Blog/Journal
Mustard Seed's production of Jane Eyre March/April 2013
Edward Rochester
Initial images for Rochester's center
As I think of various ideas based upon the description and nature of the character from the book. Images come to my mind of a whirling tempest barely contained inside of a cold cloudy sphere.
Of course as Rochester is admittedly changeable and tempestuous, this center will shift and adjust between Feeling Center, the Willing Center and the Thinking Center.
When in the willing center, the tempest is much more pronounced, defining the character, bursting forth
from the sphere. When in the feeling center, the wind calms and gently turns within the sphere, and when in the thinking center the sphere is prominent, cold, sometimes less severe and the
wind is calmer, an occasional breeze rather than a whirring tempest.
Second Week of Rehearsal
Off Book running the show, getting most of the words right. Now am beginning to explore the actions of the character with the rest of the cast. Physicality is taking shape as my imaginary body becomes clearer to me. Now that the words are fairly secured I can begin to play. Having laid down some pretty strong images and psycho-physical connections, the doors to emotional reality are starting to swing open and some pretty powerful action are coming to the forfront.
On further consideration, I see Rochester's center as a tornado. It twists and pulls and rips at him through all of his centers simultaneously. His struggle is to contain the storm, to master the torrent which rages within him. He must try to find the calm center in the eye of the storm.
Another center to consider is Jane Eyre herself, she stands just outside of his feeling center pulling him toward the unknown. She is an unwilling temptation to his struggling nature, an otherworldly presence that has perhaps come to rescue his soul as well as his life. Perhaps she appears to him as a bright candle in the darkness, hovering just out of his reach. Taunting and enticing, both hope and torment, so sometimes warm and sometimes burning.
As I have continued to explore Rochester in rehearsal and played with various Psychological Gestures (First scene with the horse falling is a pushing away "You must just stand to one side", followed by literally the leaning on Jane. It is the prelude to the dependence that Rochester will soon develop for her. In the introduction scene, when Jane and Rochester and
Jane officially meet, there is at first a pushing away, a resistance or perhaps better, hiding. The scene is very much a game of hide and seek as Rochester delves this mysterious and haunting girl that sit before him. The third scene Rochester is much more affable, he has decided to open himself to Jane, so there is an embracing as he establishes his relationship with her.
In the bedroom scene, when Jane saves Rochester's life, he nearly devours her, the wolf has to be restrained and there is a moment when he might take Jane by force or press her to him, but her purity and innocence, her inner light, assuages the savage impulses. Lady Ingram is a chance to compare and contrast the plain Jane with a beautiful socialite. Rochester must confirm his feelings for Jane and can only do so by looking at her with the backdrop of the social elite. He sees soon and clearly that Jane is of a superior nature and cut than any of the women who would be thought of as appropriate for Rochester to marry. She is literally Rochester's better self without the bitterness and darkness. At the end of act one Rochester finally begins to show his concern and affection for Jane, but he isn't quite decided yet. His passion is beginning
to boil to the surface, but he is not sure HE is worthy of Jane. Knowing also that there is still the matter of Bertha Mason, his mad wife kept "under watch and ward" on the third floor. He must be certain before he risks both exposing his feelings completely and Jane's feelings as well.
Act two, Mason arrives and all is tipping out of control. Rochester desperate to keep his secret safe and keep his hope for Jane intact fights wildly to reestablish the balance that is teetering dangerously to the wrong side.
Once he has successfully contained the incident he can redirect his attentions to Jane, and so the final measuring and analysis is made. Rochester literally toys with Jane's emotions, threatening dismissal, separation from those she loves by shipping her off to a far off place Jane finally breaks under the strain of the ideas and Rochester is convinced that she does love him and proposes to Jane.
Literally at the alter, Mason returns and exposes Rochester and his dark secret. The existence of Bertha Mason is revealed and all is lost. Rochester's heart and soul are ripped from him and enters an extreme darkness, bitterness and ferocity. He soon loses everything as Bertha finally manages to accomplish what she has long desired, to destroy Rochester and herself. She sets Thornfield mansion ablaze. Rochester saves all the servants, but though he tries, he cannot save Bertha who throws herself from the roof of the burning building. Rochester is early killed as, when trying to escape the inferno, he is nearly crushed to death under the collapsing building.
Rochester is blinded, his hand is crushed and amputated and his face and skin badly burned. He goes into seclusion and would have remained there is Jane had not come to find him.
The old Rochester is dead. Everything that plagued him, his family history, his mad wife all the remnants of his past are burned away in the fire, but he can only be reborn completely and finally in the grace of Jane. She will save him and, as all good fairies, she will bestow upon Rochester a new life. It is the mythological burning away of sins, the cleansing through the fire. Rochester, like the Phoenix, must rise from the ashes of his past. However he is not strong enough to resurrect himself, Jane must revive him with her inner light and usher him back to the world of the living.
Mustard Seed's production of Jane Eyre March/April 2013
Edward Rochester
Initial images for Rochester's center
As I think of various ideas based upon the description and nature of the character from the book. Images come to my mind of a whirling tempest barely contained inside of a cold cloudy sphere.
Of course as Rochester is admittedly changeable and tempestuous, this center will shift and adjust between Feeling Center, the Willing Center and the Thinking Center.
When in the willing center, the tempest is much more pronounced, defining the character, bursting forth
from the sphere. When in the feeling center, the wind calms and gently turns within the sphere, and when in the thinking center the sphere is prominent, cold, sometimes less severe and the
wind is calmer, an occasional breeze rather than a whirring tempest.
Second Week of Rehearsal
Off Book running the show, getting most of the words right. Now am beginning to explore the actions of the character with the rest of the cast. Physicality is taking shape as my imaginary body becomes clearer to me. Now that the words are fairly secured I can begin to play. Having laid down some pretty strong images and psycho-physical connections, the doors to emotional reality are starting to swing open and some pretty powerful action are coming to the forfront.
On further consideration, I see Rochester's center as a tornado. It twists and pulls and rips at him through all of his centers simultaneously. His struggle is to contain the storm, to master the torrent which rages within him. He must try to find the calm center in the eye of the storm.
Another center to consider is Jane Eyre herself, she stands just outside of his feeling center pulling him toward the unknown. She is an unwilling temptation to his struggling nature, an otherworldly presence that has perhaps come to rescue his soul as well as his life. Perhaps she appears to him as a bright candle in the darkness, hovering just out of his reach. Taunting and enticing, both hope and torment, so sometimes warm and sometimes burning.
As I have continued to explore Rochester in rehearsal and played with various Psychological Gestures (First scene with the horse falling is a pushing away "You must just stand to one side", followed by literally the leaning on Jane. It is the prelude to the dependence that Rochester will soon develop for her. In the introduction scene, when Jane and Rochester and
Jane officially meet, there is at first a pushing away, a resistance or perhaps better, hiding. The scene is very much a game of hide and seek as Rochester delves this mysterious and haunting girl that sit before him. The third scene Rochester is much more affable, he has decided to open himself to Jane, so there is an embracing as he establishes his relationship with her.
In the bedroom scene, when Jane saves Rochester's life, he nearly devours her, the wolf has to be restrained and there is a moment when he might take Jane by force or press her to him, but her purity and innocence, her inner light, assuages the savage impulses. Lady Ingram is a chance to compare and contrast the plain Jane with a beautiful socialite. Rochester must confirm his feelings for Jane and can only do so by looking at her with the backdrop of the social elite. He sees soon and clearly that Jane is of a superior nature and cut than any of the women who would be thought of as appropriate for Rochester to marry. She is literally Rochester's better self without the bitterness and darkness. At the end of act one Rochester finally begins to show his concern and affection for Jane, but he isn't quite decided yet. His passion is beginning
to boil to the surface, but he is not sure HE is worthy of Jane. Knowing also that there is still the matter of Bertha Mason, his mad wife kept "under watch and ward" on the third floor. He must be certain before he risks both exposing his feelings completely and Jane's feelings as well.
Act two, Mason arrives and all is tipping out of control. Rochester desperate to keep his secret safe and keep his hope for Jane intact fights wildly to reestablish the balance that is teetering dangerously to the wrong side.
Once he has successfully contained the incident he can redirect his attentions to Jane, and so the final measuring and analysis is made. Rochester literally toys with Jane's emotions, threatening dismissal, separation from those she loves by shipping her off to a far off place Jane finally breaks under the strain of the ideas and Rochester is convinced that she does love him and proposes to Jane.
Literally at the alter, Mason returns and exposes Rochester and his dark secret. The existence of Bertha Mason is revealed and all is lost. Rochester's heart and soul are ripped from him and enters an extreme darkness, bitterness and ferocity. He soon loses everything as Bertha finally manages to accomplish what she has long desired, to destroy Rochester and herself. She sets Thornfield mansion ablaze. Rochester saves all the servants, but though he tries, he cannot save Bertha who throws herself from the roof of the burning building. Rochester is early killed as, when trying to escape the inferno, he is nearly crushed to death under the collapsing building.
Rochester is blinded, his hand is crushed and amputated and his face and skin badly burned. He goes into seclusion and would have remained there is Jane had not come to find him.
The old Rochester is dead. Everything that plagued him, his family history, his mad wife all the remnants of his past are burned away in the fire, but he can only be reborn completely and finally in the grace of Jane. She will save him and, as all good fairies, she will bestow upon Rochester a new life. It is the mythological burning away of sins, the cleansing through the fire. Rochester, like the Phoenix, must rise from the ashes of his past. However he is not strong enough to resurrect himself, Jane must revive him with her inner light and usher him back to the world of the living.