The Tinman

For me the character of the ‘Tinman’ was a very interesting character. Out of all the wonderful characters in ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ the ‘Tinman’ is a soft, warm and caring. Whilst also having a certain firm tone when he needs to be serious but at heart he is a soft and gentle soul who doesn’t want to hurt anything, not even a tiny bug on the floor. When I first contemplated playing the ‘Tinman’  I looked straight to the iconic 1939 film for inspiration. When I was looking at the clips of the film the actor, Jack Haley, was perfect for the role. He had everything from the way he put across the characters soft spoken voice, warmth to others, his funny and silly side and his movement to portray his stiffness and how he was like a robot was brilliant. Furthermore, I also looked up a couple of the staged versions of ‘The Wizard Of Oz’, at least the ones I could find on YouTube. The one thing I noticed about each of them was that while they were all good in their own way, I didn’t feel that the movement was quite right. Yes, some of them would have stiff arms but when they moved it just didn’t seem like they were made of tin and it annoyed me that such a big part of the character seemed to be missing. I made sure to focus on this for my own auditions.  

The way I portrayed my piece is that he is a very soft character, always grateful for everything that others do for him. However I also know that he has had a very hard past with the ‘Wicked Witch’ cursing him and ruining his life to the point that he couldn’t marry the one he loved. I know it sounds dark, which it is, but again this is a children’s’ play that we are performing so he’s not going to be acting depressed. Of course when he is telling his back story he is going to be feeling these emotions and that’s important to show to the audience so that they understands the story of why he wants a heart. He has all of these emotions to portray, he is sad and scared. Yet, he is also brave, as shown when he is protecting ‘Dorothy’. Even though this production is aimed at children, you don’t want to dumb down the character. I still want to make sure that I understand the character, to go in depth of what has happened to them, so I can take my character and acting to the next level. I strive to continue to do so in further productions.

In addition to looking at previous versions of my character I had realised that the script is pretty different to the film I am familiar with. Due to this I made sure to read and understand the script all the way through, not just my parts. Nothing seemed to be majorly different but it does allow me to add my own spin on the character, to make sure I wasn’t just copying other versions but that it was my own. I’m sure it was possible to see where I took inspiration and where I put in what I thought was missing from the few adaptations I had seen.