Playhouse Creatures 15 - Evaluation

Looking back on the performance I was suddenly struck with how far my groups had come. We started out with basic shells of characters, as one does when one picks up a script for the first time. It's much like meeting someone for the first time where you having nothing more than a name and a conversation. However over the last few weeks I have discovered so much about Liz and also about myself. Before this play I had never even contemplated motherhood or having to lose everything the way she did. Discovering that part of myself was incredible. I connected so much with Liz, realising the mother inside myself and discovering how deeply it affected me was incredibly eye opening, which was probably what made me so passionate about the role. I think that's something I'm truly proud of and think I did well in the performance, enjoying the role and becoming her. I feel like when I was on stage performing, I realised that I have an Elizabeth Farley within myself; childish, full of laughter and charisma however also proud and ambitious. She is ambitious, and that does lead to her downfall. I think the abortion scene was so effective, and it took so much work. Multiple ideas were tried out. Some were discarded, some evolved to be the final product. I think that the time we took on making that scene work and the direction we received from Andy and Jerry-Lee was what made it work so much. At first it was so basic and full on, however we tried turning the chair around so the audience would only see the back of me which turned out to be an incredibly effective move. Whereas before we'd been spaced out, leaving me more isolated, which on one level worked symbolically, however it didn't have the same dramatic effect and when the other girls were directed to stand close together, huddling around my chair, I think it led to a realisation within our group about the characters. Whilst their friendships may be antagonistic, particularly between Mrs Marshall and Mrs Farley, they tried their utmost to stand together.

That's another thing that I think worked well, was the dynamics between the women. This is shown so beautifully in the relationship between Mrs Marshall and Liz, when they're tying each others corset laces and you can see in an almost sisterly dynamic. Liz babbling on, giggling and laughing and winding up Rebecca, with the other woman rolling her eyes and allowing Liz to get to her, much like a older sister would. We were running the scene on the week of our production in full costume and Sophia decided to improvise really yanking on my corsets when I say the line "Well what do they want you there for?", and I couldn't help letting out a small squeak of surprise, and it ended up working really well. Sophia and I would often exchange looks and eye rolls whilst drama was happening, and there was also a lovely moment between Nell and Liz when Mrs Marshall's telling Otway about her idea for a play, where Heta and I argue over whether Monimia should live a lie or tell him. It was moments like that that defined the performance for me and made it so enjoyable to perform. These moments and dynamics came not so much from the rehearsing our lines but from the improv games we played and time we took to discover our own and each other's characters. Taking that bit of extra time to develop those friendships between the girls was such a good idea and led to some wonderful acting.

There were also parts that didn't go as well as I had hoped, particularly in the moment of the performance. For example, whilst running the abortion scene backstage we got to such a fantastic point of emotion, where I was crying and begging the girls to help me, actually reaching out for Mrs Marshall and everyone watching said it was so effective. However, on the night, for some reason it just didn't happen the same way. I didn't quite reach the point of emotion whereby I was so in the moment that I felt able to cry, and I think that's because I was thrown by the last minute changes in dynamic. Were it possible for me to go back and redo it, I'd take more time in rehearsals to play around with that abortion scene and get comfortable with the ideas I now wish I'd had the confidence to just go with on the night of the performance, despite the lack of preparation. I think that's something I should try to do a little more in the next unit, is play around with ideas and absolutely exhaust every possible scenario and idea before finally settling on the best. 

Moreover, however, I was really happy with the performance we gave. I worked so unbelievably hard on the acting, costume and generally everything in this production, and I've very pleased with how well it worked out. The dynamics between all the actors were excellent and I think that keeping in mind the super objective and being so passionate about the themes of feminism made it so much easier to convey them. Perhaps my next target would be to achieve that level of hard work and commitment on something I'm not so naturally passionate about.

Playhouse Creatures 14

The Restoration Period

The play is set in the second half of the 1600’s during the Restoration Period. The Restoration Period came about after the end of the English Civil War, or the Wars Of the Three Kingdoms, which was waged between the English, Scottish and the Irish and started when King Charles the 2^nd came to power. Along with the Restoration of the monarchy came the end of the Puritan regime which had been upheld by Oliver Cromwell, this regime had previously been discrediting and even dismantling a lot of the theatres. When the Restoration period started all of these theatres were reopened and the King invested in the development of the theatre, with the two leading companies – The Kings Men and The Duke’s Men, beginning to experiment with staging, lighting and writing of new plays. With this came the first female actresses, an idea that King Charles the 2^nd brought over from his exile in France.

Actresses at that Time

Whilst King Charles the 2^nd was exiled in France during the British Civil War, he was introduced to the concept of female actresses which had already come about in France. Before he instated the female actresses in England all female roles had been played by boys, usually before they had hit puberty and had their voices dropped, and the new wave of female actresses changed the form of theatre. Now, men came to see the women, who were often given roles involving them baring their breasts, and the sexualisation of women was one of the primary uses of the theatre. This was for another reason, which was that actresses got paid very little, only just enough to live on and not enough to support them once they left the theatre. What actresses would have to do would be to become the mistress of a wealthy man who would become her Protector. At first actresses were thought of as little more than prostitutes and many men would treat them as such. However, Actresses And Whores suggests that “The success of the actress/whore also suggests that ‘whoreishness’ was not always already negative during the Restoration...whore implies that her audience might also have recognised her as a challenging and transgressive woman” (page 25, Actresses and Whores: On Stage and in Society, Kirsten Pullen, 2005)

Your Character

Although I did not find a huge amount of information on Mrs Farley, what I did find was incredibly interesting. Elizabeth Weaver, maiden name Farley had a very interesting life. For starter, she was apparently never married to James Weaver of Grays Inn, as she claimed, in fact the same James Weaver sued the poor woman for £30. It was later discovered that she was pregnant with his supposed child. She was subsequently sued no less than 5 times by Miles Lovett (3rd March 1663), Robert Kerby (13th June 1663), David Little (March 1664), George Langford and Henry Rooke (1665) and Francis Poyntz and Anne Hame (1665). She did, however, continue to act.

References

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TGgS9VxWJ0oC&pg=PA305&lpg=PA305&dq=elizabeth+farley+restoration+actress&source=bl&ots=MO-ue9OXvK&sig=1_0bhdqZmrKroTDN78i7j5HgWaA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=8mITU9iHEsyk7QawyIGQDA&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=elizabeth%20farley%20restoration%20actress&f=false

http://www.samuelfrench-london.co.uk/p/5558/playhouse-creatures

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_(England)

http://www.cwu.edu/~robinsos/ppages/resources/Theatre_History/Theahis_10.html

Actresses and Whores: On Stage and in Society, by Kirsten Pullen http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9eu_n-etYpUC&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=female+actresses+restoration&source=bl&ots=wdzBwuxxHT&sig=Q2rH6fQRzv4sQ6fRZrrT3qWU6eQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=CMvTUsvBB8iVhQfz14HwCQ&ved=0CEkQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=female%20actresses%20restoration&f=false

Playhouse Creatures 13

Super Objective

A super objective of a play is the main theme or message that the story is working towards conveying. In Playhouse Creatures the most predominant is feminism. Of course the play is hugely feminist, it's an almost entirely female cast about the first actresses in Great Britain. It's really interesting to see how April De Angelis does this, for example the fact that all of the women are incredibly strong characters, another is that there aren't actually any men in the play who aren't being stood up to. Rochester is played by Mrs Barry, Otway is teased and manipulated by all the actresses. It's very clever and wonderfully fun to play around with. As a strong feminist I have been constantly been keeping the idea of feminism in mind with all my acting.

However I think that De Angelis is doing more than saying how sexist society was back then, I think that if you look at the amount of anachronisms in the play, for example Rochester's acting lesson with Mrs Barry is about 300 years before it's own time, and Doll being an eternal, timeless character who never seems to age, then you can see that the play write is actually holding a mirror up to the audience. She is raising the question about whether the characters in the play are really so different from women today. It's very clever, and it works. I think that whilst our society is far more advanced in the areas of sexism there is still a long way to go and that we can learn a lot from these messages in the play. I have kept this in mind whilst developing Mrs Farley's character and performing as her. 

Playhouse Creatures 12

Whilst doing my research and exploration of the character of Mrs Farley, I realised that she's just quite a young woman, she's not stupid or bitchy, she's just young. I take a lot from Jenna Malone's portrayal of Lydia Bennett in Pride and Prejudice in terms of her character. She's always bouncing everywhere she goes, with a flirtatious smile on her lips and a song in her voice. I enjoy doing this because I can use a huge contrast in my physicality between the very beginning of the performance and her final moments. She's happy and positive, she just wants a man to protect her and the nice things in life. The thing that gets in her way is her vanity and pride. She adores attention and she hates being bettered, especially by Nell who she knows is far more talented than her, she recognizes her as a threat however she allows herself to become fond of Nell. 

In one of our rehearsal sessions Sophia, Heta and I played an improvisation game to help us discover our characters:

The game is simply us sat in a circle completely in character. One by one we come up with questions like "What's the most trouble you got into as a child" then take it in turns to answer the question, improvising stories for our characters and creating histories for them. I learnt a lot from this game. One of the questions was "How did you lose your virginity?" When I answered this question I discovered that Elizabeth was solicited for sex at the age of 13 and being incredibly poor, to the point that she hadn't eaten for 3 days, she complied.

I just remember the feeling in my stomach, at first I thought it was fear but then I realised it was hunger. I hadn't eaten for 3 days and I imagined going home that night and not eating again. I was so hungry you have no idea. It was either one or the other and I was so desperate. Afterwards I vowed never to be that hungry or poor again, I would never be someone who was so low and desperate for food that she would do that. I'm no whore.

 Reflecting on this story I find it so interesting. It shows that all she has known from men other than her father is sex. She knows she is beautiful and that men will want things from her. She knows how to use her sexuality to get what she wants in life and she enjoys the attention, she enjoys flirting. However it is also interesting on a second level as she has vowed never to become a whore however she has. She is the king's whore. She sleeps with him and gets paid in petticoats and trips to the palace. 

Secondly I learnt something about Liz that came up in the question "What's the most traumatic thing that's every happened to you?" I learnt more about her childhood and her father.

I remember when I was at my poorest. My father was dying and I knew that, so I sent him to the poor house. That's how bad it was, the poor house was better than what I could give him. He used to work there and every day I'd visit him. Well...one day I was walking to the poor house and I could hear this sound. It was like nothing I'd heard before, like a low rumbling that got louder the nearer I got. When I finally got to the poor house, I saw the two foreman outside lying on the ground. I don't know whether or not they were...well, I opened the door and looked inside. I don't know what had happened...the men there must have started rioting. And...well, once they had got the foremen, they must have turned on each other. It was chaos. But I knew my father was in there so I went in. Finally I found him. I don't know whether or not he was dead by the time I got there but...I turned around and I ran out of that poor house. I ran so fast and I didn't stop running until I found myself here.

 I think this tells me so, so much about Liz. Why she's so terrified of being poor and alone. The fact that she's not just a silly, naive girl, she's seen some horrific things and she's realised that the world can be a cruel place and that she has to use whatever skills she can to get by. There's something about knowing this that makes me feel so much more connected to her than I did before, which is the beauty of the game that we played. 

Playhouse Creatures 11

Izzy, Sav, Harry, Liam and Sophie:

Sophie seemed to be rocking from side to side during her monologue, and paddling a little bit, it made her character seem a little less certain and distracted me as part of the audience. If this was a creative choice by her then it was very effective, however I do know how distracting paddling can be, I should always be making sure I don't slip into this habit myself. I noticed that there was a really good relationship between Sav [Nell] and Sophie [Doll]. It made a really good sense of comradeship and I think that that representation of friendship and dynamic is completely essential in our piece. It's something our group has been working on extensively to acquire, and I took notes on what it was that made that relationship on stage. It was things like the way they joined in on jokes, they patted each other on the back and seemed really comfortable in each other's company. One thing that I noticed was that Liam kept on losing character on stage. I'm not sure why it was, but there were several points where it just looked like Liam-drinking-at-a-pub, instead of the-Earl-of-Rochester-drinking-at-a-pub. The only thing you can really do to stop this happening is just keep constant and unwavering focus on stage. This doesn't have to be huge and obvious, you don't have to be tensed or serious, you just have to be completely focus and in the moment. Generally in this group the volume was just a little bit too low, it is very difficult in a piece with little physical action to keep your volume up, since it can often feel lie your shouting and like it doesn't "fit", however you just have to keep your voice clear and loud otherwise the audience simply won't hear you.

Greta, Jenny, Chloe and Izzy:

The only notes I took for this group was that they had an excellent "vibe" of a Tiring Room onstage. This is something I'm noticing in all the groups because it's something that I want to capture most in my own group. I think it's just the relaxed atmosphere, the chatter and business that defines it. It's the sense of home and comfort there that makes it seem so real.

Liam and Bella:

Bella has excellent characterisation in this scene. Her forte is comedy, something she naturally excels at, and she pulled off the funny parts of the scene with great finesse, however she also had wonderful characterisation in the more serious parts of the scene which was good to see. Liam still needs to get posher, he's an Earl which is only one step down from royalty and an Earl would definitely see himself as good as royalty. Liam still seemed a little too 21st century teenage boy. Some of the lines hadn't been properly learnt which just took a little bit of the edge off of the acting, and the scene was just a touch too quiet.

Jazz, Jade and Mitch:

In Jazz's monologue she occasionally ended up paddling around the stage, however this may have just been part of her characterisation. Also, she just didn't seem in character whilst performing. She seemed like Jazz saying Nell's lines, in her own tone, pitch, pace and even using her won mannerisms! Perhaps all that was needed was for her to take a little more time with the monologue. Jade had excellent posture and characterisation, living up to the personality of Mrs Betterton that had already been set by Greta and Sophie respectively in earlier scenes. However, there were a few moments when it was clear that the lines just hadn't been learnt well enough and the group messed up. This isn't a problem in it's self, it just shows that you need to take a bit more time to sit down and go over your lines, the problem was that when someone messed up the entire group lost focus and slipped out of character. Of course, once this had happened they found it very difficult to pick themselves back up again. In our group I think that this can sometimes be a problem. There are a few moments when something funny will happen in the scene and one or two people will find it too funny and drop focus. Fixing this will just take a lot of will power, however I think that the gorup won't have this problem when we're on stage in front of an audience performing it. 

Playhouse Creatures 10

Costume

Sophie and I are kind of heads of costume for this piece, due to the fact that we have a lot of experience and passion in the area. First we focused on character ideas, we want each character to have a set colour that will be recurring and will be matched with their personality, objectives or status. This will also help to link the different actresses playing each character. 

• Mrs Marshall - dark blue, for the pessimism and coolness in her, it's a strong colour. 
• Mrs Farley - Red, passionate and volatile, not entirely trustable?
• Nell - yellow, it's natural and only connected with nature, grounded but sunny and happy
• Doll - Brown, dark colours, she is poor and almost never washes. Her clothes would be dirty. Simple.
• Mrs Betterton - Purple, the colour of royalty and magnificence

We also had additional requirements for some of the characters:

• Mrs Farley has two costumes, both a tatty, drab outfit for before she is an actress, as well as an easily removed petticoat which is a gift from the king. 
• Mrs Barry must also have a tatty dress
• Nell will need a tatty, drab dress to have in early scenes as well as shoes since her feet will be visible in her jig

The boys also need to be thought about, they will both need proper shoes since they don't have long skirts to cover flats.

• Otway - poor, he will be in brown colours however we will have a sense of a bohemian look about him with layers and accessories etc
• Rochester - fine clothing, colours of gold/purple

Boys scene:

• Phillips - Highest ranking, he is a governor, dressed in shooting gear.
• Collins - 2nd highest rank, judge, shooting gear
• Tench - 3rd ranking, he's a captain, he'll be in shooting gear and me and Sophie are playing around with the idea of battle scars
• Harry - military, is a helping hand, he'll be in navy colours

For the movement pieces, which we obviously can't wear our long dresses for, however we're thinking of having black underneath which we can whip our dresses off of and be ready to go. 

Finally, we had to work out how many actresses were playing each character, if there'd be enough time for a costume change and subsequently how many costumes we'd need:

• 1 drab Mrs Barry costume
• 1 fancy Mrs Barry costume/fancy coat to cover up drab costume
• 2 Mrs Betterton costumes
• 3 Doll costumes
• 1 drab Nell costume
• 2 fancy Nell costumes
• 1 drab Mrs Farley costume
• 2 Fancy Mrs Farley costumes
• 2 Mrs Marshal costumes
• 1 Rochester costume
• 1 Otway costume (we need to check Harry and Yunusa's measurements however)
• 1 Harry costume
• 1 Phillips costume
• 1 Tench costume
• 1 Collins costume

Plus various accessories:

• 1 petticoat for Mrs Farley
• 3 angel wings for the muses
• shoes for Nell
• pregnancy bump

Playhouse Creatures 9

Are the characters clear?

In both of my scenes I feel like almost all of the characters are clear. Sophia and I have worked very closely, very hard on Mrs Farley and Mrs Marshall, this means that we both have very strong characterisation and sense of our belief in our characters. This means that the alliance of sorts between the two characters is also strong. Greta and Sophia both have very strong, however very different Mrs Bettertons. However, They have both captured the sense of authority that is required and it is very clear how much they command respect. Both of the Nells have done spectacularly on the job of capturing her free spirit whilst keeping her grounded and sure. I think that the Dolls still need a little work, whilst Jade and Mitch have her personality down I still think they could improve her physicality and create more of a wizened, old woman on stage. Chloe has it almost I think, but we should definitely take some time in rehearsals to help them nail the characterisation of Doll, since she may be the hardest character of all to get the physicality for. 

Are the objectives clear?

For Mrs Farley I think that her objectives change a lot throughout both of the scenes. In the first - from now on I will label my scenes chronologically for simplicity's sake, so my second scene is now my first and visa versa - her objectives are to get security. She doesn't quite understand how men treat women, she hopes she will have the beauty and charm to keep him. Before in her life men have always wanted her more than any other women and she hopes the king will be the same. All she wants is enough clothes and finery to pass for a fine lady, she doesn't need the king for long, just long enough to get another rich man afterwards, she is hoping. Then as she discovers she is pregnant and the king loses interest, she panics. She hopes she will miscarry and will be able to get away with it without the other company members noticing for as long as she can. Finally they confront her about it. She panics, she realises she is finished, however she is grasping at straws. Despite every primal instinct in her body screaming at her to protect her child, she attempts an abortion. In my opinion she could have actually succeeded, but she could not bear to lose the one thing that would never leave her. All she has is this child. This baby is the one thing she has not lost or ruined, she cannot lose it. Perhaps this is the first time since losing her father she has felt truly connected to something, part of something.

Is the story in the scene[s] clear?

I think that the story is incredibly clear throughout my scenes, partially because I've got some of the strongest scenes, with the definite exception of Bella and Max's final scene. Mrs Farley's personal story is so much fun to play, her fall from grace. I'm loving using my physicality to show that, starting off so proud and tall, dancing everywhere. By Mrs Farley's final moments, she is reduced to nothing. Broken and destroyed, I love showing how truly crippling being a poor woman was in that world. Our scene ties in incredibly closely with Jazz and Bella's scenes, since I am the cautionary tale. When they talk of their fear of being discarded, the audience will remember what happened to Mrs Farley and I love having that role in the whole performance.