Written originally for Drama, a Stage 2 subject, during 2005.

DRAMA REPORT

Choosing to perform “Zig Zag Street” to an audience consisting of mostly high school students needed a leap of faith. The play’s lengthy scenes and mature dialogue were factors clear in my mind that would prove to be a hurdlefor myself, and the group as well, in the process of transferring the play from the script to the stage. It was obvious, as time went on, that to broaden my understanding of my character, Richard, and the play itself, I would have to deepen my thinking and lose some inhibitions to properly convey the story to the audience.

“Zig Zag Street” was originally a novel written by Nick Earls in 1998, and was adapted for the stage by Phillip Dean. The story follows Richard Derrington as he tries to come to terms with the recent and sudden break-up with his long-time girlfriend; Anna. With the sometimes misguiding help from his best-friend Jeff (played by Guiseppe Sabatino) and his wife Sal (played by Samantha Clarke), Richard tries to fill the newly created void in his life. All the while trying to renovate his recently deceased grandmother’s home. The play, I found, held feeling of angst; but I type of angst that I wasn’t familiar with – the angst of an adult. At first I couldn’t comprehend how I or any of the other actors would be able to portray such a feeling – one we certainly had never experienced. But, with the use of some helpful exercises on character development, I eventually found how to do the theme justice through my performance. The play’s dialogue was quite sarcastic at times and that was a type of humor that I was very familiar with; relishing my pieces of dialogue that had optimum use of that trait. The piece is, essentially, a period piece – being set in suburban Australia in the mid-nineties; relying sometimes on witty anecdotes on current affairs of that time, such as when my character, Richard, replies to a query of what he did on the weekend from Hillary with “Some standing, some walking. Oh, and I spoke to Arafat; he’s feeling hopeful”. Lucky I am old enough to know who Yasir Arafat is; putting myself on the same level as the audience for that piece of dialogue.

Researching theories and ideas from psychologists helped me a substantial amount in the task of trying to discover who Richard is – not only in how I could understand him, but also I could convey the character to the audience. Initially I wanted to play Richard like an older version of myself; but, as the director pointed out, that wouldn’t so much be playing a character, rather, that’d just be myself on stage saying dialogue. So, I needed to develop the character more – using my original character design as a starting point, I gradually gave Richard depth and a past. I knew that Richard would have to be a character with more of a sensitive side, rather than an aggressive one. While working out how I could portray this on stage, I found out about the work of Dr. Carl Jung and his studies on archetypes. I found out about the “anima” – which Jung claims is the feminine side of the male’s unconscious. I wanted to express this in my performance, trying to make Richard more emotionally raw and unsettled than the Richard in act two. So, I used techniques like breaking down the fourth wall and speaking directly to the audience, as opposed to simply talking to myself. I wanted to show that Richard wants to get these things off his chest; I turned the audience into a large version of “Pervis” – a sock puppet that Richard creates for his grandmother’s cat, and, I feel, somehow has an infinity with. I read Sigmund Freud’s The Joke and It’s Relation To The Unconscious as part of my research; trying to find out what is “funny” – I tried to incorporate my findings as much as possible. A part of the opening monologue that I introduced myself was when Richard answers his telephone during his speech to the audience; I held up a finger to the audience to signal that I would only be a short while and said “Just a second” – little quirks like this helped me make the character “my own”. But, I was becoming too involved with the character and didn’t realize that some of what I had developed didn’t work from an aesthetic point of view. A play that was labeled, from the beginning, as a romantic-comedy couldn’t have a low-key, underplayed performance – it needed elaborate scenes of comedy, preferably slapstick. So, with some help from the director, I devised some small tasks to do during scenes that would relieve some of the tension between my character and the audience. The hard part was to set up the scenes so that they didn’t intentionally look funny – an example would be in the first scene where my character is getting ready to go to work and shaves whilst talking to the audience, forgetting to shave in some spots and ultimately going to work with shaving cream on his face; and even then, when Richard’s boss realizes, the comedy was underplayed. This underplayed attitude was embedded into the script and we needed to respect that as an ensemble. Even when my character gets a cake, topped with whipped cream, pushed into his face – there isn’t a huge lead-up to it, or a big reaction when it does happen. My character simply shrugs it off – once again, the underplaying. A wise man once said that “humor is in the silence”; I kept this in mind, even if I couldn’t be silent on the stage – at least I could keep the dialogue to a bare minimum when needed.

Early on in the development of the play, we had many lengthy discussions as to what should be cut out of the play for the fact that it was going to be performed to a high school audience. Some things were cut straight away, obvious to us that they would be too risqué for the audience we would be performing to, while others were debated over and often lead to much needed, yet ultimately drawn-out, compromises. We also decided to give different sections of the play titles, with a new title for each change in mood; this helped the ensemble, myself particularly, as it was now easier to understand the emotion needed in that scene – the first scene was dubbed “The Queen Is Dead”, and that definitely helped me in my preparing for my opening monologue.

Music, in my opinion, is not just an essential part of artistic measures, but life in general. As Dick Clark once said; “Music is the soundtrack to our lives”. So, being a music lover and having access to a substantial collection of CDs of a wide-variety, I volunteered to compile the music to be used in the play. I wanted to use music that would instantly strike a chord with the audience; I wanted them to understand the tone of the scene before the actors had even stepped out from behind the curtain. So, with some suggestions from the director, I went ahead to compile the songs. I chose an assortment of tracks, some classics such as Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World and some from modern, contemporary music such as Let Go by Frou Frou. At some points in the soundtrack, I even tried to meld the two eras together; this is evident in the cover version of the classic Marvin Gaye track Let’s Get It On – sung in an almost comical fashion by Tenacious D lead-singer Jack Black. I used this song specifically for when Richard in Act 2 is dancing whilst taking his clothes off – trying to heighten the comical effect of the scene. I also had to compile the sound effects that needed to be used in the play – sometimes going through lengthy searches to obtain them. I then placed all the music and sound effects, in order of use in the script, onto a single CD – ready to be used by the sound operator.

I wasn’t very fond of Richard, or the play at all, in the beginning of the production; but, as the ensemble started to cooperate more and understand what was required of them, I started to enjoy myself more. I realized that I needed to take the experience of playing the lead at face value, there’s nothing hidden in the meaning of Richard – he’s not a symbol for anything other than himself, in my opinion. As soon as I started to appreciate the witty dialogue and incorporate small concepts of my own, I started to find pleasure in attending rehearsals and, ultimately, performing. But, it was a hard road to get to that point – but it was a journey that I would undertake again in the blink of an eye, if I had the opportunity.