BEHIND THE SCENES: The Actors Of Rage - Part Two

Hi, this is Emma Willcox from Vertigo Theatre Productions. I have been a member of Vertigo for just short of two years now and this will be my fourth play that I will be doing with them. Vertigo introduced me into the world of acting and helped me find my feet, ever since we did Dog Sees God, all that time ago; I have loved every second of it. I know that I will never be able to thank them enough for giving me this and so many opportunities.

When I was first told about Rage (by Craig Hepworth) I instantly knew that I wanted to be a part of it, because of how much I enjoy working with Vertigo, and also because of the subject and the meaning behind rage.

The character that I play is Laura; the best way that I could describe her is that she is a 'tortured soul' who is very confused and conflicted by the things and actions of other people around her. I love playing Laura because I feel that I can relate to her and I can bring a lot of that into the role. The character is constantly challenging me not only as an actor but also as a person. She is unlike any character that I have played before, but the first character I have played which I can relate the most to.

To prepare for this role I had to do a lot of research into high school shootings, bullying, violence in entertainment and many other topics. Although I can relate to the character I needed to be able to relate to the subject as much as I could without actually going through it myself. By doing this I was able to bring so much more to the part and to the production. Doing the research for Rage has been very interesting but at the same time terrifying to see what people went through. Also because of the subject that we are dealing with, it is very important to treat it with respect and not come into it blind. I feel that the most important part of Rage is the research and finding out truly why we are doing the piece and how important it is to get it right.

I'm so excited to be working with the Vertigo regulars again, they are like my second family now; it has been so much fun working with them on each production and now we get to do something together that we have all been looking forward to for a long time. It's great to get to work with new cast members as well, not only because they are fantastic actors but also because they are really fun and friendly people to be around.

The rehearsals so far have been really good; we have made a lot of progress in a very short amount of time. From the very first day everyone has completely thrown themselves into the characters. This week we focused on act one, and as we are now off-script we are freed up to put everything we have into it. Every rehearsal is a challenge and because we are all putting so much emotion into our performances you come away from the day drained. Doing this play is going to big a huge challenge for me and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to do it so much. I want to be able to challenge myself as an actor and being a part of Rage is really going to do that.

Now I'm just itching to get it on stage and to see how people react to it, not long to go!

Speak to you soon!

Emma x