Deer-est Konstantin

I want to discover more about how Konstantin moves and further explore the nature of his physical life. I see him as a wild deer of some sort. Deer are not particularly masculine creatures and they do not wear their strengths proudly on their chests. Though they have horns and strong hooves that will kick you if you provoke them or get too close, they are mostly quiet, majestic, effeminate, and for the most part not predatory. This pained solitude is balanced with a more volatile protective instinct provided by their horns and strong legs.
The sociological structures of deer are twofold. On one hand they travel in small groups or flocks. Often eight or nine of them live in a community that travels together, eats together, and takes shelter together. On the other hand, however, I can remember a number of times that I have seen one lone deer prance through my backyard, or confoundedly hobble across the road, lost and searching for its brothers and sisters or for its home or for food. Konstantin is this lone deer who has not yet grown to maturity, in that stage between a fawn and a protective male patriarch. He hobbles behind the pack constantly, begging them to wait for him, imploring his mother to allow him to rustle his neck and head against her legs, a parental nurturing he was never granted as a fawn. Often he puts up a front of pride at living on the fringe, stilted and left behind, claiming that he does not need his mother and her boyfriend and these old, out of touch offspring of aristocrats and their dormant sensibilities. This is a defense mechanism he utilizes to deal with his loneliness.
Deer are often the popular prey of human hunters and more gruesomely the unsuspecting victims of road kill. Konstantin is shot over and over again in each act of The Seagull and each time he limps his way through the rest of the act. He lets each disappointment and each failure throb like a bullet stuck in his legs, weighing him down. Only Konstantin, himself, can heal these bullet wounds and renew his beautiful, strong legs and prance his way to maturity, finally having learned how to find support and courage in his own self-worth and identity and reconciling himself with his mother and Nina and the others around him. After this, he can pursue his ambitions but he needs to get over his failures and learn to love himself first.
This image has more practical implications for my acting work. Deer move from a center placed in their heads, just above their eyes where their horns will grow in if they are males. They move in tempos that are sporadic: e.g. sometimes slow, lingering over every step, and other times rapidly when an impulse ignites their instinct to move. Often times they stand incredibly still, acutely observing their surroundings without moving their heads, and this exemplifies the tableau of majesty that we often associate with deer. Wounded deer hobble with the utmost attention to avoid placing pressure on the wounded leg. When scared they jump and retreat backwards or they sprint away at high speed.
I hope to play with subtle changes in my body in our final rehearsal to bring this image to life in a way that might work for the character.