Y2 Dual Character Research - Smee/Mr Darling | PP

Researching a dual role was certainly a first for me, i had never had to think about switching to a completely new character mid performance before and therefor knew i would have to research each character thoroughly to make a believable switch.

I first started by watching the peter pan disney movie, as i had never seen it before. I had an idea of how these characters acted beforehand baser on what i had read from the script, but was pleasantly suprised to learn that they were exactly as i had imagined them in the movie itself. There are countless renditions of the Peter Pan story, yet the first appearance of him as a character was in the book 'Barries Little White Birds' in 1902. 

After this, an author (J.M. Barrie) took the character and made a stage play about him where we all get the origional story from. Researching peter pan as a play itself was my second step in finding the perfect way to portray my dual role. Mr darling is always portrayed as showing a stoic outershell, only to be betrayed by his insecure qualities. Smee is always portrayed as an idioit, yet his exact level of idiocy has been changed many times over the years to make his character more loveable and less violent.

I also read the book of Peter Pan after picking it up in a waterstones and studied the texts, cross referencing the characters between said book and my script. I made notes on my script reminding me how this character would say this and how they would portray that. Before the play itself i hope and wish to be completely prepared and will make sure i am so.

Peter Pan is such a huge name and such a big opportunity, especially to do a musical, that i would feel to do anything less would be a disservice to myself as an actor, and to the audience. After the play itself, i will have proved to myself and everyone else that i can play a dual cast with each part given an extensive amount of thought and character.