Coriolanus: A Challenging Role

I am playing against type in my two monologues as Shakespeare's Coriolanus. Jace says, and I agree with her, that when it comes to contemplative, intellectual roles such as Henry Higgins from Pygmalion I am playing to type ... which is why when I was asked to chose a modern monologue, I chose Pygmalion because I didn't think it would be much of a stretch and I wanted to start off with something do-able (and I profitted from Rose's exasperation in her first monolgue from The Miracle Worker). But with Coriolanus I am doing a role, albeit in monologue form which is quite different from the cool and remote intellect of Henry Higgins, the role of a prideful, distainful military man, a man of action rather than intellect and I find this difficult.

Having undeerstood the language I then attempted to create the character of Coriolanus and what I ended up with was a Marcus Aurelius type of character, contempletive and intellectual and which is not what Coriolanus is. I was clearly at a loss for how to work the character out and Jace had me practice walking across the room in my normal walk which, as anyone who has seen me walk knows, is very quick and on the balls of my feet. My center of balance is very much within my chest area and my gestures are all upper-body oriented. Having ascertained this, Jace had me walk back and forth again and again each time lowering my center of balance until I was walking with a heavier, firmer tread, more forcefully and a bit slower. This had a rather startling effect. This is the Suzuki method of acting, where one builds a character literally from the feet and walk upward.

So for the next two days I practiced my new walk, though I doubt anyone noticed, and I began reciting lines from Coriolanus and Hapgood to anyone who would listen ... within reason ... and I found I got much better acquainted with the lines from each play.

Speaking of Hapgood, I hadn't done the Blair and Hapgood scene in a week or so and when Rose and I tired it again it initially felt distant and remote, as though there were a wall separating Rose and myself and our respective characters. It didn't help that we are not entirely off-book and need to reference our scripts quite often. When you've got a piece of paper in your hand you really are limited in what you're able to do. After we concluded our scene, Jace had us do a sensitivity excercise in which the lights were dimmed, we all sat on the floor, Rose and I held hands while we took rhythmical breaths while Jace lead us in what in Christian Science we would call a treatment which united Rose and myself and then taking us to our respective characters and uniting them (I should ad here that we are not now married). We then tried the scene again and the treatment had a surprisingly positive effect on Rose and I and on ourselves as the characters of Blair and Hapgood.