Petruchio - What's In A Back-story?

He's a busy bloke is Rich...but he's written another episode of what it's like to get a character into shape and up on stage.
It's a great read and gives everyone, actor, director, techie or audience member, an idea of the time and effort that needs to go into putting on a performance; doesn't matter if it's Shakespeare, Rattigan, Churchill or Aykcbourn, this is the sort of enthusiasm and dedication that is needed. Professional or not, you gotta put the work in to get the results.

Katherina and Petruchio aka Jilly Brock and Rich Turley, trying to remember
that it's actually Padua (huzzah!) and not Dartmouth Castle.

It would appear that Max (aka ‘Grooms’ or Grumio) is putting me to shame with his regular blog entries so here’s my much overdue next entry.

I’ve been reflecting on just how much effort an ’amateur’ theatre company puts into ensuring a production is as professional as possible.  By 4 June, in the 16 weeks since my final audition for Petruchio back in February I’d estimate at least 40 hours of rehearsal on 10 occasions be that Wednesday evening or Sunday afternoon.

On top of that a full day RSC Open Stage workshop at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff and the delight of working with Michael Corbidge for our first Text and Voice Workshop.  Not to mention at least the same amount of time again learning lines (and Petruchio has lots of lines!!).

Oh, and I forgot to mention a final promenade performance of the Dream on 10 May!!

So just what do we get up to at the rehearsals and what does it take to bring Will’s wonderful text to life?

In this blog I’d like to share a little about creating a back story.  At the workshop in Cardiff we discussed the “Actors’ Questions”, i.e. fully understanding everything about your character so that you “be your character” and don’t “act”.

“Don’t act”?! I hear you say – well, yes that’s the trick it would appear!  The more you understand your character and how they would naturally react to any situation the more you become them and hey presto you behave in a natural and believable way on stage.

So here they are, the Actors’ Questions ...

1.       Who am I?

2.       Where am I?

3.       When is it?

4.       What circumstances happened before the play begins?

5.       What has just happened?

6.       What do I want?

7.       Why do I want it?

8.       Why do I want it now?

9.       What would happen if I didn’t get it now?

10.   How do I get what I want?

11.   What must I overcome?

12.   What are my relationships?

Now, with The Inn Theatre Company being such a dedicated bunch we’ve taken this one big step further and each actor is writing their character’s back story (see...the title of the blog does make sense after all !!)

Hats off to Jilly for her confidence to write a very detailed and open back story for Katherina which she then shared with Janie and me.  Jilly put a lot of research into this and when I read it her character made sense and so I decided to do the same for Petruchio.

5,000 words later (yes, 5,000!) I had produced my detailed back story and an outline of what’s making Petruchio tick for each scene.

Clearly you don’t need to go that mad but for me it was the ideal way to develop the character.  Without giving too much away the back story covers his childhood, formative years, the year leading up to the time of the play and what sets Petruchio off on his travels to “Wive it wealthily in Padua”.

I used the 12 questions above combined with some personal insight and experiences (which then make it easier to tap into the emotions required for Petruchio’s varied personalities!!).  Jilly and I then shared our back stories, tweaked them and worked together on what’s going on during the events between scenes that Will has basically left to our devices.

Max then wrote Groom’s story which amplified mine and so the snowball (or avalanche) commenced!!

I would whole heartedly recommend this to anyone as it is totally worth the effort – I now have a bit of Petruchio alive inside me (what a strange concept!) and feel a lot more confident.

To round this blog off here’s a little bit of the back story (well, you deserve it seeing as you’ve taken the time to read the blog!).  I hope you find it interesting and who knows, maybe relevant when you join us in August for the production.

Part of Petruchio's Story (As told by Rich)

' “Petruchio is my name, Antonio’s Son, a man well known throughout all Italy”

Or so he was ... until he passed away 6 months ago.

I’m still not sure how I feel about that, I never did manage to achieve the same fame as my father – maybe one day my son will say “I am Petruchio’s Son, a man well know throughout all Italy”, but there’s fat chance of that without a wife to my name...and the last thing I want is to be tied to some woman for the rest for my life with a kid in tow.

------

After 6 months of xxxxxxx my inheritance up the wall feeling sorry for myself it’s about time I sorted things in my life once and for all ... if nothing else I need some money because the kitty is pretty empty now.  I’m sure Grumio has got a whiff that the money is drying up ... he’s a cheeky little xxxxxxx when he gets going and tries winding me up – the last thing I need is him blabbing that Petruchio {famous old Anthonio’s son} is nearly bankrupt – I’d kill myself before allowing such shame to go against the family name.  But Grumio knows the score and keeps it to himself right now ... and he keeps the servants in line which is no mean feat I can tell you!! '

More from Rich when he has the time, between shrew-taming, working and learning lines. I also hope to get some of the other cast members to add to this memoir of The Shrew; it's always good to get a broad perspective on what's going on and how people feel about a production.