My Characters/characterisation

In the wolves of Willoughby Chase, I play the Guard. I need to ask myself:

- What did they dress like?
- How would they speak?
- What mannerisms would my character have?
- What do they look like
-How would other people react to me? (imperialism)
- What was their physicality like?

After some research, I found an image of what I imagined my character of the guard to look like:



This was one of many pictures I found of guards and policeman in the 1800s. I especially used this one because this is how I imagined my character was like: big, tall, assertive and also a sense of authority, I also think he looked quite scary.

The first time I played the guard, I tried different tones of voice and different accents. In the end, I decided to have a very low tone of voice like a man and had a deep southern accent, as I couldn't imagine the guard sounding posh like everyone else in the play. I also bought big steel toe boots to wear with pants, a white shirt with a long jacket. I also purchased a moustache like the one in the picture. When playing the guard, I kept clearing my throat and adapted an assertive tone when speaking to Sylvia as she was an orphan. Baring my physicality in mind, I walked on with my hands behind my back shouting "Tickets please!" I also had a stapler which I used as a ticket stamp to stamp the tickets I was given. I acted manly and assertive because that's the personality I wanted to have as I think its important to give a character a personality as it allows you to embrace who/what you're playing. Also, before my character enters the stage, Mr Grimshaw walks on stage, but he walks on with his stick and sits opposite to Sylvia and the way he walked on and sat down, you could tell he was of a higher status than Sylvia, who acted very sheepish and shy. Then when I walk on, the status levels change again, Mr Grimshaw rummages through his pockets to find the ticket, and Sylvia rushes to look through her bag apologising. I felt my character was of a higher status at this point, as also the 1800s was the time of imperialism.


Wolves:
I found a video on YouTube that shows how wolves move and behave. Their slow hesitant prowling, sudden halts where they look left to right, or raise their noses in the air to smell, this really gave me a good insight on how I want to move as a wolf. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI7fxQHuw5s

As I was part of the chorus, we adapted the roles of wolves also. So most of the time we were on stage as the chorus, we maintained a creepy, slow, scary persona as we wanted the audience to be intrigued and get the hint that bad things were happening in the play. Then towards the end of the play, when Miss Slighcarp is found out, we completely change our personality to happy, excited and giggly.

Servants

A domestic servant had only two choices depending on their situation. They had to become a live-in servant or live outside of the home they are servicing; and in most cases, men and women who entered into this type of workforce had no choice but to live within the confines of the home chosen for them. These men and women who entered into this kind of labour were more than likely very poor (in some cases lonely); some were young children and teenagers whose parents needed the extra income to make ends meet for the family and had no other choice but to send their young one's off to a workhouse to learn to become a domestic servant, like the ones in the play. The youngest a domestic servant started out if they were children was 7 years old; but if you were a young man or woman, you started at the age of 14.  Depending on what kind of labour you'd be doing as a servant, these young men and women lived within the confines of a workhouse -- which was kind of like a boot camp for domestic servants -- and you were literally taught how to do all the jobs expectant of you as a servant of some kind.

Servants couldn't afford to wear clean tidy clothes much like anyone else. They wore torn, ragged clothes during all seasons.

As I'm playing a servant in the play, I wanted to purchase a plain apron which I would dirty myself. I will have my hair up looking scruffy.

As I was unable to purchase a plain apron after looking everywhere, I bought an original apron with font on or whatever and turned it inside out to look plain. I also play a chef in the same scene, so a purchased some plastic knives, things to chop in the scene, and Danielle also brought in a chopping board for us to use.

I play a servant twice in the play, in one scene I have no lines, but there are about 6 of us stood in a line, and we are being dismissed by Miss Slighcarp and Mr Grimshaw, we listen to their lecture they're giving us, saying we are not needed anymore, and we are ridiculous. We then fight over our wages she throws at us, courtesy and then walk off. Then we play servants in another scene where Miss Brisket enters, where we are cleaning, and get hit and have to act like everything is okay when the school inspector arrives.

Set Design

When rehearsing the play, we decided we wanted a set to work with. We incorporated different levels into the background, added in some stairs and explained as we went along what we would use each section for.


We had 3 sections of staging, stage right we had a tall build as we used this side to represent a house, stairs, and was used for many entrances such as Simon, and Miss Slighcarp and we other built in an archway for other entrances. Stage left we had the same size as stage right, but we used this side for the likes of the wolves and chorus, as we use pieces of cards where we project images onto card pieces for exaggerated effect. Then centre stage we had a row of staging which we used for the wolves, the train, a horse carriage and a secret passage in a couple of scenes.

We had the staging in many ways before we decided what was best, we had four lots at one point, but it made the stage looks a bit full and messy. We also decorated the set with drapes and sheet for some shadowing effect of the wolves. And we also added chests on stage for props and costume for some of us to get changed on stage. We also used the chests to sit on in some scenes also.

Bertolt Brecht Workshop 04/03/14

Unit 13: Contemporary Theatre Performance - Brecht
Unit 1: Performance Workshop

When having a group discussion about the key rehearsal tasks that we all need to do, we discussed the following:

• Learning lines - Learning your lines, i would say is one of the most important things you need to do first when starting your play. As soon as you receive your script and are aware of what character you are playing, you should begin learning your lines as soon as possible; the sooner you know your lines, the sooner you can start blocking the play and begin exploring different ways of saying your lines e.g different tones of voice, accents, characterisation. If you are rehearsing 2 weeks before the performance with your script still in hand, it will show that you are unorganised and not fully committed and you will be letting everybody else down.
• Blocking - Blocking is all about planning your entrances and exits, where you're standing when you say your lines, the space where you perform, and most importantly, proxemics.
• Props/Costumes - Costumes and props are normally something you consider thinking about when you begin learning your lines, you need to make sure you have the correct costume and props that would suit your character, their personality, their posture, their attitude, and also the time they lived in. It is also important to have your costume and props prepared early in the process to ensure they fit correctly and are used correctly.
• Characterisation - A script can only give you so much information about your character, and how they move, speak, think, and their relationships. So it's important you take this into account when playing your character. You need to think about what life would be like, what other characters they seem to like, characters they seem to hate, certain dislikes of theirs etc.
• Research - Research is also key when baring all the above in mind. In order to know the play itself, you need to be aware of the author/play writer, maybe different actors that have played the characters in the play and how they played them, whether different actors played the characters differently. It's also important to know how characters can convey the themes and knowing where your characters come from. Looking for reviews of the play is also helpful as it is good to know what people think of it.

Responsibilities:

Although my character is only in the beginning of the play, I also participate in the chorus and I play a wolf and servants. I have also adapted a directors role, giving my classmates advice with their lines, different ways of saying them, where they could stand and also I have found great pieces of music for certain scenes, in once scene I have combined two pieces of music and played them at the same time to give a howling effect, representing wolves. The pieces I have combines are called:

- Running wolf 

- Wolves in the wind (25 minute version, which in rehearsals I keep replaying as the howling of wolves creates such an eerie ambiance. 


WOTW - Didactic

intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive.

This afternoon, we talked about Bertolt Brecht and his techniques and talent. We mostly talked about Verfremdungseffekt ( the V effect). Brecht used this to direct the audience's attention to something new.

"From his late twenties Brecht remained a lifelong committed Marxist who, in developing the combined theory and practice of his “epic theatre”, synthesized and extended the experiments of Erwin Piscator and Vsevolod Meyerhold to explore the theatre as a forum for political ideas." www.actorhub.co.uk

Epic Theatre came about when Melodrama, realism, and naturalism were very popular forms of theatre. The point was for the audience to believe the characters were real and the story was real, letting the audience forget about everything and enjoy a performance. Brecht hated that type of theatre; he believed that performances were something that the audience should question and think about, so he then created Epic Theatre. He used his techniques to break the illusion of drama. Brecht believed that the actors job was to solely show what is happening, he did not want the actors to play the role realistically, which was the opposite of Stanislavki's purpose in theatre.



FACT 
"Dialectical theatre is a label that the German modernist theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht came to prefer near the end of his career over epic theatre to describe the style of theatre he pioneered . From his later perspective, the term "Epic Theatre" had become too formal a concept to be of use anymore; one of Brecht's most-important aesthetic innovations prioritized function over the sterile opposition between form and content. According to Manfred Wekwerth, one of Brecht's directors at the Berliner Ensemble at the time, the term refers to the "'dialecticizing' of events" that his theatre produces" www.wikepedia.com

 

Brecht always used to try and get the audience involved by speaking to them during the performance. We did use this in Wolves; in the school scene where the inspector comes to inspect the work house, we thought it would be a really good idea for the Megan who plays the inspector to walk around the theatre, inspecting the audience, which I think would instigate a good reaction from the audience. Also, when we play wolves, we repeatedly look at the audience, and when in the chorus, we speak to the audience as if we are keeping them involved, telling them the story and things that are to come.


PLACARDS

We had the iPads and did a few small exercises using a placards app, and had a mess around with them using them for different stories, ideas etc. Which then gave us the idea to use plain white card to project images onto for our performances. When putting this into practice, we also found a piece of music which we used to run around the stage with our cards moving to different places ready to project a different image onto the card, I thought this worked really well and added an ambience and huge affect to the scenes.

Friday - Casting

Casting

Today, we found out what characters we would be playing the cast list is as follows:

Bonnie - Danielle

Sylvia - Sian

James - Adam

Simon - Jay

Mr Gripe - Andrew

Miss Slighcarp - Beth

Mrs Briskett - Chloe

Mr Grimshaw - Lofty

Guard - Me 

Mr Willoughby - Danny

Lady Willougyby - Me

Doctor - Zoe

School Children - All

School Inspector - Megan

Chorus - All (Amy main narrator)

Emma - Jess

Mr Wilderness - Ryan 

When doing our fist run through playing our characters, we discovered that my characters Lady Willoughby and the train guards scenes are too close together, so we decided that Lady Willoughby would not be played my anyone and we would use a prop to represent Lady Willoughby, such as a blanket as she doesn't have any lines and is always in bed because she is very sick. We also came up with the idea of projection - using a white cloth hanging from the ceiling then projecting images onto the cloth giving out a huge effect. 

A few weeks later, we decided to add Lady Willoughby back into the beginning of the play and for me to not feature in the beginning routine. So Me and Dan were at the top of the staging blocks where I lay and he sat next to me whilst everyone did the opening sequence.

Friday 28th Feb - Research

After auditions on Thursday, we were all really excited to find out what characters we were going to be playing. On Fridays session, we spent the lesson discussing the 1800s and what times were like, what different classes of people wore in those times, and different events that had occurred in those times. 

Fashion: 
- People in the 1800s dressed a lot more conservative than we do nowadays.
I found an excellent video showing fashion from the 1700s-1900s. I specifically concentrated on the video around 2:55 onwards.

Upper Class Women:
Women in the 1800's wore corsets, also known as stays. Bustles were also very popular, as well as petticoats, hoops (which was underneath there dresses), and there dresses went all the way to the floor (only if they had reached puberty). The materials were made from fabric that only the working class could afford. Women often wore hats or bonnets to go with their outfits.

This is how I imagine Mr & Mrs Willoughby to dress.


Upper Class Men:
In the 1800s men embraced the fashions that were associated for work, formal and casual occasions. The theme of their fashion was mostly sophisticated and smart. They wore Breeches, pantaloons, coats with tails, shirts, waistcoats, greatcoats (a dressier version of waistcoats), hessian boots, Wellingtons, top hats and wigs. Moustaches and beards were also very popular back then.

This is how I imagine Mr Grimshaw and Mr Gripe to dress.


Upper Class Boys:



Upper Class Girls:
For centuries little girls were dressed like small versions of their mothers. So they wore dresses, bonnets, etc. Silk was an important fabric as it was used by the richer people in society to show off their wealth through their dress. In the early 1800s young girls began to have their skirts shortened. A seventeen and eighteen year girl was considered to be a young lady and wore skirts ground length just like adult women did.  Most sixteen year old wore gowns to the ankles, a fourteen year old skirts to the calves, but a 12 year old wore skirts to just below the knee. 

Lower Class Women:
The poor bought second-hand clothes from special dealers in every town in the western world. We forget now that used clothes had real value to a large proportion of the population; poor people would go to market stalls or back-stores just to get massive collections of old used clothes.




Lower Class Men:
Men often wore wool, or patched clothing, or thin shirts made from cheap material which was their work wear.



Lower Class Boys:
Poor children wore the cast-off clothes of their parents and hand-downs from older siblings or cousins. Everything had been "pre-worn" by other children or young people in the family, or sometimes by neighbours who didn't have younger boys or girls. 


This is how I imagine James and Simon to dress.

Lower Class Girls:

Young girls learnt to repair old clothes, having to save all the clothes they had, no matter what the condition was. This is how I imagine Sylvia to dress.




Travel:

Types of transport include the electric carriage, which was actually built by Robert Anderson between the years of 1832-1839. Steamboats were also a very popular way of transport in the 1800s. Other forms of transportation include trains, stagecoaches, ferry and carriages.

Life in 1832 compared to the fictional 1832

Its important to know what was happening around 1832 as it can help me base up my character and work out what life would have been like for them, I can use visual elements that help build the story.

In 1832, when William IV was on the throne, women liked to make themselves look beautiful and were very graceful. They painted, sang, and played musical instruments like the piano. Women had to stay at home and look after their families. However, most rich families had maids or nannies. Rich men had big houses in the countryside with lots of land around it. For poor people, they had it rough; they lived in the streets of big cities, if not in tiny houses with little shelter, catching diseases from rats and dirty animals, having to steal from people or beg for money. They were very dirty and malnourished, often making them tired and weak. There was little sympathy for the poor in them days, they were very rarely given money by the rich. Those who were more wealthy often went on to become governesses, and teach rich, spoiled children how to act properly. the very poor would work long hard hours in terrible conditions, lived in squalor and even have their children perform on the streets for money. Disease was also a significant problem in the 1800s, such as cholera, which was one of the most dreaded diseases in that era, such as small pox, whooping cough etc.

In The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, it is mentioned that King James III ruled the throne, when it was in fact William IV. Sylvia travels by train, through the Channel Tunnel, braving the huge quantity of wolves. However, the Wolves of Willoughby Chase is based on 1832, and the Channel Tunnel wasn't completely finished until 1994, when it was in fact opened by Margaret Thatcher. Also, it is mentioned that wolves were a huge danger in those days which is also incorrect, as there were only a small amount of wolves in the 19th century, and they were not as dangerous as the novel makes out, as people were not really bothered by the wolves and had no impact on the way they lived their lives, for example not leaving the house, stopping trains etc. Disease is also a topic in WOWC, as Lady Willoughby becomes very ill, which is what leads her and Mr Willoughby to go away for a while, to give her the opportunity to recover.