DECLAN DONNELLAN

Declan Donnellan was an English Film and Theatre director born in Manchester on the 4th of August 1953.

TARGET

Declan wrote a book called - "The Actor and the Target"

He says that it is essential for you to pursue your target, this can be real, imaginary or abstract but it must always be there. e.g. If I'm playing playing Fastow and my target is Skilling, Declan believes that by focusing on Skilling rather than myself as Fastow,  i will be giving a more truthful performance. It isn't what I am doing that makes the scene but rather what my target is doing and what the targets makes me do/feel.

6 Rules of the Target (super objective) 

1. There is always a target (and an obstruction)
2. The target exists (at an achievable distance)
3. The target already exists before you know it does
4. The target is always specific
5. The target is always transforming 
6. The target is always acting

Exercise 1 - The Target

A- Recaps the events of their day
B- Analyses their face

Actor B is here able to make observations of their target (actor A) with as little blocks as possible. They can observe when the actor is comfortable, when they know what they're saying, when they get stuck etc. They can see the actor living.

This is similar to Meisner's approach to acting through stressing importance of observation. If the actor cannot observe and see detail then they are not able to react and live in a scene. He wants this exercise to develop the observational skills of the actor allowing them to process and react with truth
rather than serve up a pre-empted reaction based on an actors obvious knowledge of a scene.

Exercise 2 - "Better or worse"

Declan also stresses the importance of having high stakes and created an exercise to highlight the use of this called "better or worse"

A target always divides into two and the idea that it can go either way is where the stakes lie. In order to play these stakes successfully the actor must first understand what it is that is at stake. The actor must play the anti-thesis

e.g. -  Lay might hate me and get me fired, she might love me and get me promoted.

This helped me in identifying the work there is to be done in pushing stakes and is especially relevant to Fastow seeing as he's fixated on this idea of risk. It's his job! Bearing this in mind i thought about moments in the text where this is particularly relevant including the trader scene where he's beaten up, trimming the fat where he thinks he's going to lose his job and an unholy partnership when he proposes the idea of LJM. By pushing the stakes in these moments we're able to create suspense and hold an audience on the edge of their seats.

BLOCKS

The blocks are "I don't know..."

• What I'm doing
• What I want
• Where I am
• Who I am
• How I should move
• How I should feel
• What I am saying
• What I am playing

The best actor is the least blocked actor and Declan says that once these blocks are eliminated, you will be able to achieve truth.

I like this concept as it takes a cencept that i self-theorised of about acting but condenses and simplifies it. It makes sense and proves as a kind of checklist to acting. By making sure that you know all of these things in a scene you are then able to find liberation in your role and play. In approaching a character like Fastow, there are a number of things that can prove as blocks and only through thorough research/interrogation of the text am i able to free the character up. How i should move and feel was probably the most difficult as although i can source videos for general movement, speech etc. discover my own objectives and actions by living in the moment.

MIKE ALFREDS

Michael Guy Alfreds was a British director, and playwright born in London, 5th of June 1934. He's directed over 160 productions over the span of his career.

He uses similar to technique to the likes of Stanislavsky and Chekhov in achieving an naturalistic performance, urging actors to invest in their characters both emotionally and physically. He draws from Chekhov's work in particular lot on the psycho/physical relationship and how energy in movement can inform character and scenes.

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Alfreds core beliefs

Actors should be allowed to live in scenes rather than blocking.

Finding detail is the key to portraying truth.

Actors should always be active and never passive. 

(Some of the same beliefs shared and discussed in Yoshi Oida work)

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When asked about the tasks he makes his actors carry out.

"They do an awful lot of work on the environment/space, relationships, style and context.

They embody this naturally through an elaborate rehearsal process, then whatever they choose to play will be right because it will be true to that particular moment. They have to give up getting, say, a laugh on a specific line. You must be absolutely in the moment playing whatever the moment demands"

In this quote alone I can see how my director has drawn inspiration from Mike Alfreds' work. Especially in the initial stages of the play we talked a lot about establishing relationships between characters, the style of the play and the world in which the play takes place. We drew from stimuli such as Canary Wharf and Wall Street for the trader scenes, taking these images and sculpting them into stylised movement sequences such as the trader scene.

Ben gave us a great deal of freedom in scenes, allowing us to make our own choices in terms of blocking and intentions. He believed in us and if he didn't feel it was working he'd offer us an alternative or ask us questions so that we could form our own solutions. Acting under this directing choice proved as probably one of the most liberating experiences I've had rehearsing a play with a director, i really felt that i could follow my impulses and be free to make decisions in scenes ultimately freeing moments, pushing other actors to react on impulse. An example of this could be when on opening night i took the line "I don't have the time for you to be whoever the fuck you are right now" and stopped halfway to check Raz's Enron id tag checking who he is, Raz then shook me off creating an entirely new, fresh (and well received) moment in the play. Without this approach to rehearsals and building the play i wouldn't have felt that freedom to act on my impulse and this moment never would have been allowed to happen. I'll definitely take this on board and apply it to devising/rehearsing in the future as it gets rid of the rigidity you so often see in theatre work, it's actors working off what their being told to do rather than research and knowledge of the character allowing them to have the imagination and impetus to do what is natural.

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PREVIOUSLY LEARNED EXERCISES

Here i looked at the work done in previous terms and applied them to my Enron work, seeing if anything could help better my characterisation and my performance in general.

Day In The Life (Naturalism)

(preferably read in an American accent at Fastow speed 'to practise/ implement my voice work for speeches and scenes')

I wake up before anyone else in the house at 5:30, careful not to wake up Lea I'll get into the shower for 20 minutes, using only natural products then brush my teeth for 2 and a half minutes. I use Crest in case you were wondering, it's unlikely you were but 'prepare for everything' y'know! By 6:15 I should be fully dressed and eating oatmeal, just Oatmeal. Anything other than Oatmeal upsets my stomach. 6:30 I'll leave the house and drive to work of course taking proper precautions of course this is the likeliest daily activity to get you killed so safety first. I get to work around 7:15, say hello to janitors, maybe a coworker or two if i catch em on a good day "I can't deal with this i haven't had my coffee!"arghhh hahah- unless of course something prior to this went wrong in which case I'd have had to start the routine again and be a little off schedule. It's usually okay though because markets don't open until 9:30 so my job isn't interesting or even remotely challenging until then because Jefferey has me working retail. I'm okay with retail. Jeff has a plan. No one sees it. But i see it. Loud and clear Jeff, Loud and clear. I get numbers from trading and calculate probability of losses for this trading day and maybe the near future depending on the cooperation or ethic of the traders. Those guys are so far up their own asses, they think they're important, they're just actors in poorly tailored suits. I wouldn't say that to them though, not a confrontational guy. I lose track of time in my work and i may or may not have lunch depending on how it's effecting my efficiency, i might grab a granola bar or something of that nature if I'm feeling adventurous. Trading closes at 5 and i finish up at 6 officially, but i usually stay till around 8 or 9 before i say goodbye to my desk. I'll get home at 8:30/9 and Lea's usually very understanding of my jobs demands though sometimes she seems somewhat agitated but it usually wears off towards the end of the month. Like usually right after pay day. We get ready for bed around 9:30 and sleep at 10 almost on the dot every night.

How it helped - I noted above that i used this to aid my voice work and this proved a good text to refer back to throughout rehearsals just to get into the habit of speaking like Fastow and improve on any notes i was given on y accent.

Writing this helped me to build a voice for Fastow and establish an inner monologue enabling me to more accurately gauge reactions to things that happen to me/things that i see/hear. In writing i picked up on his style of speaking, his humour, mannerism and naivety. It essentially added depth to my characterisation, pushing me to think like Andrew Stuart Fastow and go through what he goes through on a day to day basis however mundane it may be.

DJ FASTZ

Soundtrack to Fastow stumbling around and being rejected in the opening scene

Exchange references to Gary Clarke Jr's gal to the Mark-to-Market party

"i can't feel a thing"

A song for Skilling after Trimming the Fat

"i can tell you kinda look uncomfortable"

UNO - REX ORANGE COUNTY

A hint to Andys struggle with social anxiety

"these days i prefer to just not go outside"

USE YA MND (TWENTYFOURSEVEN) - MNDSGN

A song about considering everything and thinking things through

"you gotta use your mind"

Likes and Dislikes (Shakespeare)

Who i openly like: I love Jeffrey Skilling, we just see eye to eye. He has a plan and we're all just a step behind. I believe that if we could live our lives a little more like Mr. Skilling we'd all be happier and healthier people. I wouldn't mind actually being Jeff, even if it was only a day, just to feel the power and perfection running through my veins.
Who i secretly like: I love Jeffrey Skilling... again
Who i openly dislike: I hate traders simply because they are stupid, they are glorified market stall salesmen and most of them aren't even good at it. I pity them, it must be difficult living with such small brains rattling around the insides of a thick skull. They'll cope, or they wont, i don't care. Arthur Anderson he's a negative nancy, he doesn't have the vision that Jeff and i share but it's not his fault. He'll see, I'll make him see.
Who i secretly dislike: Claudia Roe, she didn't do anything to me but she isn't particularly smart and i think i could do her job better than her. She's 90% a pretty face and fair play it's got her this far but i think Skillings beginning to see through it all.

FINAL PUSH

In the final rehearsal and during runs towards the end of rehearsals the director would whisper our motivations or character thought tracks into our ear whilst we performed, I found mixed success with it. Sometimes it really helped me to push my intentions and scene objectives maybe even provoking new actions, however sometimes it completely takes me out of the scene and i have a lapse of concentration through the division of my attention. I'm thinking about what I'm being told and how it informs my performance but I'm also trying to listen to my scene partner and live in that moment, I'm a simple guy and sometimes that's a little too much. In a way it aided Fastow's character in that having so much on your mind and being under so much stress, it might make you act funny and become distracted whilst engaging in simple conversation. As simple as conversation can be for Fastow anyway.

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The final few rehearsals were all about refining the play, re-visiting moments we hadn't seen in a while and getting used to the running order of the show. We wanted to be as comfortable as possible going into opening night, feeling confident to sail through the other end... and we did.

AA - AMERICAN ACCENT WORK

Prelude - It is first important to note that there are a LOT of American Accents... so,  i narrowed it down to...

The General American Accent

I take acting workshop classes outside of Brit and this term we were fortunate enough to be studying the general American accent. I'm somewhat knowledgeable on my americanismssss... but this really helped smoothen out some mistakes and inconsistencies i had going into the role of Fastow
. It only took some self observation, trained guidance and a childhood consisting of me watching too much American TV/pretending to be the characters in the mirror.

We worked first at the sounds of a general American accent, reading phrases that stress certain sounds to highlight them and see what needs improving. We started off in groups observing the sounds before putting them into the context of performance where we staged an improv of an office scene where we were all on our phones saying these phrases. Looking back i realise how uncomfortable i was with performing in an accent and a big block to this i think was confidence. Confidence to me isn't a thing you can learn once and fully take on board, i always give my all to the task at hand but it takes practise and a bit of time maybe to find true confidence in something.

In breaking down the sounds we looked at consonants and vowels separately. With consonants i assumed that there was little difference but in fact these are the staples of the accent. We learnt about light and dark L's (for example the Ls at the beginning and the end of "LittLe" sound different.) The first L is light and second is a dark L because in the second the sound resonation is in the back of the throat rather than the front as it is for light.

The vocal coach that visited Brit covered similar work to what i did on the American accent requiring openness in the mouth (hence, "flat back and wide") You notice that specifically your lips and tongue work a lot harder performing in an American accent for this reason, the mouth is trying to receive openness.

This is the sheet we worked off of for the first lesson

From a starting point i think i performed all of these phrases really well, i was told i needed to lengthen my vowels slightly but apart from that it was really strong giving me the confidence to push further and develop my ability to take on an accent.

When learning a new accent it's important to identify the differences between the said accent and your own so that you can then work towards changing that. This lead is to look closer at the identification of accents and understanding the sounds that make up a dialect, in an almost Chekhovian manner.

The English that i speak is non-rhotic meaning that i don't pronounce the r in words like baRk, car, fiRm etc. whereas in an American accent the R would be more prominent.

We then looked at sounds and words that together make a completely different sound. You can see how the rhotic or non rhotic nature of accents inform sounds. 

Our next focus was character within accent and how you can almost layer your regular voice work over an accent. We each found a duologue (i used an unholy partnership of course) and were asked to establish contrasting voices for each character (experimenting with resonators, pitch, pace and tone), we were then asked to record ourselves reading in for both of the characters switching between the two whilst maintaining the characters' identities. After doing this for a while and being given guidance by the tutor we looked at how Laban Efforts can inform character in voice almost using pitch, pace, tone and resonation as axis' for movement quality substitutes.

I decided to exaggerate the two characters making a distinct difference between the two, i made most of my notes in my old text but i remember the gist of it. 

Fastow was Flick - high pitched, quick, distracted, airy with frequent voice breaks and resonating in his head.

Skilling was the polar opposite: Press - Bassy, slow sustained and assured speech, gravely, stern and resonating in his chest.

This character work really tied together the newly learnt work on accents and allowed me to give Fastow a voice, i didn't necessarily go to the extremes i did in the workshops but i definitely had it in mind during scenes/speeches. I gave Fastow a much flick-y voice especially in the moment where he stumbles onto the trading floor to contrast the gruff nature of that world. Through these lessons i feel like voice became part of my character rather than being separate entities as i had treated them previously.

After this term i feel as though i could walk down a street and pass as "generally American" which i actually tried a number of times ordering food, going to shops etc. and i was never called out on that meaning there's a good chance that people were either being really nice or that they fell for it. Either way, if it's not a win for me it's a win for humanity an I'm okay with that.

It's when you look at an accent in detail you begin realise the intricacy there is to different dialects and the expanse of things there are to learn. I walked into this first class thinking that i could hold an American accent and walked out not quite sure what an American accent even is. There is almost always something new to and with the cocktail of culture that is today's society it's only going to get even more complex. I really found joy in the accent work and being able to experiment, finding my own voice in a sound from a place I've never even visited through a character I've never met anything like. I really found joy in this task of developing accent and i now feel way better equipped to take on new challenges. Maybe even a somewhat believable Saudi Leonato?

After our final class i performed my monologue to the dialect coach and she gave me following notes

more emphasis on light L's

say - more "eeh" on a sounds

what - more "uh" (wut) 

find - more emphasis on  "d" sounds 

 i took this and went back to my text, recording my voice and looking out for what she had to say

NOTES / EVAL OF IMPROVEMENT/ADJUSTMENTS

Notes

Remember the cue to freeze in the opening "political party"
This scene proved difficult for the ensemble as they had to remember their cues, their actions, their objective and remember to push me away when i ran at them. It took up until the first show night to get it right (luckily) even in the dress it was a bit messy. I think the element of nerves and "Oh shit we're performing to an paying audience right now" gave the sharpness and alertness we needed to make this scene happen.

Don't go too close to people for the lighting. 
One of Fastows traits from the beggining was being right close up in peoples faces, ignoring any concept of personal boundaries (yeah, sure "character choice") however i ended up blocking peoples lighting meaning that the audience couldn't see their faces. I was asked to take a step back or two and did so reluctantly.

Let the Employees over to the other side of the audience
This is kind of linked to the previous note that in that going up to people and pursuing them, i wasn't allowing openness in terms of the staging of the scene. Having an audience on three sides and a rectangular stage space meant that we had to stretch the action and make it viewable on 180 degrees.

Quicker on cues, in the first scene, quicker thought process, quicker with the phone dialogue, just be quicker in general.
This is part of the world of Enron, everything is quick and the audience should be working to catch up with the action. If the dialogue doesn't leave them behind then our blistering pace on lines and cues sure should. Obviously there are moments where this isn't the case and everything is slowed down but a majority of the scenes should feel like the play's on cocaine. Also our play was too long so Ben wanted to cut it down, often achieving this by clapping, clicking or making a new strange noise/gesture at us. This is sure to shake up any scene and test the strength of your focus.

Rehearse/refine the trader scene
This was probably one of my biggest worries going into the performances, as mentioned above this was one of the scenes where speed drives everything. The trader scene is a cocktail of spontaneity, shouting, running, backflips maybe and a lil bullying but this is exactly what made it such a challenge to stage. The physicality, energy and staging of the scene was great but the nature of the dialogue often let us down. Lines seemed to repeat each other and come in different places each time prompting ben to set a rule where of being savage and not waiting for people to say their line, this is probably where that was most implemented but we got into habits of someone missing their cue and when they suddenly said the line it'd throw us all off. I'd be lying if i said there weren't a few inconsistencies on show night but the impact and energy of the scene almost never failed to carry us through.

More to find in the running (unfit, stupid looking, uncomfortable)
I found this scene really difficult to play and it even harder to just run whilst in character. It seems like a pretty simple thing to do i mean it's just walking around as a character but fast right? Well no. I don't know why exactly, but it isn't. I found myself slipping into kai-isms and straightening my posture but i'd become conscious of it, then fight against it and overcompensate. I got around this by setting an obstacle for myself. Every time i began to slip out of my physicality i'd trip myself over which also demonstrating a lack of coordination and strength, something Fastow also shows later on when opening the beer bottles. I also looked at how i could play with breathe and show how unfit Fastow by holding my breathe when not speaking and replicating my breathing when i have asthma attacks. I had to be careful with this for obvious reasons but i feel like it added a nice layer to scene. It was probably the most effective not personally and i'm happy with my response to it. Even if it wasn't incredibly noticeable to the audience, i was able to take on a note, not know how to solve it and find a solution.

Assigning roles to people carrying blocks
Well this didn't work but we tried anyway. We didn't really rehearse the carrying in of blocks for rehearsal so when we got into the space and realised how heavy they were it was a little bit of a problem moment. The blocks probably proved as the biggest technical struggle for me as i needed to learn where to get them, where to set them, when to set them and who to set them with with not long to go before opening and not a lot of time to rehearse. It went wrong a few times but we managed to solve it somehow on each show

Enjoy the Jurassic park line
Push the nerdy-ness and excitement. Enron is play of amplification, bright lights and loud sounds, the characters should reflect that.

Turn to face sam in titanic moment
Because Ben likes to make weird things even weirder and it pushes the comedy of the scene. Moments like this give comic relief to large sections of intense drama and sophisticated language, sometimes this contrast is exactly what's needed.

Raptor Notes

• Slower - more sustained Raptors
• Clear up on raptor cues
• Stalking observing, wait energised
• Spread out as raptors

The raptors were probably the most unrestricted roles in the play. We were bound by form of physicality, allowing the main events to take place and adjusting set at certain intervals but apart from that we were pretty much free to roam and that's one of the things i enjoyed most about it, we found new things in each show and formed relationships between one another. I established with will that i was the least favourite, it excuses why he was able to shoot me without the same attachment he had with the others, it also makes sense for him to keep a distance from me given the context of him having taken over from me. I noticed that as the raptors we keep our form for as long as possible but eventually surrender some of that to comfortability. You almost get into this rut of half performing but half in your own head and begin to get lost in the mindless action of stumbling around, the nerves of the show helped solve this but i also tried to keep track of the action by learning second half lines and testing myself during each run just to keep that alert and awareness of what's going on.

Remember props, set transitions and blocking of scenes
We blocked the first half first so it was important to remember scenes and what was going, this wasn't so difficult for scenes where it was just Sam and i but for the ensemble as you can probably imagine, it's quite difficult. Set transitions and props are some of the hardest things things to remember but they staple the show together, we're quick and efficient in solving issues but it'd be great if there weren't any issues to solve.

INFERRING FROM THE TEXT

Text based research - Stuff that made me go "hm?" when i read it and what i found researching these references

Mark-to-Market

"The accounting system for all the big investment banks on Wall Street"

"Lets us see future profit, hugely liberating"

Sets asset values to reflect their market sale prices

question is, do the markets always know best?

This accounting system has caused/helped in a number of financial crashes but also aided the economy in a number of situations it isn't a good or bad thing.

Electricity retail market 

simply the market where electricity is bought and sold

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"Clem up at Enron"

"Fuck Clem, i'm gonna finish-"

Who is Clem?

Clem Abrams

Former Assistant General Council at Enron (9 years and 11 months)

"An attorney who has a relationship with a law firm or organisation but not at partner or associate level"

He now owns a Law Firm and Works as a professor of Law at Regents university.

LinkedIn - "Reputable for managing complex and politically sensitive legal projects, aligning resources, and developing tactical business models while providing the continued delivery of top quality services." 

~

CFO - Chief Financial Officer

A corporate officer primarily responsible for managing the financial risks of the corporation. They're also responsible for financial planning and record keeping as well as financial reporting to higher management. They analyse and review financial data, report financial performance, prepare budgets and monitor expenditures/costs.

CFO often has staffing to address accounting and treasury functions, they make between 1044 to 154k a year.

The CFO reports directly to the CEO

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Skilling's reading list

Don't read

Dale Carnegie -"How to Win Friends and Influence People" (1936)

One of the Best Selling self-help books ever published

"The Seven Secrets of Highly Effective People" 

Jeff getting the second part of "How to Win Friends and Influence People" wrong

Do read

"Richard Dawkins - The Selfish Gene" - Looks at Genes and Natural Selection (competition), implying that Business works in the same way, it's a harsh reality.

"Skilling: By rights you should be out, i got this company running on Darwinian Principles"

You aren't one of the fittest therefore you aren't going to survive. 

"Fastow: Self interest and competition"

Self-interest is the motivator of economic activity. Competition is the regulator of economic activity. Together they form what Adam Smith called the invisible hand, which guides resources to their most valued use.

"Skilling: Money and sex motivate people"

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Deregulated Electricity

Deregulated electricity gives you the power to switch your natural gas supplier and ultimately affects how much you will pay for your energy. Whereas before consumers could only get energy from their local utility, post-deregulation customers benefit from a free open marketplace offering choice, more competitive rates and of course an opportunity for Enron.

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Hedging

Protect yourself from loss by supporting/investing in more than one possible outcome

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Special Purpose Entity aka. Raptors - LJM

A group of entities designed to buffer Enrons earning from mark-to-market reports. Any Mark-to-Mark-to-Market losses were shifted from Enron to these special purpose entities. The problem was that the SPE's didn't provide a sufficient hedge against the losses.

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Arthur Anderson LLP

Formerly one of the Big Five accounting firms providing auditing, tax, and consulting to large corporations.

They surrendered licenses to practise as Certified Public Accountants after the Enron scandal.

AA didn't do it's job by not stating concern over the LJM transactions to Enrons board.

15th of June 2002, Anderson was convicted of obstruction of justice for shredding documents related to its audit of Enron, resulting in the Enron scandal. Although the conviction was reversed by the Supreme Court the impact of the scandal and public knowledge of their complicity destroyed the firm.

~

Jenna Jameson

An American entrepreneur, webcam model and former pornographic film actress and i think the "research" can end there.