In 2011 I played Lenny in a production of THE HOMECOMING, written by Harold Pinter and directed by David Farr for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
There were many challenges to this particular role. For a start the character comes from a working class family in London, so has a very different accent and background to my own.Our production was in the Swan theatre in Stratford Upon Avon which has what is called a “thrust” stage. In other words the audience is on 3 sides of the stage which “thrusts” out, instead of a traditional “proscenium” where the audience sits in front creating an imaginary “fourth wall”.This means that I had to create three imaginary walls instead of just one as the play is set in a living room.The biggest challenge however came from having to get into the mind of the most remorseless, sociopathic character I have ever played. Lenny is a pimp whose only interest is his own gain and how he can use power to manipulate and control.Unlike other nasty people I have played he is entirely free of any conscience. This made him extremely difficult to relate to.
I can help you with finding great dialect coaches, the stagecraft needed regardless of the demands that individual spaces place on you and how to unlock characters who are a long way from your own background and psychological experience.