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.