Rehearsal Blog

During the dime of working on our play The Double Dealer we have learned a lot about not only the play itself but also the whole restoration period as well. In the final weeks of working on the restoration project I have found that once you have the lines in place and you understand what is not only going on with your character but also with all of the others you gain an understanding of the whole play enough to focus on the depth of the character you are playing.

Through the final stages of the rehearsal process I found myself really beginning to understand the character of Cynthia and those around her and their relationships, I have also found how she moves especially working with the character shoes, practice skirts and fans you really begin to grasp a sense of how they would have moved or acted with these specific items and the corsets make a huge difference as to how you sit stand and move as they restrict your movement in such a way that you have to move like a lady of the day would have because you have no other physical choice.

I have found through the rehearsals that learning lines was quite difficult because restoration is a mix between modern and shakespearian theatre and so you have the language of a shakespeare play but no rhythm which makes learning the lines a lot harder than it needs to be. That being said it was interesting as a challenge because it gave you a lot more to think about with the character and the play itself because you were spending a lot more time thinking about how the language and the lines all fitted in with each other.

overall I feel that this whole rehearsal process has been difficult and challenging but at the same time a wonderful experience, it has been fascinating to learn about the history of not only the play but the era itself and how restoration theatre came to be.

Character Relationships - Cynthia

Men

Maskwell:
Cynthia's relationship with Maskwell is interesting because Maskwell wants Cynthia for his wife and forms a plot to get Sir Paul Plyant to take back his blessing on Mellefont and Cynthia's union, this is eventually foiled by Cynthia herself and Mellefont. She does not have much interaction with him in the play but she knows that he is trying to manipulate her father and uncle into giving her to him as his bride.

Lord Touchwood:
Lord Touchwood is Cynthia's Uncle by marriage to her Aunt Lady Touchwood who is her fathers sister, she entertains a good relationship with Lord Touchwood as they are both on the same intellectual level as each other which enables them to treat each other as equals. Cynthia and Lord Touchwood do not have many scenes together but in the scenes that they are together their relationship is quite easy to see.

Mellefont:
Cynthia and Mellefont are in love with each other, they are possibly two of the most human of all the characters and therefore think in the same way and this is something that the two find an attractive quality in each other. They are set to be married at the beginning of the play but throughout the course they meet the troubles of Maskwell who tries to stop their union so that he can have Cynthia to himself, but the bond between Mellefont and Cynthia is strong enough to overcome this and they end up together with the blessing of her father and everyone else.

Careless:
Cynthia does not have many scenes with Careless but is friends with him as he is Mellefont's best friend and helps the two to be together by foiling Maskwell's plans to separate the two.

Lord Froth:
Cynthia gets on quite well with Lord Froth, she is good friends with his wife Lady Froth and so sees him a lot, she respects how he is so serious about everything but does feel sorry for him because he cannot see what is happening between his wife Lady Froth and Brisk. She likes talking to him as he is on the same intellectual level as her but is still distant as a person which prevents her from forming a friendship with him as she has done with his wife.

Brisk:
Mr Brisk is a very flamboyant character and so gets on well with Lady Froth and they become rather close, Cynthia gets on with Mr Brisk but is far more sensible than he is and sometimes makes fun of him when he goes over the top with his conversations. She also sees what is happening between Brisk and Lady Froth and how Lord Froth is oblivious to the relationship between the two and finds it rather funny.

Sir Paul Plyant:
She has a complicated relationship with her father, she loves him because he is her father but she does in a way resent him for marrying Lady Plyant because she doesn't get on particularly well with her. She also has problems when her father tells her she cannot marry Mellefont after having given his consent a while ago which causes a rift between the two. Cynthia is cunning though and manages to get the truth to her father about Mellefont that he is dedicated to her and that he loves her.

Women

Lady Touchwood:
Lady Touchwood is Cynthia's Aunt by blood via her father, she does not have much interaction with her Aunt in the play but she does get along with her Aunt's husband as both her Aunt and Uncle are on the same intellectual level as she is, her Uncle more so but her Aunt is still rather good to talk to because she does not entertain herself with silly and trivial things.

Lady Froth:
Cynthia has a relationship with Lady Froth that in a way is as though Lady Froth were her older sibling, Lady Froth takes Cynthia under her wing and then proceeds to treat her as though she isn't quite as bright because she is younger, where as in reality it is Cynthia who is more intelligent and she puts up with Lady Froth's musings to keep herself in good merit with Lady Froth

Lady Plyant:
Cynthia has an interesting relationship with Lady Plyant, she doesn't really like her because she was the replacement for her mother and she doesn't treat her father particularly well which irritates Cynthia not only because she feels no one should be like that to her father but also because Lady Plyant should have respect for her husband.

SN:
All character information was gained from the script.

Restoration Rehearsal Blog - 1

We have been rehearsing The Double Dealer by William Congreve, after reading through the play as a group and began to understand the complicated language of the play we were cast, I was cast as one of two people playing Cynthia, Alicia is the other person in our group playing the same role. All the female roles were double cast as there are more girls than boys in our cast and as our last production everyone needed a large enough role to get the grades we all want. Rehearsals began mainly when we had cast and finished going through the play and understood the plot and era that the play is based in. We blocked all of the scenes before learning the lines so that it would be easier to learn them because we would know where we come in with lines, even though we did this a lot of us and myself included found the line learning for restoration very difficult because unlike shakespeare there isn't a set rhythm to the language, so memorising my lines has been a challenge for me but it is one that I am somewhat enjoying.

I have found that getting into character with Cynthia has been a balanced outcome, the character and her emotions and mannerisms I have come to find a lot more easily than the stances and ways that the restoration characters move, such as the bowing and the very peculiar walking and sitting styles that they took on to look good. The relationships that Cynthia has with the other characters are rather interesting in the sense that she is not as innocent as everyone thinks she is which gives her the upper hand, she understands everything that everyone says and knows just how to get around people and the only other person who is similar to her is Mellefont which is one of the reasons she loves him because they are two similar souls and they are marrying for love and not for social standing or money.

Restoration Research - Part 2

Restoration Playwrights

• George Etherege: George Etherege was a restoration playwright in London, he was a huge success and was considered one of the best comedic writers in England before Congreve. His famous piece was The Man of Mode, and was considered one of the best comedic plays of it’s time, he had a child by Elizabeth Barry and after his success retired from literature and lost most of his fortune to gambling. He married a wealth widow, Mary Sheppard Arnold and finally died in Paris, France.
• William Whycherly: Whycherly was a playwright during the restoration period of theatre and was known because of his plays The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer. During his time as a playwright he managed to coin the phrase “nincompoop” , he had previously been a naval officer and used his experiences in his plays making light of everyday situations.
• Aphra Behn: Was a poet, translator and playwright from the restoration era, she was also one of the first women to earn a living by writing and as such broke the social barriers of the time and became a role model for later female authors. She came to the notice of Charles II who took her on a a spy in Antwerp but afterwards beca writing for the stage.
• William Congreve: William Congreve was a playwright and poet who was famous for his work during the restoration period. He wrote the play we are currently studying The Double Dealer and was also known because of his five successful plays but as soon as he rose to fame his career as a writer pretty much vanished and he lived on the money made by his plays, he died in London in January 1729.

Original Patent Theatre Companies and Theatres

• Thomas Killigrew: Was an English dramatist and Theatre Manager in the restoration period of theatre, he was one of twelve children. Before the civil war Killigrew wrote a lot of tragicomedies and was known for his play The Parson’s Wedding, he followed Prince Charles into exile and moved around Europe during the time of exile. After the exile he was appointed as Groom of the Bedchamber and Chamberlain to Queen Catherine, he was also the kings fool and jester and this gave him the power to ridicule the king without any consequences.
• William Davenant: Was an english Playwright and poet during caroline and restoration eras and was writing before and after the Civil War. He was born in February 1606 in oxford, he was baptised on the 3rd of March, his godfather is believed to be William Shakespeare, it was even rumoured that he was Shakespeare’s biological son. He returned to England with Charles II when the king was reinstated, and continued to work in the theatres and re-open them with Thomas Killigrew.
• The Duke’s Company: was one of the two theatre companies that were brought into existence by Charles II at the end of the Civil War, the company was also formed to help open up the theatres that had been closed during the civil war. The Duke’s Company was supported by Prince James the kings younger brother, the Duke of York and of Albany and was managed by Davenant. They had the rights to ten of shakespeare’s plays and were the only company allowed to perform these pieces, many of their plays were recorded by Samuel Pepys.
• The King’s Company:  Was one of the two groups that were granted the permission of the king to perform serious theatre in main playhouses. It was under the direction of Killigrew and was kept as a serious company that would perform for the king and had the more experienced actors in their company, Margaret Hughes and Nell Gwyn were just two of those enlisted and were some of the first female actors allowed onto the stage and to actually make a career out of it.

Samuel Pepys

• Diary: Pepys was known mostly for his diary and how he documented almost everything that happened around him, this diary was kept for almost ten years and was over a million words long, it is seen as one of the most brilliant descriptions of the time and is how we know a lot of what we do of the time. He was celebrated for his frankness in his writings and how nothing was ever sugar coated, it was raw and real. He wrote about the theatre of the time and the major political and social matters of the time, he showed the good and the bad of what happened in his life and this is what was loved by him, it was a window into the complex human soul that was his.
• 17th Century London: This time in England’s history was very important it was where the country had been set free from puritan rule and everything that had been banned was suddenly allowed, this made the country go rather wild hosting parties that would last for days and where people would stay drunk for the entire time. 
• The Great Fire: was a terrible fire that stepped through London at an incredibly fast rate, it started in Pudding Lane at the bakers, the problem of the time was that all of the roof’s of the houses in London were made of thatch and ever since the great fire no house in London is allowed a thatched roof, the only exception has been the reconstruction of the Globe Theatre on the Southbank of London because of the historical significance, even so the sprinkler system is extensive. The difficulty was that the houses were all so packed together that even trying to put the fires out wouldn’t work as the fire was spreading faster than they could put it out, they even resorted to pulling down buildings to block the fire. In total the fire lasted for four days and destroyed most of medieval London.
• The Great Plague:  The plague was the final bout of the bubonic plague to happen in the UK, it was transferred by the rats who carried the fleas that had the disease and bit people and infected them through the bite and blood. An estimated 100,000 people were killed by the disease which equated to approximately 25% of the population at the time, prevention of the spread of the disease was started after the break outs and quarantine was pushed to 40 days in May 1664 because the plague was getting progressively worse. The rat infestation was due to the fact that all the human waste was just dumped into the streets which made the perfect home for the rats to live and thrive in and due to the fact that rats can reproduce at an alarming rate things only worsened. Samuel Pepys recorded the plague in his diary’s talking about how the streets were empty because no one wanted to become infected and how tis made his life easier and actually enjoyed the time during the plague.

Literature of the Era

• Johathan Swift: Was a poet of the time and was known for being able to master two styles of satire, oration and Juvenilian. He was born in Ireland and was the second child in his family, many of his family were within the literary profession and this spurred him to pursue the career he chose. He did his degree at Trinity College in Dublin and then went to England for a while before returning home, he is most known for his work Gulliver’s Travels a story that is still read about today.
• John Wilmot: He was a poet and courtier in Charles II’s Restoration court, he was known for his wits within his poetry and a lot of it was banned during the victorian era as it was seen as too much for anyone. He trained Elizabeth Barry as an actress who went on to become the most successful actress of her generation, he also had a fling with Nell Gwyn when she was a teenager. Wilmot died at the age of 33 from the effects of what is assumed to be Syphilis, Gonorrhoea and other venereal diseases. 

SN: All information was gained from either my own knowledge or Wikipedia's.

Restoration Research - Part 1

The English Civil War

• Cavaliers: They cavaliers were essentially the royalists, the supporters of King Charles I. They were often seen with leather knee high boots, tunics and hats with plumes. In the day the term Cavalier was seen as a way of life and a specific attitude rather than a specific way of dressing, the style of dress was very ostentatious and aimed to show the wealth and standing of those who wore them. Although the Cavaliers were not as devoted to religion as the way the parliamentarians were their faith was still important to them.
• Roundheads: The Roundheads were the Parliamentarians and supporters of a constitutional monarchy instead of an absolutist monarchy that was sought after by the Cavaliers. The Roundheads gained their name because a lot of the puritans wore their hair flat against their head instead of long and wavy like the Cavaliers, it was a very simple style. 
• 1642-1651: The time that the civil war lasted, it took the country nine years to sort things out within the realms of how the country was to be run. Essentially there were three separate civil wars but historically it is considered as one because of the short amount of time between each one. The end result of this war was that the parliamentarians would win, this would cause the country to become a lot more conservative and the fun that was there such as drinking, theatre and parties were banned putting the entire country into a grim time.
• King CharlesI: King Charles I was bork on the 19th of November 1600 and died on the 30th of January 1949, He was the king in power when the English civil war broke out. He was married to Henrietta Maria of France and had seven children. During the civil war Charles was captured by the parliamentarians and was eventually executed, his head was displayed and then sewn back onto his body before being placed in his coffin. 

The Interregnum

• The Puritans: The Puritans were an english group of protestants from he 16th and 17th centuries, they were more widely known during the English civil war because of their support of the parliamentarians and the aim to stop the horrific lives and ungodly lives of the royalists. They lived plain and simple lives trying to live by the book (The Bible). This caused them to live very boring lives and only eat incredibly plain food and wear very plain clothes.
• Oliver Cromwell: Oliver Cromwell was an English Parliamentarian, Cromwell was a military commander in the first English civil war. He was previously a member of parliament but ceased to be one when the civil war broke out, this lead him to choose a side and so became a parliamentarian and a main leader of the cause. He eventually had his way as King Charles I was executed and the Parliamentarians came into power changing the entire country.
• The Protectorate: The Protectorate was a time when England was being ruled by the Lord Protector who at the time was Oliver Cromwell, who passed the title onto his son who was unable to keep control of the parliament and the army and so was taken out of power as the lord protector and so was the end of the protectorate era 
• Richard Cromwell:  Richard Cromwell was the son of Oliver Cromwell who was known for his involvement in the English Civil War, he was the successor to his father as Lord Protector but was unable to proceed in the title as he could not control Parliament of the Armies and so was the end of the Protectorate era.

Charles II

• Exile: Charles went into exile in 1651 after the loss of the battle of Worcester in 1651. H was unable to return to England until 1660 when he would reclaim his throne, and all those who had signed his fathers death warrant were severely punished, this marked the start of something new as all of the previous restrictions had been lifted.
• Restoration: Charles II was proclaimed king on the 8th of may 1660 and took over the country from the Parliamentarians, he was crowned at westminster abbey on 23rd April 1661. Many of the exiled royalists were returned by the king and given rewards for their loyalty towards the king and his father.
• Theatre Licensing: The Patent Theatres were the ones that were licensed to show spoken drama after the restoration of Charles II in 1660, this meant that only specific theatres could show serious drama and the others could only show comedic and pantomime type performances.
• Merry Monarch: Charles II was known as the Merry Monarch because he was a loveable and liable character, he had dinner parties that would last for days, he re introduced theatre which had been a taboo fro the last two decades. 

SN: All information was gained from either my own knowledge or Wikipedia's.

Women On The Stage

• Nell Gwyn: Nell was the long time mistress of Charles II and was nick named pretty, witty Nell by Samuel Pepys, she was famous as a great actress of restoration and as a comic personality on the stage, she bore Charles II two sons who were both proclaimed as Dukes by the king. She never married but was always with a man and known not only as an actress but also as a lady of the night.
• Elizabeth Barry: Elizabeth Barry was the first ever professional stress as the boy’s who played the girls roles in Shakespeare's day had somewhat died out. She was transformed into a successful actress by her lover John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester. Barry worked for the Duke’s Company in her time for several years playing in King Lear and many others until the Kings companies were combined.
• Susanna Mountfort:  whose final name was Susanna Verbruggen was an english actress who worked in London, she married an actor called William Mountfort and after he was murdered in 1692, she married John Verbruggen. She was a leading actress in the United Company but after the company split in two in 1695 she was not offered a share in the actors’ cooperative only a salary. Because of this she went back to the parent company to be back in the standing she and her husband were in before.
• Breeches Roles: The Breeches role was when an actress would wear male clothing and perform the mans role, this was big in opera because the women could hit the higher notes where the men couldn’t and so fulfilled those roles which was only achieved when Charles II was back in power and the rules were relaxed.

The Clockwork Princess Audio Book + Notes

1

A Dreadful Row

Marry on Monday for health,

Tuesday for wealth,

Wednesday is the best day of all,

Thursday for crosses,

Friday for losses, and

Saturday for no luck at all.

– Folk rhyme

“December is a fortuitous time for a marriage,” said the seamstress, speaking around her mouthful of pins with the ease of years of practice. “As they say, ‘When December snows fall fast, marry, and true love will last.’” She placed a final pin in the gown and took a step back. “There. What do you think? It is modeled after one of Worth’s own designs.”

Tessa looked at her reflection in the pier glass in her bedroom. The dress was a deep gold silk, as was the custom for Shadowhunters, who believed white to be the color of mourning, and would not marry in it, despite Queen Victoria herself having set the fashion for doing just that. Duchesse lace edged the tightly fitted bodice and dripped from the sleeves.

“It’s lovely!” Charlotte clapped her hands together and leaned forward. Her brown eyes shone with delight. “Tessa, the color looks so fine on you.”

Tessa turned and twisted in front of the mirror. The gold put some much-needed color into her cheeks. The hourglass corset shaped and curved her everywhere it was supposed to, and the clockwork angel around her throat comforted her with its ticking. Below it dangled the jade pendant that Jem had given her. She had lengthened the chain so she couldvv wear them both at once, not being willing to part with either.

Feedback:

Charlie: Good Pace, it was easy to understand what I was saying, just change how you say it.

Connor: Good narrators voice but change people more clearly such as changing accents.

Abbi: Think about how I feel about it as well as what the characters are thinking as well.

Work on cockney accent !c 

Notes:

Begin this quote as quite sorrowful as it can all be a blessing and a curse, I want to show that through my voice. To do this I will be adding a slight lower pitch to add the sad tone to the quote. 

Monotone to present the author of the quote

Use a Cockney type of accent that is also trying to sound more RP

Sonnet 116 + Notes

Sonnet 116

Intro

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Crisis

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! It is an ever-fixèd mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Resolve

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Aim: To establish a differentiation between the three stages of a sonnet the Intro, Crisis and Resolve. These three sections of a sonnet need a clear vocal change to establish the different feelings and emotions that are being displayed within the prose. To do this I will be looking at what the sonnet is saying and then translate that into my voice. Changing the tone and pitch of each section will show the different aspects of the sections and allow the listener to understand the sonnet in a clear and concise way.

Notes:

Lawful (Marriage Vows)

Love cannot be considered true love if it changes.

True love cannot be taken away.

A beacon of hope.

No fear.

North star - A fixed point.

Helps any lost soul.

Unsure of love or the person but diving in.

Time won’t make fun of true love when beauty fades.

True love won’t change when you grow old and grey.

True love endures all untill death.

If what I say is wrong anything i’ve  written is false and on one has ever loved.