The Journey Interviews - 3

With the launch date of A journey Around My Room fast approaching, we continue with our sequence of interviews. Interviewee Lorenzo Novani turns interviewer to speak with Jill Korn.

Jill is an actor, director and playwright. She has written several audio plays including Collaboration, Confessional, Galore!, Sea Change and The Escort. Jill was one of the collaborators in the filmed theatre event A Journey Around My Tenement, shown 2020. Jill plays the part Madame de Hautcastel.

Lorenzo: Hi Jill

Jill: Hi Lorenzo

Lorenzo: I understand you play Madame De…(laughs). How exactly do you pronounce it?

Jill: It would be Madame De O-Cast-elle

Lorenzo: And how exactly do you have such a good French accent?

Jill: I studied French for a long time and spent a lot of time in France. I’m a Francophile, through and through!

Lorenzo: I see. Jill, your character…what do you think her role is in the bigger picture of the play? In the through-line for Xavier?

Jill: It seems to me that Madame is…she’s a bit of flirt actually. She’s really quite a lot of a flirt! Great fun to play that part! And Xavier is in love with her…brings her flowers, pins her dress for her, longs for her to be closer to him.  But Madame De Hautcastel was Christophe’s fiancé. Christophe – we hear his voice as a kind of ghost figure - doesn’t appear in the play. And we come to understand that Madame De Hautcastel was Christophe’s fiancé and not Xavier’s fiancé – sadly for Xavier. So I feel that she represents some of what he can’t have. 

Lorenzo: I would say so.  There’s definitely a sort of sadness and a longing when she’s present in the play with Xavier.  You say she was quite flirty and that you enjoyed that sort of aspect of her character. What other qualities would you say she has?

Jill: I think in Scotland we might call her a bit of a ‘nippy sweetie’, actually. When we first hear her voice, she comes back hard at Xavier’s contention…that portraiture is the art. She argues very hard for her point of view. She almost pulls him apart, I think, in her argument. She doesn’t go easy on Xavier at all.

Lorenzo: She definitely kind of speaks her mind, doesn’t she?

Jill: She does.

Lorenzo: How would you say this character differs from yourself? What qualities does she have that you don’t?

Jill: Oh, I’m not a nippy sweetie! (laughs) Well, it has been said that I am.

Lorenzo: That wasn’t a backhander!

Jill: I think I can be a bit opinionated…like Madame! I think I can appear that way. And I think I probably can be quite flirty and I think that’s why Kenny cast me in the part if I’m honest. (laughs)

Lorenzo: Well, you were great in the part. You’re always great in whatever part you’re doing and always a pleasure to work. Although I should say that’s the first time we were actually in a performance together which was cool! And it was the first I’ve done audio drama but I understand that you’re bit more experienced in that field. When you don’t have that need to sit down and memorise lines …because for me, part of the process of memorising lines has to be to make some sort of emotional connection so that they stay in your head. As you’re learning, you’re starting to feel the part. You’re starting to internalise some of it. What do you think audio-drama requires before the performance to make sure that when you speak those words, the performance in your voice still has that quality of something which is internalised and is part of you rather than just words coming off a piece of paper?

Jill: It has in common with stage acting the fact that you need to know the whole script. You can’t afford to say “well, those are my scenes. I’ll read those lines and I’ll leave the rest”. You need to know the whole script. Even if you’re only in two scenes. What else is going on? What is the thread that Madame De Hautcastel represents, or any character represents throughout that audio drama? So, unless you’re a very small bit-part, you can’t really get away with just reading your own scenes. I think it has that in common with a stage play. You might spend three quarters of the play in your dressing room but you need to know what’s happening in the rest of the play. As you have pointed out, there is a challenge in that with audio drama - even in BBC audio drama - you’re not given those weeks and weeks of rehearsal to develop the character. You just don’t have it. It’s not expected. There’s no blocking. There’s no stage play. There’s no physical stuff to be done and so, you don’t have weeks to become familiar with a character. You have to do a lot of work on your own to understand what that character’s reactions are going to be to other characters. You might spend only a day or even an afternoon with the people that you’re bouncing your words off.

Lorenzo: Mhmm.

Jill: In fact, lots of audio dramas, especially over lockdown, are recorded remotely: one actor at a time. So for example, I would read my part from my script in three slightly different ways, and so would you, and so would Kenny, and so would David. Then you would take all of those recordings and chop them up and put them together. I haven’t wanted to work like that because, from my stage background, I want there to be an interaction between actors. Even if they haven’t spent weeks together on stage, I want that interaction to be real. You’ve got to work hard in the studio to make sure you’re really listening to what the other person is saying and how they’re saying it. And, of course, you’re directed in the studio. So if you’re off-beam with a line, or you’re not getting it the way the director or the author wants it, they’re going to ask you to do it again.

Lorenzo: Yeah

Jill: I think there is definitely a lot of up-front preparation to be done. Even though that doesn’t involve learning lines, it does involve familiarity with what’s going on behind the lines.

Lorenzo: Analysing the context and the subtext of not only your own scenes but all scenes and understanding the through-line of the play: what its premise is, what its ultimate message is, if there is one. It’s ultimate destination. So that you understand where your character and your part fits. That definitely makes sense. It was different for me as it was the first time me doing audio drama and it was a lovely experience not to have to learn lines but I was aware of the fact that you could potentially have gaps there, in a sense.

Jill: And everything has to come through your voice.

Lorenzo: Yes!

Jill: You can’t use body language. You can’t use movements. Everything has to come through your voice.

Lorenzo: Absolutely. That’s great Jill, thank you very much!

Jill: You’re very welcome!

In the final conversation, Jill Korn interviews Kenny Burnham.