Playing Beatty

A reflective account of how I played the antagonist of Fahrenheit 451 for a theatrical adaptation at Brunel University.

My ensemble group was led by Dr. Grant Peterson as director, and we devised a show titled The Hound: An Adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. I will explain how I developed as a musical theatre performer, drummer and actor through the ensemble production. After we had developed an early version of the show. I felt the workload was daunting. I was not intimidated but concerned. There are numerous tasks I had to work on for the show, but I will focus on these: 1. Learning the lyrics and dance to Fuck Me Ray Bradbury by Rachel Bloom (Youtube 2010). 2. Practicing and creating the drumbeats for the VR scenes. 3. Playing Beatty. First, I will discuss the difficulty I had with performing the song Fuck Me Ray Bradbury. I am not a confident singer or dancer. The dance sequences were the most nerve-wrecking scenes of the show to me. I was intensely focused on remembering the dance whilst not looking like I was remembering the dance. I asked one of the assistant directors for advice and they suggested sometimes you need to make a choice as afraid as you are and believe in it. I would remind myself of their advice throughout rehearsal in a phrase: ‘it is better to be strong but wrong, instead of weak and meek.’ During the final show, this rationale helped me lean into the musical theatre and made me feel competent as a performer. This philosophy also helped me relearn the drums. When I was 12, I took drum lessons for three months and only ever played the snare drum. I was not afraid of playing a drum roll, but I had no idea how I would play a beat for the VR Show 2 scene. So, I went to the music studio in the Antonin Artaud theatre, set myself up on the drum kit, found beginner tutorials on Youtube and spent hours trying to relearn the drums. For the final performance, I was insecure about my musical ability but calmed myself with this strong but wrong philosophy and accepted whatever my ability was I had to play drums to the best of it. And I could trust my ensemble to carry the scene no matter what I did with the drums, as “ensemble destroys fear, and replaces it with something much healthier and more rewarding…[trust]” (Bonczek, Storck 2012: 40) Now, I will explain the difficulty of playing Beatty and the skills I developed. I was excited by the challenge to play Beatty and his monologue because I have never been trusted with something that creatively difficult. I have been performing on stage since I was a child and those experiences have always been burdened by anxiety. Anxiety over my character preparation, lines learned and worthiness as a performer. And I was especially anxious about Beatty’s lengthy monologue because the last time an audience was entrusted to me alone was when I last did stand-up. I told jokes for a silent three minutes and ran off the stage early. In order to confidently perform this monologue so I did not run off stage early, I decided I needed to know who Beatty was and the world he existed in. Over the Easter break, I would go to the Antonin Artaud theatre almost every day, find an empty rehearsal room, set up the staging and work. Initially, I read through Fahrenheit 451 and made notes on the play overall. Then I went through and made extensive notes on when Beatty’s mentioned, his thoughts, reactions, and I broke down his monologue into units, signifying sections of thought. Once I was satisfied with my notes, I would get on my feet and perform it. Ready to abandon any notes I had made and follow my instincts in performance. And depending on how well I was doing, I would work for two to six hours. Reflecting on this, I had formalised a process to acting which developed my work ethic. Working to this standard was satisfying and I found myself developing skills that come with a formalised process. Like the ability to implement notes. I enjoyed working on our director’s notes for the monologue, the detail to which my work was recognised and challenged made me feel the work was important and tangible. However, I felt there were notes I failed to implement successfully as requested. For example, I do not think I got the line delivery right for “sit down right there!” I think our director was looking for power to be evoked in Beatty’s demeanour, implicit in his being and not requiring high volume. But in rehearsal, I kept falling into a habitual rhythm of saying the line with volume to suggest power which ultimately suggested an inner weakness. Thus, failing the note and resulting in a less effective performance than the character deserved. Additionally, there is more I could have done differently with Beatty. Specifically, I felt I learned Beatty to a set rhythm. Which took away the life of the character. I wish I was bolder in rehearsal and communicated more with my scene partners and director about trying new things. I also failed to prepare appropriately for the book people scene. I recall during my preparation for Beatty, deciding I could prioritise him over the book people scene. Which resulted in not giving that scene the care it needed. I managed to work on this shortcoming with the help of my ensemble partners – encouraged by our director. This open attitude to group work was prevalent during rehearsal and created an effective working environment, I felt as if we were “in a ‘community of equals’ where each person can teach another” (Chow, Peterson 2016). From this, I learned for the standard of performance I aspire to, every moment on stage requires rigorous rehearsal, care and focus. In conclusion, before the ensemble production I do not think I would have been able to perform musical theatre, play drums or play Beatty to the standard I did. I remember for the final show; I was off-stage about to go on and I was nervous. I was preparing myself for the monologue, and I said to myself: “strong but wrong. You won’t get to do this again, enjoy it.” And I trusted it and I let the anxiety go. That skill to work regularly so that I can trust myself, was the most important development I made from the experience. Overall, I am proud of my performance and the show we made as an ensemble.

REFERENCE LIST

Beatty’s monologue notes (17 May 2019) Google Drive, added by Anthony Pollard [Online]. [Accessed 17 May 2019].

Bonczek, Rose Brunett, Storck, David (2012) Ensemble Theatre Making: A Practical Guide, London: Routledge.

Chow, Broderick, Peterson, Grant Tyler (2016) ‘Essai’, Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, 7 (1), 114-116.

Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury – Rachel Bloom (Aug 15 2010) Youtube video, added by racheldoesstuff [Online]. Available at https://youtu.be/e1IxOS4VzKM [Accessed 16 May 2019]