Thursday, 23 April 2015

Rehearsal Blog


This blog has been updated weekly and includes the progression, adaption and improvement of the play and of my character. 

This comedy sees character Mellefont, nephew and prospective heir of Lord Touchwood, about to marry Cynthia, daughter of Sir Paul Plyant. Lady Touchwood, a violent and dissolute woman, is in love with Mellefont, but as he rejects her advances, determines to prevent the match and ruin him in Lord Touchwood's esteem. In this design she finds a confederate in Maskwell, the Double Dealer, who has been her lover, pretends to be Mellefont's friend, and aspires to cheat him of Cynthia and get her for himself. To this end he leads Plyant to suspect an intrigue between Mellefont and Lady Plyant, and Touchwood an intrigue between Mellefont and Lady Touchwood; and contrives that Touchwood shall find Mellefont in the latter's chamber.

Annotated scenes from script:





I've started to annotate scenes I am in to help me remember steps and cues, and blocking. 


A few weeks later the script has become a lot more annotated with directions, prompts to help remember blocking and I have now incorporated language of the fan. 

The ticks above lines means I have learnt them. I did this so I could focus on scenes I don't know as well and would mark these with a star. (*) I went through my script and marked the language of the fan moments appropriate to my character. I used fan language such as opening fan quickly and shutting it quickly, resting fan on heart and on left cheek. I also fan rapidly. This would signify specific emotions in those days. 


Selected rehearsal skills: I think I was able to contribute my ideas after watching Stage Beauty by suggesting what themes came across in the film and how it was in contrast to The Double Dealer and what was similar. 





Working on the scenes some of us are still working with scripts and some of us have learnt the lines. I haven't learnt all my lines yet however I am confident I will be off book soon. The more I read the lines when I have a break the more I get familiar with them. Other techniques which has helped me with line learning is recording my self saying just my lines and cues, recording the whole scenes with Mellefont, Maskwell and Lord Touchwood and also writing my lines out. I recognise that with out having a script in my hand it's easier to introduce more character work and blocking. I'm aiming to have my first two scenes learnt by Friday 15th and have the next two done by the following Wednesday. 


Student Observation feedback:


Seeing as me and Charlotte are playing the same part of Lady Touchwood, we decided it would be to the best of our advantage if we were to team up and give each other feedback every lesson as to what our strengths and weaknesses are. We first started observing how we walked as ourselves and then how we walked as Lady Touchwood. It was interesting to see how we walked as ourselves and then what we both did as Lady T and what we did differently. Charlotte seemed to have a little flick when she walked which I liked which I tried to incorporate into my walk. I had a natural posture when I walked as to where I held my head and arms in the character of Lady T. I think we both need to work on adding a bit of a tick into our characters for example because she's so sexual and manipulative, she should have some sneaky trait, perhaps when we walk. 

Me and Charlotte helped each other wih learning lines this week by saying a line to each other and repeating it back untill we know it. 

Feedback for me was about the blocking and basically not to block the audiences view. I gave Charlotte feedback just to say that I think it would be good if she varied on how she is lying to Lord Touchwood like use different pitches to how she is being fake.

Laura's feedback for me was to make sure the "I" in "but I can't blame you for "i" think  "i" have never been so surprised in my life" was differentiated to show I'm bein mischievous. 



Character Study:


First things first, we read the double dealer, making sense of the language and trying to understand the play. We were then cast into roles, being asked first which characters we liked. My first initial part that I was fond of was lady Touchwood. She seemed funny and strong and just a part that I thought I could have a lot of fun with. After the first couple of rehearsals it was interesting to see just how that time was like, how they spoke, what there posture was like and how they moved. Lady Touchwood, is feminine, however when she gets angry she sets of and suddenly becomes quite aggressive almost. She's very much a woman.





Lady Touchwood, bows like a woman would in restoration, almost like a plie. Her shoulders are back her hear held high, or level with the floor. Her back would be straight, and she would walk swiftly but smoothly into place. in rehearsals we practised using fans and how we would use them in that context, well lady touchwood, uses this as a sort of prop, something to hold. In that time though it would be an accessory to her clothing. She's very sexual she has a strong sexual attraction to her husbands nephew Mellefont, and later on another sexual attraction to Maskwell. She is quite cheeky, mischievous, likes getting people wound up and in trouble, but doesn't like it when Maskwell winds her up. 

17th Century costume appropriate to the role: 


Adding more into the character study, we looked into costumes this week as there were a lot of people missing and so instead we looked into what we would wear. Me and Charlotte, both playing Lady Touchwood, tried on a few dresses, some weren't revealing enough for LT as we thought she definitely needed to be on show a bit. We finally found a dark red dress, which is quite a sexual and powerful dress. I felt like Lady touchwood when I tried this on. We just need to lift the hem a little bit and add our fillers to make it look like we have big hips. I will ringlet my hair and place it up. My character starts feeling something for Maskwell later on in the show and starts feeling something for him and feels angry when she is informed he is the marry Cynthia. I wouldn't say she is religious as her character is committing sins most of the time, but it would be expected of her to go to church, get married in one, and abide to god even if it is just all for show. Lady Touchwood is lady like and quite high status in contrast to some characters in the show. 


I think Lady Touchwood would be around her mid to late 20's as in those days they were married young and didn't live as long. I believe she came from a high class family, and doesn't really like the company of her brother Sir Paul. I think she thinks he's a drunk and doesn't really know what he's doing most of the time. I think Lady Touchwood is very lady like but is very sexual and devious towards most things. In those days it was perfectly normal to be married, or in a relationship to someone related to you. For example a cousin could be engaged to another cousin with out it even thinking anything of it. People also used to marry for money and not love hence why Lady Touchwood and Lord Touchwood had there own chambers. Also this resulted in Mistresses and love affairs as they were not in love with there partners. Lady Touchwood likes Lord Touchwood but probably isn't attracted to him in that way, and it was most likely an arranged marriage. Arranged marriages were common and were often supported and done by the parents, and possibly before they were even born.
Poems by Jonathan Swift; we were read a poem by Jonathan Swift which explained how woman got dressed in the morning, and there typical day. The reality of these woman trying to look beautiful was actually quite groom. These ladies, would take 5 hours to get ready in the morning. They would place on false eyelashes made of mouse hair, and screw false teeth into their gums. The language of these poems is hidden with many clues into which those days were like. 

I think Lady Touchwood would pass her time walking and gossiping with other Lady's but is a snob at heart. I think she looks down upon other woman like Lady Plyant and Lady Froth, and doesn't think much of Cynthia. She is relaxed about what she says and kind of says it as it is when she is with Maskwell and Mellefont but always goes behind her husband Lord Touchwoods back. 


Language of the fan:

Lady Touchwood, almost always has a fan for this show. I think it's a great prop to have because it helps me put across the right emotion for the character at the time. We learnt about the language of the fan, after Charlotte brought in research for us, with a sheet explaining the fan position, and what this meant. An example would be when the fan is rested on the right cheek it means no and when it is rested on the left cheek it means yes.  We had a go at each pose as a group and helped each other with what we thought they looked like. I then marked in my script which fan position may be appropriate to the context of which Lady Touchwood is saying. 


Moll Flanders:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCNyT6zvdBc

I decided to watch this movie in order to see what I could pick up to help with my character study and i was just interested to see what the movie portrayed of that time period. 
The movie shows what it was really like in restoration period and really helped to get a picture of what it looked like. In terms of clothing, style, etiquette and the politics going on at that time. 

Tom Jones a foundling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ5-cAb9RzM

This was another great source to get a real feel of the language. In this episode it really reminded me of the manipulation of Lady Touchwood. The woman talks in a manipulative tone and I found that is how I wanted it to seem. 


SHOW WEEK!

Show week started with worry, stress and anxiousness for everyone, I think doing the whole show had added pressures for everyone, and was a good idea to cut down to workshop scenes of the show. We kept two to three scenes each and made sure everyone had something to be graded on and chose the scenes which were strongest with everyone in them. Although it's a shame to have to not do the whole show, because I had learnt my lines, I'm glad I don't have to worry about promoting other people in my scenes. Also although I knew my lines, sometimes if someone else in my scene broke the flow of there speech and there were long pauses it threw me and broke my flow of speech. That made less confident with the scenes. The scenes we kept for Lady Touchwood were page 15-17 and page 49-52. Both scenes I feel were good quality scenes for the show. Both are set in Lady Touchwoods chamber.

Feedback from my first performance which was the matinee was that I had really good diction in the second scene I did. I think I am going to try a different energy for the first scene in order to get a new pace that works for the scene. I think we've done the scene so much that the important words we are saying are being lost, so I'm going to try and think about the words more when I deliver them.


Over all the show went well and it was a great learning experience for everyone. My strengths in the performance were my emotions, diction and stage awareness. Plus I think I did good improvisation when someone forgot there lines. I think my weakness was pace, where I knew my lines and had practiced a lot with running a fast paced seen, some words might have been to fast to understand. I believe I improved on this in the final performance. I also tried new energy epically in the second scene I was in, and even got giggle which I played off of. This was also my last show at South Downes and so it was nice to end on a show that actually I felt good about, the fact that I had worked hard, learnt my lines, and it turned out to be a good performance for me makes me feel like I've worked for it. I am proud at the fact for most of this year I've been in half an hour early to each lesson so in not late and met deadlines. I think I have worked well with my classmates helping people to learn lines that were in my scene, for example skyping over the holidays to run lines. I will miss it very much as I feel I've become a different person since I first started, a better one. 

The Double Dealer- Research Blog

THE DOUBLE DEALER 



All additions are in blue!


PART: LADY TOUCHWOOD

Short Synopsis:


This comedy sees character Mellefont, nephew and prospective heir of Lord Touchwood, about to marry Cynthia, daughter of Sir Paul Plyant. Lady Touchwood, a violent and dissolute woman, is in love with Mellefont, but as he rejects her advances, determines to prevent the match and ruin him in Lord Touchwood's esteem. In this design she finds a confederate in Maskwell, the Double Dealer, who has been her lover, pretends to be Mellefont's friend, and aspires to cheat him of Cynthia and get her for himself. To this end he leads Plyant to suspect an intrigue between Mellefont and Lady Plyant, and Touchwood an intrigue between Mellefont and Lady Touchwood; and contrives that Touchwood shall find Mellefont in the latter's chamber.



In those days it was perfectly normal to be married, or in a relationship to someone related to you. For example a cousin could be engaged to another cousin with out it even thinking anything of it. People also used to marry for money and not love hence why Lady Touchwood and Lord Touchwood had there own chambers. Also this resulted in Mistresses and love affairs as they were not in love with there partners. Lady Touchwood likes Lord Touchwood but probably isn't attracted to him in that way, and it was most likely an arranged marriage. Arranged marriages were common and were often supported and done by the parents, and possibly before they were even born. King Charles married Catherine of Braganza to connect there countries England and Portugal together. Catherine's husband was chosen by her mother Queen Luisa and Charles father King Charles the 1st. Although Catherine and King Charles the 2nd had a sexual relationship this was most likely because it was her duty to produce and heir, which unfortunately did not happen after three miscarriages. Charles kept many mistresses including Barbara Palmer and Nell Gywn. All types of people would have gone to the theatre, all classes! It would be a social event to attend the theatre and watch a play. 


Impact on delivering the play now: 


The impact on delivering the play now is very different to delivering the play then. If a play wasn't well received back then you could have been executed put in prison or in the best case been targeted by rotten tomatoes. It was all about who had the power. Playwrights needed to be careful about what and who they were writing about in order to keep there heads. Today's impact show what the restoration period was like, it shows the difference between today's rights and rights back then. It shows how there was no such thing as feminism then, and that woman were lower status men and equality wasn't even around. The play shows how people married for money and how common affairs were and also how common incest was. Time has changed and I think people's opinion of the play has probably changed too. I find the play funny but also educating. I think it really highlights the themes in the play listed below. 



Themes of the play:


  • Betrayal
  • trickery
  • manipulation
  • Treachery
  • love
  • deceit
  • romance
  • lust
  • misinterpretation


Themes of the play within the film stage beauty:
Relating to restoration cultural, social, political, religious views. 

Woman were being constantly groaped 


Men saw women as easy shags 

Thought women couldn't act 

Men trained for years to act like women 

Priests preached that a man should play a man 

Women would fight 


Staging: 

'The sumptuously decorated Dorset Gardens playhouse in 1673, with one of the sets for Elkannah Settle's The Empress of Morocco. The apron stageat the front which allowed intimate audience contact is not visible in the picture (the artist is standing on it).'  - Quote and pictures from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_comedy


For eighteen years, since 1642, the theatres of England were closed and out of work. The only performances that were given where illegal ones that were given in secrecy performed in private locations a few miles from town. Anyone who would go against the law were putting themselves in a very risky situation and no actor nor spectator was safe to do anything of the such especially during The rule of the Puritans. In 1660 Charles 2nd returned from hiding in France and regained the throne of England, where he then enjoyed drama and theatre. He became a active patron of drama and issued patents for two companies of players "The Kings Company"  and "Dukes Company". Then performances immediately began again. Few playwrights had managed to survive the civil war and now had there chance to show there artistic creations. These included Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant, both of them were provided with what was described as 'fine play houses' but known as patent theatres. These were built in both Dury Lane and Dorset Gardens. Both Killigrew and Davenant were apparently trying to out do each other constantly and ended up with similar theatres bothed built and designed by Christopher Wren. Christopher Wren was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history. He was given responsibility of rebuilding 52 chrches after The Great Fire of London including his masterpiece St. Paul's Cathedral. Both Patent theatres were built for the purpose of spoken english (acting) music and dancing. They were also built for moving scenery, and elaborate machines for thunder, lighting and waves. 

http://www.theatrehistory.com/british/restoration_drama_001.html


Having these elaborate machines would have helped portray themes across to the audience during the show to help there imaginations fill the rest of the story. The sound effect of thunder and lighting could indicate dramatic scenes, which could highlight themes such as deceit, death, sadness. Anything that could be related to melancholy themes. Today we use set and scenery in a show/performance to enhance the acting or performance. It puts it all together and helps us to envision a realism about it all. Being able to have something to help piece together a story makes it more relatable and real, making it more entertaining to the audience. When an audience finds something funny, it normally is something we can relate to, for example a lot of today's audiences find the american tv programme 'Friends'. This is one of the most popular tv shows to this date, and one of the main reasons why it was a hit is because it based on things that real people do, this enables us to connect with the show, allowing us to get a sense of joy out of it. In restoration times, they would have made jokes which they could relate to around the 17th century. Things like politics that are happening, or who is on the throne, or who the celebrities of the day were. 

Our staging for the play is based in a contemporary theatre on a flat stage and tierd seating. We have two set changes one for the lounge seating area for the characters, which is painted yellow with brown/wooden assets. It has a French window balcony style in the middle of the set. And a wooden screen. The other side is pink for lady touchwoods chamber, it has a chez with a red throw which we change during transitions. There is a window too. The difference between todays audience and the audience in 1600's is that restoration period would laugh, spit, throw tomatoes if they didn't like it and the characters still had to carry on. Today's audience are a little more polite. 


I searched into what people found funny and this is what I discovered: 


British humor: 

Innuendo

Pranks and practical jokes


Tolerance of, and affection for, the eccentric


Bullying and harsh sarcasm


Parodies of stereotypes

Adults and children

Race and regional stereotypes

British class system

Embarrassment of social ineptitude

Lovable rogue

Humour inherent in everyday life

Surreal and chaotic

Absurd

Macabre

Satire

English Civil War: 



These are lists of basics playwrights, authors, script writers, ect, would base there work on. 

The English Civil war started when Charles I was on the thrown. It began in 1642 where the split was between Charles and Parliament. The country had split into two sides of who supported King Charles I and who supported the Parliament. Roundheads was the name given to people who supported Parliament, and Cavaliers to who supported the king. They were given the name Roundheads because a lot of the younger boys had their hair cut very short. Most towns and cities were known to have been on the side of Parliament and most Anglicans, landowners and nobility were more for the side of Charles. There were long periods of time when there were no battles going on even though there was a war going on. The three major battles in the English Civil War were, Edge Hill which took place in 1642, Marston Moor (1644) and Naseby (1645). Charles I was beheaded January 30th 1649, and he wore two layers to stop him from shivering because he didn't want people to think he was afraid. Charles I was over powered by parliament, which meant the common wealth managed the country and then Oliver Cromwell  stepped up and ran the country. 

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/civil_war_england.htm

'The English Civil War killed a higher proportion of the British population than any other. In the seven years between 1642 and 1649, an amazing 1 in 10 of the adult male population died: more than three times the proportion that died in WWI and five times the proportion than in WWII.'

I believe Lady Touchwood would have supported the Parliament as they are very high class and situated in a city, and it would be of fashion to be agreeing with the men who were most likely influenced by friends of friends who would be involved with Parliament. 

Quote from below link:

http://gileskristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/The-English-Civil-War-10-Interesting-Facts.pdf




The Interregnum:


"The Interregnum was the time between the execution of Charles I on 30 January 1649 and the arrival of his son Charles II in London on 29 May 1660 which marked the start of the Restoration. During the Interregnum England was under various forms of republican government, for which see Commonwealth of England; this article describes other facets of the Interregnum." 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interregnum_%28England%29



Cromwell's convincing military successes at Drogheda in Ireland (1649), Dunbar in Scotland (1650) and Worcester in England (1651) forced Charles I's son, Charles, into foreign exile despite being accepted as King in Scotland.
From 1649 to 1660, England was therefore a republic during a period known as the Interregnum ('between reigns'). A series of political experiments followed, as the country's rulers tried to redefine and establish a workable constitution without a monarchy.
Throughout the Interregnum, Cromwell's relationship with Parliament was a troubled one, with tensions over the nature of the constitution and the issue of supremacy, control of the armed forces and debate over religious toleration.

In 1653 Parliament was dissolved, and under the Instrument of Government, Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector, later refusing the offer of the throne.
Further disputes with the House of Commons followed; at one stage Cromwell resorted to regional rule by a number of the army's major generals. After Cromwell's death in 1658, and the failure of his son Richard's short-lived Protectorate, the army under General Monk invited Charles I's son, Charles, to become King. The whole country would have been torn and constantly discussing politics. This is relevant to the play as the men would be discussing politics in a room separate to the women. Men were higher status than woman and woman would often be like an accessory to a man in those days. 


Nell Gwyn:



(Images from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nell_Gwyn)


Nell Gwyn was one of Charles II mistresses and was reported to be an aspiring actress around the time of Margret Hughes (Maria). Nell Gywn was reported to have two sons with Charles II with the first Charles Burford living on till 56 and James who was sent to school in Paris at six and died there suspiciously.
The new theatres were the first in England to feature actresses; earlier, women's parts were played by boys or men. Gwyn joined the rank of actresses at Bridges Street when she was fourteen, less than a year after becoming an orange-girl.

'If her good looks, strong clear voice, and lively wit were responsible for catching the eye of Killigrew, she still had to prove herself clever enough to succeed as an actress. This was no easy task in the Restoration theatre; the limited pool of audience members meant that very short runs were the norm for plays and fifty different productions might be mounted in the nine-month season lasting from September to June'

Elizabeth Barry:



She worked in big, prestigious London theatre companies throughout her successful career: from 1675 in the Duke's Company, 1682 – 1695 in the monopoly United Company, and from 1695 onwards as a member of the actors' cooperative usually known as Betterton's Company, of which she was one of the original shareholders. Her stage career began 15 years after the first-ever professional actresses had replaced Shakespeare's boy heroines on the London stage.

A frequently repeated anecdote holds that the 17-year-old Barry at first performed so unskillfully that she was fired from the company several times, but was transformed into a brilliant actress by the coaching of her lover, John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester. While multiple sources confirm that Rochester was Barry's lover, the only source for the coaching story is a Life of Barry published in 1740 – 65 years after the events – by Edmund Curll, well known for his fanciful and inaccurate biographies.

Susanna Mountfort:

Susanna Verbruggen or aka Susanna Mountfort, was an English actress working in London. Her first recorded stage appearance may have been as early as 1681 in D'Urfey's Sir Barnaby Whig. In 1686 she married the actor William Mountfort, and after Mountfort's infamous murder in 1692, she married the actor John Verbruggen.

Breeches Roles:


A breeches role is a role in which an actress appears in male clothing. Breeches, tight-fitting knee-length pants, were the standard male garment at the time breeches roles were introduced.
In opera it also refers to any male character that is sung and acted by a female singer. Most often the character is an adolescent or a very young man, sung by a mezzo-soprano or contralto. The operatic concept assumes that the character is male, and the audience accepts him as such, even knowing that the actor is not.

Samuel Pepy's: 


Samuel wrote when  The Great plague of London was at its height. The Plague impacted many lives and left many people dead, infected or without loved ones. The diseased was easily spread due to the breeding of rats after London had experience a very hot summer of which fleas carried around on other vermin and stray animals within the cities. Many people lived in poverty and small tight houses and therefore the disease was easily given round. Sources say that the rats first came from ships that have come over from France.The Plague had been around for centuries but in 1665 the so called Great Plague hit the country.  Stuart of London took the worst hit of the plague and the plague never really got under control until the Great Fire of London in 1666, wiped out most areas of the Plague. So the living conditions in London were like one big bin during this scene. The three girls were quite lucky to be more disclosed from the drama, as they were ladies maids in a big well-kept house. The chances of getting the plague were somewhat shorter than others who were living in poverty.
The popular nursery rhyme, describes the symptoms of the plague:

"Ring-a-ring of roses,
A pocketful of posies,
Attischo, Attischo,
We all fall down."



poem -found form historylearningsite.co.uk

King Charles the 2nd was on the thrown and baroque music was the fashion. The attire for woman included the wide, high-waisted look of the previous period was gradually superseded by a long vertical line, with horizontal emphasis at the shoulder. Full, loose sleeves ended just below the elbow at mid-century and became longer and tighter in keeping with the new trend. The body was tightly corseted, with a low, broad neckline and dropped shoulder.Clothing in the Restoration expressed the suppressed feelings of freedom during the Puritan period. The frivolities of courtiers had been stifled for eleven years and the Restoration is the period that everything that had been stifled is cut loose. Curls, ribbons puff, flounces and feathers returned to clothing wherever they could be attached. Masculine and feminine dress began to take on the stiffness and smart elegance that had been abandoned with James I's death.t
Gentlemen wore wigs that had curls all over it and they shaved their heads. The faces were shaved at first then only a thread of a mustache if any. The hat moved to a high-crown, stiffer and a little narrower-brimmed hat and it was cocked to side. All men tried to wear cravats around the neck rather than the huge collars.
Women wore ringlets clustered in the back of the hair with smaller tendrils waved around the face which replaced the earlier dense frizzle. Rich women would weave pearls into their hair and put nosegays in their buns, however, the common people wore simpler hair. In the Old and New World they continued to wear caps, especially in the Colonial scene. Collars were higher but wider across the shoulders and necklines were low, wide and dropped on the shoulders. Most women wore under dress with another garment on top and if the she could afford it the bodice and skirt would be attached. If she was poorer the skirts and bodices were of different colors. In this period the apron became very popular and in fact it could be classed with the skirt rather than an accessory. Skirts were a tad bit shorter and peasant women shortened their dresses to the instep, while court women shortened their skirts just to show the toe. The court used deep-toned velvet and light colored satin and colors at Versailles were subdued. The Colonial fashion was not subdued and bright-hued garments prevailed. Red, blue, yellow and green were popular and fearlessly combined. Men often wore red coats and women's petticoats were also red but in flowered silks. Hats and shoes were black and stockings were light colored.Lady Touchwood will be wearing a red dress with a corset that laces up the back and fillers to make the hips look bigger. The corsets would make the boobs look fuller and pushed up and the waist look smaller. 


Restoration makeup for women:
Hair was nearly always curled, waved, or frizzed before styling, in order to create texture. Styling was accomplished with combs and curling irons, held with pins. When height was wanted, it was raised over pads made of wool, tow, hemp, cut hair, or wire.
  • Bright eyes (achieved with drops of powdered ash or saffron)
  • A light complexion (achieved with chalk and lead)
  • Dark arched eyebrows that met in the middle (achieved with antimony, lead or soot)
  • Small round beauty marks called splenia –often used in profusion
  • Dark eyelashes (achieved with antimony, lead or soot)
  • Rose-coloured cheeks and lips (achieved with carmine)
http://www.apparelsearch.com/definitions/fashion/1600-1650_fashion_history.htm

https://prezi.com/z2fradukfwak/womens-roles-during-1500s-1600s/


Samuel Pepys was also know to have dug a hole to put in his Parmasan cheese and wine in it to keep it safe from the flames. He did this as this was valuable to him. Parmasain cheese is thought to be made over a course of 2000 years in the Po Valley area of Italy. It takes at least 2 years to mature however the longer it's been matured the more valuable it comes.
 
Samuel Pepys lived through both disasters and the Civil War.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plague_of_London






http://www.historyhouse.co.uk/articles/parmesan_cheese.html


Manners and behaviour of the class is addressed anti punctual.

Sexual life led by a large number of courtiers.  



  • 1.Charles II lived his life as a protestant but on his deathbed he converted to Catholicism. This is because he feared the people would not accept a Catholic king.
  • 2. He brought back Christmas. When Oliver Cromwell took over England in 1645, he banned all celebrations surrounding the holiday. Charles II immediately dropped all the legislation and festivities resumed with renewed enthusiasm.
  • 3. Charles II was enormously fond of his toy spaniel, and is recorded as playing with the dog during council meetings. The breed soared in popularity as a result and has since been named after him – the King Charles Spaniel.
  • 4. Infamous for his many mistresses, Charles II nicknamed Louise de Keroualle ‘Fubbs.’ This stems from an old English word meaning chubby.
  • 5. Despite his eccentric tendencies, Charles II was a brave man and took an active part in fighting the great fire of London, endangering his own life. This only increased the love and admiration the people had for him.
I think I wouldn't of been on any side I don't particularly like King Charles the 1st of Cromwell. I do however prefer King Charles the 2nd. 

Thursday, 2 April 2015

EVALUATION RADIO

EVALUATION:


For my radio solo assessment I chose three pieces that I thought contrasted each other but also had some of the same sub themes. For my first piece I chose ‘Poem on Drugs’ I chose this piece because I thought it put across a strong and vital message in an entertaining and catching way. This is a poem, which I found online which I adapted to work with radio. The genre of this piece would probably fall under audio poetry, all though it has quite an entertaining theme, i think this is more about getting the attention of the listener. I think it has a more serious theme. I think the performance style is factual and naturalistic, because it bases itself on the journey that drugs can do to you. I separate the text up and include different moods into the text as if the voice that you hear is the drug. The drug starts off as your friend and then suddenly becomes more manipulative and patronising as the journey goes on. I change the tone and the volume of my voice to show this change. I use quite a childish tone to begin with and then suddenly become this warped voice that isn't very pleasant to listen to which I think is quite a big contrast to the giggly child like voice at the beginning. I wanted to do this to highlight particular points in the journey of the poem. The context is audio dramatisation of poetry, and I have also done some character work focusing on the way I use my voice. The piece has come a long way since the begging, since then I have researched into the piece, got feedback from the piece and rehearsed with this. I think my diction and character has improved the most since I don't stumble as much as I did on the words as when i first started working on this solo. I think this is because I've separated the text more evenly and this created more natural pauses allowing me to breathe and catch my breathe. It didn't effect the pace however, I did slow some bits down due to feedback. The performance techniques I have taken in to consideration include, Script annotation techniques, character profiling, script reading and spontaneity, working with SFXs, Content, and vocal techniques.

The second piece I chose for my solo, was a children’s story ‘Whatever Next’ by Jill Murphy. I adapted this to radio in order to create an interesting and fun story for a younger audience. It didn’t need too much adaptation to it but because it’s a story where it would use pictures to fill in the missing pieces, I had to add a couple of words in in order to make sense. For example instead of ‘Baby Bear found a rocket in the cupboard under the stairs’ I changed it too ‘Baby Bear found a cardboard box for his rocket, in the cupboard under the stairs’. This is because the listener can’t see the picture of the cardboard box. The feedback I got when I performed this to a teacher was to really over play the owl, to make sure they could absolutely hear the difference between the owl and baby bear. I play the Owl over the top and therefore every line the owl says I keep to the same over the top owl stereo type. I decided to play Baby Bear as more of a young boy type character changing my voice to be childish but more in the boy gender. I did this by doing less giggles which I would associate with a little girl more. I wanted to make Baby Bear a boy because I wanted to have clear characters, and seeing as I had already two female character (The Narrator and Mrs Bear) I found it was a good idea to use another male character other than the owl. 

The final solo piece I chose was a short ‘Anti Smoking Advert’. I chose this because it was short; contrasting to my other pieces and delivered a crucial message. I think the theme that starts to become of all three pieces is about help and guidance. In my first piece it was about getting a message across, giving them an opportunity to listen and take the advice hidden in the story. The second is a children’s story, which naturally help children to grow and help how they see the world. Although this is the shortest piece of the selection, I thought it would be good to use to help link myother two pieces together. There seems to be a theme of harmful substances along with a childish outlook or theme running with it. 


More harsh and blunt adverts were launched at the end of 2012. They seemed to be proved more effective as they were more graphic images and were actually showing users realistic consequences of smoking/ second hand smoking. Users seem to respond to this a lot more as it's no longer just coming from what we hear we are able to be shown directly what we used to fill in with our imaginations which was probably a lot less than the truth. The last piece is also about helping people, educating them on something they also may not have known.

For Our group piece we chose ‘Seeing Beyond- With Maya Fantasma’. This is a play script that we adapted to radio. This piece is about a ghost called felicity who is trying to contact her brother who is living to warn him about his wife Becky. This all takes place on Maya’s stage and with Tom and Becky in the audience. This meant we had to find a way of making mine and Connors characters sound like we were in the audience. We also had to find a way to make it sound like Maya was on stage and Felicity to sound ghost like as if she were in another world somewhere. We decided to place ourselves in order from Alicia on the left, then Abbi, myself and then Connor. This gave the most believable effect. We adapted the piece to fit the radio genre by adding in specific SFX’s, which helped the audience visualise what was going on without sight.

The first couple of weeks we looked at different genres of radio plays and analyzed them with different questions which would help is when we came to perform.
We decided to adapt this stage play to radio after researching and looking at many different radio drama’s and stage scripts. We looked at different stage plays as we decided we could adapt these to radio if we found the right piece. We looked at radio scripts such as, Like A Virgin by Gordon Steel, Ouji Board, No time for Crime which is a segmant of a radio play we looked at from Crime Club. Crime Club stared Barry Thompson and Raymond E. Johnson. 
Vocal techniques we used were, diction, volume, pace, pitch and articulation. I in particular would stumble on my t's and d's in this because the pace had to be fast and I'd often be caught out. I think practising this and warming up before we start helped. 

Some directions on the script we had to cut as they would not have worked for radio for example. The moving of the chairs, we cut this because the listeners wouldn’t know we were moving chairs and so we worked around this by adding in footsteps or cutting the dialog before then. When Tom asks Becky to sit down and come on stage in the script initially Becky wouldn’t say anything she would just stand there but because the audience couldn’t see Becky “standing” we added in ‘tuts’ and a “fine”. One effective idea we incorporated into our rehearsals was to do a speed run, and a in the style of run. This was because after we got our first piece of feedback it was lacking energy and it wasn’t at the right pace and it was a little dull to listen to. After this we started to feel a bit complacent and didn’t really know how we could improve at first. I suggested trying a speed run, and although it sounded silly it actually really helped. We started doing one and already I could tell we were all getting much more into the piece. After that one we did another one and tried to go even faster, this really worked because we could finally find a level of pace that we needed for the piece, after bringing it out with the speed run. To bring the energy we did a in the style of run. This really helped with our characters because we did a ‘In the style of accents’ run. Even though none of us had a big accent it really helped us go more over the top with our characters because it was entertaining and fun to do, and so we also got a new energy from this exercise.


Listening to our radio piece back was interesting as the SFX’s for the group piece were put in and it sounded really professional and highlighted our performances. I think it helped to make the piece flow better, and helped the audience understand the story more, with out the vision of sight. You could listen and use your imagination and really get what was happening. I really enjoyed doing the group radio, as the piece we chose was actually quite entertaining for us to do, and I particularly enjoyed playing a more nasty and manipulated character. I think I’ve realised over the past weeks of
learning and studying radio there was a lot more to do/learn than I initially thought, and that there are many opportunity’s in this profession as well. I did a lot of character work and I can tell by the final performance how much I had improved from the first few weeks. I think our final recording of the piece was the best we had ever done it and we all worked well together. I liked the way the whispering worked at the beginning with Connor, and how Alicia and me talked over each other. It all seemed to fit into place. I think my plan throughout the script came out in the final recording as I could tell I was getting more and more aggravated.

I think my strengths were my diction and characterisation in my group piece. I think I did well to control my pace to which matched everything that was going on around me. I think I came off as the character I intended to be and during feedback everyone said how my character was nasty, and that’s exactly the impression I was trying to make. I didn’t stumble in the group piece and this is an improvement for me as I would always get caught up on my biggest line at the beginning and the end line “You can leave willingly or you can leave in a little white coat that ties in the back”.  This line I would always rush, I didn’t want to slow the last line down though as I thought it worked well faster paced and sceptical, so I just had to practise control on this line and it paid off.

I think I improved on my breathing. I think one of my weaknesses was that I was forgetting to breathe, or i wasn't breathing in the right place. I think I was so caught up in getting the pace right I forgot to breathe properly and it sounded out of breathe. I think marking when to breathe on my scripts helped direct me with this. I think I could have made Mrs Bear and the narrator a bit more contrasting because when I listened to it back I felt like they were a little bit similar. I think I need to put myself in the mind set of if I think I'm being over the top I need to go even more over the top. 

Time management in class wasn’t perfect, however I got better as I went along. I think I was quite prepared as I brought along other scripts for my other group members and always had something I could work with or work on. I contributed to the group well with ideas and even found the script we used. I believe an obstacle was finding a piece that would work with 3 girls and 1 boy.

My favourite piece I did was Poem On Drugs, because I got to play around with it and experiment and try different things. I also think it was quite original and different. Overall I think all of my performance including our group piece went really well. This is because we were well rehearsed, were familiar with what we were saying and had the right energy.