Character Research - Dorothy

Name: Dorothy Delaune
Age: 52
Birthplace: Westminster, London
Parents: Harrold Delaune, Charlotte (Fairclough) Delaune
Relations: Roger Coyle (rich friend), Charles Pearce (Horse trainer)
Occupation: Derby Horse Owner

Appearance:
She wears a very posh dress to her knee and matching stilettos that always get caught in the grass at Epsom. She also wears a jacket that matches her dress and even a floppy hat. She may also have a small handbag that she make people around her carry like Roger.

Favourite song:
'the Nutcracker suite' written by Tchaikovsky in 1892. The song reminds her of the Christmas ballet that she would see with her mother and father every year.

Based On:
. Janice from 'Friends' for vocals
. Mr Snot from University challenge from 'the young ones' for manirisums
. 'To the manor born' for the social class

Research for Epsom - TV and Film

To the manor Born:
This programme was originally made in 1979. It is a British sitcom TV series that only had 22 episodes. I think that this programme is very relevant to our play Epsom Downs as it is an extremely British idea of what the upper class were like in the 1970's. since it is based around very upper class characters, it would mainly be relevant the characters Lord Rack, Charles Pierce, Roger Coyle and Dorothy Delaune.














What ever happened to the Likely Lads:
This programme was originally made in 1973/1974. It is also a British sitcom TV series but it was a spin off from the series The Likely Lads. I think this programme is also relevant to our play as it is an accurate representation of British workers and lower class. I think that this TV programme would mainly relate to the characters Jocks, Sandy, Margret, Bobby and Sharon. It also relates to the horse races as in many of the episodes the character Terry often paces bets on the races even though he can't afford it.

Research for Epsom - Music

I have picked some songs that I believe would be each of my character's favourite song. Also some of the songs link to their background or the journey their character goes on.

1. Minty
"Let no man steal your thyme" it was originally written in 1903 but was known as "sprig of thyme". The version that I am using was remade in 1963 by Anne Briggs and Pentangle in 1968. The song is a folk ballad which is about warning young girls to stay clear of fake love and horrible unloving men. I have chosen this song for minty as in the play she is warning her daughter primrose not to go near the men and to stop day dreaming. I think this song would resinate with minty as it not only has a folk quality but it also relates to her life as a gypsy and her being put into marriage not of her own choosing.

2. Dorothy Delaune
"Nutcracker suite" it was written in 1892 by Pytor Ilyich Tcheikhovsky for the ballet. It is a very old classical music piece. I have chosen this piece for Dorothy as I believe her rich upbringing would have meant she wouldn't have been into the modern pop music. Instead she would have gone to the ballet as a child and the music would have stuck with her as a fond childhood memory around Christmas.

3. Loud voice in a tent (Rachel)
"Landslide" it was written in 1975 by Fleetwood Mac. There is nothing really said about this character, she doesn't even have a name. So I have decided to call her Rachel. In the play she shout a lot at men who are drunk so I thought that perhaps she had a bad relationship with a man who drunk. I think she was in love with a man but she left him because of his drinking. That's why I have chosen this song as it is about someone who has left their lover and is trying to move on.

4. Woman 3 (Janet)
"Sha la la la lee" it  was written in 1966 by small faces. Once again there is not any thing written about this character in the script so I have created her character called Janet. She is a teen who has gone to Epsom for the fun of betting. This song is about a girl who goes out on a Friday night with a boy to have fun. So I think it relates to Janet as she is just there to have a bit of fun at the races.

5. French jockey (6)
"La mer" it was written in 1968 by Charles Trenet. All that I know about this character is that they are a French jockey. So I believe that they would have travelled by sea to get to Epsom downs for the races. I don't think that this song would have always been their favourite but perhaps this was the first time they had been abroad so it felt patriotic for this jockey to listen to a very French travel song.

6. The course
"Gold finger" it was written for the iconic film gold finger in 1964 and it was performed by Shirley Bassey. I have chosen this song for my character as they are meant to be a swerve and dangerous being like James Bond. The course character is a metaphor for the actual race course itself. The character talks about the turns and directions the horses take in the race. Therefore since the character is a metaphor I feel that it wouldn't be stupid to over emphasis the James Bond aspect to the character as they are not a real living object.

7. Lunatic 3
"The laughing gnome" it was written in 1967 by David Bowie. I haven't got much information to this character However I know that they have some form of tarrets. I think this would mean that they wouldn't be spoken to directly by people and they wouldn't be in popular culture. So feel that this song is incredible wacky and probably not popular to most people as it has a weird smurf voice in the background. I also feel this song emphasise the lunatics character as they are very wacky themself.

First view of the play

Epsom downs
Epsom downs is a play written by Howard Brenton in 1977. The play follows the Derby day in 1977 at Epsom downs at which Lester Piggott won the Derby. The story does not have a main character nor does it follow a certain story, instead there are multiple role of race-goers, horse trainers, jockey, bookie, gypsies and more. There are a few recurring characters such as the cockney family, Charles Pearce a horse trainer, Lord rack an ex politician, blue an officer of the law, primrose a gypsy traveller and jocks a stable boy. However the rest of the characters only appear in a single scene.

I think that this play is very suitable for our class as there are multiple role so everyone has an equal amount of stage time as everyone else. Also each of these characters are completely different from each other so it means us as actors can have the opportunity to express many different abilities to our acting styles whether that be through a sent of emotions. I also really like this play as it gives a very accurate representation of British 70's society for all age, social class and cultures. I think I will defiantly learn a lot of history in this project which I always find very enjoyable.  I feel that this play will also be well received by a modern audience as the social classes haven't changed that much since 1977 and some of our audience may have lived through this time period so it will be interesting to see their reactions to the play now.

Character Research - Minty

What I know about Minty from the Play:

• ·        Her name is Minty
• ·        She is a gypsy traveller
• ·        Her husband is in Lowestoft prison
• ·        She is the mother to Primrose
• ·        She feels separate in this world – “the gypsy got no friends in this world”
• ·        She travels to big events and sells things like lucky heather

What I have decided about my character:

• ·        Her real name is Arminta O’Donnell. Minty is only her nickname. Arminta is quite a traditional Irish name and it can be a derision to Minty
• ·        She was born in 1944, so that means that in 1977 (which is when the play is set) she is 33 years old
• ·        She had her daughter Primrose when she was 18 years old, that means in 1977 Primrose is 15 years old
• ·        Her family are originally from Glengarriff, Cork, Ireland. As she is a traveller I felt that they would have travelled far from whence they came and I feel that Ireland would be a very traditional place for them to start at.
• ·        Her husband’s name is Shayne O’Donnell.  He is in Lowestoft Prison as he was caught stealing lead off of church roofs. He did this in order to get money her husband would sell the lead to scrap yard

Minty’s object:

• ·        Minty’s key object is a Hessian bag.
• ·        The bag is important to Minty as she is a traveller so she doesn’t have many possessions that she can call her own.
• ·        Everything she does own (like money, jewellery and clothes) is kept in her Hessian bag.
• ·        The bag enables her to have something of her own that no one can take away from her in a world where she already has nothing.
• ·        Minty first got the bag when she was 8. She was at a festival in her home town Glengarriff and her mother told her to fetch her father for lunch. She found her father getting beaten up by a country guy called Sheamus. Sheamus gave her 30p so that she would go away. She went and bought her bag from a stool and it is the last possession she has from her hometown and it is a reminder that she must protect the things that are her’s.

What I am basing her off of:

• ·        Molly Weasley – the mother of the Weasley family from Harry Potter
• ·        Maggie McCarthy – Irish actress from Leap Year
• ·        Sorcha Cusack – plays Mum O’Neill from Snatch
• .    Ezmarelda - a gypsy woman from Hunchback of Notre Damn

Minty’s Appearance:

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1970's Research

1970's Playwrights:

• Howard Brenton - Epsom Downs
• Edward Bond - The Pope's Wedding, Bingo
• Joe Orton - What the Butler saw
• Mike Leigh - Abigail's Party

1970's British TV programmes

• To the Manor Born
• On the Buses
• Faulty Towers
• What ever happened to the Likely Lads
• Last of the Summer Wine
• Love Thy Neighbour
• Are you being served

1970's British Movies

• Monty Python: Holy Grail
• Carry On: At Your Convenience, Matron, Loving, Up the Jungle, Don't Lose Your Head
• James Bond: Diamonds are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man With The Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me

1970's Music

• Rod Stewart
• Marvin Gaye
• The Eagles
• ABBA
• David Soul
• Queen
• The Beatles
• The Sex Pistols
• BEE GEES
• Pink Floyd
• Black Sabbath
• The Rolling Stones
• Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)

1977 British Events 

• Queen Elizabeth II silver jubilee
• first Brit Awards
• Last Natural Smallpox case
• Red Rum wins the national for 3rd time
• Star wars opens

Rehearsal Proposal Plan

Epsom Downs

Performance Dates:
Monday 24th April - Get in and Fitting set
Tuesday 25th April - Tech Rehearsal
Wednesday 26th April - Dress Rehearsal
Thursday 27th April - Matinee + Evening Performance
Friday 28th April - Matinee + Evening Performance + Get out

Starting the text:
In order to start getting into the play, I will need to first look at getting used to the text. The text will be my main source of information that will help me understand the play. It will give me backgrounds to my characters, give me an era and setting that it is set and it gives me more ideas of the mood and emotions with in the play. The rehearsal process will help me in discovering the hidden emotions, characteristics and aims of my characters but the text is going to me the main plot of the play.

I will need to:

• read through the text, making sure I understand completely what happens within the play
• I should understand every word, this means I may have to look up certain words if I don't understand there meaning or the context they are in. This may require some research in order to full understand some words especially if they are political or key to the plot of the play.
• I need to familiarise myself with the characters I am playing. I would do this by highlighting lines of my characters, making sure I understand what happens to my character and start to learn my lines.

Research for the Play

In order to understand to play, characters and the plot, I must research some key features to the play. Without researching the play, I would only have the script itself to guide me, but I may not know what some of the words mean or what the setting would look like or character's. Therefor I need to do research for things like:

• 1970's British culture, society and history. This could include political views like reds and it could also include race course information 
• 1970's social classes which could be anything from upper class horse trainers to bookies to gypsies and slang from this era depending on which social class they are in.
• 1970's style of clothing and hair depending on which social class they are from
• 1970's popular music, technology and media
• 1970's TV programmes and movies that are British 
• Certain words that I may not know the definitions or the context they are in.
• 1970's figure head like political leaders and TV personalities
• research other adaptations of the play and the playwright

Character

To better understand my characters I will need to do character studies. It is important to do character studies as it helps find everything out about my character that may not be clearly stated in the script. It also helps to find what our characters look like and even what they like. most of the facts about our characters will be in the script however some of these thing I will have to make up myself as it won't be in the script. With the character study I will have to think about:

• the character's basics i.e. age, date of birth, gender, name, occupation, relationships 
• the background of my characters i.e. where my characters live, who are their family, ethnic origin and social class
• the character's morals i.e. what they believe in, whether they are a good or bad person
• the character's style i.e. clothing, hair, favourites and dislikes
• what happens to the character within the play
• what emotions the character feel during the play 
• how the characters feel about themselves
• what others think about your characters
• consider what the objective of the character is in the play

Rehearsal

The rehearsal process is the most important part of the production as it is the time when the parts of the play are decided on. they help finalise of the stage setting, blocking, props and it even is the time when characters are found. Without this process there would be no decisions made on the play. In order to use my rehearsal time well I will need to:

• I must be punctual, be on time and ready to work when the director is ready to start
• to take note on blocking and extra information about the character like emotions and opinions
• not talking during peoples scenes, instead take notes, learn lines
• treat each rehearsal like it is the real performance
• be enthusiastic about everything and be not afraid to experiment with my characters
• be prepared to try new things
• note down my  rehearsal process and developments in a blog so i can report my progress of my characters