Character Profile

Character Profile:

My character is Rachel. She was born 21^st March 1986, and is aged 25. My basic acknowledgements of Rachel are that: she is confident, loud, fiery and not afraid to be individual. She protests for what she believes in which at the time, of the play, are student fees. She is very quick with words and extremely feisty. In this, I will cover most aspects of her character, using information from the book ‘13’ and some of my own research and ideas about her.

 Her star sign is Aries. From http://www.whats-your-sign.com/zodiac-signs-and-meanings.html website, I discovered that Aries are;

“Aries people are creative, adaptive, and insightful. They can also be strong-willed and spontaneous (sometimes to a fault). Aries people can be driven and are very ambitious often making them over-achievers in anything they set their mind to tackle. Aries are fire signs, and so too is their personality. They may be quick to anger, but don't take it personally, it's just their fiery, passionate personalities showing through. Aries can be impatient, but are usually devoted friends, lovers and family members - they are loyal to then end and will fight for their causes.”

Rachel fits into this category perfectly! She is extremely strong willed when it comes to fighting for what she believes in, such as protesting for student fees to support Amir (her boyfriend). We discover that she is a strong-willed protesters in Act 1 Scene 3, in which she comes on stage first, leading the pack of protesters along the stage.  
She is very spontaneous in what she says and often doesn't think before she speaks; which can get her into trouble but normally she manages to escape the trouble. We see this in Act 1 Scene 10, as she starts a rant about where John has been, “where did you go? Why did you leave us?” In which he responds “it’s good to see you too” In this scene Rachel has almost drowned in her own thoughts and anger that she forgets to ask him how he is or even to show any sign of relief to see him after two years.

She is completely driven to what she believes in and she WILL get there no matter what stops her. Her anger is often shining through in the play which again gets her in trouble but this is just a way for her to express her emotions whether it be happy, sad etc. it almost always comes out in anger. This is presented to us in Act 1 Scene 8 as her first reaction to seeing John is to slap him and let all her anger out. Her personality is fiery, passionate and she uses this to help her get what she is fighting for; such as when she demands to find out where Amir is on the phone to the Police station.

Rachel’s star sign animal is a Ram. A ram is a male sheep, and is typically known for being protective of its family. A ram is the only sheep to have horns which can be used as a defence. They are known to be aggressive and fierce, similar to Rachel. In a real sense, Rachel uses her horns to get what she’s set out to get. She is protective of Amir and even goes out of her way to save him from being arrested in Act 1 Scene 5. 

If you look at the Aries image, on the right, I can see half a heart that hasn't quite looped around to complete it. This shows me that Rachel does have a soft side, but it will only show itself over time, the time it takes for the heart to complete itself. 

Personality
I have portrayed Rachel as an impatient person. I discovered this, mainly, in Act 1 Scene 10. In this particular scene Rachel is explaining to John about her new job:
I sit on the phone all day and ask people for money."
This tells me that she would much rather get out and actually make a difference instead of asking other people to donate money which may or may not make any difference to the circumstance. I wanted Rachel to come across impatient so when we were set the activity of trying three poses that would be used at times in which our characters were stood, observing the scene; I began with my first pose of her arms crossed along her chest, which immediately people know this is 'closed' body language, as though Rachel is not willing to interact with others at the time. Along with the crossed arms, I tap my foot to show her being hugely impatient and bored; as though she is just waiting for something exciting, and to do with politics will happen. 
The other two poses were similar: One being her hands in her pockets and looking down; as a child would do - perhaps looking for something more exciting on the floor. And thirdly her sat on the floor, legs spread out in a 'relaxed, homely-feel' position. Each of these poses represent Rachel to be impatient and easily bored if it isn't something that fully captures her attention as would the subject of politics, or Ruth or war. 

Rachel’s interests are to be someone different/ unique. She doesn't like following the crowd and likes to stand out. She doesn'tcare, at all, what people think of her just as long as she’s happy and so is Amir (this was the basis of my costume choice for Rachel, read below.) She works hard to fight for what she believes in, mainly fighting through 'non-violent protests'. Her main interest is politics, she devotes her life around this subject, and this is the main cause of her protesting. 

Rachel is a nature-loving, hippy-like person and I imagine her to always doing little things to help the environment. Controversially Rachel is in 'knee-deep' with technology and social media. Although he doesn't strike me as a women who is interested in recent technology and on all the social media sites, she only uses it for constant updates of news and essentially politics. The reason for this is that she has the personality of someone whom always wants and needs to know what's happening around the world whether or not appeals to her; making her a very curious person. 
She does drive, however she prefers to walk, cycle and use public transport; again looking after the environment.

Childhood/ Background
She is the youngest of her siblings, and having three older brothers has made her fight for what she wants, hence the loud voice and demanding attitude. Her mother loved her, however she never showed it and her father was never around to help her mother and then eventually left her and her family for another women. 

Her mother worked in an office, filing letters and answering phone calls just to get money for her family. I don’t think she ever enjoyed her job which is what pushed Rachel to work for what she wants in life, which Rachel displays in protesting and her PhD. Her father worked as a car mechanic before he left her family, and she can only assume he continued this career. 
Rachel hasn’t made the effort to stay in contact with any of her brothers which gives me the impression that she wasn’t fond of them. No contact was or has been made between father and daughter  but I feel after the play ends, Amir persuades her to get in contact with her dad because Amir only wants the best for her and perhaps she will finally learn why he left because there is always another side to the story. Irregular contact is made between Rachel and her mother, who found another man and is re-married. 

Rachel is all up for strong women, comparable to her mother who raised four children alone, the mentally strong shines through her relationship with Amir, as she does not like to be told what to do by a man. 
I felt it necessary to show this because I can only assume this would be the main cause for her loudness and making sure she gets what she wants. I used this by making sure I raised my voice throughout the entire show, I wanted the audience to look up each time I came on and spoke because through research Rachel wouldn’t want anyone to miss what she has to say.

She was educated and her family weren’t rich, but she had the things that she needed and used them til they were completely worn out. So even now, she treats the things she has as a gift and uses them until they can’t be used. 
This is why she has the same outfit on throughout our play, it’s not that she can’t afford loads of new outfits; she doesn’t see the point in hundreds of different clothes when she still has a decent outfit still in one piece.

This is why she doesn't care how she looks whether or not she’s in public or not. She has her own independent style and she does not follow the fashion trends. Or any other kind of trends for that matter.

Relationship

Her boyfriend, Amir, is 24. He comes from an Indian background. We (myself and Brandon, who played Amir) made sure that Rachel was older than him so she can feel more in charge of the relationship. He fights for what he believes in too, also through protesting. But I think that he only does it because Rachel does, or perhaps she introduced him to it which is why he does it now? Rachel protests with him about student fees, which technically should mean more to Amir than it does Rachel as he was a lecturer but, relating it back to the Aries image: Rachel does have a heart and she does care about those whom she loves; which is why she helps him protest.

I get the impression that Amir and Rachel have been together for a long time. I get this impression because nearing the end of the play (Act Five) Amir and Rachel begin to discuss having a child. So,they have been together for 5 years, and they met at University. In Act 1 Scene 10, John questions Rachel; “You and Amir still together?” The use of ‘still’ implies that its been a long relationship. In our play Frank (who played John) uses emphasis on ‘still’ to tell our audience that it’s been a long time.

    They are a strong couple who want to make their relationship work, which is the reason why its lasted and will after the end of the play as they plan to have a child.

Acts

Equality Act 2010. The Equality Act was issued in 2010, the year in which Mike Bartlett would’ve began drafting ideas for the show. The play was then published in 2011. Part of the law regulations under the Equality Act are: 

"The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in 

wider society."

 https://www.gov.uk/equality-act-2010-guidance

The discrimination definitions are gender, disability, race, religion and sexuality. Bartlett got the idea that Rachel is so passionate about women’s rights and protesting for what she believes in from the newly issued law, Equality Act that was released in 2010. It was a selection of laws put together to make it easier to understand to easier to follow.  A lot of what happens in the play relates to real life happenings in the years 2010 to 2011.

Rachel and I
Rachel is a loud and feisty character and she couldn't be much more different to my personality. Rachel is a character nothing like ones I've played before but I really wanted to challenge myself and really extend my acting skills and really see what I can do.

In this image, you can see Rachel (with Amir, her boyfriend). She is wearing a ordinary dress with a pattern on it. However, this is not how I wanted Rachel to dress in our performance. I had imagined her to be wearing a more hippie-like outfit. For example, skinny jeans with boots. A baggy top with a long cardigan (thin material and perhaps a camouflaged look) Plenty of necklaces, bracelets and anklets, maybe even a bandanna. 
The look I am trying to get is like in the second image, the girl third from the left.

 We were asked to bring in our costumes: I brought some big boots, flowery baggy trousers, a long vest top, baggy knitted cardigan and a hair band- darker and clashy with the pattern on the trousers. Necklaces and bracelets galore and a long shoulder bag with a scarf attached to it. I felt the part of Rachel and immediately knew that this was her, and how I wanted to portray her. I needed to have my hair scraped back, the bandanna will be worn again like the brown haired girl in the image below. 

I want to experiment with this style of clothing because Rachel strikes me as a hippy, whom likes to be out of trend/fashion and who likes to be individual with both her clothing and her opinions. I know from other costumes in the show, that I've researched, that Rachel will be very differently dressed from the other characters which is exactly her personality. I want her to stand out. I imagine her to always have her bag on her as well, as though she's ready for anything; her being so quick to react to anything and everything.

Vocally
I haven’t changed my voice dramatically to fit with the character Rachel. I used my normal voice including whatever accent I hold i.e Portsmouth and used that. But the main change in my voice was the harsher tone, which is commonly used by people who are angry. Rachel has been written as a character who swears a lot; so each swear word I say I try not to add unrealistic emphasis on it because I want her to be like any normal person and use swearing as a back up for their emotions. I think if I was to emphasise or shout each swear word I say then it would sound too rehearsed and unnaturalistic in a way that could easily annoy the audience.

I have gone on to research the 12 Disciples because recently, in class, ‘13’ was linked to Jesus’s 12 disciples Jude, being one of the 12 that I researched: Jude and Rachel are quite similar, in some ways. I know that Jude is a male and Rachel a female but they have very similar dreams in life. Jude is described as "intense and violent" with the "dream of World Power" I know from research and playing Rachel that she doesn't dream of world power, but she does action towards what she believes is right such as not paying student fees and "women's rights in developing countries" (Act 1 Scene 10) Jude sounds like someone whom if he 'dreams' about world power, there is only one way of trying to achieve this dream and that's by taking action. Which is exactly what Rachel does for what she wants and believes in; through the means of protesting and making herself heard. 
Through researching on: http://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/who-were-twelve-disciples. Jude and others of the 12 was part of the inner circle which meant he had "special privileges." Rachel is part of the 12 who has the dreams. Bartlett has linked the 12 disciples and the 12 in his play. The 12 disciples are all closely linked with Jesus, and the 12 in '13' are all linked with John by having dreams which he appeared in. Going back to the class discussion of the 12 disciples matching the 12 from the play, I noted down the idea that John could be Jesus because so many people look up to him, and believe in everything and anything he says. Linking this to the play, in Act 2 Scene 11; 
Shannon: "I've quit my job"
Stephen: " You've quit your job?"
...
Stephen: "How do you do it John?... She quit her job, the way things are at the moment, who does that?" Shannon quit her job, via what John had previously said: "but through believing the impossible you might just make it happen." Shannon is now unemployed even though times are hard, as Stephen mentions, John had fully convinced her that she can do what she believes. People do look up to John, and they trust in what he has to say. 

Objectives and Obstacles during the play

Rachel’s first scene, Act 1 Scene 8, is the scene in which the audience get a real taste of what sort of character she is. This is the first scene that the audience see John also. Rachel’s temperament really shines through;

As John enters, and calls her name she knows the voice but the confusion of knowing that this voice is of someone who is supposedly dead. Hearing this would shock anyone so I tried to slow down all my movements to show this. I pulled in my eyebrows to create a confused frown, and a slight bite of the lip almost like to stop her from speaking. I turned my head around to face him and walked with long strides of my legs. Her confusion and shock quickly turns to pure hatred towards John, the man who left them all with nothing but the assumption that he was dead. This anger then results in a hug which is given with force but shows she is pleased to see him. This links to the mention of Rachel showing the majority of her emotions through anger.
 My objectives in this part of the scene are to show the audience and John her emotions because I get the impression that she doesn't particularly like expressing her emotions verbally. Her obstacle is John, who once again throws her life off the rails, just like he did once before, when he left. The practical outcomes of these emotions are the slow motion effect of Rachel’s thoughts rushing through her head. When John says "Rachel?" Rachel is facing in the opposite direction, a diagonal to the audience.. I drop my arms and sweep my hair as though to show that she is calming down. I raise my head and slowly sweep around 90degrees to face John, at the same time as delivering the short and snappy lines. As I reach John and say my final line I slap him hard and aggressively. "We thought you were dead?" is delivered stuttered and with pauses, I finish this scene with a tad over-enthusiastic, tight hug fully taking John in I close my eyes to show the relief to have him back after the years he'd disappeared. 

              Another scene of Rachel’s is Act Two Scene Eight. In this scene, Rachel comes home from work and Amir is sat watching a video. Her objectives in this scene is to relax from a long day at work. Her obstacle for this is because Amir hasn’t done anything around the house such as “call about the washing machine? Or picked up the shopping?” Which means Rachel will have to do these things.

The practical outcome of this scene is all done with a slight sense of knowing each other well enough to tease one another. Rachel lists the jobs that she knows Amir hasn't done, Bartlett has written this in because it fully represents most couples. The women asking the man to do jobs that we all know he hasn't bothered to do. I deliver these lines by drawing out the syllables and each word as though Rachel is processing the answer before she even asks the question. 

Before the play
Rachel was doing her PhD in Politics. She was and still is dating Amir who was working as a “lecturer, but the department shut down” which then in play she says that she had to quit the PhD and get a job. The three, John Rachel and Amir, had a very close friendship before John went off and left them, before the play. In Act 1 Scene 10 where Rachel and John properly get the chance to catch up. In this scene I notice some past tension between the two characters. John clearly knows Rachel well enough to joke with her; “it’s good to see you too”, because any other character, excluding Amir, wouldn’t get away with joking or teasing towards Rachel because of her natural, fiery personality wouldn’t allow them. She had a good childhood and her family had money for education, food and small leisure’s. She always wanted to be a politician, and I feel she would’ve been a very good one, but she’s now settled for studying it and protesting on behalf of those who perhaps don’t get noticed in the midst of elections such as day-to-day people who also have opinions of their own.
Rachel was originally studying her PhD (which we are told in Act 1 Scene 10) in Politics. But, when Amir lost his job being a lecturer, she quit her PhD to earn money. She works for a charity which funds for women’s rights in developing countries. 

During the play

There are a few hints towards the relationship breaking up, in Act 3 Scene 8 Amir asks “when you say end it, you mean…?” And Rachel replies saying “I don’t know, it’s just nothing works anymore, does it?” Before this scene, they have an argument about politics and whether or not the country should go to war. This is rather ironic because they argue about this but really do ordinary day-to-day people ever get a say in what the government decide? This just proves to us that they are both very passionate and stubborn with what they believe. “Nothing works” implies that everything to do with their relationship has fallen to pieces over time and that now Rachel has realised this, she knows there is nothing keeping them together anymore. Also during the play they mention having a child but the only thing stopping them is the worry that he or she will have the same horrible nightmares… This is mentioned in Act 5 Scene 1 with Amir saying “what if the child will have the same dreams?” This shows the audience that they both care so much about the babies future that they wouldn’t dream of
As quoted from the script, John says how the charity work that Rachel is now doing, “sounds like your sort of thing” I agree with John, because this could be an occupation that helps Rachel make a difference. Instead of her attempting change alone because she is so strong willed I imagine Rachel fighting til’ the end for a chance for equal rights and women being equal to men in all aspects. But, her response to this is how she “sits on the phone all day and asks people for money” which suggests that she would much rather be out making a difference or physically supporting women’s equal rights than sat watching the change that never happens.

After the play Rachel and Amir will find a way to stay together and recreate the relationship they once had. During this there will be breakups and makeups but I think eventually they will get married, but I feel that it won’t last forever. The thought of staying or being stuck with one man will annoy and even scare Rachel. A divorce is insight. Which is a shame because they both love each other but pinning Rachel down to one thing isn’t her personality at all, she wants to be free as she has all her life and now is the time in which she can do this. They will stay friends and act as nothing happened, and even return to being a couple; which is much simpler for them both. I believe that they will have a child during this marriage and even after the divorce they will stay mum and dad, living together, working for the baby and loving each other; just the same as a marriage but this way the rules aren’t written down on paper as such.

In conclusion, I have discovered that Rachel is an extremely feisty women who clearly doesn’t believe in inequality in any way. She will always protests for what she believes to be right and she will try every possible way to ensure this gets heard by the government. She feels so strongly about politics because she was originally studying it for a PhD. She had a good childhood but the fact that her dad left her mother to bring up four children meant that Rachel has not a lot of support for men and she certainly does not let Amir boss her around.

Rachel, so far, has been such a great character to play because she is one I’ve never had the opportunity to play before now. I know that I need to continue challenging myself after ‘13’ for characters whom are out of my comfort zone; because this is the only way I learn to be much louder and more confident on stage.