Maggie Foster Page 2

Drama Written Exam

5. In the Crucible, my group did a lot of hotseating as it was naturalistic drama,
so we needed to make the feelings as realistic as possible, and get a lot of
character depth across in a relatively short scene. Hotseating helped me
establish my attitude and relationship with the other characters, like fear of
Proctor and respect for Elizabeth. Talking about how I feel about them, our
relationship and experiences with eachother helped me to show accurate status
around them using posture and body language: looking down, trying to shrink
into nothing by having my limbs close together and clasping my hands together.
I also showed status with my voice, trembling and high pitched with Proctor,
even when trying to stand up for myself, and a toned down version of this with
Elizabeth. An example of this is when I gave Elizabeth the poppet: I made you a
gift today Good Proctor. I sounded frail and weak, but not scared, as Ive
escaped Proctors grip and Im not afraid of Elizabeth; my voice was high but
wasnt really shaking, while when I was with Proctor it was shaking a lot.
During the rehearsal process we also tried saying our lines emphasizing
different emotions, as we wanted to be able to show the nuances and aspects of
each emotion we were feeling at the same time, showing the complexity and
conflict of character and emotion. Going through the script and saying every line
in a fearful voice showed my primary emotion, and then running through it with
a loud, confident voice showed how I wanted to sound, doing this enabled me to
include elements of both in the performance. In the performance I had a higher
volume of voice at times, and made my voice sound strained to show the
difficulty I had in standing up for myself such as when I said the line I wont
stand whipping no more where I shouted but still looked terrified.
Thirdly, we practiced by doing silent run-throughs, to get our blocking perfect
and improve our facial and body expression, so we were able to show our
thoughts and feelings and tell the story without words. I these run-throughs the
movements we did felt over the top but we were able to incorporate them into
our final performance to enhance our stage presence, in a way that felt natural.
Examples include when I fell to the floor and started sobbing suddenly, by
making my knees weak for a quick fall and covering my face with my hands;
running away from Proctor and pressing myself against a wall and sliding down it
as if Im trying to disappear.
6. In the final performance at one point Im on the floor crying because of the
horrible events transpiring, and when Im questioned I say Goody Osburn will
hang!. The sudden sobbing and pause I make in the middle of the line is meant
to shock, as at first no one knows why Im crying, and then I tell them significant
news. To make this effective I made my fall sudden, and so quick that I actually
bruised myself. I know this was effective because I heard an audible gasp,
showing the audiences surprise.

The second moment I considered to be particularly effective is on my

entrance, where Proctor grabs my arm, and I sound desperate but dazed as if Im
too tired to argue so I immediately resorted to begging. This was meant to make
the audience feel sorry for her or at least pity, and I know I was effective
because after the performance audience members told me how bad they felt for
her. To achieve this I made Marys voice contrast to Proctors, so my voice was
very faint compared to his booming shout, and I was whiny and weak compared
to his anger and confidence. On the line Pray pray hurt me not at the
beginning I made the dynamic obvious immediately by making my voice much
quieter than Proctors, and higher and shakier, while Proctor is shouting loudly
without any shaking at all. I also showed the weakness I was feeling by leaving
my arm loose like a ragdoll as he pulled on it, instead of trying to pull it back at
all, I also looked downwards and away from him, to avoid conflict, as looking at
him in the eye may suggest Im fighting him and provoke him further, this all
shows how Mary has to walk on eggshells around Proctor, and even then she is
still attacked, so her method of escape is being as passive as possible.
The third moment I considered to be especially effective was when I ran
across the room and shouted I saved her life today! and pointed at Elizabeth.
This line is meant to be my last resort, as I knew it was the only thing that would
make Proctor not want to hurt me, because he needs information and cares or
his wife. To show this I shouted it louder than any of my other lines to get their
attention, and made my voice level even though my hand was shaking, because
Id managed to push myself to stop Proctor, and I was quite confident this was
what would stop him. I was also presses against the wall, showing that all my
energy was going into shouting this line, Im still a very weak individual. The aim
was to make the audience feel the tension, which I believe I achieved because
everyone in the audience was completely still and silent, and one person had
their hand over their mouth, waiting to see what would happen.