My Corner of the Sky: How to Build an Ensemble

My process of finding my character in Pippin has been very exciting for me. As one of the three ensemble women, I’ve had a lot of freedom thanks to our wonderful director, to play and explore who my Player will become. I initially thought about where my character encounters Pippin in the scenes and what I was trying to do. Once I figured out what my relationship to Pippin was, I moved onto to what I was doing physically. This was a great way for me to “key in” to my character. As a dancer, physicality always helps me find who a character is and helps me inform the way they think, react, and speak.

I played around in rehearsals with how my character stands, walks, and sits and ended finding this dim, whimsical, yet charming character within that physicality. I toyed around with how she would stand and react around the leading characters, which certainly helped me find a base of who she was and how she could shift when she was around certain people. Through finding my character’s physicality, I was able to discover how my character spoke and interacted with the other players. She has a ditzy, quirky, yet alluring quality about her, which is so fun to play. I discovered that she’s not just a dumb character, but she has qualities about her that are a little scatterbrained, yet she is smart in her own way as well. She’s definitely a type of woman I thought Pippin would encounter on his journey to find himself.

The style of the character also ended up being just right for the style of show, constantly enticing, magical, and fun!

--Kelsey Andres loves Fosse, and also loves reading her horoscope way too much. She enjoys spending time with her devious puppy, Elroy.