Be A Man

I play Henry in Henry V so the physicality of my character is male, therefore I must change my natural feminine posture to that of a man. In our workshop The first thing we began to look at was the way that men hold themselves in a typical walk. From a general knowledge of how men are I picked up on the fact that men have broader shoulders and smaller waists, this impacts the walk making it stronger in the shoulder and torso, resulting in a more emphasised top half. Exploring the way men are physically was a new and insightful experience for me because I was made to use my body and hold my body in a complete different way to how I normally do. Applying a male physicality to a character that I am playing is a rare occasion as I normally play women, so i don't read that much into their physicality because I know how women stand and how women are in their overall presence, so this activity and role is challenging in the respect that i cant carry any aspects of myself into this character physically. I was made to look at the little things that make men different to women,men have different aspects of their anatomy such as a penis, broader shoulders, taller, bigger feet, shorter hair, no breasts ( maybe pecks), facial hair and body hair. Knowing the general differences allowed me to physicalise this so I began to walk around the space imagining having bigger feet and questioning how that would make me feel, or change my stride, it turned out that this made my walk heavier and more weighted. I would be making sure there was space in between my legs as I would have a penis there, how would that change the way I walked? I walked around the space imagining i had bigger and broader shoulders this changed my physicality as I was more hunched over and took up more space. Embodying all the small ideas helped me to successfully portray and internally believe in my male character.

Recognising the differences between male and female physicality was evident when I was walking around the space. For instance when I walk, I walk lightly, my posture is straight and confident, I evenly distribute my weight between both of my feet and sway my hips slightly.  When walking round the space as a man I realised that I was a lot more heavy when I walked, my posture was a little more slouched, my back became more curved and my head was more relaxed and rested on my neck. The space also feels completely different when you're being either sex, when you're female the space is a lot bigger and you feel smaller, you glide around the space. When you are physicalising a male the space becomes a lot smaller and so you become bigger and you take up more room as you walk around. 

Getting the basis of the male character was useful for the whole class as we can take that foundation and build on it with our own characters personal thoughts and physicality's. For instance my character Henry is a man so will inhabit all the General male  physicality's that we've already explored, but from that I can take away that foundation and start to add things such as the Regal and Wealthy aspect also with time and through more understanding of my character I can personify his thoughts and feelings at particular stages of the play as they will change the way he stands and delivers his speech.