The first time I read 'Spring Awakening' all the way through, I knew who my character was and could therefore get a feel of her story. Tim informed us that Wendla would be played by me and Devan, as the character undergoes a massive characteristic change, and we are therefore taking that even further and personifying the dramatic change by switching from me to Devan. At first I was slightly apprehensive as to how we would be able to do the switch smoothly and whether it would work, but after Tim explained how it would be done and we read the play I realised it was a brillient dramatic devise to use. There will hopefully be a two way mirror in which Devan and I can see each other and our own reflections. This will help the audience realise we are the same character and enable the fluidity of the change later on. We started to explore possible overlaps in physicality and speech, for example in act one scene one, Devan mirrors me and mouths the words I say. Another example is in act two scene six, where Devan and I share a monologue, thus highlighting the internal contrast within our character, Wendla.
When I first read this play, I noticed that Wendla is very energetic and curious, she seems to questions everything and won't stop until she finds out. Her relationship with her mother seems genuine and warm but she feels restricted by the lack of knowledge her mother is giving her. I observed that Wendla is very manipulative and often says or does things which lead to dangerous situations. Even though I haven't explored Wendla too much yet, I can already see that the first scene which opens the play summarizes this character up well: she wants to be mature but in an immature way. At first I didn't warm to Wendla too much, in fact I found her slightly annoying but after a few read troughs and basic blocking I realised her annoyance is what makes her a very powerful female character who takes situations into her own hands, I started to respect her and think of ways I could potentially play my portrayal of Wendla.
Devan and I agreed that she was slightly cheeky with a youthful quality to her. As I play Wendla in the first half where she is still slightly naive and young, I thought of two potential ways of starting to play her: one where she is youthful and curious and the other where she is flirtatious and inquisitive. I'm going to see how the other actors and Tim respond to these two slightly different characteristics and see how the relationships work with the other characters.
Even though Wendla has a fair amount of lines, she is also in many scenes where she is observing or lying low. This therefore gives the perfect opportunity to react to the other events on stage and let Wendla breathe in the scene, showing the audience how she lives without lines. I believe reacting is just as and to some extent even more important than acting itself, because it means you are allowing your character to live and have fully immersed yourself into their persona. Wendla is the perfect character to do some really good reacting and subtle bold changes, as during some scenes she's quiet for a moment then says something very ambiguous. for example in act one scene three, she pauses for a moment after Martha has told her she gets beaten. Wendla's response is 'what do they beat you with Martha?' and from some perspectives this could be sincere, but from my interpretation and Tim's vision, we agreed that she is so fascinated with the whole being beaten event, that she desperately wants to try it out. This pause would be a good opportunity to show her mind working and the change she explores into wanting to help her friend just so she can experience something which she sees as thrilling and new.
As all the characters are, Wendla is vital to the plot line of 'Spring Awakening' and is the catalyst for Melchoir's downfall, while framing the message of if we restrict our children to being children forever, will it ultimately only make them rebel more. Wendla changes a lot and her journey throughout this play is immense, and one which I am extremely looking forward to exploring with Devan and the rest of our cast. I am thoroughly looking forward to finding Wendla and putting my own stamp on this very diverse character,
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