Peter Pan Characterisation

Peter Pan Characterisation- Rhys Wallett

This blog contains my sources I have explored in an attempt to play the role of Peter Pan as genuine and unique as possible, and how these sources of inspiration have shaped my desired interpretation of the character. 

Characterisation and Role

The role I have been assigned in the pantomime production is Peter Pan. The role has been explored vastly in the past, and hence creating strong juxtaposition's between the role, some being suitable for children, other's portraying Peter Pan as evil and in some cases, bloodthirsty. Below are a list of sources I have viewed and how they presented their Peter Pan and their vitality to me:

Once Upon a Time (2011 - 2018)

Peter Pan appears in series 3 of the series, and in this. tale, Peter Pan is the villain, and a cruel one at that. Personality wise, he is manipulative and cunning, tricking the heroes into believing Henry's safety is a paramount concern of Peter Pan, and he is hellbent on revenge as he attempt to cut out a child's heart to restore magic in NeverLand and curse Earth to recreate Neverland. It is this cruelty and murderous attitude to life that distinguishes this Peter Pan from the others, with the key plot points such as making Wendy a captive of Peter and his toying with everyone assisting in Henry's rescue. He demonstrates his cruelty with a series of grins and cruel remarks which the mise en scene shows him saying these in a polite way, being both childish and mature when doing this. He mixes his Machiavellian nature with his charm. Now, this interpretation may not be as much use for inspiration as others due to the script of Peter Pan we are doing follows the traditional tale, however through a breakdown of how the actor Robbie Kay embraces the role, I have concluded certain traits of his are a short temper and a love for the fantastical, and these I can use with the role. What's more is his body language of being upright and dramatic can also assist me, as in my opinion, over-exaggeration is key with up keeping the role due to his childish body and the magical land he lives in.  

Peter Pan (2003) 

This adaptation is more useful to me, not only because the movie follows a majorly similar narrative, but in this tale, Peter Pan is the saviour just like he is in our play. He is more cocky and snarky in this interpretation, evident when he battles with Hook and through straight body language, and facial features such as smirks and winks, beams with confidence. I can use this as inspiration as in our script, Peter Pan demonstrates to be confident and a fan of insults when he spars with Captain Hook, his vanity being his vice, an idea I agree with. However, he is also caring and loving towards Wendy, and at the end when they kiss, his beaming of joy tells the audience that like the rest of the Lost Boys,  all he wants is companionship and love. Therefore, my interpretation of him here is he is a fantastical, confident type who acts suave to not only impress Wendy and the Lost Boys, but tohidz his inner pain of being absent of parents and family in general, and this idea I will attempt to incorporate into my future rehearsals. 

Pan (2015)

In my opinion, this movie adaptation is not very useful for me, as I viewed the movie as more of an origin story for Peter Pan and a prequel of sorts to the current play we are performing currently, but I will argue that a backstory can be very useful when playing a characters and if I were to make my Peter Pan have theses a backstory, it would alter my performance of him and make the adaptation more real. Such as how the movie establishes how Hook and Peter Pan were originally friends who lost touch, and this is a more heartfelt and complex approach to his interactions to Hook rather then the go-to hatred between the two that many directors and cast follow. To make the interaction more complex and heartfelt, say by using facial expressions such as beady eyes to demonstrate sympathy, and attempting to display a hint of sadness behind the smirks Peter gives when he spars with Hook will in my opinion, provide me with a challenge as an actor and allow me to develop as an actor, allowing me to experiment with more complex and entwined emotions rather than just perfect how to act basic, parallel feelings, increasing the quality of my performance and hence the performance as a whole. 

Conclusion of Characterisation

Using these as sources of inspiration alongside my individual interpretation of the role, I can conclude that I will attempt to portray my Peter Pan as a wounded individual, who hides it very well with confidence and feeding of his vanity, yet he will also have a short temper and be irrational, which will make the scene he banishes Tinkerbell all the more potent. I will also make him remorseful and behind all the joy, depressed. This will make the scenes he prays for Tinkerbell's life and his farewell to Wendy genuinely heartfelt and moving, as he must watch his comrades receive the happy life he himself can never have, lonely being also a subtle trait of his. I will attempt to perfect this challenging interpretation of Peter Pan in the rehearsals to come, and aim to achieve this difficult challenge.

Logbook entry - 28/9/18

Logbook entry - 28/9/18

Today's lesson was focused on the use of voice, in particular, the development of our vocal range and singing capability, alongside introducing us to methods to exercise our voice, skills essential to the acting craft. The first task, which was a vocal warm-up with exercises such as producing siren voices and going up and down octaves in both staggered and smooth rhythms were key as this allowed the next task to be achieved with the best possible quality due to the newly exercised throat muscles. Afterwards the focus was more on broadening the capability of our voice via accessing new areas of our throat which we would not commonly use, how this was achieved was through an exercise in which I opened my mouth wide and stuck my tongue out to reach the bottom lip, and say "Ja Ja Ja" repeatedly, the effect of which created an unfamiliar sound and vibration in my throat I was previously unaccustomed to. When discussing the purpose of this exercise, I will argue that this exercise gave me the inspiration to frequently exercise my voice, and understand audible skills such as singing, projection and clarity are essential for aspiring actors, which I tempted to use in the following task. 

The aforementioned following task was to split into two groups and produce a piece of group singing, either in A-Capella style or with a backtrack. Our group henceforth produced a group cover of "Man in The Mirror" by Michael Jackson and the key skills required from this exercise were teamwork and experimentation, trying new approaches to singing and movement, strengthening my skill of improvisation. No critique was given, however when considering areas of which I could have improved in this task, I will say I need to work more on my singing, in particular changing octaves more smoothly then I did, as I would occasionally sing the wrong note or sing off-key to others, therefore I will work on my fluency of singing and more broadly voice in the lessons to come.