Casting for playhouse creatures…
In today's last lesson before christmas we were cast for our upcoming performance by Andy.
I have been given the part for MRS MARSHALL.
I am pleased with this role as Mrs Marshall is an interesting role and has a nice amount of lines, all the parts in this play are equal which I really like, as every body will have the same amount of exposure and there won't be any conflict about lines and rehearsals.
My character has a monologue which I am looking forward to learning, and is featured throughout pages 180-190 which is what I am learning and again pages 200-205 which I will be learning also.
MRS MARSHALL MONOLOGUE ALONE ON STAGE;
Here have I flown to this lonely forest
Fled shame, dishonour and a passion torrid
Will I ever leave this wilderness?
What my fate will be, I fear to guess
My heart is beating strangely fast
Shall I find relief at last?
This dagger i may employ to end my sorrow
Yet pity says wait until the morrow
For surely salvation swift may come
With the sweet and rising sun
I shall call upon the muses three
To aid me in my misery
I like this monologue as it has an element of mystery to it, she sounds disheartened yet hopeful, hopeful for something to happen to add something into her life.
Friday, 20 December 2013
Tuesday, 17 December 2013
Stanislavski exercises
Over the past few lessons we have been learning exercises based on Naturalism and given circumstances, all Stanislavski inspired…
Given circumstances is a theory Stanislavski used to determine the nature of his characters he was creating. He believed that a character's given circumstances will say a lot about that person and determine what sort of person they are.
A persons given circumstance is what they have been bought into and how they have been bought up.
Given circumstances is a theory Stanislavski used to determine the nature of his characters he was creating. He believed that a character's given circumstances will say a lot about that person and determine what sort of person they are.
A persons given circumstance is what they have been bought into and how they have been bought up.
- Heredity
- Environment
These two elements were believed by Stanislavski to contribute to how a person becomes.
Heredity is what a person has had passed down to them from their parents, we would call it GENES these days, but back in Stanislavski's days, genes were not yet discovered, and there was no scientific proof of why people are the way they are.
Environment was believed to affect the way a person is, for example; if a person was bought up in a very wealthy, rural and upper class environment, that said person would more than likely turn out to be wealthy and successful. And if a person was bought up in an urban, poor and criminal environment, and especially if their family contained criminals, they would more than likely end up like this too.
EXERCISES;
WHAT IF? : This is a very simple yet enjoyable exercise, what if means an actor has to think as if they were their character, we were put into situations by our tutor and asked to react and think how our character would, or how we would react ourselves.
THE COTTAGE: This exercise was my favourite out of all the naturalistic exercises we have been taught.
We were given a scenario, which was we had all travelled to a christmas cottage in the woods together to have a party for new years eve. We all set up the kitchen and living room, and naturally one group formed in the kitchen and the other in the living room. We all began to socialise, drink, dance and shout as if we were at a party together. Everything was very naturalistic, we were told that we were listening to the radio and we heard an announcement that a serial killer had escaped from a near by prison. After finding this out, most people began to panic and ramble. I naturally did not feel that threatened, and simply locked all the doors and closed the blinds, as this is what I would do in real life, if i lock the doors then no one is going to be able to get in.
Andy turned the lights off and started to make banging noises as if someone were knocking on the door, at this point a lot of people in my class started screaming and hiding. I felt slightly nervous but I always try to be logical and rational about situations, i went over to the door and told whoever it was to go away!
To me it felt so natural and in my mind I was imagining what the cottage looked like, what colour it was, what we were all drinking and what music we were listening to. My imagination allowed me to create the images in my mind.
I really enjoyed this exercise, it allows everybody to identify what role every body plays and how different and similar people can be and how people react to a situation.
EXERCISE WITH GRETA: This exercise, me and Greta were given a scenario, as two friends who were going for the same job. We improvised together and let it flow naturally, and we were both going for a modelling job which pays a lot of money. After a few minutes, Greta's character became jealous of mine saying that I will obviously get the job, and then we started talking about each others boyfriends! It was a very naturalistic scene, as we were portraying two girls who were talking about boys and modelling!
Again, I was using my own imagination throughout and simply reacting to the scenario in my own natural way.
OBJECTIVE, OBSTACLE: In today's lesson we were learning exercises to do with objectives and obstacles.
One of the exercises we had to do in pairs, was not to let the other person leave! I did this once with UNIS and once with JADE. I found it easier to be the one leaving as I came up with more excuses to leave, as apposed to trying to make the other person stay. That might say a lot about my personality!
The second time we had to establish who we were, and me and Jade chose partners, I was playing her boyfriend and she was my girlfriend. She used lots of different reasons for why I shouldn't leave, and lots of people used emotional blackmail, which was interesting!
Another exercise we learned today was in pairs as well, but we were given an objective by Andy and had to improvise with a partner, without the partner knowing our objective and vice versa!
IZYY and I did this exercise together, and we were both given the exact same objective! That we had heard about a really promising promotion that would get us a lot more money, but we did not want to let anyone find out as we really wanted it. It was really interesting because I actually did not catch on that ours were the same during improvisation… I felt that IZYY was hinting to me that I did not need the job anymore and that I have enough money from my "husband", so i thought her objective was to try and get me to leave! And I was very different, as I was trying to find things out from her instead of making her feel like she was "too good" for the job.
I am really enjoying Stanislavski exercises as they are developing my acting skills and ability to improvise. I feel I am so much better and much more confident at improvisation compared to the beginning of the year.
Wednesday, 11 December 2013
RESEARCH REPORT: DUE 16/01/14
PLAYHOUSE CREATURES
RESEARCH REPORT
SOPHIA HINCHLIFF
Since my first time of reading through the script for Playhouse Creatures, written by April De Angelis and published in 1999, I have conducted research on the writer, the play, the characters, the real life settings and the real life characters featured within the play.
The play is set in 1663, in which the setting was very political, and for women a very difficult time. Women had very little participation and status to society, and were looked down upon by men, who held the highest status and saw the women as objects of lust, and not human beings. The play stresses these facts, and shows an insight into the lives of women trying to make it in the acting industry.
April de Angelis includes very strong historical features in all her plays, and she likes to stress the difference between centuries in her plays. She portrays a feminist undertone in all her plays, and particularly in Playhouse Creatures!
From reading less than 10 pages of the play, I felt the feminism and the controversial lives these women lived, and how hard it was in the 1600's to be respected and noticed, particularly career wise.
Playhouse Creatures features notorious Nell Gwynn also known as "Eleanor". I conducted research on her specifically, and found a lot of information about her and was strongly interested and inspired. She was a smart, cunning and successful women, and although this is something that is common in the 21st century, back then it was extremely hard for women to be successful and well known as she was. She was the long term mistress of King Charlres the second and conceived two son's with him, one of which passed away when he was very young.
The research portrayed to me, a very strong and stable woman. Who is an excellent character for a play with the settings it has, in the play she is very cocky and cunning, and uses bad language throughout, which is seen as very rebellious. She also does her own thing, and knows her own ways of gaining a higher status, which ultimately was her very public affair with the King at the time. Although he maintained a wife and other girlfriends, they were all short lived, but Nell remained with him until the day he died.
All the characters featured in Playhouse Creatures are very unpredictable to me, as they are not what I expected, they are all very smart talking and cunning in their own ways.
They are all trying to make it in the industry by doing different things, Nell is having an affair with the King, Mrs Farely is trying to get in with the male crowd by following them to pubs and observing what they do, Mrs Betterton is married to a senior actor and has a comfortable life and Mrs Marshall is quite similar to Nell as she is trying to get information about The Earls, Doll seems to be the main character, but I feel there is not a main character, as they are all equal to each other and all have the same motives.
Doll seems the most mature and oldest in age, she seems to have been in the industry for a while and know what she is doing, as she opens the play with a monologue describing the theatre and how it used to be.
Research shows that Playhouse Creatures is a very strong, feminist and powerful play portraying the difficult lives the women led in the 1600's and is also very accurate to how times were in those times.
It shows the vast difference throughout the centuries, as being an actress now is a very respectful, successful and creative job, especially film stars and hollywood actresses. Back then, being an actress was a terribly hard job, and was not paid well nor was it respected. Men used to treat actresses as if they were prostitues, as they were not interested in their acting abilities, they were intereted in the "extras" that is portrayed in Playhouse Creatures. These extras are the females, "baring their bosoms" to the audience, and revealing their legs and other "intimate" areas of their bodies.
Actresses nowadays, are successful people, and it is an interesting and spontaneous career choice. Becoming an actress is a desirable job today, exactly as it were back then, although their are much more opportunities today.
Actresses back then were given no acting training and were simply told to "look the part" and to live in the shadow of a senior actor or actress in order to learn how to act from them. Which inevitably resulted in actresses just "copying" other actresses.
I have learned a vast majority of knowledge about Playhouse Creatures since researching and reading through the full script. I am excited to begin rehearsals and to know which character I will be playing. I feel having this knowledge in my mind will allow me to be able to produce a concise and accurate portrayal of any of the characters.
9/12/13: Reading of script analysis
I read 10 pages of the script provided on moodle and found out a lot of information about the settings, the characters, the relationships and themes…
- After reading the first 10 pages of the script I have noticed that NELL GWYNN is a rather cocky and confident woman, she swears quite a lot and does not seem phased by what some of the other women are talking about, she seems powerful and almost like the mother figure, who the women look up to and respect, however DOLL seems to be the most mature character who is wise and knows a lot about the industry, I learned this when she opened the play with a monologue
- the setting seems to be quite seedy at some points, the women describe the men as trying to come into the changing rooms to look at them, this makes me feel that the setting the women are in is not a stable nor secure one. Their privacy is being violated all the time and nothing they do is private
- the relationships between the characters are interesting. To me DOLL is the character who the characters go to for advice and Doll guides the other characters in the industry, NELL i feel is very respected and looked up to, she seems to be the most savvy out of all the characters, she knows what she wants and she knows how to use her femininity to get it.
- Mrs Farely is a strange character, she tries to convince the girls she is "holier than thou" but in one scene she is tied to a tree and has been "spoiled" by a man, insinuating that she is no longer pure, and i feel she is trying to fit in with the males and get in on their plans and secrets in order to gain more social status, she is not really a "girls girl" i feel she is just trying to make friends with anyone who has a high status, and in those days MEN had the higher status
- Mr and Mrs betterton are in charge of the theatre, MR is a senior actor, which instantly gives him a high status, and as his wife MRS is very respected as well, she has a powerful status and the other characters are never crude or disrespectful in front of her. She assigns the actors and actresses with their roles for plays, and always has the last word with castings. I noticed in every scene she is in, as soon as she exits, the females begin to swear again, for example;
- PAGE 174; MRS BETTERTON has just casted the actors for their roles in an upcoming performance, just after she exits MRS MARSHALL states " WHORE HE CALLED ME" which picks up from where they left off before MRS BETTERTON came onto the scene, this says to me that the women will never swear in front of MRS BETTERTON as they want her to view them as respectful and polite young women in order for them to be casted for performances, if she heard the way they spoke, maybe this could be different?
- The male roles in this play, OTWAY, WIT, THE EARL and MR BETTERTON are very stereotyped, particularly wit and otway, as they are portrayed as sex hungry males who are crude, sleazy and disrespectful towards women and are always trying to pry on the women and do horrible things to them, like throwing "shit" in MRS MARSHALLS hair, as a gift from "the earl of oxford" to teach her some manners! The men are shown as bullies, animals and condescending people.
- The themes I am noticing in PLAYHOUSE CREATURES so far are FEMINISM. Which is a fairly obvious theme as the play revolves around the lives of women and how men behaved horribly towards them, and how women had no status in the 1600's. Another theme i am sensing is FAME, throughout the play you see the characters rise and fall to fame, and just how fame hungry they are, as they want to be accepted by society but in a way they do not care what society thinks of them, they just want a name for themselves and to live a comfortable and full life.
- Throughout the play the women demonstrate their dreams, passions, desires and willingness to make it to the top of the social ladder, doing whatever they can to get there.
Monday, 9 December 2013
9/12/13: Stanislavski and exercises
Power point on Stanislavski..
In today's lesson we watched a power point about Konstantin Stanislavski about his life and the environment he was bought into.
I learned that just 7 years before he was born, Russia were still using "serfs" which means slaves, in households of wealthy people, which would have been his parents and family, as they too were wealthy people who owned land and lived in a big house, which in those days in Russia, gave people a massive social status.
I also learned that Stanislavski was in a partnership with Nemirovich-Danchenko who had similar interests and goals as himself and created the Moscow Art Theatre together, which is still standing now.
I discovered he wrote books about acting, which were "An actor prepares" "Building a character" and "Creating a role"
He also wrote a few other books for inspiring actors...
Exercises from today's class…
Today we took part in two exercises, all were based on Naturalism and status, which are very different but at the same time a good mixture, as the exercises were testing our ability to portray naturalism and to see every bodies individual reactions..
The first exercise was unexpected!
We were all getting on with our lesson and suddenly LUCY announced that she had lost her earrings her sister had bought for her, she was looking for them and asked if we could help her look for them, naturally most people began to help her looking gradually more and more people started looking and opening the blinds in order to let more light in, I found this strange as no body had left the room and they would have been in the room somewhere, I sensed that something was a bit strange but I just got on with it and looked for a little bit, but after a few minutes I did not feel the need to carry on looking as most people were and it was getting a bit crowded around the area she said she had put them. After five or so minutes LUCY and ANDY announced that she had not lost her earrings and that it was an EXERCISE! Initially most peoples reactions were comical and humorous, but it was a very good exercise for actors as the tutors were able to see how every body reacted, and who were the leaders, the accusers and the observers.
We did this exercise a second time round, knowing that it was not real, and I feel it did not work for me personally and most people in the class as we all knew it was not real, so none of us had the energy nor determination to "find the earrings" as we knew it was not true.
I enjoyed this exercise as it was new and interesting, it showed peoples different characteristics and who was the most concerned and who was not, I was one of the few that were not too concerned in all honesty, as in my mind I knew if she had lost her earrings, they would be in the room somewhere as no body had left the room.
The second exercise we were taught today was my favourite so far, as it allowed us to show our acting ability and to also include our own personal emotions into the exercise.
Each person individually left the room and were told various natural scenarios which happen in every day life and just simply had to react to the scenario and portray how it would look as a performance, and personally i included how i would feel in real life, in order to have a sense of the naturalism.
Each person acted the scenario out in silence in the middle of the studio and the rest of us acted as an audience and merely just observed and let our imaginations take over.
A few people started off as just DEMONSTRATING to us what they were doing, but when they did it a second time, it was much more natural and we as an audience found it easier to watch and ultimately more interesting.
MY SCENARIO
The scenario I was given today was that I had just been informed that my boyfriend had been sleeping with my best friend.
This exercise to me was very emotional and actually made me feel sick and scared. As I have a long term boyfriend and I was imagining how it would feel to find this out in real life, and it naturally made me shake and have butterflies in my stomach.
It was very personal to me, and being able to bring this fear and sadness into acting was a good opportunity for me, as it was real and natural reactions and acting, therefore creates good naturalistic acting.
I chose to sit on the floor in the studio, instead of the furniture that was organised for me, as it was supposed to look like my bedroom, but as I felt so saddened and hurt, i chose to sit on the floor. I did not even realise I had sat on the floor, but naturally that is what I would have done, I was just feeling it the whole time as if it were real, and this helps me a lot in my acting to be able to bring my own real emotions into it.
I researched Stanislavski's methods and I read that in some of his performances, he allowed his actors to bring forth their own personal emotions and experiences, in order to create richer and more rounded characters. This is a great method, as it feels real to the actor, there fore it will naturally appear more real to the audience.
I really enjoyed todays exercises, I feel I have learned a lot about myself as an actor, and also about acting techniques which will benefit me in the present and future.
In today's lesson we watched a power point about Konstantin Stanislavski about his life and the environment he was bought into.
I learned that just 7 years before he was born, Russia were still using "serfs" which means slaves, in households of wealthy people, which would have been his parents and family, as they too were wealthy people who owned land and lived in a big house, which in those days in Russia, gave people a massive social status.
I also learned that Stanislavski was in a partnership with Nemirovich-Danchenko who had similar interests and goals as himself and created the Moscow Art Theatre together, which is still standing now.
I discovered he wrote books about acting, which were "An actor prepares" "Building a character" and "Creating a role"
He also wrote a few other books for inspiring actors...
- An actors work on a role
- An actors handbook
- A life in letters
- My life in art
All of which including methods and beliefs he had, and educational information for actors, teachers and inspiring actors.
The powerpoint today gave me new knowledge of Stanislavski, and i will use this knowledge throughout the course, as the more knowledge I have of him, the more I will understand and interpret his methods and ideas.
Exercises from today's class…
Today we took part in two exercises, all were based on Naturalism and status, which are very different but at the same time a good mixture, as the exercises were testing our ability to portray naturalism and to see every bodies individual reactions..
The first exercise was unexpected!
We were all getting on with our lesson and suddenly LUCY announced that she had lost her earrings her sister had bought for her, she was looking for them and asked if we could help her look for them, naturally most people began to help her looking gradually more and more people started looking and opening the blinds in order to let more light in, I found this strange as no body had left the room and they would have been in the room somewhere, I sensed that something was a bit strange but I just got on with it and looked for a little bit, but after a few minutes I did not feel the need to carry on looking as most people were and it was getting a bit crowded around the area she said she had put them. After five or so minutes LUCY and ANDY announced that she had not lost her earrings and that it was an EXERCISE! Initially most peoples reactions were comical and humorous, but it was a very good exercise for actors as the tutors were able to see how every body reacted, and who were the leaders, the accusers and the observers.
We did this exercise a second time round, knowing that it was not real, and I feel it did not work for me personally and most people in the class as we all knew it was not real, so none of us had the energy nor determination to "find the earrings" as we knew it was not true.
I enjoyed this exercise as it was new and interesting, it showed peoples different characteristics and who was the most concerned and who was not, I was one of the few that were not too concerned in all honesty, as in my mind I knew if she had lost her earrings, they would be in the room somewhere as no body had left the room.
The second exercise we were taught today was my favourite so far, as it allowed us to show our acting ability and to also include our own personal emotions into the exercise.
Each person individually left the room and were told various natural scenarios which happen in every day life and just simply had to react to the scenario and portray how it would look as a performance, and personally i included how i would feel in real life, in order to have a sense of the naturalism.
Each person acted the scenario out in silence in the middle of the studio and the rest of us acted as an audience and merely just observed and let our imaginations take over.
A few people started off as just DEMONSTRATING to us what they were doing, but when they did it a second time, it was much more natural and we as an audience found it easier to watch and ultimately more interesting.
MY SCENARIO
The scenario I was given today was that I had just been informed that my boyfriend had been sleeping with my best friend.
This exercise to me was very emotional and actually made me feel sick and scared. As I have a long term boyfriend and I was imagining how it would feel to find this out in real life, and it naturally made me shake and have butterflies in my stomach.
It was very personal to me, and being able to bring this fear and sadness into acting was a good opportunity for me, as it was real and natural reactions and acting, therefore creates good naturalistic acting.
I chose to sit on the floor in the studio, instead of the furniture that was organised for me, as it was supposed to look like my bedroom, but as I felt so saddened and hurt, i chose to sit on the floor. I did not even realise I had sat on the floor, but naturally that is what I would have done, I was just feeling it the whole time as if it were real, and this helps me a lot in my acting to be able to bring my own real emotions into it.
I researched Stanislavski's methods and I read that in some of his performances, he allowed his actors to bring forth their own personal emotions and experiences, in order to create richer and more rounded characters. This is a great method, as it feels real to the actor, there fore it will naturally appear more real to the audience.
I really enjoyed todays exercises, I feel I have learned a lot about myself as an actor, and also about acting techniques which will benefit me in the present and future.
Saturday, 7 December 2013
Interpretation of PlayHouse Creatures: Due 16/1/14
My interpretation of the play…
My first interpretation after reading the first few scenes of the play on a script was that it was a very strong play and had a deep meaning.
April De Angelis, seems to me to be slightly somewhat a feminist as the play revolves around women's lives in 1600's and portrays men to be rude, sexist and controlling. They are only three male parts in the play, as it is such a female heavy performance and depicts the lives of those who were struggling to become actresses at some of London's first ever theatres.
Nell Gywnn is featured in the play, who was at the time a notorious mistress of King Charles the 2nd.
She is portrayed as a confident and cunning female, as are all the women in this play. It is not what I expected, as women were so low status in the time the play was set, which was 1663, I imagined the women to be so dependent on men and not have any confidence to become actresses, which was such an inappropriate career choice for women back then, it seems very brave to have decided to go into the industry regardless of what society thought.
The women are all extremely witty and almost seem to not give a damn what people think. But they do appear to be needing men to give them a higher status and security, which was important for women in the 1600's, as it was quite a dangerous time for women.
As actresses, I feel they are seen more as prostitutes, as in the play in mentions that the men always ask them to do little "Extras" on the side after the shows, and they expose themselves to men throughout the play.
I am looking forward to exploring the play even further and to be cast as one of these characters, as they are all interesting and fearless women, and know exactly what they want and how to get it.
My first interpretation after reading the first few scenes of the play on a script was that it was a very strong play and had a deep meaning.
April De Angelis, seems to me to be slightly somewhat a feminist as the play revolves around women's lives in 1600's and portrays men to be rude, sexist and controlling. They are only three male parts in the play, as it is such a female heavy performance and depicts the lives of those who were struggling to become actresses at some of London's first ever theatres.
Nell Gywnn is featured in the play, who was at the time a notorious mistress of King Charles the 2nd.
She is portrayed as a confident and cunning female, as are all the women in this play. It is not what I expected, as women were so low status in the time the play was set, which was 1663, I imagined the women to be so dependent on men and not have any confidence to become actresses, which was such an inappropriate career choice for women back then, it seems very brave to have decided to go into the industry regardless of what society thought.
The women are all extremely witty and almost seem to not give a damn what people think. But they do appear to be needing men to give them a higher status and security, which was important for women in the 1600's, as it was quite a dangerous time for women.
As actresses, I feel they are seen more as prostitutes, as in the play in mentions that the men always ask them to do little "Extras" on the side after the shows, and they expose themselves to men throughout the play.
I am looking forward to exploring the play even further and to be cast as one of these characters, as they are all interesting and fearless women, and know exactly what they want and how to get it.
NELL GWYNN Research
NELL GWYNN…
Nell "Eleanor" Gwynn was born on the 2nd of February 1650 in London.
She is famously known for being the long term mistress of King Charles the 2nd.
Nell began acting when she was 14, at the Bridges street acting club in London, previously she was an orange girl, selling oranges on the street to make money for herself.
Nell was part of a plan by her "love affair manager" George Villiers, to be kept by King Charles the 2nd for £500 a year, but this plan was rejected as it was seen to be too much money for someone of her status.
However, her love affair was estimated to of began with the King in 1668, when Nell was just 18 years old.
Nell remained one of the Kings life long mistresses, and "out shone" all the other mistresses he allegedly was seeing throughout his and Nell's time together.
In 1670, when Nell was 20 years old, she had her first son "Charles" who was the Kings SEVENTH SON! Whom he had with FIVE separate women..
After her son was born, she returned to the stage as an actress and she received mixed reactions for this, as she was a young women with a royal child.
in 1671 on Christmas Day, Nell had her second son with the King, James who was sent to study in Paris when he was only six years old, sadly James died whilst he was in Paris, and reasons have always remained unknown….
In 1685 the King died, and Nell was forever compensated by his Brothers wishes, and received £1500 a year, which back then was a lot of money, and she was never without money for the rest of her life.
She lived a hard yet successful life and was seen to be a powerful and smart women, as the King stayed with her until his death, and he evidently felt love towards her, and she was forever looked after by royal family members.
Nell sadly passed away when she was 37 years old, after suffering from two severe strokes which left her paralysed on her left side of her body.
I was amazed at the amount of research I found on Nell Gywnn and just how extreme and interesting her life was.
Nell "Eleanor" Gwynn was born on the 2nd of February 1650 in London.
She is famously known for being the long term mistress of King Charles the 2nd.
Nell began acting when she was 14, at the Bridges street acting club in London, previously she was an orange girl, selling oranges on the street to make money for herself.
Nell was part of a plan by her "love affair manager" George Villiers, to be kept by King Charles the 2nd for £500 a year, but this plan was rejected as it was seen to be too much money for someone of her status.
However, her love affair was estimated to of began with the King in 1668, when Nell was just 18 years old.
Nell remained one of the Kings life long mistresses, and "out shone" all the other mistresses he allegedly was seeing throughout his and Nell's time together.
In 1670, when Nell was 20 years old, she had her first son "Charles" who was the Kings SEVENTH SON! Whom he had with FIVE separate women..
After her son was born, she returned to the stage as an actress and she received mixed reactions for this, as she was a young women with a royal child.
in 1671 on Christmas Day, Nell had her second son with the King, James who was sent to study in Paris when he was only six years old, sadly James died whilst he was in Paris, and reasons have always remained unknown….
In 1685 the King died, and Nell was forever compensated by his Brothers wishes, and received £1500 a year, which back then was a lot of money, and she was never without money for the rest of her life.
She lived a hard yet successful life and was seen to be a powerful and smart women, as the King stayed with her until his death, and he evidently felt love towards her, and she was forever looked after by royal family members.
Nell sadly passed away when she was 37 years old, after suffering from two severe strokes which left her paralysed on her left side of her body.
I was amazed at the amount of research I found on Nell Gywnn and just how extreme and interesting her life was.
 |
| King Charles kept dozens of paintings of Nell Gywnn topless and nude in his home, this at the time was seen as very scandalous as Gywnn was very young when the first painting was created. |
6th December: Reading through the script
A first look at a few scenes from Playhouse Creatures Script…
In todays lesson we were given the script to Playhouse Creatures written by April de Angelis in 1987.
The play was based in 1663, and is has a very old english style text. It is set in a theatre, were young women are working as "Actresses" but in the 17th century, being an actress was not seen as a respectful job and the women are treated in very sexist way, and are almost made fun of by the men in the play. Interestingly, there are only three male parts in the play, as it is such a female heavy piece, I feel there is a hint of feminism coming from April De Angelis within this play.
The women are cocky, smart and cunning and are not to be pushed around by the men. But I learned from reading some of the script that the women need men to be protected and to have some kind of status within their society.
They express their need for wealth, and come up with silly ideas on how to make money. Nell Gwynn, who is a big character in this play, seems to be a very smart women and forms a relationship with King Charles the 2nd as his long term mistress.
My current feelings on the play are curiosity and excitement. It is such a powerful play and has strong femininity and meaning to it.I feel it will definitely be a challenging performance for myself, but I am looking forward to playing one of the characters, as they all have interesting personas and are not as you would think they are, I envisioned the women in this play to be slightly ditsy and totally reliant on men, but as I research and read more of the script I realise that the women are sort of using men just for their status and power, in order to gain a higher status and to be well known, ultimately to heighten their acting careers!
This play is a great choice for myself and my group as it is challenging, exciting and rather moving in some ways.
In todays lesson we were given the script to Playhouse Creatures written by April de Angelis in 1987.
The play was based in 1663, and is has a very old english style text. It is set in a theatre, were young women are working as "Actresses" but in the 17th century, being an actress was not seen as a respectful job and the women are treated in very sexist way, and are almost made fun of by the men in the play. Interestingly, there are only three male parts in the play, as it is such a female heavy piece, I feel there is a hint of feminism coming from April De Angelis within this play.
The women are cocky, smart and cunning and are not to be pushed around by the men. But I learned from reading some of the script that the women need men to be protected and to have some kind of status within their society.
They express their need for wealth, and come up with silly ideas on how to make money. Nell Gwynn, who is a big character in this play, seems to be a very smart women and forms a relationship with King Charles the 2nd as his long term mistress.
My current feelings on the play are curiosity and excitement. It is such a powerful play and has strong femininity and meaning to it.I feel it will definitely be a challenging performance for myself, but I am looking forward to playing one of the characters, as they all have interesting personas and are not as you would think they are, I envisioned the women in this play to be slightly ditsy and totally reliant on men, but as I research and read more of the script I realise that the women are sort of using men just for their status and power, in order to gain a higher status and to be well known, ultimately to heighten their acting careers!
This play is a great choice for myself and my group as it is challenging, exciting and rather moving in some ways.
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| APRIL DE ANGELIS |
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