Session Analysis- Going back over and polishing

We've officially fully blocked through the whole play! Getting to that final moment took a lot of energy, effort and whole lot of side stretches however we did it. Now that we have completed staging all the action that will take place we now begin to polish the whole thing. In this session I started to really believe in the play we'd made to be honest. This was an opportunity to return to where we began all those weeks/months ago with a in depth knowledge about what this show really is.

At this point in the process I know I have a real understanding of who Jeff Skilling is as a character. All his motivations, objectives and tactics are deeply embedded with in myself and I don't feel like I'm just presenting him; I'm really embodying him. This has allowed me to be way more playful. However I still feel like I can only be playful in the places I feel confident on. For example when we were polishing scene 8 I felt really inhibited as an actor. I felt like I was just trying to get through the scene. I wasn't able to be powerful and assertive as Skilling because I felt exposed and frightened as Sam. Both me and Kai struggle with the superfluous financial lingo at some points. I've done all my research and fully grasp what a special purpose entity is and the concepts itself don't confuse me however it's the actual language and communicating it all. I am very aware that all of the jargon will more than likely go straight over the audience's heads. This means I need to work ten times harder to ensure that they "feel" like the understand it through the way I present the scene. There can not be a moment where I break the facade. I can achieve this by going back to the text and make sure I understand my objectives and actions for each section.

When we went over scene 3 it was difficult to kick start the raw passion and energy I had before. The scene is literally the battle for a Enron. When we went back over it in some parts it still had that raw element that I found before however for the most part it lacked in energy. This scene really benefited from the polishing as it not only reawakened the action but reinvigorated too. I got a really good note about seeing in my thoughts this immaculate beautiful dream that I wanted to build and having moments of just purely seeing that when I'm pleading my case. This in turn raised the stakes of the scene for me allowing this controlled ferocity to come out. If I was to refer to a practitioner at this point it felt like a Declan Donnelan unblocking moment. I felt liberated in the scene and moreover gave a more believable and connected to performance.

Some notes to work on for next session are:

Mice - Work on the anthropomorphic states of putting on the clothes
Work out a movement sequence with daughter before office scene
Scene 8 - Simplify and edit
More sparkle!
Cut off Olivia on "Son of a bitch" faster
Feel like my manhood has been hurt more during the argument about how many times
Let the thoughts move me and not vice versa
Be more physically violent with people
Office scene needs more zip: don't drop sparkle for arrogance
Don't go British with Fastow
Bigger pause before "Problem"
Get quieter quicker during swap over