7 Topics meme - part 2

[nennivian]

- your choreography process
- photography
- something particularly interesting about the story of Nennivia
- what sort of roles you'd like to play in the future
- looking for the best in people
- your personal sense of aesthetics
- something that really gets on your nerves

I'll try to tackle a couple of topics this time.

First, types of roles I would like to play:
There are a few things that I am very aware of in my acting right now. They are:

a) I desperately need a break from Shakespeare.

b) I am not interested in being a character that has to express grief unless I have a director I respect that is willing to really coach me to help me improve. I'm very unsatisfied with my acting of grief/hysteria right now, and I have no interest in continuing to give poor performances in that area until I have a means of improving.

c) I miss comedy.

d) My signature style up until college was comically over-the-top characters, since I wasn't afraid of appearing absurd and I really threw myself into my characters. I got a significant amount of positive feedback about my abilities in this area, and it is something I enjoy greatly.  (Being insane and overly self-important were major themes for me.)

e) I would like to practice my anger (not shrieking when I'm upset) and subtlety (showing more nuanced emotions).

f) I just generally have a desire to increase my "straight and serious, but not Shakespeare" experience.  Particularly in the modern department.

In conclusion, I would say that the roles I would be most interested in at the moment are something like (in no particular order):

1. An over-the-top comedic character
2. A dry/understated comedic character
3. A character who undergoes significant personal/mental/emotional/character development over the course of the play (and that development is witnessed by the audience)
4. I want to play an un-glamorous modern female and bring my performance as close to "that person is really real" as I can
5. A weak/meek/helpless character. One who is significant but not possessing of particular confidence, presence, ability, strength, will, etc. I have been told time and again that I can dominate the stage, but I want to practice being the person who is the center of everyone's attention but who clearly wished that they were invisible and could be anywhere but there. 

"Looking for the best in people" and "something that gets on my nerves" are going to go together another day, I think, and both "my choreographing process" and "my personal aesthetics" are going to be pretty long, so they will get their own posts.

That leaves "something particularly interesting about the story of Nennivia".

This is a tricky task for several reasons.

a) The characters and their interactions/growth are (in my opinion) the best and most important part of the story, but it is difficult to summarize the characters without them sounding pretty simple.

b) Our document is around 550 pages right now (and there is a lot more story that isn't on paper from early on), and there are parts of it that I haven't even read yet. It is difficult to just think over it all and settle on something to share.

c) I don't really know what would be particularly interesting to a general audience. I know what I find most interesting, but I have a very unique perspective on the thing and I am invested in it in a way that my audience is not.

d) I am most interested in the meta aspects of the story, in how Mo and I relate to the story and the way that the story develops from us as people and writers.

Hmmmm...

Ok, I'll share an aspect of the story that is particularly interesting to me, but perhaps some day I will write a bit about all the fascinating meta aspects of our story. (Feel free to ask me in person about this if you're interested and I take too long to get around to posting anything.)

I love the relationship of Bran (the soldier) and Audric (the foreign Prince) during the early part of the story when both men are publicly and privately competing, first for the throne and then for the Queen's favor. Each man is very talented at what he does - Bran at soldiering and Audric at politics - and both are highly intelligent, driven leaders. Audric is at a significant advantage because of the political nature of their battlefield, not to mention his high birth and suave manners. Bran has a smaller (but not insignificant) home-turf advantage, as well as popular support among the working class and military.

What is so intriguing about their relationship is the public verses private aspect of it. In public they are open rivals, but although they are in constant competition they are also in the public eye, so they are polite and gentlemanly about it. They are cautious about who they are and what they say whenever anyone else is around.
However, each is clever enough to understand who the other is and where he is coming from almost immediately, so each calls the other out on his motives and tactics as soon as they are alone. Any facade each of them portrays is pointless in front of the other and instead they are extremely direct and blunt. When one of them reveals their suspicions of the other's secrets, the suspicion is confirmed or denied honestly, as anything else would be a waste of breath. They both know that their battle is not about convincing each other, but rather about convincing the public, court, and queen. It becomes a competition of facade and credibility. It doesn't matter what your competitor says if everyone believes your side of the story. Even if your competitor is right. Things that are admitted in private are still publicly refuted in full force. Each man still controls the proof of the matter, leaving the other only with seemingly empty accusations.
The only thing that they keep from each other is the way that the other one worries them. They are very careful never to appear anything less than perfectly intelligent and in control of their position when facing the other. Any doubt of their success is kept hidden for as long as possible.

The two have a grudging respect for each other and, despite being opposites in many ways, might have been friends if they weren't so decidedly nemeses. (As a side note, Jonathan Coulton's "Nemeses" captures this relationship between Bran and Audric really well. That's pretty much exclusively why I like the song so much.) Each one finds it utterly invigorating to have such a fascinating opponent that they consider both so inferior and yet so dangerous.
Of course, each believes that his own motives/actions are defensible, and their disagreement on this point alone would be enough to keep them at odds even if they weren't in a public competition.

(It really ought to be mentioned that my co-author was pretty much exclusively responsible for the creation of this relationship and I cannot take credit for its delicate complexities in any way shape or form.)