Finding my character

Last Wednesday, I got my first role since I started the course. I was looking for a character, I ended up being given one. It is by far the best way to find him. It is my first dramatic role in six years, I am moved. I will be playing in The Marriage Proposal by Chekov. I will play Ivan Vassilievich Lomov, a wealthy but terribly hypochondriac landowner who wants to get married. It is a very funny play and I am quite good at comedies, so I will be in my element. And I love flawed characters, so I will be served with this one. I will have to kiss a girl, which does not make my wife very happy, but my character is no Don Juan: he is sickly (or so he thinks), unable to keep with the plan (the marriage proposal goes horribly wrong because of his own fault), petty, gets in ridiculous arguments and he is overall pretty pathetic. There are lines of conflicts and contradictory motivations in this short play that are simply brilliant.

So now that I have the character, this beautiful, fascinating character, I need to find him a voice. That will be the challenge. I think the teacher gave Lomov to me because she found in me something of him I could develop. I do find hypochondriac characters fascinating, I am glad I have the chance to play one.