Development Phase
I was given the task to explore practically an extract from the play The Crucible and then to perform it. The section that I was allocated was in the opening Act where the Reverend Parris and Reverend Hale are trying to get out of Abigail what she was doing in the forest with the girls. My role was Mr. Hale who has been called in to help find out whether the Devil is present in Salem.
I think was cast in this role because I am one of the tallest in the class and have a relatively deep voice. Mr hale needs to be quite commanding and well spoken to be able to assert his authority, he is respected in his field of work and when he first appears in the play he actually comes in with heavy books that are said to be ‘weighted with authority' and he is looked up on and people in the village are quite awesome about him. He has travelled a long way to take this case so he is well catered for.
When I was given the role of Rev. Hale I was happy with the character and I thought of how to approach his physical and vocal state. I compared Hale to Ichabod Crane from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and realised that the characters are quite similar apart from the fact that Hale is a Much Less afraid and squeamish and more confident in trying to find out what has happened in the village. I took this into consideration and decided to create a character that was as much like the Reverend hale as he is described as scholarly, confident, well meaning, although rather weak as we discover later on in the play. In the first bit of my section he straightaway comes across as very knowledgeable and asking a lot of questions, like a detective, or a doctor. He also utters some Latin: "in nomine domini Sabaoth sui filiique ad infernos" which means: In the name of the lord of hosts and his son get thee to the lower world. Another example of Hale's character and his savings of witches is when he said, "Now Tituba, I know that when we bind ourselves to Hell...