Inexpresable: A Devised Postmodern Piece
On September fourth, we were given the topic for our devised postmodern scene, which was “Inexpressible, Unspeakable, Unutterable, Indescribable, Overwhelming, Undefinable, When Words Fail”. The point of this scene was to hone the skills of the director in ways that a scripted straight play does not. The directors were each to take this topic and make an unscripted devised scene that was between ten and fifteen minutes long. Since the other three directors and I had the same topic, we had to work completely separate from one another, so that when performance day came we would have no idea what similarities and differences our scenes contained. We were asked to take as much ownership on these scenes as possible, which meant that we were not supposed to ask what these words said to anyone else, with the exception of the cast of course, to try and keep the project as close knit as possible.
I think that my scene was a success on performance day, September twenty-sixth, for a number of reasons. The first of those reasons being that my scene was different than the three that were performed prior to mine. I anchored my scene around a simple construction of mats, chalk and ropes, then came up with ways to use them to add depth to what the actors were doing on stage. Another reason I thought my scene was successful was that I did not try to make any part of it pointed. I formed a very personal scene that meant what I wanted it to to myself, while still leaving it open to each audience members interpretation. I did not use any noticeable historical events, which I think helped to achieve this goal. While talking with different audience members after the performance, many pointed out things that resonated with them that I had never even thought of. The third reason I believe my scene was a success was that I let my actors tell the story. I admit that I started off trying to give them characters for each scene, but found out rather quickly that trying to do that for this scene was a mistake. All I had to do was block the sequences and my extremely diverse group of actors brought what was needed to portray the scene I was trying to create.
Even though I thought my scene was a success, I will never say that any work, especially this one, is complete. There were so many things that could have been cleaned up, looked at in a different light, and discovered! Two weeks of rehearsal time was just enough to put together a solid scene, but in no way was it enough time to fully explore our topic. We had never rehearsed the scene the way it was performed until our last tech rehearsal the night before the performance, which I found very rewarding due to the fact that my cast and I never got to a spot where we thought our scene was “good enough”. If I could go back and change things now, I would have cleaned up the last third of the scene. We were making changes and discovering new things until the last possible moment, so I did not take the time to smooth out some of the blocking and clarity of the final couple of sequences. With that being said, I think that everything the cast, crew and I put up on the stage for the performance worked.