Developing

Quashia 
Quashia Quamina – Starting
point 

One of the first things we did was make character

timelines, this gave an idea of his character arc. I
wrote down all the big events of his life with
corresponding page numbers in the script. Quashia
goes from the naïve prince to a rebel leader, from
the boy bound to honour to the one seeking blood.  
 Character Questions 

My next stage was to make a list of character question to help

me understand him like: How old is Quashia? What world has
Quashia come from? Why is avenging his father so important? 
I tried to answer these questions as the rehearsals went on. In
any improv or scene work I gave offers as to his possible
motivations for actions and kept the ones that worked best. For
example I tried Quashia being overly angry about his father's
death from the start, but it didn’t feel like a big enough
journey. So in the end I thought of Quashia thinking about the
loss of his father while wandering the castle alone, feeling the
emptiness that his father left behind. Then when Quashia finds
out that he could avenge his father, the anger came from a
place of loss which felt much more natural. 
 Celebrity Inspiration

Alice Lamb (Assistant Director) did a character

exploration exercise with us, she had us all pick a
celebrity to take inspiration from. We chose Quashia's
inspiration to be Young Daniel Radcliffe in Harry
Potter. I loved the earnestness in him, I performed the
scene in Deathly Hallows where Harry confronts
Snape, this helped me understand how to show
Quashia's untameable anger at Northangerland but also
show that he's young and not totally sure of himself. I
wanted to show that because Quashia was so sheltered
he's mentally about 16, and far out of his depth in the
war. 
Daniel Radcliffe Scene
 Playing a Glasstown
Character 

Quashia is part of Glasstown, he is an imaginary character. In my feedback from

Steph (Director) I was asked to think about how this would effect my acting, how can
my acting show that I am an imaginary character? This brought up from
questions, Why does Emily create Quashia? What part of Emily is Quashia
expressing? (Is he her uncontrolled anger? Is he her lovesick side? Her frustration of
an unattained crush? Was it a part of her that felt trapped?) I talked to Abi Baker
(playing Emily Bronte) about what she thought and she said it was probably a
combination of all of those. From this I started thinking of my character as developing
at the same rate that Emily does, when Quashia stands with the other soldiers at the
very top of the show, he is as much of a blank slate as the other soldiers, he only
becomes Quashia when Emily thinks of it. He is Emily's sense of justice at the start,
and he becomes her hurt over Ellen (as Quashia hurts over Mary Percy), and
eventually he becomes her anger at her siblings and the world. 
The Glasstown world also needed to feel imaginary, so I tried to dive into the
melodrama of it. 
 Quashia's Physicalities 

From day one of rehearsal I was thinking about how

Quashia moves, how does he stand? I decided that he is
quite upright and to attention he would have been trained
as a gentleman and probably a soldier too. He is co-
ordinated and well trained, this is shown in how well he
fights in the duel against Northangerland. Quashia treats
women with respect, offering his hand to Mary Percy in
Scene 5 etc. These gestures are associated with the
Regency time period which is when Glasstown is set. 
I decided that Quashia's character introduction pose at the
beginning of the show should be his hands folded neatly
behind his back to show his formality and how he is
contained by Northangerland's rules. 
 Stakes 
Another note I was given was to play the stakes for Quashia, what does he stand to
lose or gain in any situation? When playing Quashia I kept thinking of Quashia's
dream vs Nightmare scenario in the scenes. For example, if he doesn’t kill
Northangerland the alternative, the nightmare scenario is sleeping a few doors
down from a murderer every night. 
Quashia is repressed by Northangerland at the start, he is told to stay in his place
and that he should be grateful for his lot. So in the moments where Quashia is kept
quiet I tried to think of the all the things Quashia wanted to say. An example of this
that Alice Lamb (Assistant Director) helped me come up with is in the scene where
Mary Percy tells Quashia she is engaged, Quashia wants to call to her and talk her
out of it but Northangerland interrupts them. In the moments where Quashia and
Mary Percy hold eye contact I thought of all the things Quashia wanted to say to
her, thinking about how he is losing the only person who has ever really cared for
him,  then had to keep my mouth shut and let them walk away. These notes really
helped me bring the stakes to his character. 
Inbetween the Scenes 

The side of stage interactions helped me stay in character, and to

understand what happens to Quashia inbetween the scenes,
therefore giving me more motivation to start my scenes knowing
where I have just come from. For example after Mary Percy and
Zamorna's engagement is annouced Quashia's interactions with
Mary Percy play out Quashia's heart being broken further as she
reaches for Quashia's hand then lets it go to stand by Zamorna.
These interactions were slightly different each night which kept
the play fresh. At the side of the stage Quashia got to play
out Northangerland being manipulative and  Lady Zenobia
calming him down. 
Inbetween the Scenes 

The Glasstown character were asked to stay at the side of the

stage in character for the whole show. So to stay in character I
started having things I say over and over in my head to keep me
in the zone like: Who could have killed him? Who could have
done such a thing? After Quashia finds out S'death knows who
killed his father. This idea came from an offer made by James S
and Leah Shaw on the group character sheet  from Research and
Development part of our devising process. The character sheet
had Quashia saying his enemies names every night before he goes
to sleep, this repetitive thinking is something I kept in the
character. 
Quashia's Diary 

After the dress rehearsal I was given a note

from Steph (Director) to write Quashia's
diary, this helped me grasp what happens
between scenes. And to slip into the
dramatic but sincere way Quashia talks. I
wrote these diary entries during the breaks
in the technical rehearsals. 
My Pre-show Routine 

To sustainably play Quashia for 6 shows I made a preshow routine. This

included lots of leg and back stretches to really throw myself into the
physicality of both and tin soldier and Quashia. Quashia’s sword fight
uses a lot of bent legs which hurt after a while, and standing to
attention took a lot out of me too. Gentlemen don’t let women stand
while they sit, so I could not sit down as either character. I also ran the
dance with Harry, the fight with Gabe, a vocal warmup and drank lots
of water before every show. 
Pre- Show routine - Warm Ups 

During the run of shows warm ups helped a lot to keep myself in the zone
and physically in the space. Before the show we would do stretches and play
group focus games like Bunny Bunny. 
Another warm up we did was dancing stupidly to a melodramatic song, we
all made fools of ourselves and it really helped get into a Glasstown
character because they are over the top. We all looked silly so it was easier
to think no one was laughing at you. Someone had laughed at Quashia in
earlier rehearsals with threw me a bit but this exercise helped me throw
myself back in.