Act II Scene 2 The Rover Rehearsal Period

At the start of the rehearsal process I had to translate the language from classical to contemporary English so I could understand what the characters were talking about and how Willmore would say each line. An example of me translating a line from the scene;

'You are deceived, I came to rail at you, and talk such truths too, as shall let you see the vanity of that pride, which taught you how to set such a price on sin.'

I translated this into;

'Ha! That's not what I'm here for. I came to debate this price and tell you why your not worth the amount your charging.'

As I began to translate the script I began to unravel Willmore. The above translation for example, shows me that Willmore needs to be very confident and have a big enough ego that he can charmingly insult Angelica in order to start a frisky verbal battle which then becomes raunchy and seducing leading to intercourse.

With this insight to Willmore's character I played around with confidence in rehearsals. To find the right confidence level I first stripped any confidence away and acted Willmore as shy and timid. This lead to weird, odd and unnatural interactions with Chloe and I such as awkward touching and made the pace and energy of the scene drag as the language wasn't being used to it's potential. Knowing what the scene would be like without any confidence, I then went to the other extreme and played the scene with a tremendous amount of confidence. Sally allowed me to achieve such a humorous and outrageous level of confidence with an over exaggeration exercise where we had to make our movements and voices bigger and louder. I found that this exercise created an amazing amount of comedy to the scene which is something that was important to capture seeing as the play itself is a comedy. An example of a comedic element that this over confidence exercise added was when I felt myself physicalizing someone who just wants sex and is going to get it instead of what I had been doing before I did my translating and research which was just thinking that I was a person who was going to walk in and try his luck at sleeping with a courtesan for free. When I physicalized this my energy increased, my heart rate rose and my breath increased. I was creating facial expressions that were directly saying to the audience that I was aroused and horny instead of before the exercise where my face was too still and not conveying the message. I also found myself slapping Chloe Smith's bottom in a sudden burst of my characters energy which was directly telling the audience that Willmore wants her and he is so confident he is getting her that he can slap her bottom which would otherwise be perceived as sexual assault if the receiver of the slap were not infatuated with the man in question. Overall, by playing with and increasing Willmore's level of confidence that high using that exercise, gave me a new, in discovered energy which made me totally feel in the moment as a lustful, alpha male.

Understanding how; decreasing the level of Willmore's confidence made the scene drag, being energy-less and unsuccessful in portraying to an audience the true nature and content of Willmore and how increasing his level of confidence turned him into a lustfully infatuated and sexually uncontrollable, energetic and physically alive masculine male that directly shows to the audience
what his true intensions are, has given me the ability to find a comfortable balance of confidence somewhere in between the two extremes that the exercises showed me in rehearsals to allow Willmore to be truthfully confident without being overly expressive and too dramatic or under dramatic and lacking any energy that a charmingly confident cavalier should have making hopefully making my character believable for the audience.

In rehearsals, a problem I had was lacking charm and charisma with my movements. A line in the scene where I particularly struggled is this;

'yes, you shall here how infamous you are -- for which I do not hate thee: but that secures my heart and all the flames it feels are but so many lusts.'

I translated this line into;

'yes, you're very notorious for you're disreputable business. I'm actually sexually attracted to you because of this.'

Willmore is turned on by her being a courtesan and knowing what she has done with other men as he wants that from her. He is trying to get that from Angelica and succeeds because he is charismatic and charming in a very masculine way. To help me reach this part of my character I studied a few TV series such as 'Made In Chelsea' looking at the character Spencer Mathews who is a handsome man that looks very masculine but is able to swoon a girl into getting into bed with him by showering her with 'nice' words that make her flattered and in turn relaxed and enjoying his company enough so she then sleeps with him. Its a form of manipulation using his charm and looks to get what he wants. He is commonly known as a 'Fuck Boy' which is the contemporary name for this kind of behaviour, explained here: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fuck%20boy

With this research I tried saying the dialog using a more manipulating voice but it ended up sounded creepy and about as flattering for Angelica as a dirty carpet. It gave the scene a weird essence that kind of felt, for me, a bit rapey and non charismatic. To find a balance of this 'Fuck Boy' manipulation and charismatic charm I watched another series called 'Lucifer'. The character Lucifer is very smiley and happy and once again loves to have a good ol' shag. He differs from Spencer Mathews' as he is very energetic and laughs a lot and makes me smile so I can only imagine what he could to do with Angelica. Link to a trailer for Lucifer:https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lucifer&&view=detail&mid=F92FBD85C6930D28B9C1F92FBD85C6930D28B9C1&FORM=VRDGAR

With these two differentiating, yet charming, charismatic and manipulating gentlemen, I practiced performing with a confident smile, making sure when in the dialog there is a compliment that I look Angelica in the eye which seems to form a bond, and when trying to swoon her, changing tactics and using my manipulation card by taking hold of her hand and interacting with her hair and speaking calmly into her ear and then changing tactics again and getting exited when Angelica becomes frisky and retaliates to Willmore's manipulation as seen here;

'it is a barbarous custom which I will scorn to defend in our sex, and do despise in yours'

where he is enjoying her retaliation and is then enticing her into more whilst keeping his objective of having sex with her real. I found that after practice and finding the balance between manipulation and charisma and complimenting charm allowed me to understand how Willmore successfully gets Angelica to do what he wants. Now my performance will be a lot more natural and less creepy and forced which has allowed for more chemistry to form between Chloe and myself and making the scene more truthful and engaging.

To conclude, I found it difficult to understand Willmore and who he was at the start of rehearsals because his personality traits are so different to my own and I have never experienced the amount of confidence or charm that he has before which meant that I had to learn how to act charismatically and how to create his high level of confidence through some exercises that showed me different ends of the spectrum of Willmore, showed me what it was like to lack any confidence and charm at all and then showed me what being over confident and over dramatically charming and lustful feels like which allowed me to make the decision to find the right balance from what I have experienced during each exercise which in turn evolved Willmore into a more truthful and believable character whilst keeping the exaggeration and comedic play the writing and language the scene has to offer.

 

Restoration Research

The Era
https://www.enotes.com/topics/rover 
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/stuart-england/the-english-civil-war/

In the restoration era of the 1600's plays were staged and performed very differently compared with today. The theatre's would be candle lit and would sit many royals and wealthy individuals who would come to see and experience; for the first time, female actors. As mentioned previously in a Shakespearean era blog, females characters used to be played by male actors. However, in 1662, King Charles, concerned over unnatural behaviours such as homosexuality, made it law that women must play female roles. The first female actor being Margaret Hughes.

With females now finally being allowed to perform and act on stage, the performance began to attract a more rowdy audience that were lusting after these women on stage for it was something these men had never experienced. New audiences and new actors meant that playwrights could become more creative and create female characters that would entice more audience members into the theatres. This meant making the female characters lusty and sexually appealing. They would often have a free nipple and be showing a lot of skin which was unheard of in previous era's. With an uprising of female talent on stage and around the theatre, the first of many female playwrights sprung into action.

The Rover is written by Aphra Behn, the first female playwright. This play has been written from the eyes of a women who's new creative freedom has inspired, from what I have read, a rich stew of strong willed and well appreciated attitude and spark in which she has turned the ideology that the female characters have to be raunchy to attract larger audiences and made the male characters as such which has provided Willmore with his sexual desires and lust. I believe that what Behn has done is laid a strong bridge over rough sea's and forged a new path of sexualisation over the oppressive path that men have been dominating for far to long.

'But that secured my heart and all the flames it feels are but so many lusts'

I have used this line from the script to evidence my statements because it shows how Willmore is trying to dominate this courtesan by smothering her with al his lustful words so he can fulfil his hormonal release and feel even more like a man. This to me looks like Behn's way of retaliating. By showing the audience a new type of male character who acts like a twat and wants to shag everything and then have a strong female character who is standing up for herself and using dominating and powerful language herself such as;

'I thought , I shou'd have seen you at my feet imploring it'

where Angelica telling a man to bow to her beauty and pay lots of money too her. That's evidence of a female character who is out smarting and standing up for herself in theatre. It's evidence of how more and more female actors become relevant and inspired by writers such as Behn as the way she writes empowers and realises the potential that woman have on stage for comedy.

Another historical event at the time was the civil war between Kings Charles' Cavaliers and Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentarians; also known as Round Heads. At the time of the scene, Cromwell had been chosen to be Lord Protector of the newly formed Puritan parliament, one of which hated just about everything including theatre. This new rule forced the Cavaliers; like Willmore, to flee the country and travel to Naples to party free from the strict puritan rule back home. The play was written after Cromwell 's rule ended where people regained their freedom of fun and expression and celebration. I believe Behn is celebrating her freedom of expression within our scene by having the characters be raunchy and extravagant which would not have been allowed during Cromwell's rule.

' Death, how she throws her fire about my soul!'

It's expressive dialog like this that makes me think Behn almost wants Cromwell to be turning in his grave. It's like a big 'fuck you' to everything he stood for which must show how important the civil war and the revolution that followed were to expressive, artistic people of the time.

To conclude my research, I have found a lot of Behn's motivations for writing the scene and how my character is part of Behn's anger of not being able to express. Knowing this information now will allow me to bring to rehearsals, truths and motives of Willmore's mental and physical characteristics which will make my character a more convincing and impactful one on stage, hopefully portraying too the audience how Aphra Behn and many other humans of that period were feeling during both the repercussions of the civil war and women's freedom to perform on stage.

Aphra Behn (https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=aphra+behn&FORM=HDRSC2)

Character Study; Willmore

Willmore is a charismatic, banished cavalier from England who has come to Spain to avoid capture by the benevolent saint that doth not be an accurate description of the late Oliver Cromwell. Willmore is single and sexually fascinated and feels the need to indulge himself in lustful sex wherever he goes. In the case of this scene, he has arrived outside one the finest Courtesan's in the area and is on a mission to get her to shag him free of charge.

My Exterior Vision 

He has just arrived in Spain after a long boat journey so I believe he will be looking rather rough and well worn. I picture a nice brown coat which has been worn in and torn slightly, matching trousers with white socks pulled up to the knee, a white shirt and a white piece of cloth around his neck. This is the traditional outfit of the cavaliers back in this period with  wear and tear that I believe Willmore would have caused by getting himself into scuffs with other men and being a manly man who gets around a lot with very little money to his name. I also think he would have a lot of rough looking facial hair and is hair thick, wavy and dreamy to give him that charismatic organicness.

Willmore has very high self esteem and is very ambitious when expressing his sexual desires. I found this from this line;

'Here, good forewomen of the shop, serve me, and I'll be gone.'

This piece of evidence shows how Willy has just walked straight into Angelica's house and is directly but charismatically telling her that if she has sex with him for free he will leave. In order for someone to say something like that they must have extreme confidence in the words that they are saying and in order to not sound creepy or rapey he must have a sexy resonance to his voice which he is well aware of having in which he uses as his tool of persuasion which in the end becomes successful.

I also believe Willy is very, very masculine. In fact, I believe that he feels the need to have sex with the finest of women and do it only with the power of persuasion so that he is top of the masculinity chain. He also assorts his dominance from the very beginning of the scene by taking the sign off of the wall and waltzing right on in there and saying;

'Rather, how durst you set it up, to tempt poor amorous Mortals with so much Excellence?'

He is basically questioning why she has even put the sign up at such a high price and if it is to make horny men feel the need to pay a lot of money to have sex with someone that isn't actually worth the price they're paying. He has only just walked through the door and yet is assorting his dominance via undermining her, devaluing her and making her feel insecure so that using his charm he can warp her feelings and make her in knowingly and sub consciously become obsessed and lustfully attracted to him. He almost makes her feel like she's being naughty which may be her turn on for him and therefore why he gains successful intercourse with her.