Here's a listing of the events referenced in the script which take place prior to the beginning of the events of the play itself. You won't know the events if you are not familiar with the script,but the thing to take away from it is that I am not putting any interpretation on them yet. Also this list is specific to the character of Jess, meaning that there are other events referenced in the script which make up the narrative of the entire play which I am leaving off for now. 1. Jess helps pick the annual carnival queen and rides of a parade float with the Mayor and the queen, Jane Livingstone. 2. Dougal has a work accident (which leads eventually to a monetary settlement in his favor). 3. Jess is working to save the quince tree when Floyd's boy comes looking for his dad. Jess looks after the boy in the cold and dark. 4.Joins in working with Dougal and is given the homework of making an Iconostasis, which he does. 4. A Night Heron bird is reported spotted in the region. 5. Jess slaps Warren on the face. Incident is reported in the papers. 6. Jess is fired from his job. 7. Dougal is leafleting on Jess' behalf. 8. Floyd's boy incident becomes known rumor. 9. Jess is beaten up on the Marsh Road at night. 10. Receives his Dole money. 11. Begins making tapes for Dougal. That is a chronological order, give or take a couple of them as the information available in the script which references them is brief. But that is basically it. Just the facts ma'am. Now taking those and the other events referenced in the script I can tell the narrative to myself (and others)fully in its logical sequence. Each of these events will be used imaginatively later on but the question to seek and answer now is which one of these events is key to setting in motion the events of the play itself? My current answer is the slap with Warren. That sets off a chain reaction of things which make for a sudden and profound change in Jess' situation, his life. It also matches up with the final event which the audience sees from him when he kisses the other character on the cheek. Slap to the cheek. Kiss to the cheek. Key events.

The Night Heron part two

Having a clear grasp of the series of events that lead up to and continue through the play, allows me to begin to think “imaginatively” or perhaps better said “creatively” about the play and the character. I can review this story, this series of events, over and over in my mind, eventually filling in further details as I do, all based upon things said or done in the script itself. I know the time, the place, and the conditions of each series of events that are referenced. I feel like the logic of the progression of events is sound. So then I start to ask myself the question “what would it be like to be in that situation?” Now here’s the catch. I am an actor, and therefore my “answers” to that question have to manifest themselves in behavior, not in description. So while yes I can explain to myself what each situation may be like, and while its not unhelpful for me to do so as an actor, it doesn’t really set the conditions for my body to learn what it needs to learn in order to “get it” and do what it needs to do on stage in the moment of performance. As an actor, I have to have thought and speech and movement and feeling and intention all rooted in these events, these experiences. And having been educated, trained, and artistically tempered in a particular way, I don’t want my final rendition to be merely natural like behavior that is truthfully based in those experiences, but rather beyond that I want it to be a clear and precise poetic expression of the ideas of the play as they exist living and breathing in this character’s actions. So how do I begin to answer the question “what would it be like to be in that situation?” I search and explore the situations biologically - with my senses, and I allow a certain amount of free association to arise as I do. I let my body start to find impulses and thoughts and movements and sensations based on being in those situations. I don’t (or try not to) judge the behavior but rather I try to allow my instincts to work unhinged. Mind you, this is a very disciplined approach. This is not an anything goes way. The parameters are strict and tight. Think mustard seed. But with this work that little bit of faith in the situation or rather my body’s responses to the situations is established. Actor. Behavior. Action. The work continues.

Working on The Night Heron

Working on the role of Jess Wattmore in the play The Night Heron, by Jez Butterworth, at the Rogue Theatre. Beginning work - tracing the line of action, trying to articulate and understand the sequence of events that are referenced in the script. Going one by one to get the time and place and basic result of each one. (Side question - why on God's green earth do modern playwrights, those of the 90's and 2K's, like to leave things so "mysterious," so two-sided?). I need to be able to tell the entire story alluded to in the script to myself in order to begin to make sense of the action that will actually occur on stage. This is a process of coolly examining the facts and circumstances as presented by the script. I am not imagining or inventing or adding to what the playwright has offered. Take what is offered and see if the logic follows itself. If it doesn't make sense on the first try, reread and rethink. Don't make things up in an attempt to understand events individually and don't try to shape them to fit personal opinion or wish-fantasy. Try to get the whole. If the script is well written, the logic of events works out, including disruptions. So for example, based on what the script of The Night Heron says I can begin to tell myself a basic story about Jess Wattmore, in context with the basic story of the entire play. "Jess is working as a gardener at Cambridge. He is working in the quince tree when Floyd Fowler's boy comes around, etc. Jess is with the Scouts when he slaps one of them. The story of it comes out in the newspaper. Jess gets dismissed from his job. Jess starts helping, working with Dougall (who had earlier been employed with Cambridge also, etc). Something about Floyd's Fowler's boy comes out, accusations. Jess is out on the road at night and gets beat up." That's the idea...but I'm leaving out some details as a matter of writing here. I don't leave them out in my head though. Until I can tell the story of the play and the story of Jess Wattmore in detail to myself I won't be ready to go on to other work.