As I’ve said before in my previous blog, characters are what truly drives a great story. I believe that even though the plot of a story isn’t amazing, if the characters in that story are well developed, complex, yet still relatable, then the entire book itself will turn out to be memorable.
To help us develop and enhance our characters our class used the art of drama improvisation. Before we actually had to embody the characters we created for our graphic novel, we first did a series of exercises that helped us loosen up our bodies, take away our inhibitions, and to prepare us to become our character. I was an active participant in the exercises and I believe that they truly did aid me in trying to become one of my characters. For one of the character study exercises, we were required to embody one of our characters each, and strike a statue-like pose. We needed to learn and decide how our character would stand, their posture, and most importantly their facial expressions. I first decided to be the character of Lobsang Namkha, who is a one-armed monk who has strived for redemption and forgiveness. At first I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to portray him, how old I wanted him to seem. However, once I was put into the spot light I literally became my own character, as if his spirit entered my body. I started to develop more of a background story for him in my head as I introduced my character to the rest of the class. I came up with the idea of having Lobsang look older than he seems, because although most men at 66 years old are still strong, Lobsang’s body has physically been worn down by his regret. Before this exercise, I hadn’t imagined what my character would actually sound like, or how he would stand, but just by giving a small introduction of myself as my character, I was able to come up with new idiosyncrasies for him as well as other characters. I want Lobsang to sound like a very old men who has acquired wisdom through the mistakes he has made in his life. The voice would be gentle yet hoarse, with a soft tone with a hint of phlegm in it.
Another character study exercise that we did was to act out a short scene created based off of our story synopsis. I performed a scene that incorporated one of my other main characters, Rabten, who in the scene is talking to the Dalai Lama and taken on a spiritual journey. In the scene itself I had to act alone but perform as if I had another actor accompanying me. From doing this scene I was able to realize that Rabten is actually much more vulnerable than he seems to be, and somewhat narrow-minded at times. I didn’t realize this myself because I think that the character won’t even admit it. While in the scene, I tried to feel what my character felt, and tried to think my characters thoughts. It seemed that Rabten is someone who plays more by the books, someone who doesn’t typically think outside of the box. Since he is so committed to being a monk and studying Buddhist philosophy, he often loses the human touch of things. This is why the spiritual journey caught him by so much surprise and confusion; because he’s never heard or seen anything like it.
Overall I enjoyed the activity very much. I truly do love drama, not only because it allows me to become the crazy, eccentric, and melodramatic person that I really am, but it also allows me to unwind my tenseness. Although I probably doubt that I’d end up being a huge Hollywood award-winning actress, I do love the drama.