In this scene the arrogance Fastow had in the previous scene is gone.
It's like he's been called to the head teachers office
Nerves, desperation, fear
Fastow is like a baby lion, feeble, weak and scared as all babies are but Fastow has something vicious within, an aggressive potential.
Fastow is humbled - takes his shoes and blazer off (ritualistic) playing with the idea of Enron being a cult
He picks himself up off the floor and prepares himself to grovel for his job to Skilling
Both scenes reflect the ruthlessness of the world of Enron. Below Fastow is begging for his job and reduced to tears in doing so and the other Kens birthday is forgotten about. There is a lack of humanity to it all where status dictates, similar to a food chain.
Fastow is at the complete mercy of Jeff in this scene and more or less throughout ironically forgetting the meaning behind a line he throws away in the first scene "he's just a guy, i'm just a guy" ("guy" changed to "person" in our version to accommodate the directors choice to cast Ken as a female)
This scene of skilling over working andy and him simply not being able to keep up no matter how much he exerts himself not only shows the extent to which workers will go to to climb that social ladder or food chain (sticking to the theme of darwinism) this is very much survival of the fittest. Fastow goes as far as to say "i'm gonna have a heart attack" weather thats an exaggeration (an americanism if you will) or not, i'm not sure, but he keeps on running anyway.
Here they begin to talk about deregulating electricity, essentially getting rid of the rules and replacing it with this unstable animalistic competition ("natural selection")
Once Fastow is told he can keep his job there is weight lifted off of his shoulders yet he's still very much confused/shaken by this encounter. He went in expecting to lose his job and left with a promotion of sorts.
The scene ends with a promise from Fastow to Skilling when he says "I wont let you down" and i play this line with that sporadic aggression we sometimes in Fastow. It isn't throw away line but something that sticks with Skilling and although the willingness of his employee may feed his ego i think it scares the little humanity he has within him.
Roe then echos this same line but here it's in reference to asking Ken a favour. The relationship between Ken and Roe here is like mother and daughter but the relationship between Jeff and Fastow is closer to Dog and owner.
Enron is set between 1989 (when Enron began trading natural gas) and mid 2006 (Ken Lays death) meaning that the majority of the story takes place in a time i wasn't alive to see. Although it's only a few years back on a timeline (and the youths of today still wear baggy clothes and dungarees) it was a completely different time with an entirely different social, political, historical climate.
FASHION
As briefly mentioned before, the 90's was the trademark era of bright colours, baggy clothes, and generally vibrant clothing however unfortunately this world doesn't stretch far beyond the fashion fads of middle age/elderly, middle class Texan business men.
As wonderfully modelled here by none other than Andy himself the 90's was an era of "ugly ties" and tight neck tie knots which seems to have bled into the decade from the 80's "Drape suit". The 90's suits and some of the suits seen in Enron are a mixture of this nostalgic style and a more modern suit fashion that you might see if you got the underground to canary wharf today. I find myself coming back to the fashion of ties as they i noticed that they are where businessmen probably express themselves the most in terms of suit fashion. A confident man might be likely to wear a bright red tie, a conforming or self conscious man might be more likely to wear a dull coloured tie but Fastow is something entirely different fitting into both and none of these two categories. I feel that he'd a wear a tie similar like this.
It somehow manages to be dull in it's grey tones yet stand out at the same time with the patterns. It screams, "my mum thinks it looks cool and she says i'm handsome", which i think is where i want to take this character.
Fastow is referenced as a "double breasted douchebag" by trader another trader in scene 5. This is another feature of the 80's/90's return of the 30's drape suit featuring wide lapels, wide ties and of course the double breasted buttons. I think although this was vaguely popular in the 90's this is where it began to grow "out of style" of course to the complete ignorance of Fastow who would probably either think it's still fashionable or take next to no notice at all.
POP CULTURE
~ Internet and the rise of the home computer ~
~ Crystal Pepsi ~
~ Budweiser Rehearsal ~
~ Friends ~
~ Microsoft ~
~ Terminator 2 ~
~ Millennium Hysteria ~
~ Nelson Mandela's Election ~
"little conflict"(ha, America)
Politics
(1993) - Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison became the first ever woman to serve as U.S. Senator from Texas and
(1991) Dissolution of the soviet union - fall of communism/rise of capitalism?
(1993-2001) Bill Clinton is president of the United States
Monica Lewinsky - Sex scandal - Parallels with Claudia?
(2000) - George W. Bush elected president
~
"Fastest growing economy there has ever been"
~
It is important that as well as capturing the world of the play and understanding the world of the play that we understand the time in which it was set and what was going on. My research here isn't as thorough as i would have liked but my pre-existing knowledge in addition to this gives me a rough idea of the landscape helping solidify my visualisation of Enron.
The Ignorant Crowd (Ensemble) - Here Fastow's invisible to the ensemble, he doesn't pose a threat to anyone, he isn't attractive or particularly important therefore the crowd leaves him alone. Fastow however idolises this crowd, he falls for it's veneer of fake charm and longs to be a part of this seemingly exciting movement. He has this high intellectual status but wants to fit in with the ignorant. His sense is over-ridden by the basic human need for belonging and/or Fastows super objective of eventually being accepted, respected and revered. He's quite clearly irritated by their stupidity and looks down on them intellectually but he needs them.
Employees (Frank and Alfie) - The relationship displayed here only cements my thoughts expressed on the ignorant crowd. They're split between wanting to ruin him and not wanting to talk to him at all, it's a lot like a school environment where no one wants to be seen with the nerd and sacrifice their street cred. Their attempts to mock Fastow are only misinterpreted, received as conversational offerings and met with enthusiasm in response.
"Fastow: Maybe he's not a big fan of parties
Employee 1: Maybe you'd get on(!)"
Claudia Roe (Olivia) - Roe always keeps a distance from Fastow like a pungent turd in the middle of the pavement. She acknowledges his existence because she sees right through him even in this initial scene, she sees the underlying spite and potential for destruction. She keeps an eye on him from afar. Fastow knows everything about Lay, he's done his homework. He's jealous of her position next to Skilling and Lay and knows that he's more intelligent than she is. Fastow almost wants to take her position and takes the opening scene as an opportunity to establish his intellectual dominance only to be cut off by Jeff ("Claudia: But we are a gas and oil company" - "Fastow: No, no, you see -") . Social status overrules intellectual status here, she's in her element, it's the fucking Claudia Roe show.
"Fastow: it's like (Claudia is Lays) carer"
"Oh and you know the guy in finance with the suit and the hair... He's had a baby, Little boy. Called him Jeffrey" (judgemental rather than endearing)
Kendra Lay (Tatenda) - Lay knows generally who Fastow is but probably just saw his name and photograph on a file somewhere. She makes him special as she does to each and everyone of her employees to keep up the workplace morale. Each time we did the scene i got a kind of "i'm a mother who has no favourites" kind of energy in her smile. It's a smile that is warm but not special, she can put it on when needs be, she's essentially a politician in this scenario, keeping the people happy. For Fastow however this event is probably life changing. This is the equivalent of a child meeting their hero, he falls for her charm as i feel almost everyone else does.
"Lay: Andy, Andy Fastow. I make a point of knowing people son"
(no need to watch past the first 30 seconds)
Jefferey Skilling (THE Samuel William Johnson) - This scene marks the beginning of their relationship officially but i definitely feel like it started a while ago for Fastow. He was hired by Jeff but unlike Lay he doesn't know his name and overlooks him, Fastow is a nuisance to Skilling here like an obsessive fan at an oscars party. He's just one of the crowd to Skilling and he's yet to learn how Fastow can make Skilling's vision for Enron work. Fastow not only lets Skilling walk all over him here but he might as well say thank you. He's starstruck, he would amen anything that Jeff says like it's gospel. When Skilling says "this guy gets it" at the end of his speech in a passing comment he probably made Andys day/month/year, it's a moment he's not likely to forget.
Fastow and The Orgy of Speculation
Traders and other colleagues (Ensemble) - By now people have begun to notice him and subsequently how weird he is. They don't just find him strange but they see that he's strange and doing okay so by logic they hate him for it. Fastow doesn't intend to offend anyone but his superior intellect shows and he doesn't make much of an effort to hide it. The hatred for Fastow is fuelled by jealousy, Fastow being a bit of a dick and a lot of a kiss ass. Fastow doesn't like or necessary want to be a part of the traders floor but he simply needs them for his work, he sees them as inferior in the grand scheme of the company and useless in achieving his super objective but he just needs some help getting numbers.
Jeffrey Skilling - This scene is where Jeffrey begins to see Fastows potential and tests him to see if it's true. Fastow goes into the office like a dog who's bitten his owners show. He's let his hero down.
Jeff's reaction to his mistake doesn't make sense, he should be angry yet he's all calm and philosophical. This is the first test Andys taken and isn't prepared for, he's totally out of his comfort. Andy still respects Skilling but here he fears him and it's almost like a confessional situation. Jeff still feels no obligations toward Fastow and doesn't necessarily respect him as of yet but he sees how he could be valuable.
"I like guys with spikes and i didn't know you had any till i heard you taking on a bunch of traders. Now that takes a special kind of stupid. But also balls."
Fastow and the Unholy Partnership
The Raptors - The Raptors are Andys creations like a kid with a new dog excepts theres an extra layer of connection where the raptors reflect Andy himself. I noticed when Will, Raz and Charlie walked up to me in the final scene that we both had hunched shoulders and our arms/hands in this claw meerkat position. Arthur Anderson - Arthur Anderson brings out the second half Fastow in first half Fastow when he threatens to oppose LJM, this is a reflection of the harsh media depiction saying how Andy threatened anyone opposing his idea. Arthur threatens to kill Andys newborn baby and the malicious instinct kicks in. Arthur doesn't really know Andy or have an opinion on him but now he's the CFO Arthur knows that he'd rather keep his job and thus approves LJM.
"Fastow: Maybe we need a more sympathetic accountant"
Lay - Lay doesn't directly speak to Fastow but this moment is important to me because she gave him this false affection earlier and seems to not really know him any better at this point. It's simply a "huh, fastow CFO, yeah cool whatever Jeff" transaction but it doesn't matter to Fastow at all. He got what he wanted, he's arrived and now he's just concerned with keeping it. Jeffrey Skilling - This is the big scene where everything changes, the events of the play all stem back to this exchange. Jeff's a little creeped out by Andys advances at first but as the scene progresses he mellows out and the obsession moves off of Skilling and into work allowing conversation and common ground (budum tss). Jeff knows Andy's methods are a little unorthodox but he trusts him little by little getting over the superior and inferior establishing a more level and equal relationship. There's definitely sexual tension at points (Titanic moment), more on Fastow's part probably but Skilling's hyper-masculinity shuts it down almost instantly. I feel as though Fastow starts this scene off all nervily with a million thoughts flying through his head. He tries too hard to impress Jeff as always but as soon as he stops actively thinking about it, Jeff suddenly falls in love with him, (or more accurately his ideas) Andy's left not quite knowing what he did but he's certainly okay with it.
"Skilling: You with me?
Fastow: Always."
Fastow on the Phone
Voices on the other end (Rex the fuck, Lou the bbz, unknown person that loves fastow) - This is an eclectic moment of mixed emotions ups and downs in the space of a minute, maybe less. He starts off talking to Rex "the Fuck", here we see Fastows attempt at workplace banter and now that he's important, no one can step up to him if he takes it too far. Lou "the bbz" i think is an attempt at replicating some good old common, casual, workplace sexual harassment. He has a wife and kids at home, i don't think he's genuinely interested in Lou but Fastow works by scanning his surroundings and replicating what he sees. The last conversation is a hint at the validation he's been looking for but like your classic tragic hero, he wants more and this will lead to his imminent downfall.
Fastow's gone over and analysed the interactions he had with the other characters in scene one, he strolls into this scene feeling on top of the world filled fuelled with confidence and maybe a little arrogance.
Jeff has been chosen as president over Roe
Traders talk about Fastow - What others think about Fastow
The animalistic, brutish world of trading holds no place for people like Fastow, like everywhere he doesn't quite fit in.
The scene is quick, snappy, testosterone fuelled, violent and ruthless.
Previous Circumstance - Just before Fastow enters he is given an instruction by Skilling or one od Skillings' assistanta.
"Fastow gets to go"- (Skillings death weekend)
"lapdog motherfucker"
"double-breasted douchebag"
a clear sense that they think Fastow isn't capable of the responsibility
His relationship with Jeff Skilling has probably developed professionally but Fastow takes it as personally
It's ironic that when he develops a bit of a bite and becomes a little more malicious like the others, it only isolates him further. Before he was just an invisible entity (ha) now he's a potential threat to the peking order.
Fastows inability to balance jokes and seriousness
Where does he go when he leaves - off to escape the crowd and figure out how he's going to avoid skilling or how he can make it up to him.
He leaves this scene establishing a new found self belief (i will be CFO)
This is the first scene that we worked on and plotted. We started by developing handshakes and teaching them to each other based (i think) off of a music video. We all came up with handshakes in pairs and performed them back to the class, this acted as a bonding exercise as well as setting a tone for the pedestrian qualities of movement for the show. From the beginning the goal for Enron was to create surreal realism having backflips, lifts and high kicks in office scenes.
The creation lead through an exercise called hymn hands where communication is made between people only through the connection of hands, it informs the entire body and requires immense concentration which is probably why the ensemble tended to miss cue and forget to push me away in this introductory scenes. Our directly strongly believed in creating atmosphere for each of the scenes
and for this he wanted to create an atmosphere of falseness where people will share fake smiles but turn around and step over eachother.
Uta Hagens 9 Questions
Who Am I - I'm Andrew Stuart Fastow, 31 years old living with my wife. I taught Hebrew but my relationship with the Jewish faith isn't particularly strong. Skilling had him working in retail after the introduction of mark to market.
What Time Is It - It's the evening as people have been drinking and leave to go home in a drunkard state as the scene ends. It's 1992, there's no reference to time of year
Where Am I - I'm in a Mark to Market party in the Enron building, Houston, Texas, USA
What Surrounds Me - It's a party, most likely one of the top floor spaces in the Enron building,. It's likely that it's after work hours as everyone but Claudia is dressed in their office attire.
What Are The Given Circumstances - I joined Enron in 1990 so i've been there for two years and i'm still not quite integrated into the workplace fold, it's a while before i get promoted and i'm still very much making a name for myself.
What Is My Relationship - I'm surrounded by drunk people and my workplace idols/superiors. I'm slightly higher in the company than some of my colleagues seeing as there's jealousy amongst coworkers over my invitation to Skillings "Death Weekend". They don't accept me and this doesn't discourage me but rather just pushes me to try harder to fit in. Jeff is my superior, i idolise him as he hired me and then introduced mark to market which i am VERY VERY excited about. If Skilling is my messiah then Kendra Lay is a god, she's untouchable, omnibenevolent and omnipotent. Claudia is also my superior but she opposes Jeff and his vision, therefore i oppose her in my own pathetic ineffective way. There are two employees that talk to me only with the intention to mock me but i take the interaction as a show of friendship.
What Do I Want? - I want to be accepted
What's In My Way? - My evident lack of social skills
What do i do to get what i want - I try to get close to people physically and impress them with my knowledge on Mark to Market because it's a Mark to Market party so i'm in now, right?
I find the process of answering these 9 questions somewhat redundant as i've already done the research and filled in the gaps but it's useful to have it all written down as a reminder. It makes sure that you know the surface info of your character and pushes you to fill in the gaps for what you don't know as facts. It assures that your work is detailed, like a stencil, it assures that all the segments are filled in.
Seeing as this the beginning of the creative process it was also essentially the scene that formed the fundamental elements of fastow and established the beginning of his character arc.
As an approach to playing scenes i like to write down a list of words and ideas to just bear in mind and see how it informs the scene when i play it.
thirsty - Ben suggested this as a motivation to push for the drinks so i decided to turn thirst up to intense dehydration, clawing at my throat and almost struggling to breathe)
unwanted/outsider - This was only brief in-between moments of finding a new target but i tried to find a short second of acception of failure before moving off again
~Fastow hates people but realises needs them~
I used my copy of the script to note units, and make rehearsal notes to help me remember cues actions and objectives.
Fastow finds a hint of this greater acceptance in this simple interaction with Skilling.
The Raptors were brought to life via workshopping movements qualities with the whole cast, Ben fed us a few words as stimuli such as slow and almost half dead but it was pretty open to us and our interpretation of how a "raptor" moves. Once we had experimented and found our own individual raptors, we split the group in half and picked out elements that we liked to set a common form.
We took...
One hand behind the back and one hand in front.
Tension throughout the body from fingertips to toes.
Low to the ground, squatting and/or hunched.
... and although this was set as the form, we were still urged to use parts of our own movement quality and make our raptors individual yet connected through these rules.
After leaving this for a while and continuing with the blocking of the first half we came in to look at the raptors in greater detail adding some context rather than just having them roam the space. We got into the space and reminded ourselves of the raptor form, then we played an exercise where we had some actors playing prey whilst we worked as a pack and hunt them down one by one. Ben wanted complete control andefficiency in movement, minimal energy exerted. This session was about establishing the predatory side to theses so far lifeless seeming creatures. The herding wasn't fully working so we were asked to conduct animal studies on predatory reptiles.
I chose the AlligatorSnapping Turtle
Where is its weight: Practically all of the weight is in the torso How does it hold it's mouth: It's mostly closed as it's usually submerged in water but it opens its mouth with control like a heavy pulley operated door, holds its mouth open ready to strike and then slams shut with force. How does it move: They barely move and if they do it's always incredibly slow but there's a constant potential of energy release in a strike
Where does it dwell/live: They move incredibly slow usually concealed in water
What sounds does it make: It makes these sharp hissing kinds of sounds, all the sound is coming from the
They have spikey rigid shells
Are incredibly heavy
Every move is specific an premeditated
Incredibly long life span
I looked at moving around as the Alligator snapping turtle and found that the body is held almost solely by its core and as opposed to the Raptor its rigid and direct giving off more of a Press quality. I looked at going between Raptor and alligator snapping turtle seeing what qualities changed, what stayed the same and what would happen if i let certain qualities transfer over to the raptor. E.g. where as my raptor prior to this was quite light, through this animal study i believe i was able to capture that feeling of weight. I also looked at how they both move between being still and being in motion, i saw how the snapping turtle prepares itself with grace and agility to then "snap" and i used this for the raptor too giving myself an intake of breath before running or moving quickly.
The Laban effort i used for my Raptor was wringing, this is the combination of indirect, sustained and strong/heavy qualities of movement.
Taking on the raptor physicality was always test of physical endurance, the squatting/hunching element probably making the biggest impact, i found that it often strained my back and i'd find ways of stretching whilst in character to relieve tension. I also used my time as a raptor to explore my body and the ways in which i can move different joints. I'd often go through my body moving each limb just to grow an awareness of my physicality and how far i can push myself. Seeing how far i can push this quality of wringing and twisting.
The Raptors breath was interesting to note in that it was always controlled, even in moments of quick intense movement, it was efficient and (once again) sustained.
Micheal Chekhov was a Russian-American actor, director, author and theatre practitioner who's acting theories have been practiced and praised by numerous accomplished performers across the globe. He was strong on the idea of actors being artists and respecting the work as such rather than employing mechanical, cold, analytical thinking.
Similarities & Differences
Andy Fastow and Kai Kwasi Thorne
Male-Male
Employed - Unemployed
Father - Childless(?)
American - British
30s - Teenager
White - Mixed Race
Academically Driven - Artistically Driven
Wears suits - Wears jeans and T-shirts
This process allows the actor to establish differences between the character and themselves, Chekhov urges actors to embrace and acknowledge these differences because then actor can identify their route to the character.
I don't know how much this helped personally but i imagine theres more work to be done in a further step of the exercise however i couldn't find this online and we didn't get to explore so unfortunately it stopped there.
Psychological Gesture
Chekhov believed that psychological gesture is the key to an actors subconscious and that it awakens an inner life. He therefore believed that the same concept could be applied to character in that every character has a psychological gesture which exposes their inner life (secrets, motivations personality traits etc.) He talks about success being found through creating visceral imagery/gesture rather than stereotypical and the same can be applied with acting and Uta Hagens belief of finding inner truth rather than making something resembling truthfulness.
In our Enron rehearsals we created three gestures, ultimately refining them down to a single gesture as a means of finding/exploring our characters through physicality.
Gesture 1
What my character wants: My interpretation of Andy Fastow (for my half of the play at least) is driven by the want or need to be needed or wanted himself. He craves simple affection and normality, ironically evoking the opposite through his unsettling mannerisms and idiosyncrasies.
I created a gesture of by reaching out, extending my arms and legs then and drawing back in only to find emptiness, nothing changes and the gesture repeats.
Gesture 2
What my character does: My character problem solves, weather its in terms of the company or an uncomfortable silence, he will always be working to fill in the gaps and/or provide the stepping stones even if it means he himself is being trodden on.
for this i created a gesture almost linked to the previous gesture but instead of reaching out and drawing in, i did the opposite. I violently ripped ideas, thoughts facts etc from my head going from clenched fists and a restricted pose, to an outreaching vulnerable stance
Gesture 3
Andy Fastow deals with the world by pushing and forcing his way into it, like a jigsaw puzzle piece that doesn't quite fit. Weather its successful or not, there is a strong sense of desperation and pushing to his being. Ironically, this same tactic he uses to fit in pushes people away from him.
Im thought of the word pushing and worked it into my body, pushing things off of me and away from me. Without realising at the time i almost employed the laban effort of push and i'll definitely bare this in mind for my character over the duration of the play, to inform my movement throughout. This gesture was almost a combination of the previous two with added element of resistance.
Ending
After finding these three gestures we combined them to create a single consolidating gesture and roamed the space, experimenting, adjusting and finding new things within the gesture. Mine changed by the use of my entire body whereas i started off only using my hands. We then worked at combining the gesture with a line of text, bringing the element of vocals into the exercise and finally fed back our final ideas to the class. It was interesting to see other peoples ideas, some more natural and others more extravagant.
Final Thoughts
I found this exercise useful in that it allowed me to explore the physicality of my character on a larger scale, through exaggeration and abstract concept rather than minuscule detailed physicality. It is easier to paint in detail on a huge board than a microscopic canvas. I was able to develop creative physicality to inform my movement rather than just working off of my interpretation of the text and imagining what he'd look like. I continued to explore this exercise at home (especially when going over scenes and lines) as i feel that it genuinely helped consolidate Fastows physicality, even up until the shows i was thinking about the stretching and i actually implored some of it into my Raptor work which was like a mini personal easter egg in the show.
