Iris Arnold

(PROOF SCENE 2: Iris as Claire and Johanna as Catherine) Rehearsal has been fun so far! We are at the initial stages of blocking and neither of us are close to memorized thus far but already the nuances in the dynamic between our two characters are coming to life.  Claire's objective in the scene is to have assurance that her sister is OK. She wants this because she's a control freak and also because she genuinely cares about Catherine and these contrasting motivations create an inner turmoil in my character that I am having a fun time feeling out. Catherine has several objectives in this interaction. She wants to get through Claire's interrogation primarily. Beyond being heard by Claire, Catherine wants to be taken seriously by her older sister. She wants Claire to think of her as a competent equal. This brings me to Wednesday's class on character status. In rehearsing on Wednesday, Johanna and I determined that though Claire may have higher universal/external status (she's successful, established, ect. while Catherine is at a ... transitional life moment of sorts), in the context of this interaction it is Claire who is asking for a need to be met. This is exemplified perfectly in the line where Catherine not so subtly puts Claire down and patronizes Claire in explaining, "No, Claire, don't be stupid, there are over a hundred notebooks." I think one question we need to answer is whether or not Catherine's character will chose to meet Claire's need by the end of the scene.