Happy Easter!
This is my extra (two week) blog post, with extra thoughts and ideas I have come up with over the Easter break including everything and anything I have done towards Road in general: It is a very mixed blog post, including a lot of Road influences via films and programmes that I have linked to our Road:
I was watching Pride, a new out film: "Based on an extraordinary true story, Pride tells how a group of London-based gay and lesbian activists raised money to support the families of miners during the strike of 1984. Identifying a mining village in Wales, they set off to make their donation in person, and in doing so inspired "the best British" film in years." The film was absolutely amazing, it was so interesting to see how life was then and how gays and lesbians were discriminated immensely. The film has a few familiar faces such as Andrew Scott, who played Moriarty in Sherlock. George MacKay who played in the film version of Sunshine on Leith the musical, Bill Nighy and Imedla Staunton. It's a must watch...
As said above the film is all about gay and lesbians. Which gave me the idea, SkinLad is gay. It is clear in Pride that being gay in the 80's and before was tough, people treated them as though they were not normal. A bit like how they treat SkinLad in Road, he is classed as the 'nutter' because he is so different. So I came to a conclusion that he is gay. So he set off with his fighting, in an attempt to prove to himself that he wasn't gay and he was manly like all the others. Or that his fighting was a means of self defence so he knew how to protect himself, as like in Pride the gays were beaten up for being gay! So SkinLad turned to Buddism. This was a means of something telling him he was straight or a reassurance to himself that he was normal by following their rules, like many others did. Him being gay could be the very good reason 'he passed on the pornography at work' but made it his excuse that the Dharma taught him not to look at it, and not the fact that naked women wouldn't attract his attention.
In Pride, Joe comes out but not by telling his parents they discover it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8jXlqlORR4 "It's such a terrible life" is the mums description of the life gays lead. People were being brought up thinking being gay is so wrong, so there was no chance that the next generation would come out of this vicious circle of believing it's ok to be gay or lesbian or bi. She says it's 'lonely' which links me back to Road and SkinLad, I've previously mentioned that SkinLad is a lonely character and him being gay could be the reason behind this, because even if gays back then found a partner, they couldn't be seen together as it would cause more trouble for them. We know little about SkinLad apart from the fact that he is Buddist, but I can clearly see how him being gay would fit with his character. He is content in his own company and has been for many years, so perhaps his family abandoned him when he told them he was gay? But he is still overcoming this, because he continues to be the religious Buddist whom lives by these new rules, perhaps as a distraction to what he really feels and what he really 'is'.
Pride continued to help me, this time with costume ideas. Despite the fact I have chosen my costume for Louise, it still gave me some ideas. Such as I need to wear light coloured, baggy jeans like in the picture as this is what they wore in the 80's. To me the 80's is an era of being different, people were quite bold with what they wore including colours, non-matching items etc. So with Louise I have got her wearing all blacks and whites, then bright red shoes to show this quirky look. Majority of the men, again wore light jeans, and like the character in the front, a smart and casual look (such as a white tee and a jacket.)
The character (third from the right) is very typically the 80's look with her shaved sides hair, and the colour of it also. I am not quite dedicated enough to shave and dye my hair for Road, but I felt that Louise would have her hair like this as it was 'the look' as is the males 'ice gem' nowadays and the 'full fringes' etc etc. Louise is one of those people who is cool, but is always trying to stay cool, socially. So having her hair like this would assist her in keeping her coolness up, and it would also help her fit in; as I can only imagine that Carol was constantly changing her look, but most definitely not following the trend of others, so Louise does similarly.
Pride gave me some ideas for music, also for Road. These song suggestions would be played in Bisto's nightclub, and I feel if we play the very typical 80's song we will be targetting our audience and their past more than perhaps some less well known ones that Cartwright has suggested in the script itself. A favourite of mine being 'Love and Pride' by King. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlXtrnh-Ejo This song is up-beat and fast all the way through which means it matches Bisto's character. When listening to the song, after seeing the film, I could picture Bisto (and Luke for that matter) dancing and singing along to the song. It's one of those songs that once you hear it, you'll be singing it all day (apologises!) but that strikes me as this is something Bisto intends to do. He'll play a really catchy song to get his audience up and dancing and the sense of pride will shine through as his audience go away humming a song that he played. Its almost very child-like, but I think this would happen because he's lonely. As said before, he begins to reminisce about a past lover, "you know who you are, you bitch!" but this doesn't only imply that he had a past lover it also implies that one he is lonely and two because he's still in love with her. Another song suggestion, West End Girls, Pet Shop Boys. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVkN0VhOuZ0&index=7&list=PLPskAFoPlyRX_XzvRb44dTdFudIZY-cnC This song could be played in mine and Jakes begining scene as Louise and her brother. He was originally going to be fixing an engine, which would make playing music more suitable for this scene. But now it is decided that he will be watching tv, but I had a thought that if the music was playing as well as the sound of the tv, it would get irritating. But it would be like he was doing it purposefully to annoy Louise. This will show a hint of a normal brother and sister relationship, but it would also show how Louise has learnt to put up with it, due to her not mentioning it. This idea was sparked by once, my brother playing a shooting game on his Xbox with the volume up full: purely just to annoy me and my sister in the other room! Getting Louise's brother to do this will also show a child-like and immature approach to his character, which could give us a hint to which Louise is the older sister, which is contrasting to what I had originally said, as I still believe that he is the older brother in the relationship.
Pride gave me some further information and knowledge into the working class loosing many of their jobs such as the closure of the mines. Margaret Thatcher is in power in the time of the play, and from already known knowledge she wasn't a very well-liked Prime Minister. Being the first female Prime Minister she should've become an inspirational woman instead she made a lot of decisions that a lot of the population didn't agree or like. Such as, her empowerment and decisions lead to 3 million people unemployed in the UK. So at the time of the play, it was a huge struggle for them, and Road is told as one of the very much deprived and effected areas of Thatchers decisions. As Joey well puts, 'I'm sick of it all' people were honestly 'sick' and fed up with living the way that Thatcher had forced them into, hence all the strikes such as the very well-known and well-remembered mine striking. Pride is following the mine strike over the year or two it lasted. A fair few characters give us the insight into how unhappy they are with their lives and the chances of this being because of Thatchers changes are very very high due to the year in which the play is set in. For example Valerie tells us "why do I stay?" in the context in which she talks to us (about her husband) it is easy to leave it there, but digging deeper it could easily mean 'why does she stay, in the life she is living'? Or 'why does she stay in this country, under the rules of Thatcher'? It could mean a lot more than just 'why do I stay with my husband' which is fairly boring and cliche'. Curt describes his home (Road) as "where all the crap comes but doesn't drop off" this is good use of imagery writing as I can picture it, in a way, that shows me how Road is a very negative place to live. The Professor is also in on this as he mentions "before I was made redundant' and again on the surface this could be for any other reason but it could also be because of the work of Margaret Thatcher and how she made "3 million people unemployed." Louise also, saying how "she wants magic and miracles... and a Jesus to come along and change things again... and everything's been made ordinary in our eyes" she's telling us all about how she wants what she did know, in the past, to return, to perhaps return to when Thatcher wasn't in power...?
Jerry also, and he is an interesting one to mention, for me, because he is the older generation, unlike all the other characters (excluding Brenda, whom is still trying hard to fit into that younger generation) he tells us how ' he would quite like things to return to how they used to be', with 'the girls waiting in the dance room while we all went into the bar, waiting for us to return', and I think it's interesting that he (or that Cartwright) has portrayed him as against the changes in government because it is almost too relevant. But at the same time he breifly tells us how "I cant get over the past, how it was..." which slightly implies that he is pleased it has changed.
As you know parliament are in the 'election war' again, and at this time I find it interesting watching my grandad as this all comes and goes etc. He is very political but in my eyes always goes for the wrong party (in my opinion) so Jerry fits very well with my grandads personality as I know both would quite like to return to 'how things were' when 'the girls waited for us, in the dance hall' etc, and they are both against what Thatcher inforced. But Jerry starts the monologue as though he is surprised at how he used to live before Thatcher, and like my grandad was either publicy or secretivly pleased with what she did. Its a everlasting circle when looking into Jerry as I find it hard to identify if he was pleased or not or a bit of both... I will have to discuss this with Frank...
On the subject of songs, a song gave me some influences towards Louise: the song being 'I need' by Maverick Sabre. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PmIARlm9EY To start, the lyrics saying "i need blue skies" I linked to Louise wanting 'gold and jewles, and all the light out on the pavements' they are both requesting or wishing for something aesthetically pleasing such as the perfect blue sky, or the pleasing look of pure gold. Its like they are both trying to see their world in different eyes and in different perspectives in order to live a better and happier life. Sabre goes on to say he 'needs them old times' and similarly Louise speaks of 'reminds you off them feelings you keep forgetting...once you wrap em' up and put em' away' They are both speaking of past memories or feelings that have since long gone, and they are both wishing upon their return in order to continue living the good life they previously had. The songs tempo and pace picks up a bit when it reaches the chorus again as though 'he' (the writer of the song) is trying to portray how many of us hide our feelings from the public i.e. family and friends, and those who put on a brave face. Like Louise, who acts as though nothing has happened, when she re-appears after her and her brothers scene which becomes quite tense and intimidating; as though she is putting on a brave face. "Was like the rain I used to see pouring down" This closely links to as though Sabre is finishing off the song on a more positive note (not literally) but the use of the word 'used' clearly implies that it was in the past, which means that he is now seeing, hopefully, 'blue skies' and not the 'rain' he 'used to see'. And this is something Louise is looking for in life, she tells us that she is fed up of life, "its all boring... everything's so dulled...everything's been made ordinary" she is bored of the life she is living and she knows what she really wants in life which is the life she lived once upon a time, perhaps when her brother wasnt born or to how things were before things changed, she really wants 'a Jesus to come along and change things...magic and miracles...gold and jewels, and light out on the pavements'. This tells me she is quite ambitious, in this monologue only however, but this monologue specifically makes her portray herself as determined to make these things really happen. But she revolts back into her normal persona of being that 'quiet person' who, the majority of the time, keeps quiet and just observes. She "You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand" Steven Chbosky~ The Perks Of Being A Wallflower. The definition of a 'wallflower' fits Louise's character quite well and my own personality also, which works due to the fact I am playing Louise; but Louise is a quiet character, partially because Carol being so loud and partially because of having to live with her brother which we have all met by now. She knows very early on that Carol fancies the boys, "you fancied em' when you saw em'" but keeps quiet about it, even when the opportunity comes up in which she could say. And she also understands why Carol doesn't let on to the boys, that she quite likes them, as she knows Carol has to have the feeling of dominance over all of the male kind, as that is simply her personality. Louise and I have something in common, which makes it easier for me to play her; but I have got to be Louise and not Issie!!!!
A second big influence that I found for Road and Louise, was the film version of 'Educating Rita' by Willy Russell, which is another film I watched over these two weeks off. Educating Rita, a well-known and fantastic play in film form, is all about the downfall of the main character Rita, due to overworking herself and letting her work slowly ruin her life. I have linked Rita to Louise, and hear me out because if you know the play you'll also know that Rita is such a loud, fun, bubbly character and quite possibly the complete opposite to Louise. However Rita is trying to better herself through the likes of literature and written drama work, and it's quite a big thing due to the fact Rita couldn't be any more 'common' which again, is the opposite to all the 'posh, well-off' students that attend the school. However Rita has hints of Carol, with her quick and witty humour and her 'nosy' attitude. She is also very comedic, as is Carol. The accent used by the wonderful actress that is Julie Walters is a very strong Manchester one, which I will no doubt be taking tips from, although not too much as I, at times, found it hard to understand what Walters was saying, which is not a good habitat to inherit due to the fact I have a much weaker accent than hers anyway.
(Due to the fact I was enjoying the film too much, I didn't make many more notes on the play itself nor did I link it more thoroughly to Road, but the little bits I have mentioned, are still useful me as an actor playing the role of Louise.)
[Poldark: a now very popular tv drama. Ross Poldark (played by a very attractive male actor: Aiden Turner) is a British Army officer who returns home to Cornwall to find his fiance is marrying another man, his cousin. To re-build himself in the area, he opens a mine on the cliff side and marries Demelza, a 'scullery' maid. Which leads me to why I mentioned Poldark in the first place, due to the fact that Demelza (played by Eleanor Tomlinson) is said to be a 'scullery' maid, which made the obvious connection to Road itself, due to us having our own Scullery. So after looking into a dictionary, the definition of a scullery is:
However I still cant fathom to why Cartwright has named him Scullery, perhaps he was born in a scullery room although I feel that's a little on the sentimental side of Road, which as discovered the characters weren't really like so.]
i give it a year: is a fun, comedic 'chick-flick' film, another film watched over the holidays. But on an educational term, a scene that features in the film reminded me of the scene between myself as Louise, Carol, Eddie and Brink. The scene is set around a pool table on a meal out and it consists of a double date as such. A husband and wife, the wife's boss (who she is having an affair with) and the husbands friend (who he is 'seeing'). The scene reminded me of ours in Road because of the relationships present as well as the tension that was at height. The relationships, as just explained, made the scene really awkward due to the fact that both the husband and wife wanted the other male or female in the scene, but they had to keep up a false front like they are in love and in a good married relationship, despite the opposite was occurring. Similarly, our scene holds a lot of relationships one being that Carol quite clearly likes both of the boys but even more so Brink because when Louise and him kiss, 'Brink reaches out and takes Louise's hand. He leads her over towards him, he stands and kisses her,' and at this point Carol leaves the room, perhaps in jealousy which is an emotion I personally didnt expect from Carol- she being the loud, dominant and confident one who could click her fingers and expect boys to bow to her. Brink likes Carol seeing as he goes straight in for the kiss, but Carol pushes him away as she can't stand to be controlled by a male character. But Brink likes Louise just as much or, Louise is just an excuse for him to make Carol jeloaus because even though he is the 'quiet type' he probably understands and observes relationships and people more, hence how he knows that Carol secretly likes him. Eddie likes Louise, and this is made quite clear and it is clear in ways such as he doesn't try with Carol it is purely just Louise he wants. A bit like the characters from 'I give it a year' all four of them make it clear that they all like the guy/girl they didn't come with. And although it is clear that the relationships and the context of the scene are completely different to those that feature in Road, the loose link is there which is how I came to the conclusion of it being fairly similar to how we have and Cartwright have portrayed the characters in this final scene.
Pretty Woman: Julia Roberts is playing a prostitute who is offered a week job of being the girlfriend/lover of a very rich man. The twist being they do actually fall in love... A quick summary of the scene I am talking about and linking to Louise and the scene with her brother is when one of the rich friends discovers she's a prostitute, and evidently 'tries it on with her'. This rich guy in which Julia Roberts is now acting as the girlfriend role has changed her, and she no longer wants to give her body away like she did as a prostitute which is why she tries to push this horrid guy off her (pushing away the rich guys friend who is trying to take advantage of the 'local' prostitute) This very section of the scene [the guy tries to 'make-out' with the prostitute and the prostitute is trying hard to escape by pushing the guy off] but it is very similar to how Louise acts when her brother wipes oil down her face, but in a very, very different context. With Louise and her brother, the relationship is a lot more familiar to us as the audience more than in Pretty Woman however they are both as uncomfortable watch. The Pretty Woman scene gets you feeling tense and frustrated and leads to hating the guy in doing what he is because as an audience we have been brought along the journey of how the prostitute has changed. With Louise and her brother it is just as uncomfortable for us, and I wanted to mimic Roberts reaction to this happening to her as it is the eqvilant of a male being extremely intimidating towards a fairly innocent female character. Again this is another scene that I can't get hold of the clip for you, but if you know the films well, I hope you will also be able to see these links and all of the influences I have spoken to you about, from films and tv programmes all go towards my development as an actor for Road.
After finding a lot of links between Road and many different contemporary televised formats I continued a lot of work on my accent as this is one main thing that has been a challenge and worry for me in this project so far. I am still relying heavily on the app that I downloaded on my phone. The image below is a screenshot of the app that I've been using: This section of the app is the 'practise text' where they encourage you to read the dialogue along side the audio woman speaking it in the accent. You can record yourself speaking this text in the accent and listen back on it, and even compare it to the computerised women with the accent. Now nearly learnt, I can recite the text in the accent and almost matching the audio, which I am pleased about. There are times that I slip out of the accent and lose where I am in the text, but apart from that I think it's getting better with the much help from the app. There is also a 'free speech' section which allows you to purely listen to the accent in a story form context. This has also been really helpful because I noted that I am very good at learning and remembering song lyrics, and that's through both practise (cliche') but also listening to the song over and over again. So listening to both of these audio's in the accent has helped me to begin to produce sounds like so.
This is my extra (two week) blog post, with extra thoughts and ideas I have come up with over the Easter break including everything and anything I have done towards Road in general: It is a very mixed blog post, including a lot of Road influences via films and programmes that I have linked to our Road:
I was watching Pride, a new out film: "Based on an extraordinary true story, Pride tells how a group of London-based gay and lesbian activists raised money to support the families of miners during the strike of 1984. Identifying a mining village in Wales, they set off to make their donation in person, and in doing so inspired "the best British" film in years." The film was absolutely amazing, it was so interesting to see how life was then and how gays and lesbians were discriminated immensely. The film has a few familiar faces such as Andrew Scott, who played Moriarty in Sherlock. George MacKay who played in the film version of Sunshine on Leith the musical, Bill Nighy and Imedla Staunton. It's a must watch...
As said above the film is all about gay and lesbians. Which gave me the idea, SkinLad is gay. It is clear in Pride that being gay in the 80's and before was tough, people treated them as though they were not normal. A bit like how they treat SkinLad in Road, he is classed as the 'nutter' because he is so different. So I came to a conclusion that he is gay. So he set off with his fighting, in an attempt to prove to himself that he wasn't gay and he was manly like all the others. Or that his fighting was a means of self defence so he knew how to protect himself, as like in Pride the gays were beaten up for being gay! So SkinLad turned to Buddism. This was a means of something telling him he was straight or a reassurance to himself that he was normal by following their rules, like many others did. Him being gay could be the very good reason 'he passed on the pornography at work' but made it his excuse that the Dharma taught him not to look at it, and not the fact that naked women wouldn't attract his attention.
In Pride, Joe comes out but not by telling his parents they discover it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8jXlqlORR4 "It's such a terrible life" is the mums description of the life gays lead. People were being brought up thinking being gay is so wrong, so there was no chance that the next generation would come out of this vicious circle of believing it's ok to be gay or lesbian or bi. She says it's 'lonely' which links me back to Road and SkinLad, I've previously mentioned that SkinLad is a lonely character and him being gay could be the reason behind this, because even if gays back then found a partner, they couldn't be seen together as it would cause more trouble for them. We know little about SkinLad apart from the fact that he is Buddist, but I can clearly see how him being gay would fit with his character. He is content in his own company and has been for many years, so perhaps his family abandoned him when he told them he was gay? But he is still overcoming this, because he continues to be the religious Buddist whom lives by these new rules, perhaps as a distraction to what he really feels and what he really 'is'.
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| Pride: Costume ideas |
The character (third from the right) is very typically the 80's look with her shaved sides hair, and the colour of it also. I am not quite dedicated enough to shave and dye my hair for Road, but I felt that Louise would have her hair like this as it was 'the look' as is the males 'ice gem' nowadays and the 'full fringes' etc etc. Louise is one of those people who is cool, but is always trying to stay cool, socially. So having her hair like this would assist her in keeping her coolness up, and it would also help her fit in; as I can only imagine that Carol was constantly changing her look, but most definitely not following the trend of others, so Louise does similarly.
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| Pride: Hairstyles |
Pride gave me some ideas for music, also for Road. These song suggestions would be played in Bisto's nightclub, and I feel if we play the very typical 80's song we will be targetting our audience and their past more than perhaps some less well known ones that Cartwright has suggested in the script itself. A favourite of mine being 'Love and Pride' by King. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlXtrnh-Ejo This song is up-beat and fast all the way through which means it matches Bisto's character. When listening to the song, after seeing the film, I could picture Bisto (and Luke for that matter) dancing and singing along to the song. It's one of those songs that once you hear it, you'll be singing it all day (apologises!) but that strikes me as this is something Bisto intends to do. He'll play a really catchy song to get his audience up and dancing and the sense of pride will shine through as his audience go away humming a song that he played. Its almost very child-like, but I think this would happen because he's lonely. As said before, he begins to reminisce about a past lover, "you know who you are, you bitch!" but this doesn't only imply that he had a past lover it also implies that one he is lonely and two because he's still in love with her. Another song suggestion, West End Girls, Pet Shop Boys. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVkN0VhOuZ0&index=7&list=PLPskAFoPlyRX_XzvRb44dTdFudIZY-cnC This song could be played in mine and Jakes begining scene as Louise and her brother. He was originally going to be fixing an engine, which would make playing music more suitable for this scene. But now it is decided that he will be watching tv, but I had a thought that if the music was playing as well as the sound of the tv, it would get irritating. But it would be like he was doing it purposefully to annoy Louise. This will show a hint of a normal brother and sister relationship, but it would also show how Louise has learnt to put up with it, due to her not mentioning it. This idea was sparked by once, my brother playing a shooting game on his Xbox with the volume up full: purely just to annoy me and my sister in the other room! Getting Louise's brother to do this will also show a child-like and immature approach to his character, which could give us a hint to which Louise is the older sister, which is contrasting to what I had originally said, as I still believe that he is the older brother in the relationship.
Pride gave me some further information and knowledge into the working class loosing many of their jobs such as the closure of the mines. Margaret Thatcher is in power in the time of the play, and from already known knowledge she wasn't a very well-liked Prime Minister. Being the first female Prime Minister she should've become an inspirational woman instead she made a lot of decisions that a lot of the population didn't agree or like. Such as, her empowerment and decisions lead to 3 million people unemployed in the UK. So at the time of the play, it was a huge struggle for them, and Road is told as one of the very much deprived and effected areas of Thatchers decisions. As Joey well puts, 'I'm sick of it all' people were honestly 'sick' and fed up with living the way that Thatcher had forced them into, hence all the strikes such as the very well-known and well-remembered mine striking. Pride is following the mine strike over the year or two it lasted. A fair few characters give us the insight into how unhappy they are with their lives and the chances of this being because of Thatchers changes are very very high due to the year in which the play is set in. For example Valerie tells us "why do I stay?" in the context in which she talks to us (about her husband) it is easy to leave it there, but digging deeper it could easily mean 'why does she stay, in the life she is living'? Or 'why does she stay in this country, under the rules of Thatcher'? It could mean a lot more than just 'why do I stay with my husband' which is fairly boring and cliche'. Curt describes his home (Road) as "where all the crap comes but doesn't drop off" this is good use of imagery writing as I can picture it, in a way, that shows me how Road is a very negative place to live. The Professor is also in on this as he mentions "before I was made redundant' and again on the surface this could be for any other reason but it could also be because of the work of Margaret Thatcher and how she made "3 million people unemployed." Louise also, saying how "she wants magic and miracles... and a Jesus to come along and change things again... and everything's been made ordinary in our eyes" she's telling us all about how she wants what she did know, in the past, to return, to perhaps return to when Thatcher wasn't in power...?
Jerry also, and he is an interesting one to mention, for me, because he is the older generation, unlike all the other characters (excluding Brenda, whom is still trying hard to fit into that younger generation) he tells us how ' he would quite like things to return to how they used to be', with 'the girls waiting in the dance room while we all went into the bar, waiting for us to return', and I think it's interesting that he (or that Cartwright) has portrayed him as against the changes in government because it is almost too relevant. But at the same time he breifly tells us how "I cant get over the past, how it was..." which slightly implies that he is pleased it has changed.
As you know parliament are in the 'election war' again, and at this time I find it interesting watching my grandad as this all comes and goes etc. He is very political but in my eyes always goes for the wrong party (in my opinion) so Jerry fits very well with my grandads personality as I know both would quite like to return to 'how things were' when 'the girls waited for us, in the dance hall' etc, and they are both against what Thatcher inforced. But Jerry starts the monologue as though he is surprised at how he used to live before Thatcher, and like my grandad was either publicy or secretivly pleased with what she did. Its a everlasting circle when looking into Jerry as I find it hard to identify if he was pleased or not or a bit of both... I will have to discuss this with Frank...
On the subject of songs, a song gave me some influences towards Louise: the song being 'I need' by Maverick Sabre. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PmIARlm9EY To start, the lyrics saying "i need blue skies" I linked to Louise wanting 'gold and jewles, and all the light out on the pavements' they are both requesting or wishing for something aesthetically pleasing such as the perfect blue sky, or the pleasing look of pure gold. Its like they are both trying to see their world in different eyes and in different perspectives in order to live a better and happier life. Sabre goes on to say he 'needs them old times' and similarly Louise speaks of 'reminds you off them feelings you keep forgetting...once you wrap em' up and put em' away' They are both speaking of past memories or feelings that have since long gone, and they are both wishing upon their return in order to continue living the good life they previously had. The songs tempo and pace picks up a bit when it reaches the chorus again as though 'he' (the writer of the song) is trying to portray how many of us hide our feelings from the public i.e. family and friends, and those who put on a brave face. Like Louise, who acts as though nothing has happened, when she re-appears after her and her brothers scene which becomes quite tense and intimidating; as though she is putting on a brave face. "Was like the rain I used to see pouring down" This closely links to as though Sabre is finishing off the song on a more positive note (not literally) but the use of the word 'used' clearly implies that it was in the past, which means that he is now seeing, hopefully, 'blue skies' and not the 'rain' he 'used to see'. And this is something Louise is looking for in life, she tells us that she is fed up of life, "its all boring... everything's so dulled...everything's been made ordinary" she is bored of the life she is living and she knows what she really wants in life which is the life she lived once upon a time, perhaps when her brother wasnt born or to how things were before things changed, she really wants 'a Jesus to come along and change things...magic and miracles...gold and jewels, and light out on the pavements'. This tells me she is quite ambitious, in this monologue only however, but this monologue specifically makes her portray herself as determined to make these things really happen. But she revolts back into her normal persona of being that 'quiet person' who, the majority of the time, keeps quiet and just observes. She "You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand" Steven Chbosky~ The Perks Of Being A Wallflower. The definition of a 'wallflower' fits Louise's character quite well and my own personality also, which works due to the fact I am playing Louise; but Louise is a quiet character, partially because Carol being so loud and partially because of having to live with her brother which we have all met by now. She knows very early on that Carol fancies the boys, "you fancied em' when you saw em'" but keeps quiet about it, even when the opportunity comes up in which she could say. And she also understands why Carol doesn't let on to the boys, that she quite likes them, as she knows Carol has to have the feeling of dominance over all of the male kind, as that is simply her personality. Louise and I have something in common, which makes it easier for me to play her; but I have got to be Louise and not Issie!!!!
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| Educating Rita |
(Due to the fact I was enjoying the film too much, I didn't make many more notes on the play itself nor did I link it more thoroughly to Road, but the little bits I have mentioned, are still useful me as an actor playing the role of Louise.)
[Poldark: a now very popular tv drama. Ross Poldark (played by a very attractive male actor: Aiden Turner) is a British Army officer who returns home to Cornwall to find his fiance is marrying another man, his cousin. To re-build himself in the area, he opens a mine on the cliff side and marries Demelza, a 'scullery' maid. Which leads me to why I mentioned Poldark in the first place, due to the fact that Demelza (played by Eleanor Tomlinson) is said to be a 'scullery' maid, which made the obvious connection to Road itself, due to us having our own Scullery. So after looking into a dictionary, the definition of a scullery is:
scullery ~ a small room where washing up and other kitchen work is done
And because 'scullery maid' wasn't in the dictionary; the internet definition was:
a female domestic servant responsible for washing dishes and other menial household chores
i give it a year: is a fun, comedic 'chick-flick' film, another film watched over the holidays. But on an educational term, a scene that features in the film reminded me of the scene between myself as Louise, Carol, Eddie and Brink. The scene is set around a pool table on a meal out and it consists of a double date as such. A husband and wife, the wife's boss (who she is having an affair with) and the husbands friend (who he is 'seeing'). The scene reminded me of ours in Road because of the relationships present as well as the tension that was at height. The relationships, as just explained, made the scene really awkward due to the fact that both the husband and wife wanted the other male or female in the scene, but they had to keep up a false front like they are in love and in a good married relationship, despite the opposite was occurring. Similarly, our scene holds a lot of relationships one being that Carol quite clearly likes both of the boys but even more so Brink because when Louise and him kiss, 'Brink reaches out and takes Louise's hand. He leads her over towards him, he stands and kisses her,' and at this point Carol leaves the room, perhaps in jealousy which is an emotion I personally didnt expect from Carol- she being the loud, dominant and confident one who could click her fingers and expect boys to bow to her. Brink likes Carol seeing as he goes straight in for the kiss, but Carol pushes him away as she can't stand to be controlled by a male character. But Brink likes Louise just as much or, Louise is just an excuse for him to make Carol jeloaus because even though he is the 'quiet type' he probably understands and observes relationships and people more, hence how he knows that Carol secretly likes him. Eddie likes Louise, and this is made quite clear and it is clear in ways such as he doesn't try with Carol it is purely just Louise he wants. A bit like the characters from 'I give it a year' all four of them make it clear that they all like the guy/girl they didn't come with. And although it is clear that the relationships and the context of the scene are completely different to those that feature in Road, the loose link is there which is how I came to the conclusion of it being fairly similar to how we have and Cartwright have portrayed the characters in this final scene.
Pretty Woman: Julia Roberts is playing a prostitute who is offered a week job of being the girlfriend/lover of a very rich man. The twist being they do actually fall in love... A quick summary of the scene I am talking about and linking to Louise and the scene with her brother is when one of the rich friends discovers she's a prostitute, and evidently 'tries it on with her'. This rich guy in which Julia Roberts is now acting as the girlfriend role has changed her, and she no longer wants to give her body away like she did as a prostitute which is why she tries to push this horrid guy off her (pushing away the rich guys friend who is trying to take advantage of the 'local' prostitute) This very section of the scene [the guy tries to 'make-out' with the prostitute and the prostitute is trying hard to escape by pushing the guy off] but it is very similar to how Louise acts when her brother wipes oil down her face, but in a very, very different context. With Louise and her brother, the relationship is a lot more familiar to us as the audience more than in Pretty Woman however they are both as uncomfortable watch. The Pretty Woman scene gets you feeling tense and frustrated and leads to hating the guy in doing what he is because as an audience we have been brought along the journey of how the prostitute has changed. With Louise and her brother it is just as uncomfortable for us, and I wanted to mimic Roberts reaction to this happening to her as it is the eqvilant of a male being extremely intimidating towards a fairly innocent female character. Again this is another scene that I can't get hold of the clip for you, but if you know the films well, I hope you will also be able to see these links and all of the influences I have spoken to you about, from films and tv programmes all go towards my development as an actor for Road.
| Accent app |
This leads me onto a new form of line learning that my sister taught me over easter: It is to record myself speaking all my cue lines, in the accent to help me make it more consistent. Pausing as though another character is speaking their line i.e. Louise (me). So when I come to play it back, I can recite my lines as though someone is reading in cue lines for me. So it is basically an independent form of me learning my lines alone. Like the song lyric learning this is the same form of memory usage but for lines which happen to actually be of use to me!! This new form of line learning has so far been really really useful to me, and I can now say that all my lines are learnt. There's just the monologue I muddle up now because I learnt the original so when it came to us cutting it, I already knew it so I keep going back to that version, but it's only a few lines in the monologue so I am pleased with my process.
Returning to accent work, the book I currently have [Accents A Manual for Actors, revised and expanded edition] has been helping me a lot on the improvements to my accent work. Under the heading of 'Yorkshire' it lists all the important sounds and consonants in order to get the Yorkshire/Northern accent: "There is a tendency to shift voiced consonants to voiceless before a voiceless consonant beginning another word or syllable, as in the practise example; cloud passing becomes "Kloaud pah-sing"" "The 'h' is regularly dropped in the accent," so an example for me would be 'it's like walking through meat in high heels' would turn into 'igh eels'.
Under the 'vowels and dipthong' section Robert Blumenfeld (writer of the book) tells me "vowels are generally longer than in the Southern English accent" a example for this comment would be our pronunciation of 'task' features an 'r' sound in- 'tarsk' making it longer. However in the Northern accent they pronounce it how it should be when written down, so excluding the extra 'r' sound and a slight emphasis on the 'ask' sound instead. Throughout the northern section of the book there are little practise phrases which really helped me as I could take in the written information and then put it into practise; and my favourite practise phrase is: "But as I say, do you see that cloud passing over head? That means rain, that does before the afternoon is out. No, its not over yet, this rainy season."
So I wrote it down, in a very individual way, to how I think the sounds of each word should be written, phonetically: "bot, as aye wos sayin', doh ya cee that clouad pass'in ov'r ed? That means raain that dos, be-fouurr the after'noon is ouat. Noo, its not ov'r yet, this raainy season.' The exaggerration on some of the letters such as 'noo' and 'fouurr' help me to remember to extend the sounds on these words so like dragging out the, what we know as a short word 'no' 'noo' but making sure that I raise my voice (pitch) at the very end.
So far this book has been a huge, huge help to me! And it will continue to do so, as I feel that slowly my accent is developing and I have also discovered the more ways I teach myself it, using the book, the app, watching actors in programmes with the accent such as in Ordinary Lies, Jason Manford, the likes of Paddy McGuiness also, the better my accent becomes.
Onto character work, I fully designed my characters look i.e costume. The sketch here is how I want Louise to look. As said previously the light, denim coloured jeans were 'the look' and so were high waisted jeans, so Louise will be wearing denim coloured high waisted jeans. I am stuck between a patterned tshirt, like in the picture of me, or just a plain white one like in the Madonna picture [see blog post 4] Although I do think the patterned/image tshirt I've got on in the picture below suits the outfit well, due to it being a square type fit. The red converse shoes, I think, look really good also and they fit the look and the whole outfit, it also adds a nice bit of colour. Finally I've dug out a load of punk/rock'n'roll bracelets, necklaces, rings and fish net gloves that I used in a previous show. And to me they top off the outfit making it look like a recreation of the Madonna look which is what I aimed for. As awkward as I look in the image on the left, I think the outfit looks really good and it fits the character of Louise. It is also something I am happy wearing which is always a plus! I've also managed to fit it as closely to how I drew out my ideas out before.
To conclude this extra week blog, I am pleased with all the research I have taken up over the holiday and I know that it has furthered my knowledge and understanding of Road. My individual character is coming along nicely and Im also pleased with the costume plan, as am the accent work that seems to be helping. So it is all coming together well at the moment...
Returning to accent work, the book I currently have [Accents A Manual for Actors, revised and expanded edition] has been helping me a lot on the improvements to my accent work. Under the heading of 'Yorkshire' it lists all the important sounds and consonants in order to get the Yorkshire/Northern accent: "There is a tendency to shift voiced consonants to voiceless before a voiceless consonant beginning another word or syllable, as in the practise example; cloud passing becomes "Kloaud pah-sing"" "The 'h' is regularly dropped in the accent," so an example for me would be 'it's like walking through meat in high heels' would turn into 'igh eels'.
Under the 'vowels and dipthong' section Robert Blumenfeld (writer of the book) tells me "vowels are generally longer than in the Southern English accent" a example for this comment would be our pronunciation of 'task' features an 'r' sound in- 'tarsk' making it longer. However in the Northern accent they pronounce it how it should be when written down, so excluding the extra 'r' sound and a slight emphasis on the 'ask' sound instead. Throughout the northern section of the book there are little practise phrases which really helped me as I could take in the written information and then put it into practise; and my favourite practise phrase is: "But as I say, do you see that cloud passing over head? That means rain, that does before the afternoon is out. No, its not over yet, this rainy season."
So I wrote it down, in a very individual way, to how I think the sounds of each word should be written, phonetically: "bot, as aye wos sayin', doh ya cee that clouad pass'in ov'r ed? That means raain that dos, be-fouurr the after'noon is ouat. Noo, its not ov'r yet, this raainy season.' The exaggerration on some of the letters such as 'noo' and 'fouurr' help me to remember to extend the sounds on these words so like dragging out the, what we know as a short word 'no' 'noo' but making sure that I raise my voice (pitch) at the very end.
So far this book has been a huge, huge help to me! And it will continue to do so, as I feel that slowly my accent is developing and I have also discovered the more ways I teach myself it, using the book, the app, watching actors in programmes with the accent such as in Ordinary Lies, Jason Manford, the likes of Paddy McGuiness also, the better my accent becomes.
Onto character work, I fully designed my characters look i.e costume. The sketch here is how I want Louise to look. As said previously the light, denim coloured jeans were 'the look' and so were high waisted jeans, so Louise will be wearing denim coloured high waisted jeans. I am stuck between a patterned tshirt, like in the picture of me, or just a plain white one like in the Madonna picture [see blog post 4] Although I do think the patterned/image tshirt I've got on in the picture below suits the outfit well, due to it being a square type fit. The red converse shoes, I think, look really good also and they fit the look and the whole outfit, it also adds a nice bit of colour. Finally I've dug out a load of punk/rock'n'roll bracelets, necklaces, rings and fish net gloves that I used in a previous show. And to me they top off the outfit making it look like a recreation of the Madonna look which is what I aimed for. As awkward as I look in the image on the left, I think the outfit looks really good and it fits the character of Louise. It is also something I am happy wearing which is always a plus! I've also managed to fit it as closely to how I drew out my ideas out before.
| Costume design |
| Real life Louise costume |
To conclude this extra week blog, I am pleased with all the research I have taken up over the holiday and I know that it has furthered my knowledge and understanding of Road. My individual character is coming along nicely and Im also pleased with the costume plan, as am the accent work that seems to be helping. So it is all coming together well at the moment...
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