Rosie WebberActing II Scene StudyChristopher HalladayFinal PaperDue May 8th, 2014Script Scoring: What Were Up AgainstWhen one does a scene, it is very important to ask oneself, who am I? This helps the actor really understand who their character is, and get inside the characters head. For the play What Were Up Against by Theresa Rebeck, I am Eliza. I am a strong, independent woman in my late twenties or early thirties who wants to move up in the world. I work as an architect at a business where I am forced to work in a small, cramped, and shitty office space. I constantly feel oppressed by the inequality between men and women in the workplace. I am trying to prove myself, but no one will give me a chance. I know I am good at what I do, but I am overlooked because of my gender. People think I am overly aggressive, but I am just trying to make a statement. I am often working very hard to keep from looking weak or vulnerable, thats my biggest fear. Although I have many weaknesses and can be very vulnerable, I would never let that show in the workplace because the men might think that I am incapable of my job because of my lady problems. I have worked my whole life to become good at what I do, and to get where I am, but now that I am here, I am realizing that there are a lot of hurdles that I must overcome, simply because I am a woman. As a general rule, I dont sugarcoat anything. I am very blunt and I make it a point to be honest with people. I am not afraid to say what I am thinking or stand up for what I believe in. Most importantly, I am a fighter. I will never give up on something that I believe to be important.In this scene, Ben and I are in my tiny, terrible office at the end of the hallway. I imagine the room is old and the paint is chipping off the walls. It looks more like a broom closet or a storage room than an actual office. The walls are painted completely white, with many dirty spots. There are cobwebs in every corner, and probably some kind of rat or roach droppings here and there. The floor is covered in that terrible, cheap carpet, much like the carpet of the Fine Arts lobby. There is one single fluorescent light above my head that flickers. There are no windows. There is a desk, two chairs, and a small table. There are many things strewn about due to the fact that I am trying to pack up. During my time at the office, I did everything I could to make the place look homey and professional. I have some pictures of my friends and family and I tried to decorate with some flowers and such. Still, its a terrible workspace. This workplace pisses me off, honestly. It makes me feel angry because I believe I deserve better than this.Since, at the end of the scene, Ben asks me to go to dinner with him, I imagine that it is nearing the end of the workday, so perhaps it is around 4:45 pm. Although it is never stated in the play, I believe that it is also the end of the workweek, just from context clues. To me, it seems like a late Friday afternoon, everyone is tired and ready for the weekend. It has been a long week. It is New York City, and I picture the time of year is late October, perhaps, so Ben and I need a small jacket or coat to stay warm when leaving. I have many different relationships with many people. When it comes to people like Weber and Stu, well, frankly, I dont like them very much. They are proud assholes who think they can do anything they want. They dont appreciate me at all, and thats only because of my gender. They feel threatened by me. I thought I would like Janice a lot more than I do. She turned out to be a total backstabber. She has taught herself to just go with the flow and accepts being treated unfairly. She never backs me up, even when she knows Im right. Ben and I seem to have a more interesting and close-knit relationship. We are clearly attracted to each other, but I am wary of him because of how he has treated me in the past. There have been many opportunities for him to stand up for me or be on my side, but he didnt want to get himself into trouble. I think what frustrates me most about Ben is that I know that hes a smart and kind, but he never acts that way in the workplace when there are other people around. Hes one of those people who is really awesome to be around when its just us, but he is a completely different person in a group. We obviously have a similar sense of reality and sense of what is right. There is potential for something more between us if he can start to realize when hes being a prick.Throughout the play, my super-objective is to be appreciated and respected for what I do. I constantly feel that people overlook me or try to throw me in a closet. I want people to realize that what I do is important and useful, which it is. In this scene, my objective seems to also be to make Ben understand how he has played a part in me being underappreciated. I think I want him to apologize to me, or make it right. I want him to realize that I am talented, and I am right, and therefore, I deserve to be appreciated and taken seriously. I want him to stop pretending, and be the guy I know he is deep down.What stands in my way in this play is simply that there is such extreme sexism and inequality in my workplace. From the moment I got here, there have been attacks and accusations coming from every direction. I know that I am talented, but because I am a strong female and I am not afraid to say what I think, I have pissed off the men in power. Since theyre pissed, theres nothing I can do. They have decided they dont like me and I now have to deal with that. I have to try to overcome the sexism and inequality I am faced with, but that is hard to do when no one is on your side. Because of the aforementioned plight, I have sort of come up with a way to get some revenge, and it doesnt matter to me if it gets me fired. In my mind, it makes things right. It may be unorthodox and it may get me in trouble, but it will get me what I want, and that is to get revenge and more importantly to put myself in the power. I have given Janice a terrible design that doesnt work, and Janice believes that it is good and genius. She has taken it to Stu who then believes that he can take it up to David and get brownie points for it. When David realizes its terrible, Stu will go to Janice and then Janice will probably give it away that it was me who made the design. I will then probably be fired, but at least I will have proved my point. This is also my given circumstanced before the scene. I am now packing up my things and getting ready to be fired because I know that the design is terrible and I believe Stu will fire me.The things I am not saying in the scene, are implied in the subtext. I think I am truly hurt by Ben and Janice. I feel very cornered by the both of them, and I feel backstabbed that neither of them stood up for me. I am not saying that I am hurt because I have worked so hard to look strong and not be emotional, but I think deep down I am really hurting. I think I am not saying just how hurt and upset I am. I want to appear strong and that is why I am hardly talking about my feelings. I will have to substitute being hurt with how I feel when I am not appreciated for my talent here at school. I will substitute how it feels to be underappreciated at auditions and when your friends dont back you up. I can connect to that on many levels. I think this is also really where it hurts for my character. Emotionally and mentally, Eliza is okay because shes strong. However, that doesnt mean she cant feel hurt or mistreated. It really does hurt when someone you KNOW agrees with you will not stand up for you. It is very scary to feel like you have no one to back you up. Its a very vulnerable place to be. Youre out there without a net, and its either sink or swim. The beats in this scene are interesting. I dont do a lot of listening at first, but when Ben starts talking about the shitty design I made, thats when I start getting interested, so that is a change of beat. The next few moments are me trying to pretend like I dont care about the consequences. Then there is another beat change. This is where I start to get upset that Ben never stood up for me. After this, the mood changes again when I ask myself Why is it still like this? They said it wasnt like this anymore. I think the vocal rhythms differ from my own in that Eliza is very poised and rigid whereas Rosie is much more emotional. I have to resist the temptation to speed through lines when I get emotional, because that is how Rosie would react, not Eliza.Intellectually, Eliza and I differ because Eliza is very harsh and Rosie is much more easy-going. Rosie is considerably more emotional and sensitive, and Rosie often lets her feelings come right to the surface. Eliza, however, likes to hide how she is feeling in order to appear strong. Rosie would have been much weaker and perhaps whinier in this situation. Eliza is also much braver than Rosie. Rosie would have never done what Eliza did to Janice. Rosie would have had trouble justifying it.My economic status is average. I dont think Eliza is poor. She definitely has made her way up to this level and she has the talent it requires. However, she probably isnt as rich or successful as she wants to be so it probably informs her to want to be much more aggressive in order to reach her goals.The fourth wall, as I touched on briefly earlier in this paper, is the wall of my shitty office. I dont think theres much on it. Perhaps there is a picture hung, and its slightly crooked. Probably a very generic or ugly picture or painting like one you might see in a hospital waiting room. The walls are, again, dirty, and completely white-washed. There is nothing special about this office at all.The props needed for this scene are a phone, some things to pack, some chairs, some blueprints, and perhaps something to drink if we decide we can justify that moment. Costume-wise, I plan to wear a business outfit and a coat with nice business-like shoes and my hair in a bun. I want to look professional. Physically, in this scene, I am packing up my office. This is a nice action, but I have to make sure to not let the secondary action become the primary action. If Im not careful, I will use the packing as a crutch and an excuse to not be connected with my partner.

When I (Eliza) was ten years old, I remember coming home from a particularly long day of school. I had my lunchbox, my backpack, a medal, and a certificate all in my hand. I couldnt wait to get home so I could finally tell my mom that I had won the science fair with my model building. I skipped and hopped over every crack in the sidewalk and ran as fast as I could. The people who saw me running, probably thought I was in danger or something. But all I could do was think of the look on my moms face when I showed her the medal and certificate I got from winning. I clung tightly to them as I ran. I imagined how happy she would be for me, how proud she would feel. When I finally got home, I was out of breath. I ran up the steps to my front door and busted inside. There was a peculiar silence in the house. Suddenly I realized how fast I had been moving, and now everything seemed so slow. I walked into the kitchen where my mom sat at the table with a cold cup of coffee and blank expression. She had a black eye. At ten years old, I didnt know how to connect the dots. I ran up to her and hugged her tight and screeched, Mommy! I won the science fair! She smiled a crooked, weak smile and stood up. Eliza, she said looking me dead in the eye, Mommy has been hurt, and were going to have to leave very quickly before your father gets back. Pack your things. I dont remember packing or getting into the car, but I do remember feeling so powerless. So weak. So vulnerable. Daddy had hurt Mommy and there was nothing I could do. I was too small, too powerless to help her. As we rode in the car, I held my certificate and my medal in my hand and I started to cry. I told myself then and there, that I would never let myself be weak or vulnerable again. I would keep getting better at science, math and model building, and I would never let a man hurt me or anyone I know ever again. I promised that I would grow up to be strong and independent, and I would always take care of myself and everyone around me, and always stand up for what was right. It changed me forever. I never saw my father again, and, frankly, I never wanted to. Now every man I see do something horrible reminds me of him, and I have no choice but to feel the need to stand up against them and fight for what is right. Anyone who is not with me, is against me. Just like Ben.