Scene Process Paper

Play Analysis

The play begins with Frankie and Johnny, two coworkers, having just had sex. Throughout the rest of the play, intense and straightforward Johnny attempts to convince hesitant and isolated Frankie that they are destined for something deeper and more real than just casual sex. Johnny is in love with Frankie and convinced that they are soulmates; Frankie has given up on finding love, and she is intimidated and overwhelmed by Johnny's passionate overtures. However, by the time the curtain has gone down at the end of the play, Johnny's heart-on-his-sleeve earnestness has won Frankie's heart, and the play ends the same way it began, with the two lovers in each other's arms.

Character Arc

As the character description at the beginning of the play states, Johnny's best feature is his personality, and he works at it. From the outset of the play it is clear that he loves to talk at length about almost any topic, and that he is extremely open about his feelings. His intense personality and frankness are overwhelming to Frankie, but he is nothing if not persistent. This is likely not the first woman to whom Johnny has made these sorts of passionate overtures, and he seems to be a person who chronically tries too hard in most aspects of his life. He wears his heart on his sleeve, which is bizarre for Frankie as they have only been on one date. He tries various tactics and approaches to winning Frankie over, and it is obvious that he is attempting to be what he thinks she wants him to be. His exuberance hides a deep insecurity, which is slowly revealed throughout the course of the play. His lack of education, his unremarkable appearance, his scarred hands and his tendency to talk too much are all aspects of himself about which Johnny is ashamed. Johnny is very intelligent, and he carries around a dictionary and a Shakespeare collection in order to educate himself (or at least to project the appearance of being educated). However, Johnny is also courageous. He confesses his love to Frankie, and even though she is horrified, he is unfazed. When he calls the radio station they've been listening to to make a romantic request for Frankie, and in the process tells the DJ the touching story of the night's events, it appears that Frankie has finally given in to his advances. As they prepare to make love, Johnny reveals that he is forty-eight years old; clearly Johnny feels as though he is running out of time to find love, and he sees in Frankie a chance to solidify a real future before it's too late. Act One ends with the couple making love. However, Act Two opens with the couple taking a "momentary hiatus" after Johnny failed to rise to the occasion. They get to talking about suicide, and Johnny admits that he sometimes feels so isolated from the people around him that he contemplates killing himself. He goes on to reveal that he is a divorcee with two kids, spent two years in a New Jersey prison for forgery, and used to have a drinking problem. He begins to cry when he tells Frankie about the first time he went to visit his kids after the divorce. He and Frankie then begin to get intimate, but after he asks her to go down on him and she refuses, they erupt into an argument. Johnny is almost ready to storm out of the apartment, but instead he gives one last eloquent, romantic monologue. Frankie is so moved that they end the play in each other's arms listening to "The Clair De Lune" as the sun rises. Johnny's persistence and earnest courage have carried the day, and he has found a true connection just when he feared it was too late.

Character Objectives

In the scene Miku and I performed, Johnny wants to get Frankie to believe that they are meant to be together. His active verbs are persuade, emphasize, and grow closer to Frankie. Johnny sees that Frankie is starting to get cold feet, and he wants to find a way to get her to see that he is indeed what she is looking for. Near the end of the scene, Johnny is trying to set up the perfect moment, and muster up the courage, to express his deepest romantic feelings to Frankie.

Rehearsal Process

Our first formal rehearsal of this scene was in class. We got about half-way through the scene before one of us flubbed a line (probably me, but I don't remember) and Peter stopped us. The scene went okay for out first time doing it, but we were definitely visibly uncertain about the text and the blocking. We got the comments that I expected to get; Miku was told to work on her diction, and I was told to work on making the character of Johnny more masculine, more grown up, and less like myself. We had our work cut out for us.

Our second rehearsal was with Rafi. We focused a lot on blocking. The table Miku and I were sitting at during the rehearsal was rather long, and the distance between us made it difficult for the intimacy and closeness of the characters to come across. Rafi suggested that in order to fix this issue I should gradually find ways to inch closer to her throughout the course of the scene, so that by the end I am very close to her for my big confession. This rehearsal was really useful for us. Even though we later ended up scrapping a lot of the blocking we created that day, we kept the chemistry and the playfulness we developed during our meeting with Rafi.

Our third rehearsal was with Peter, and this was probably the one where we developed most of the ideas we ended up using in our final performance. Before this rehearsal we had been sitting at a large table, but the spacial restrictions of Peter's office forced us to use his couch instead. This ended up being fantastic for us, because it forced us to be very close to each other for the entire scene. The chemistry which had been so sorely lacking up to this point was suddenly created out of necessity. By this time, Miku and I had been doing a lot of independent practice, so we had memorized all of our lines and made a lot of progress on our characterizations. This allowed us, with Peter's help, to fine-tune a lot of physical choices we were making.

Final Performance

Our final performance went pretty well, I think. While doing the scene, I definitely felt a little bit disconnected from Miku when we were performing the scene; however, by the end I think the scene came together nicely. There were a few unexpected curveballs thrown my way during the scene: the sandwich that Miku bought me had mayonnaise and olives in it - both of which I detest - so I ended up having to mime taking bites of it. Also, Miku ended up handing me an imaginary salt shaker in the scene, which I was not anticipating. Having never worked with the space object before in our rehearsals, I had no idea what to do with it. When the scene was over, a couple students pointed out that I had forgotten about the salt shaker during the scene and "dropped it", which was a totally fair criticism. My fellow students also criticized my gestures (dammit!) and my voice, which was apparently too high-pitched. They really seemed to love Miku, though, and everyone complimented us on our chemistry. This was odd since I actually felt visibly detached from her through most of the scene, but I was glad to hear that it didn't come off that way to the audience. Peter told me that physically I still had not created a defined character, and urged me to work tirelessly next semester on my ability to create characters physically. I'm really going to need to step it up next semester. The last thing in the world I want is for people to think that I'm not working hard at what I do. I am very frustrated that as of yet I have not been able to drop my little quirks that make me me. Next semester, though... next semester!!!