Evaluation of "the wardrobe" performance

Basics:
In our performance of the wardrobe, I feel that an especially effective part of the performance was our entrances and exits into each scene. For example at the end of scene 1,  Cecily exited through the right door of the wardrobe. As this was happening the two Jewish boys entered through the left door of the wardrobe in order to start scene 2. I felt this was effective as it kept the play moving with the smooth transition and therefore the pace and energy of the scenes kept at the same level.

However we did have one accident with scene 12's exit. As the narrator exited the wardrobe she accidentally bumped into the pole that was used as a coat rack inside the wardrobe. It caused the pole to break off but she recovered well as she took the pole out of the wardrobe when she exited. This meant that the final scene could carry on as she dealt with the incident backstage. I felt that she was very professional in handling the situation as she didn't panic and the play continued like nothing had happened.

Stylistically:
Our main aim in the performance was to perform in a naturalistic style of a contemporary play. I felt that we achieved being able to act naturally in the play and we able to express our own truth into our characters. For example in scene 6, Dido was talking about thankfulness and she said "today I am grateful that I was not enslaved upon a ship as my mother was". When she said this line she said it through her teeth. When I heard her say this line, I thought she was almost about to cry as her voice was so haunting that I felt the sadness, angry and shame of her character. I believed her so much I went up to her backstage to see if she was alright after her scene.

Actors skills:
One part of the play that I wish I did better with was my vocal delivery of some of my lines as I messed up some words which meant that some of my lines didn't make complete sence. For example one of my lines was meant to be "you will marry a gentleman and have babies" however in our performance I said "you will marry a husband and have babies". I felt that this broke my performance as I was able to say the more complicated words like "ascertainth" correctly but I messed up on the easier lines. Therefore I felt that I needed to work more on learning lines or being more fluid with them as I felt that it effected my ability to perform in a naturalistic style.

Ensemble:
I think one of the most effective elements of the performance was the teamwork. Every cast member supported the performance both on and off the stage by staying quite during the show, playing their parts to the best of their ability and helping the other performers during the show. For example Chloe had to do a quite change from a maid to a lady in between scene 4 to scene 5. She asked me to set up her dress so that as soon as she exited scene 4 we could slip it over her maid costume in order for her to walk in for scene 5. This was effective as the scene had a smooth transition and I was able to support Chloe in order for the performance to carry on.

Week 4 "The Wardrobe" - Essay

In scene 1 there are 4 main components that drive the plot of the scene, the first being the historical context of the scene. The scene is set in 1485, London, The Royal Court. In this time period there   were many limitations for women. For example women had no legal rights and they were seen as property to their husbands and their fathers. From their births, women were taught that they would be inferior to all men and they were not allowed to have jobs so they were seen as burdens to their parents. Their main purpose was to marry wealthy and bare children for their husbands. For Elizabeth and Cecily these limitations were very apparent in their lives as they were both girls and Elizabeth was due to marry the King even though she was the rightful ruler of England. We learn this in the scene when Elizabeth says "If I weren't a woman, Cecily, no one would question my right to rule my country. But because I have a womb and breasts he'll not  share his crown with me, only his bed." I feel that without these limitations there would be no real struggle for Elizabeth as she would be able to do what she wanted as Queen and she wouldn't have to be separated from her sister. I think that Sam Holcroft has used this theme as a way to show the difficulties of women over time and to question why women aren't seen as strong leaders or capable of looking after themselves.

Another key component that drives the story is the pre scene event. Before Elizabeth enters the wardrobe, her uncle, the king, has been killed by the enemy Lancaster and she has received a letter to say that she is to marry the new king. the audience knows this when Elizabeth says "Well tis official: a letter for the King was published in parliament house just this morn. Shall I read it to you?" The letter that she receives is the first key moment that drives the scene as without the letter the sisters wouldn't be be questioning their future and they wouldn't know that the enemy had won the crown. I feel that the letter is a symbol of people's realisation that they have a problem as without the letter the girls would known that they were in trouble. Therefore I think that the pre scene event not only starts the scene buy it also make the girls realise that their lives are never going to be the same again.



A definite key component to the scene is the dramatic event. Probably the biggest change in the scene is when Cecily starts considering to kill her sister due to the fact that she knows her life is going to be terrible and she would rather have Elizabeth's assured life that has been planed for her. We know this because Elizabeth says "Oh yes. he said something else. If I die, he intends to marry you." Cecily looks at the dagger in her hand and then at her sister's exposed back. Not only is this line tempting Cecily but it also drives her want for freedom and control of her own life, it therefore shows her true selfish nature. I feel that this is a very poignant moments as it questions how far people will go to get what they want in order to be happy. it also relates back to the limitations of women as the King will just chuck away his wife if she dies and marry another without thinking about it.



 A final component that drives this scene is the difference between the two characters. both of the girls are sisters so it means that they couldn't chose their relationship which means that they were forced to know each other. I think this becomes a slight obstacle in the scene as they are such different characters. Elizabeth is a dreamer as she thinks about her being the rightful ruler of England and she promises her sister she will have a perfect family even though she won't. On the other hand Cecily is very realistic, she knows she won't marry well and that she will never see her sister again. We know this when Cecily says "But what of her sister, Cecily? Who ever heard of her? I expect she died alone in a convent!" I feel this difference between characters causes a clash in personalities and therefore gives the scene a tense energy because there is this conflict of opinions. I also feel that it shows the two sides of peoples opinions of that time period, one being hopeful for the future and the other being dismissive and regretting their lives. I think that Holcroft has portrayed this in the scene to show how people can chose to have a positive or negative look on life depending on how hard their situation in life.

Week 3 "the wardrobe" - Developed Character Profile

Character profile:




. Elizabeth of York
. Born in 1466, England
. Parents - King Edward the fourth
. Siblings - Cecily of York, Edward the fifth
. Married - King Henry VII in 1486
. Children - 7 (one of which was King Henry VIII)




Who am I?
I believe Elizabeth to be very protective and argumentative character as she says thing like "how tedious! I shan't have that." She is strong willed due to the fact that she was meant to have the crown but was denied it because she was a woman. I also believe her to be very loving towards her sister as throughout the scene she is trying to assure her sister about their future. She is a very private character as she changes her appearance for the public but within the wardrobe she lets loose and is able to laugh with her sister. She almost feels that she is punished for being a woman and that her life has always been controlled for her. In the scene she defies everything that she should be but she realises she has to do them. She therefore is also hiding from her sister as she pretends to defy her duty when she knows she won't.

Where am I?
The scene is set in the bedchamber of Elizabeth, the royal court, London in the afternoon. I believe it to be a sunny afternoon and her room to be filled with lavished and bright objects but the inside of the wardrobe would be dark and plain. I think that Elizabeth and Cecily would feel safe and very connected to the wardrobe due to the fact that it was owned by their brother's and they confide in the wardrobe with all their secrets.

When is it?
27th October 1485 (Tudor England) in the afternoon, it is sunny. The wars of the roses has raged for thirty years between the houses of York and Lancaster. Henry VII has just killed King Richard III (Elizabeth's and Cecily's Uncle). England is now waiting for the coronation of King Henry VII and the news of his new bride.

What do I want?
Elizabeth wants to assure her sister (and herself) that everything will be alright in their future. She doesn't want to marry Henry VII but she knows she must. She also doesn't want to leave her sister but if she marries Henry VII she know she will never see Cecily again.

Why do I want it?
Elizabeth is only 18 at this point so she is still young as she wants to be free from duty as she has never lived without rules before. She wants to be assured due to the fact that she is scared of marriage and life without her sister. She loves her sister and she has never been separated before and she knows when they are separated, they will never see each other again.

How do I get it?
In order to get her assurance she make a blood bond with her sister to promise that they will look out for each other and stay close to each other when they are separated. Elizabeth convinces Cecily to cut her hand and shake on it but it doesn't go quite right as Cecily ends up eating Elizabeth's blood.

Extras:
She might also want to win points in her games in order to recapture the childhood she spent with her sister before she is sent away to marry the King. I think this want brings to the scene the light hearted nature between the girls and therefore brings hope for the girls future. I order to get this she reveals her spoon and encourages her sister to see if she has done any better. it therefore brakes the ice between the sisters and it brings a little joy in what is otherwise a very depressive topic. 

What must I overcome?
My character main obstacle is my sister refusal to accept the fact that we will change to fit into society and that we will never see each other again. Also my fear for the future as it stops my character seeing what I am going to have to do to survive without my sister and the protection of my character's family. 

Extras:
Another obstacle that she must overcome is the wedding to the King. She is apart of the York House which means that her enemies are the Lancaster House. She must marry the Lancaster King which means Elizabeth is going against her family because she is forced by the King. She also hates the fact that he has stolen her rightful crown and now she must watch her new husband rule her country without her.  The audience doesn't know whether or not she will overcome this  but they can see this obstacle as her on going struggle in the scene. 

Week 2 'The Wardrobe' - Titles and Frantic's Devices

Titles for Scene 1:

To extend our understanding of the play, I decided to look at ways of interpreting scene 1 by applying different titles to it. I experimented with two titles.

The first title I chose was 'A taste of blood'. This title is a body part/physical response to the scene, which means that it refers to an action that happens in the scene. In the text, one of the characters (Elizabeth) who has just cut her hand, puts her hand over her sister's mouth to silence her, which forces her sister to eat Elizabeth's blood. The title itself could appear shocking as it could convey clichéd ideas of death and murder but the title is actually very straightforward.  It refers to the literal action of Cecily accidentally eating Elizabeth’s blood. The titles main use is to draw attention to the shock factor of tasting another person’s blood by accident. It means that at a specific moment in the scene it will become apparent to the audience what the title actually means. I chose this title as it focuses on the key event in the scene. I feel that this type of title is effective as it allows the audience to get a ‘taste’ of what happens in the scene but then it follows up with a definitive meaning.

My second title was called “the roses” because it refers to the war of the roses, which is when scene 1 is set. The war of the roses had raged between the houses of York and Lancaster, whose heraldic symbols were the white and red rose. This title therefore immediately tells the audience about the time period and gives them a glimpse into what the scene could be about. The title relates to the part of the text when Cecily calls her sister “the white princess, who married the red king and thus ended the war of the roses.” I think that the colours become very apparent in this scene as a red rose can mean love and a white rose can mean purity, which could infer that their sisterhood is like ‘the roses’ as they are pure and loving. This title therefore has a double meaning as it not only means the houses that fought against each other but also the English rose resembling women. I feel that a single word title is very effective as it doesn't reveal much about the scene but it makes the audience start to question what the scene is about band therefore might make them want to find out the significance of ‘the roses’ in the scene. 

Using Frantic's Devises:
In one of our lessons, we watched some videos from the theatre company, Frantic Assembly. Frantic is a physical theatre company, which means that they focus on the movement and interpretation of the body in a theatrical performance. One of their improvised movements was called hymns hands, due to the fact that they used this movement in a devised play called hymns. The movement is entitled of a partner placing their hands on their partners body. Both people can switch hands but they always must come back to the main part of the body. It focuses on fluidity between the switching hands and the connection to the partners. To extend the exercise further, the partners do the movements in slow motion but they have to follow the hands moving with their eyes. This makes the partners focus on the control of their movements and the effect of the weight of their touch.

 After watching Frantic's videos, we then went to rehearsing our wardrobe scenes. Whilst looking at the script, I realised that we could included some hymns hands into our scene. In the scene Elizabeth says "I promise you this: you will never die alone in a convent, not while I'm alive and we are sisters." At this point in the scene Cecily (Elizabeth's sister) is holding a dagger as she nearly tried to kill Elizabeth. I thought at this point, Elizabeth could place her hand onto Cecily's shoulder as a sign of assurance and when she says "we are sisters", Elizabeth could allow her hand to slide down Cecily's arm to reveal the dagger, which is pointed at Elizabeth. I think that this would be a very effective movement in the scene as it highlights the danger and disconnection between the sisters knowing that they will be separated due to the marriage. It also reminds to the audience that there is still a chance that blood could be shed in the scene. Therefore it brings back the tension after it has been released when Elizabeth is assuring Cecily, which means something could still happen.

Week 1 'The Wardrobe' - Naturalism and Character Profile

Naturalism and Stanislavski

Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski

Born: January 17, 1863, Moscow, Russia

Died: August 7, 1938, Moscow, Russia

In the lesson we were focusing on the Russian Practitioner Stanislavski and his ideas on Naturalism. He believed that performances show be as true to real life as possible. He taught actors to inhabit the role of their character by knowing their lines, the motive of their lines and every detail of that character’s life off-stage as well as on-stage. His key approach to theatre was experimentation.

Before the practice of naturalism, all acting was melodramatic which meant that there was no real truth in what the actors were doing as they were only pretending to be a character. Stanislavski was against this idea. He wanted the theatre to mirror life which enabled him to create “the system”.

“The system” is a process that actors take in order to make their characters naturalistic, this includes the use of emotional memory, the method of physical actions, subtext, given circumstances, “if”, objective and through line.

“No matter how much you act, how many parts you take, you should never allow any exception to the rule of using your own feelings. To break that rule is the equivalent of killing the person you are portraying, because you deprive him of a palpitating, living, human soul, which is the real source of life for a part.” – Stanislavski

In my opinion this means that if there is no emotion from you, there isn't really a character as you are that character. You provide the body for the characters story but without your emotions they cannot really be alive. This type of acting is all formed from the technique of emotional memory. It means that you draw upon your own experiences and borrow that emotion for the character that you are portraying. This related to our lesson as we tried using emotional memory on our characters. When we didn't use emotional memory we had to use our imagination to get an idea of how our character felt, however when we did use emotional memory we were able to sympathise with our character and it gave us a deeper bond with the character as we were in the same place as them. Considering this technique in acting will be helpful as it will give us connection to our character no matter how different they may be to us.

“When an actor is inspired his emotions flow, his actions are real and theatrical, his performance is clear to the audience; short, the actor reincarnates himself as the character.” – ‘Stanislavski Revealed’ by Sonia Moore

To me the reincarnation hints to the idea that an actor must start from scratch with any character they play and draw from the subtext given to them and emotions they have gained from real life. This also relates to our lesson as we were discussing the idea that we leave our real life coats on the hanger outside the acting area and instead we put on our characters coat. However the characters coat doesn't leave the acting area so that you are safe from mixing up the different lives. I feel that this technique is helpful as you are able to full immerse yourself into the character as you are not constricted by your own life. However it is important to remember that you can still draw on your own experiences with emotional memory.

In the lesson however I didn't feel that using an object to extract emotions was helpful to me as I felt false in what I was portraying, perhaps it was because I didn't feel a lot of emotion for the object. Therefore I would like to practice using other objects and different memories to draw from because I feel that this technique would be an easy way to delve into naturalism quickly without having to put too much strain on emotional memory.

"The Wardrobe" Scene 1

Scene 1 is set in Tudor England 1485. At this time the Wars of the Roses between York and Lancaster had finish as the Yorkshire King Richard III had died and the Lancaster heir, King Henry VII took to the throne. The two sisters’ in the scene, Elizabeth at 18 years old and Cecily at 16 years old are the nieces of Richard III. The oldest, Elizabeth is due to marry King Henry VII but she doesn't want to marry him and her sister Cecily doesn't want to be left alone without any future (e.g. not being able to see her sister, having no husband or children).

In this scene I play the character of Elizabeth of York who was born in 1466 and married Henry VII in 1486 (when she was 20). She bore him 7 children; Arthur, Margaret, Henry VIII, Elizabeth, Mary, Edmund and Katherine. Even though she is due to become King Henry VII's Wife, she does seem to be a very youthful and jolly character in this scene, as she says small jokes like "I'll start a new fashion: Barnaby the First". This starts to show a bit more of her private life as she is more open to her sister and the audience in the wardrobe and it shows her trying to bring happiness into what is an awkward moment for the sisters. I think this a key element to the scene as it shows the character's true nature to the audience. It also allows the actor to experiment with the maturity levels of their characters and show how much different they appear to be from their public faces.     

      

In the early 1400’s women wore dresses that could be slipped over their head which were called ‘houppelande’. They often had v-shaped necklines that were broad to show of the undergarments and tubular sleeves. Around 1470’s the bodice had to be done up by lace at the back of the dress and most dresses had trains. Some dresses also added fur to the necklines and sleeves. In all social classes women wore gloves. The wealthy ladies would have worn embroidered gloves that were encrusted with jewels.  The women had many limitations in the way they moved. They would have a very straight back and the dresses would be very hard to manage.

This showed me that my character would be limited in how she sat in the wardrobe and she would not be able to get up quickly.  It would also show that she would be uncomfortable in the wardrobe as she would not be able to slouch. I think it would be important to show how uncomfortable she would be at the audience to show how she hides this un-comfort from her public life. She is also limited by the fact that she is a female. women had many restrictions as they were seen lower than men and they had no legal rights. They were only seen good for marrying wealthy and barring children to further the family line. This therefore makes me consider whether or not her whole life is uncomfortable as she has no control of her life and it has been planned out for her. I think this factor will change the way Elizabeth is played as it shows the bigger differences between her public and private lives.