Ken in Rumors by Neil Simon

Throughout the course of this semester, I feel that I have definitely grown as an actor very much. Previously, I thought that I was the greatest actor ever and that acting for me was easy but boy throughout the course of this year, I have discovered that acting is really not as easy as I once thought. There is so much that I need to improve upon and I am know where near the level that I want to be at. Luckily I have learned a lot about acting this semester and I do believe I have improved from when I started. As long as I continue to grow like I have this semester, I can become a great actor.

The last scene that I am working on is the first scene from Rumors by Neil Simon with my colleague Sophie. I am playing the part of Ken and Sophie is playing the part of Chris. The play starts after two guests have arrived for a dinner part and have found the host, what they think to be dead. Chris is trying to get the doctor on the phone while Ken is trying to figure out how to cover up what has happened. The play is all about these party-goers trying to cover up the death of their host, so that so scandal will be caused or anything. It turns out that the host is not dead at all but just shot himself in the earlobe and passed out after having too many pills.

My character of Ken basically remains the same throughout the play. He is Charley, the hosts, best friend and is very stressed out about what has happened with Charley and how he is going to handle it. His relationship with his wife Chris is very interesting. Although throughout the play they seem to fight and argue a lot, they turn out to be a very secure and happy couple. They are just stressed out about the current situation at the party.

During our scene my characters main objective is to figure out what to do with Charley while not letting anybody know what happened. That is what he is focused on the whole time. He wants complete control over the situation and this is scene with the way he tells Chris what to do and what to say. He is focused on doing whatever to not let anybody find out what has happened.

Rehearsals for us have been going very well so far. We have been coming up with great emotions and great physicalizations for our characters. On the day that we worked on our scene in class, some great ideas were generated. The types of stuff that Peter told me to do really helped me and made me realize how my character could act, and I found a whole new way my character could view the situation. Its going to be great to see where the scene goes tomorrow when Sophie and I work on it.

We will be performing our scene on Thursday for the class so after that I will put how our scene goes and give you all the latest updates.