Mikazukigumi Practice Area
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Emu
I'm gonna do my absolute best during today's practice too by giving it one million percent!
Emu
Oh, I know...!
I should practice my lines for Ushiwakamaru while I wait for the others to arrive!
I should practice my lines for Ushiwakamaru while I wait for the others to arrive!
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Emu
(On this night, he's happy about how pretty the reflection of the moon looks on the river.)
Emu
(You need to jump around like you're on cloud nine. You move in a way that shows his excitement...)
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Emu
(My hands and feet are where they need to be. My fingers are moving the way I want. And my head's tilted just right. Everything's the way I imagined...!)
Emu
(Oh, but my fingers don't seem fully relaxed. That means I gotta try to get them even looser...!)
Emu
(And my eyes are fully open here...
But I still might flinch when Tsukasa swings his naginata at me. I'll need to practice that part more with him.)
But I still might flinch when Tsukasa swings his naginata at me. I'll need to practice that part more with him.)
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Emu
(But the way Mr. Kijima played Ushiwakamaru made it so easy to understand what he was feeling.)
Emu
(So, what's different between me and him...?
Am I just not moving the way I think Ushiwakamaru would?)
Am I just not moving the way I think Ushiwakamaru would?)
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Emu
It feels like there's something different between your Ushiwakamaru and my portrayal of him...
Kijima
Yeah. Like I told you before, Otori, I don't see anything wrong with your understanding of him.
Kijima
I can tell that you have a talent for instinctually grasping a character and playing them the way you imagine. Put another way, you have a way of seeing the little things that make them who they are.
Kijima
You're good at sensing what characters and other people are feeling. But am I right in saying that you're not as great at expressing your own?
Kijima
Have you ever encountered situations where you had trouble conveying what you were thinking or feeling to someone else?
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Emu
Umm... My oldest brother is all rules, rules, rules, and my other brother is like a prickly pear!
Kijima
Again, I don't see anything wrong with the way you've envisioned your character. That being said, as an actor, your job is to convey to the audience what he's thinking and feeling.
Kijima
How you envision Ushiwakamaru...
Just portraying him perfectly as you've imagined won't be enough.
Just portraying him perfectly as you've imagined won't be enough.
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Emu
(It was so easy to tell what Ushiwakamaru was feeling when Mr. Kijima played him that time...)
Emu
(Which probably means he was doing his best to communicate to the rest of us what his character was thinking and feeling...)
Kijima
And I performed in all sorts of different places a while back in order to accomplish that.
Kijima
That's right. When I was still a university student, my friends and I traveled all over the country to put on performances.
Kijima
Naturally, we couldn't perform anywhere that involved selling tickets. So, we went around to children's clubs, elderly care facilities, local festivals...
Kijima
We performed anywhere we could get an audience to watch us. We did the same play all over Japan.
Kijima
I also recorded each performance in order to see my own acting and how each audience responded to it.
Kijima
I'd use that information to prepare for my next opportunity by checking to see what I did wrong and making the necessary changes.
Kijima
I kept repeating that until I was able to see things through the eyes of many different people.
Emu
I can't really do what you did to achieve that, but I'll think of something. And my portrayal of Ushiwakamaru is gonna be absolutely amazing...!
Next Chapter: Perspectives