Amadeus
From watching the play Amadeus, written by Peter Shaffer, I have taken a new experience and have learned a bit more about acting in ensemble pieces. In this essay I will be conveying my thoughts on what the actor was doing, why they were doing it, and some of what I have learned from how they did it through descriptions of the actors Voice, movement, gesture, their ability to sustain and develop a credible character, how or if they worked effectively as part of an acting ensemble and finally, my opinion on which actor was more successful and why.
My first character I had chosen was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart whom was played by Travis Hennessey. From my seating position his voice very clearly reached me, and from where I was sitting and from the way his head was positioned, he seemed to reach the entirety of the audience. His character had little other emotions than excited and boisterous, so the emotionality in his voice was not very genuine. I had heard no accent in his voice apart from when he had attempted words in Italian and German. His movement, however, was much more appropriate. Movement, when done, was appropriate for the role, a very energetic piece. Gestures he had made were not overly well done, sometimes lacking in something, most of the time extremely predictable.
Travis, while playing Mozart, managed to sustain a credible character very well, even if he may have had issues with his accent. When he was first introducing his character, to a person like me who has never seen Amadeus performed before, it seemed to be a bit shocking that there would be a character like that, which was at first misinterpreted by me as the actor not creating a believable character. From research on the play I now better understand the role, and from this, am now able to see more clearly the way he has fulfilled the character. Travis had done well to progress his character from the Chihuahua-esque fun-loving Mozart to the desperate shell-shocked...