watch other productions of it in order to study how others understand it and perform it; I generally think that is a beneficial thing for me to do. In this case, I think that it would detract from my raw interpretation of the play and influence me and my piece in a negative way. I do not want to go and watch others perform this play because I think that I will draw too much of my inspiration for my individual work form other people and that process happens unconsciously. The pacing, like others have said, is a place where I feel like I can take artistic liberties. I don't think that it was meant to really be a play of omissions, but if not, why are they included so frequently and what do they do to the actor/audience. And in watching other productions of the play, I think their pacing of words will influence me the most.
Long story short, I need to play more with stronger actions and find out how the play manifests itself within me - including how the words flow or don't flow out of my mouth.
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