The Rover - Research

Alpha Behn

She was born 14th December 1640 and she lived until she was 48 (16th April 1689). She was a playwright, poet, translator and fictional writer form the restoration period. She broke cultural barriers as she was one of the first females to earn a living wage for her writing. She belonged to a coterie of poets and famous libertines like John Wilmot and Lord Rochester.

Theatres had been closed under the rule of Cromwell but we reopened under Charles 2nd.She wrote 3 plays but none of them thrived so she stopped writing for 3 years then when she returned, she decided to take a comedic course for her plays. One of her most popular plays was the Rover.

 She caused scandles due to some of the subject matters she wrote about often alluding to sexual desire. She knew that the works would not have caused a problem if they had been written by a man. She was ambitious, desiring fame and literary prestige, which for a woman is often regarded as suspect. She wrote the play the Rover in 1677. She was a royalist and her work frequently treated Puritans roughly.

The Rover or The Banish'd Cavaliers

The play was written in two parts and was first premiered 24th March 1677. The play is set during Carnival time in Naples Italy during the English Interregnum. The story has multiple plot line, which deal with the amorous adventure of a group of Englishmen in Naples at Carnival Time.

The Rover is a man called Willmore and he has fallen for the beautiful courtesan Angelica however he can not buy her as she is too expensive so instead he decides to steal her picture at the carnival. When Angelica knows this, she is drawn to Willmore and she gives herself freely to hi. But she falls in love with him. Also in Naples, a woman called Helena is robe sent to a convent but she wants to experience love before she goes to become a nun. So she goes to the carnival as well and she falls in love with Willmore. this makes Angelica swear revenge on Willmore for his betrayal.

Meanwhile Helena's older sister FLorinda attempts to marry her true love Colonel Belvile, rather than the man her father wishes her to marry (don VIncentio) or Don Antonio, the man her brother (Don Pedro) wants her to marry. both FLorinda and Belvile plan to run away with each other at the carnival. Elsewhere a wealthy gentleman called Blunt, is charmed into the arms of Lucetta. Believing that she is in love with him, Blunt is humiliated to discover she is a thief and prostitute.

English Cival War
During 1642 and 1651 there was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between parliament (Roundheads) and royalists (cavaliers) over the manner of England's government. The first (1642-1646) and second (1648-1649) was pitted the supporters of King Charles 1st against the supporters of the long parliament and the third (1649-1651) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles 2nd and supporters of the rump parliament.

The Overall Outcome To the War:
. The retail and execution of King Charles 1st (1648)
. The exile of his son, Charles 2nd (1651)
. The replacement of English monarchy at the first with commonwealth of England (1649-1653)
. And then the protectorate under the personal rules of Oliver Cromwell (1653-1658)

King Charles 1st had hoped to unite the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland into one single kingdom but many parliamentarians had suspicious regarding such a move because they feared that setting up a new kingdom might destroy the old English traditions which had bound the English monarchy.


Oliver Cromwell:
He was an English military and political leader and later Lord protector of the commonwealth of England. He was a Puritan and so he was on the Roundheads during the Cival war. He signedKing Charles 1st death warrant in 1649 and father that he dominated the commonwealth of England until 1658 when he died of natural causes and was buried in west Minster abbey. The royalists then returned to power in 1660 and they had Oliver's corpse dug up, hung in chains and then beheaded.

The Interregnum:
It was the period between the execution of Charles 1st in 1649 and the arrival of his son Charles 2nd in 1660 which marked the starts of the restoration. During the interregnum, England was under various forms of republican government like commonwealth of England, rump government, Oliver Cromwell and Barebone's parliament. After the parlimentarians victory in the Civil War, the puritans views of the majority of parliament and its supporter began to imposed on the rest of the country.

The puritans advocate an austere lifestyle nod restricted what they saw as the excesses of the previous regime. Holidays, like Christmas and Easter were suppressed. Pastimes  such as theatre and gambling were also banned. However, some forms of art that were thought to be virtuous such as opera, were encouraged.

Exile of Cavaliers:
A cavalier was described as a reckless nonchalant attitude, although still with a suggestion of stylishness. As consequence of their support for the royalist cause in the English civil war, several hundered Cavaliers, often accompanied by their families, went into exile in Europe for periods ranging from a few weeks to twenty years. These exiles lasted within the year 1640 and 1660. Cavaliers living in exile in Europe had to become familiar with a variety of different currency's and with 2 calendars (the Georgian or the new style) in use on the continent and the old style, which was ten day behind, still used in England.

Restoration:
It began in 1660 when Charles 2nd was restored to the throne after the interregnum from 1649-1660. During restoration Charles instated the cavalier parliament and it lasted from 1661 till 1679. Many royalists (cavaliers) who were exiled returned to England and they were rewarded. The men who signed Charles 1st death warrant were put onto trial due to the new law the indemnity and oblivion act instigated in 1660.

Theatres reopened after having been closed during the protectorship of Oliver Cromwell, purtitism lost its momentum and the bawdy restoration comedy became a recognised genre. In addition women were allowed to perform on the commercial stage as professional actresses for the first time ever.

Restoration Comedy:
Started in 1660, it was notorious for its sexual explicitness, a quality encouraged by Charles 2nd and by the rakish aristocratic ethos of his court. The socially divers audiences included both aristocrats, their servants and hangers-on and a substantial middle class segment. It also introduced the first female paid playwright Alpha Behn and female actresses like Elizabeth Barry.

The Rover - Second rehearsal

In today lesson we showed back our newly blocked scene from the Rover and started to change either some of the stage directions or some of the emotions involved in the scene.

For instance we originally had a table centre stage that my character Florinda used to sit behind but now it has been moved the up stage right and is a drinks table that Mike's Character Pedro uses when he enters the scene. We also have two single chairs that are place at the centre back of the stage which was originally were we had the table situated. we use these chairs when me and Katrina first enter as we sit on them to gossip about the man that Florinda loves. We also have moved the chaise lounge closer to the centre so that once Helena had got all worked up she can collapse into it without being too separated from her brother and sister.

We have also added more, or analysed deeper into the character's emotions within the scene. For instance I started of by thinking my character wants to try and keep the piece between her brother and sister but now I see she is more scare of the confrontation and that is the reason why she stays quite through out their argument. I also use my fan as something to hide behind and the calm myself down so that I don't upset myself. It means that I can make some perhaps comedic facial expressions within this scene to ease the situation for the audience.

For Helena's character she started of just hating the fact that she would become a nun and that her sister would be given away to a man she didn't love. However Helena now feels that she must argue to save her sister even though she is the younger of the two. But also she feels that her brother is deliberately saying these things to annoy her so her anger is also built up to try and show her strength as a woman against her brother.

The Rover - First Rehearsal

When we first started looking at the rover we did a quick read through of the script in order to start getting a handle on the language and what our scene is about. 

In our scene, my character Florinda has been told in her father's will that she must marry a man called Don Vincentio, an old Indian man. However Florinda's brother (Don Pedro) wants her to marry his best friend Don Antonio. But Florinda is madly in love with a British man who saved her in siege of Pampalone called Belvile. At the same time, Florinda's younger sister (Helena) has been told by her brother Pedro that she must become a nun and Helena is very annoyed with both her's and her sister's situation. At the end of the scene both Helena and Florinda decided to escape their apartment and go in disguise to the carnival in order to have some freedom before they are both tied down. 

After looking at the scene we then decided to do a movement workshop that would help us discover the social etiquette of this era. In the exercise we all had to walk around the room as if we were our characters from the rover. We had to stand correctly like we were wearing corsets and we had to try to glide across the floor. I found this quite hard as I was in a pair of large boots so gliding did not come naturally to me. We then had to improvise a party scene where in which me and Katrina were the party hosts and we had to make conversation with people in the same way in which they would have in that era. I found this helpful as we had music in the background that gave the mood of the era but also once we knew some of the mannerisms with the fans, I felt that I could start to see the character coming to life.

Then we went back to our original scenes and started to block the scenes whilst adding more to our characters. We decided to stage our play with a desk in the centre stage at which Florinda would sit at. We had a chaise lounge put on stage left in which Helena would rest on but she mainly was standing in stage left. And on stage left we had a chair that Pedro would sit on it but he also mainly stands in the scene. We then added some more of our characterisation to our characters. For example Florinda gets very anxious when her brother and sister are arguing so i tried to use the fan as a shield to hide behind. Helena also gets very angry and flustered so she uses the fan to cool herself down after she has worked herself up. 

Example Children's Story for Solo Audio

Example of Children's story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtXGmnR9F5Y

This children's story is Roald Dahl's "Revolting Rhymes - Cinderella". The story follows the traditional romantic story of a girl who was tormented by her step mother and sisters but she married the prince due to a fairy godmother who transformed her into a beautiful princess. However since it was a revolting rhyme the prince cuts of the step sister's heads and Cinderella doesn't marry the prince instead she marries a simple man with a good heart.

This story would most likely be play in the daytime and early evening due to the fact that it is a children's story and most children would be able to listen to the recording during the day. Also it would most like be played on a children's channel or family show due to the fact it is based for children.

For this type of acting, the actor must be able to create separate character voices and be able to sustain these voice through out the story. They must use clarity and projection so that the children will understand what they are saying and they must be a lot slower with their delivery of their lines due to the fact the children will not always understand what is said and they have a better chance of understanding if it is slower.

There is no background music to this story however there is sound effects that appear through out the story. For example at the beginning of the story it says "while darling little Cinderella, was locked up in the slimy cellar" at the same time it has a sound effect of a drop of water/slim that echos each time it hits the floor. This sound effect enhances the fact it is slimy and in a cellar but also it breaks up the text and helps create the story images for the children.

Example Monologue for Solo Audio

Example of Monologue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfcqSXKS-ic 

This is a monologue called "The belt" and it is from Robert Katz on a series called Blue Jam Monologues. The monologue is based on a man who is homeless and he sleeping in large operation buildings like BBC. A taxi driver calls into the building looking for some and so the man gets into the taxi as no one seems want the taxi. The man gets dropped off to a party hosted by a famous comedy actor. The actor asks the man for his belt and so he gives it to him but he realises that later the actor has accidentally killed himself through asphyxiation with his belt. Through out this monologue there is two pieces of music played underneath the voice over.

This monologue was most likely performed in a late evening show simply due to the fact that it contains strong mature content with death and sex. Therefore it would be based for an adult audience due to the mature content.

The actor for this monologue obviously has very good rhythm with their voice as the monologue is 6 minutes long so they have to sustain an engaging performance that will not bore its audience. Also they must be very clear with their words other wise the listener will not know what is going on. I don't believe the actor has to use must projection as they sound as if they are very close to their microphone. I think having the actor so close to their microphone is very effective as this monologue is quite sinister so have the actor close makes the words pierce into the listeners ears. I also noticed that the actor as a small reverb to their voice. I think they have done this to once again enhance the sinister sense to the monologue.

The background music at the start is very basic as it is a simple run on the piano that only lasts for a few seconds but is continually repeated. I think they have used this to show the simplicity of the homeless man's life by have a simple sound. However when the homeless man then goes to a more exciting environment the music changes to a quite lively sound. When the comedic actor finally dies in the monologue the music doesn't change. Actually everything stays the same. I think this was a conscious decision as it kind of show that the actor's death didn't matter, it wasn't important and it wasn't anything anyone cared about because nothing changed.

Example Advert for Solo Audio

Radio Advert Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEbQdIu7h14

This is an advert on TV and Radio for WE BUY ANY CAR. The advert targets at car owners who want to sell their cars. The advert starts off with a first person directly talking about how they sold their car and was able to spend their money on better things. It then starts to play a jingle that underlines a voice over by James Cordon talking about some statistics of the company.

This advert would mostly be played during the day time or evenings since its target audience is people who own cars however I think it would be best to be shown in the evening as people would have finished work and already be driving home ready to listen to the radio. It would mostly be played on adult TV channels simply due to its adult audience and it doesn't really appeal to children.

Within this advert, both the actors have been able to use clear pronunciation and sustain clarity within their voice. They have also been able to portray high energy and enthusiasm for the advert which makes the piece a lot more engaging for the audience.

The background music also enhances the advert as it is quite a light heartened and relaxing tune which will make the audience relate those feeling to the audience each time they listen to the advert. The advert includes the sound effects of the woman laughing whilst she throws money into the air. you can distinctively hear the money falling and hitting each other. These sound effects of laughing is quite an effective device as it simulates joy or success to the audience and therefore could make them feel that the company would bring the customer joy and success. I also think the money falling is also a key selling point as the customer wants money to be the outcome of using their services but it also it reinforces the idea of joy as they would be getting what they want.

Midsummer Nights Dream - Children's Theatre Presentation

Here is a link to mine and Katrina's Slide show on Children's Theatre:

https://prezi.com/uycvckex7hjd/childrens-theatre/

And here is the script to this presentation:

Slide 1 – What is it?

Theatre that is aimed at children and their families which hopes to take children on a journey, educates, entertain and inspire. Children’s theatre is targeted to children ages 3 to 12 and tends to be very colourful, vibrant, fun and loud. They include singing and dancing and interaction throughout the play. Here is a clip of what children’s theatre should look like. This clip is the Cbeebies pantomime version of Aladdin.

Workshop

The acting style of children’s theatre does sort of mirror the behaviour of children. For example if a character is annoyed, they will stomp around grunting and moaning, sort of like how a toddler might act if they were annoyed.

 So now we want you guys to act as children according to these different emotions we are giving you.

·         Bored

·         Tired

·         Happy

·         Angry

·         Excited

·         Love

Now pick your favourite emotion and go wild with it.

Now you know what children’s theatre is about, I am going to tell you a little bit about the origins of children’s theatre

Slide 2 – history

Children's theatre originated from Russia and Britain in 20th century the most recognized practitioner was A.V. Lunacharskii who headed the first state theatre for children in Moscow.

Only the best actors were allowed to perform in front of the children in Russia due to the respect they held for their young minds

·         1904

The first notated performance of children’s theatre was of the play peter pan by J.M.Barrie

·         1920

Britain only really showed children’s theatre around Christmas as a special gift for the season.

·         1940

British children’s theatre companies began to tour in schools and theatres.

British children’s theatre companies drew upon Russia’s original model work for children’s theatre.

·         1960

Theatre in Education (TIE) was created in Britain.

·         2016

There is children’s theatre festivals held all across the world as you can see it has expanded greatly.

Children’s theatre has turned into children’s TV

Children’s TV programmes have now been transformed into children’s theatre productions

Slide 3 – Elements

·         Small cast of versatile actors

·         Portable productions

·         Audience Participation

·         Narration

·         Music, dance and singing

·         Heightened acting

·         Bright, vibrant and interesting set.

·         Set characters

·         Clarity

·         Magic and mystery

·         Puppetry

·         Educational objects – most children’s theatre companies aim their work to suit school curriculums or have some kind of educational moral with in them that designed to make the children think.

·         Colourful costumes – as you saw in the clip previously children’s theatre aims to be bright and colourful and they defiantly don’t forget the costumes. Costumes can be miss matched with clashing patterns and horrendously bright colours which are all ingredients to create a visually stimulating show for the children. In our show some of the costumes include a moon, an orange and yellow lions main, a colourful sparkly fairy dress and many more.

·         Slapstick comedy/silliness – a very appealing element to children’s theatre is the slapstick comedy scenes that explore the silliness of characters. A very famous slapstick scene is when someone throws a cream pie into another person’s face. Slapstick is predominantly used in pantomime however we also use it within our play. For example in the scene change song sparks hits Shakespeare in the face with a mop

·         Various topics- So children’s theatre covers a lot of topics and they can be educational , like a play about the romans , relevant to today’s society a play about pollution they can be about sensitive subjects like divorce and all of these aim to educate and teach the children about the topics that are surrounding or on day may be they also do  folk law and fairy tale children’s show and theses a lot more about fun and entertainment.

Slide 4 - Suitability

When making a children’s production here are things to contemplate…

·         Mental ability – this is important because if the play is not suited to their mental ability then they will not understand or take anything away from the performance

·         Timescale – the timescale of a children’s play is so important as if it is far too long then you shall lose their focus and the will start become fidgety and bored and will yet again take nothing away from the experience

·         School needs – you must be able to suit your play to the schools needs whether it be to their educational curriculum or to their students if for example a student had a learning disability they would need extra support during the performance.

·         Context – the context of your play has to be suitable for the children for example you can’t be doing a play about sexual abused however a play about fairies is suitable.

·         Age – the performance must be age appropriate and there can be no use of foul language or anything inappropriate that could taint their youthful minds

·         Venue – the venue is important to consider if you are touring and going from school to school or place to place. Your set design has to be suitable and able to adapt to its surroundings as well as you actors being prepared for performing with or without light, or with and audience up close, on the floor or in actual seating.

Slide 5 – midsummer

We have been mentioning our play and so now is a good time to tell you what our play is and how we have made it suitable for children.

We have chosen Shakespeare’s a midsummer night’s dream and adapted it to make it suitable for ages 3-6. We chose this play because it has an educational aspect through learning about Shakespeare and the language he used but at the same time the story is magical and light hearted as long as you remove the death threats

Which is exactly what we have done? Not only have we have we cut the running time down to 50 minutes by removing unnecessary lines we have also replaced any remotely negative words with lighter hearted ones. For example Demetrius’s line “I am sick when I look on thee” we have changed to “I am sad when I look on thee” to avoid any possible offence. We have also added 3 characters sparks, gaffer and Shakespeare himself. They have been added to explain what a play is who Shakespeare is and they also help the children understand what is happening in the scene with the complex language.

So the end result is a fun play that teaches children a little about Shakespeare and how the theatre works. Sparks and gaffer are also the goofy slapstick characters that we touched upon earlier. 

Slide 6 – skills

·         Dance – dance is included in almost every children’ theatre play, you don’t have to be a great dancer you just need to have some rhythm to manage the light dancer that come hand in hand in children’s theatre

·         Sing – just like dancing, you don’t have to be amazing because a lot of the songs can be sung as your character. For example sparks and gaffer in our play don’t have to be the best vocalists as they have goofy farmer accents. However some characters will have to be able to sing for example the fairy in our production of midsummer night’s dream which is why it is important to have this skill.

·         Act - it is quintessential and almost absurdly obvious that you need this skill to do children’s theatre or in fact any theatre at all.

·         Projection – being able to project is a lot more then shouting it is being able to hear throughout your performing space without shouting and for children’s theatre this is a vital skill as there is a lot of audience of interaction and they need to know what they are meant to be doing.

·         Accents – accents are not always used within children’s theatre however you may be required to put on a funny voice as it is quite funny for the children. This would therefor require you to be clear whilst talking in a accent as the children may not understand what you are saying and you must be constant with your accent as the children may become confused if your voice keeps changing.

·         Stage combat – this sounds a bit odd as you wouldn’t expect any fighting in a children’s show but the reason stage combat is an important is due to the slapstick moment that may appear throughout the show so you must know how to react, or throw yourself or hit someone with hurting them or you

·         Good Memory - learn you lines!

·         Good stamina – it is important to have good stamina because you need to have a high amount of energy in a children’s show and this level of energy must be sustained throughout

·         Attitude – having a positive attitude or the right mind set to the production will enable for the whole experience to seem a lot more enjoyable for the children and yourself.

Slide 7 – creative ideas

Here are some of the ideas that we have had to further develop our play for children’s theatre...

·         Audience participation – we feel that audience participation is lacking in our play and there is missed opportunities to get the audience involved for example the repetitive scene change song, the final chorus could be sung by our audience

·         Interactions – there are many points through the play where the actors on stage could interact with the actors on stage and the audience for example when the mechanical are on stage snug could wave shyly to the audience and then cower when they wave back and also any point when the trio at the back are speaking the other actors on stage could have a bit more interaction with each other

·         Makeup –we also thought that adding specific make up to certain character would enhance the children experience for example we could apply mud to the Faces of the mechanicals in order to show they are work men and not of the same statues of the Athenians  also the fairy would have glitter to heighten the magic element of the play

·         Handouts- as an extra interaction with the audience, we thought it would be fun idea to place glow stick underneath the seats before the show so that the audience can use them during the magical songs when sparks and gaffer tell them to.

·         Set- our current set is minimalistic and with better budget could be extreme and over the top with every single thing represented.

·         Dance- we could further develop of dances by placing actors amongst the audience to break into dance and get everyone dance to the end song, also we could have a simple dance that only involves your arm that they could follow.

·         Multimedia- the use of a projection screen could be very interesting and fun and would also allow the scene to be set without having to use a black out to bring new set on.  Also lyrics to some of the songs could be projected onto to the screen so that the audience could sing along.