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.

3 Speeches I did Not Choose

Alistar - Posh

• This speech is about Alister who is a high class, stuck up, Oxford University student who, along with other students are part of the Riot Club. As the lads get more and more drunk and riled up with the fact that the prostitute wont suck them off. They wreck the entire room, enraging the landlord Chris who they then beat up and leave unconscious. Alistar's speech takes place just before they smash the place up, giving the members a piece of his mind on what he thinks about poor people.The reason why I did not choose this speech is because, although I enjoyed the story, I have two characters that are of high class already and wanted to play someone from a completely different nature. I also didn't enjoy the story or the character as a person as much as I did with Bert in first light. I also believed that Bert was a dynamic side that I have not done before and so I want to prove to myself I can act in that way and also show the panel that  I can be dynamic and differentiate between a variety of characters.

Two Gentlemen of Verona - Launce

• Launce is the Shakespearian fool in this play and he delivers a comical speech full of over exaggeration, tears and silliness. I did not have a comical monologue even though some of my monologues have aspects of comedy within. This appealed to me because Launce was a really funny and over the top character. The reason why I did not choose this speech however is that, I heard that drama schools like people to do speeches that are lesser known and I was told that Launce was quite a common speech for auditions. This and the fact that I liked the other speeches more than this for their stories and dialog and the language meant this one is on the side lines for another day.

Antony and Cleopatra - Antony

All is lost;

This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me:
My fleet hath yielded to the foe; and yonder
They cast their caps up and carouse together
Like friends long lost. Triple-turn'd whore! 'tis thou
Hast sold me to this novice; and my heart
Makes only wars on thee. Bid them all fly;
For when I am revenged upon my charm,
I have done all. Bid them all fly; begone.
[Exit SCARUS]
O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more:
Fortune and Antony part here; even here
Do we shake hands. All come to this? The hearts
That spaniel'd me at heels, to whom I gave
Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets
On blossoming Caesar; and this pine is bark'd,
That overtopp'd them all. Betray'd I am:
O this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm,.
Whose eye beck'd forth my wars, and call'd them home;
Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end,.
Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose,
Beguiled me to the very heart of loss.
What, Eros, Eros!

• Antony is the poor man who falls in love with Cleopatra in this Shakespearian tragedy and ends up being betrayed with his army's leaving him for his enemy. The speech is a soliloquy with Antony questioning why he has been betrayed with in anger and dismay and pleading to the gods. I did not choose this speech for I already had enough speeches to audition to drama school as the required number is 3 and I now have 6 so this definitely in the library for a back up speech if I need one for a later date.

First Light - Bert

Bert is from Salford in Manchester. He is young soldier fighting in world war 1 in the battle of the Somme, France, famous for being 'one of the most savage assaults in the history of human warfare' - Mark Hayhurst. The story is about Bert and his best friend Alfie going to fight in the war, their journey of desertion and the effect it has on them and their family. Bert's monologue takes place in a British army prison cell. He has been imprisoned by the British for deserting his battalion on the front lines, trying to escape to America on a cruise ship where Alfie and himself are caught. He has just been trialled in court and sentenced to death by firing range. He is talking to his close friend Conker who he fought along side in the trenches. Conker is in tears so Bert, trying not too cry himself, decides to reminisce about home.

Why Enlist, Bert? - Link - http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwone/shot_at_dawn_01.shtml




When enlisting to join the army, men knew that they were signing a contract to fight for their country, it's King and it's people. They were expected, without question, to face any mortal danger that came like men, honourably and courageously with out hesitation. The ultimate sacrifice. 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' - Edmund Berk. By understanding that this was the mind set of my character before going to war I learned that by being young and naïve made it easy for the government to advertise war as an appealing way of gaining honour as a man, not forgetting that during this time, there was still this stereotypically masculine agenda that men had to be warriors and courageous fighters and protects as if they were still in the medieval ages.
I believe that it was an easy and obvious thing for Bert to join the army at his age when it has been so positively advertised by his own country. Knowing this was the start of my research into this monologue and figuring out how each emotion that Bert is feeling in the speech has been forged by his journey from enlisting to knowing he has been sentenced to death. This was the task I set myself before I started rehearsing to make sure I could portray Bert in the most truthful and realistic way possible.

Examples of WW1 Propaganda


Themes






Friendship, Respect, Courage in light of Cowardice, Sacrifice, Family
Contrary to the pictures above that I thought would have been the real reason that Bert deserted the army, the main reason and theme of this play is that Bert and Alfie are so close, that when Alfie propositions Bert into leaving, Bert feels inclined to go with him. It's the sort of friendship where to people can't do something without the other one being present down to the fact they have so much love for that person they might as well be brothers.

Bert We cant do it....
Alfie Course you do. They love you.. And I love you too, and that's why you should come with me.
Bert Where would we head?

This scene shows this as it tells of how Alfie is set on leaving. He has planned it all out pretty thoroughly and with lots of imagination. Bert tries to tell Alfie that people will notice their desertion and will report them missing and tries to convince Alfie that they should stay. But eventually, understanding that Alfie is hell bent on leaving, he decides to go with him. It shows Bert is a loyal friend and values other peoples goals more than his own. It shows he is rational and optimistic and trustworthy. Knowing this is important as during the speech Bert says how his dad is like his role model and that he is proud of his him for being a caring father that doesn't turn to violence like the other men in the neighbourhood;

'He was a giant in my eyes'

This shows Bert's respect for his father.

'One night he were taking a thrashing from his dad'

Bert is describing how their neighbour beats his child; Robert and how his dad never once hit him and actually took Robert in to protect him from being hurt again;

'He got up out of his seat and the door went, we knew where he were going. Anyway the sound stopped. Such silence like when the guns stop here ya know. And in a minute he comes back with Robert and mum takes him in that night and protects him...'

Knowing that Bert has the up most respect for his dad and finding out that Bert is staying loyal to Alfie even though it goes against what Bert wants to do, knowing that his life is at risk. I think that Bert is a really good, respectful human being and I think that he does everything knowing that his father would be proud of him. What hit me hard about this speech and is why I decided to chose this is because of how Bert admires his father, he realises, at the end of the speech, that he thinks he has let his father down;

'I think he should know what has happened to me'

and how he feels disappointed, failed and un-deserving of his fathers respect leading him to feel empty and lost inside and yet never ever giving up his loyalty to his friend.

'I am with you Alfie... forever'

To conclude the themes I found in the amongst the speech, there's an infinitely strong friendship between Bert and Alfie which never broke during the harshness of war or nor the tearing loneliness of death. Bert's upmost respect of his father and how he feels like his actions have disappointed him. How Bert has sacrificed his position in the army and the way his father will look at him all in the name of friendship. And last but not least, what would seem like cowardice to the inexperienced that can be seen as courageous respect for Bert to follow Alfie to first light.

Putting this Knowledge to Use
The first thing I did was stand in the front centre of the stage, focusing on a point in the back of the room, keeping my feet still, hand movement to a minimum and made my facial expressions show emptiness by barely doing anything. I read the speech like this to see where that level of expression worked the best and found that it suited the last line;

'I think he should know what has happened to me'

I found myself feeling lost and lonely and felt the need to hold in a tear which I think Bert would do. I started saying the first line;

'He never hit us, Dad'

in a remising way and was telling the story as if I had already planned out what I was going to say. After doing it this way it didn't feel right and I was redirected by a teacher to try again and instead of having Bert tell a story that is already planned out, make it seem like Bert was thinking about his dad, then he remembered that his dad never hit him, then he remembered a lad across the back called Robert who's dad hit him and then he remembered that his dad did this and that... I tried the speech using that thought process and I found my body started to encompass subtle hand gestures every so often that showed a new thought, my face would lighten up with every new thought;

'Must of been a Sunday I suppose, so there were no smoke in the sky to spoil it.(New thought where the energy would increase slightly) / The bloke had sobered up and he was no longer angry...'

By making me think about my character's thought process in a different way I have been able to show how Bert is reminiscing and how thinking back to the past is making him remember a proud event that happened allowing him to momentarily forget about being shot at dawn.

I thought that my monologue was ready but then realised it was very similar to my other two. I decided to change the staging so that it contrasts which is what the drama schools require. To do this I sat on a chair back a bit from the front of the stage and pictured Conker to my diagonal left. I looked at Conker and spoke my dialog facing him looking out to the sky when hitting a positive thought and looking down at the floor when hitting a negative thought like;

'Through what? not pity, shame I suppose'

where Bert's saying how he didn't do anything to help Robert next door, they just acknowledged it happened. I think these actions really attributed to the truth of the speech and helped direct the language with visuals that will hopefully be interesting for the panel. I also found it natural to say the line;

'He was filling the doorway my dad, but it were like his spirit were filling the whole street, the whole universe aha'

out to the audience giving it the appearance of Bert talking out to the sky. I think that this action helps amplify the dialog and make the meaning behind it more powerful.

To conclude, I went to see this play in the Minerva theatre in Chichester as it premiered and had instant rapport with me. It was really powerful and dramatic which is a side of my acting ability I wanted to test and to be able to prove I can do to in my audition. I think that this is a speech that the audience will enjoy and hopefully remember me for.

Angelo - Measure for Measure

Angelo is deputy to the Duke of Vienna who has mysteriously disappeared leaving Angelo in charge of the town. Angelo has noticed an uprising of sexual activity in Vienna lately such as prostitution and whore houses. To stop this from happening Angelo resurrected an old law stating that any type of fornication is against the law and punishable by death. Claudio is a man who has been sentenced to death under the new law who's highly religious sister, Isabella, has tried to negotiate with Angelo to get him to free her brother. Instead, Angelo propositions her, and states that he will set him free if she sleeps with him. She refuses and before Angelo can act, the Duke, who has been hiding as a prier and watching over Angelo to test his loyalty, comes out of hiding to set everything straight.

Speech

What's this? what's this? is this her fault or mine?
The tempter, or the tempted, who sins most?
Ha! Not she, nor doth she tempt; but it is I
That, lying by the violet in the sun,
Do as the carrion does, not as the flower,
Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be
That modesty may more betray our sense
Than woman's lightness? Having wasteground enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary
And pitch our evils there? O fie, fie, fie!
What dost thou? or what are thou, Angelo?
Dost thou desire her foully for those things
That make her good? O, let her brother live:
Thieves for their robbery have authority
When judges steal themselves. What, do I love her,
That I desire to hear her speak again,
And feast upon her eyes? what is't I dream on?
O cunning enemy that, to catch a saint,
With saints dost bait thy hook: most dangerous
Is that temptation that doth goad us on
To sin in loving virtue. Never could the strumpet
With all her double vigor, art and nature,
Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quite. Ever till now,
When men were fond, I smiled and wondered how.

Themes and Rehearsal Process
In this monologue, Angelo is confronting his confusion with this situation he has found himself in, being that he has fallen for Isabella and has the desire for lust for the first time, something Angelo has previously disagreed with enough to make it illegal and punishable by death. I know this because Angelo is constantly asking questions in the soliloquy and lots of answered questions can mean the lack of knowledge and experience in that specific subject and therefore leading to confusion.

'What's this, what's this?... What dost thou, what art thou Angelo... What is't I dream on?'

By understanding that Angelo is feeling confusion, I had to figure out how I was going to portray this in my performance. I started with the first line;

'What's this, What's this...'

This line is the opening of my monologue and therefore has to be instantly engaging and truthful to capture the attention of the audition panel. Firstly, I asked the question out too the audience in the way I would naturally ask a question to someone. This gave me a basis that I could build on. I then thought of Angelo as being panicky and nervous as I know this can be a good way of showing the confusion of a person. I added heavy breathing and a shakiness to Angelo as I stood and used my hands a lot to rustle through my hair and cover my mouth. By acting in this way, I nor my teachers felt this was a truthful portrayal of Angelo at all and decided to scrap the nervous confusion idea and made me think in a very different direction. I researched more carefully into Angelo's personality and the things he has done like sentencing a man too death for a crime he may not have committed. I decided to see Angelo as devious, well thought out and took away any guilt or conscience I portrayed him to have in my first rehearsal. I stood in the centre front of the stage and spoke calm and rationally, pausing and taking my time to ask the questions. This felt a lot more real and I believe that I was feeling confused as to why I'm feeling like this but yet being calm and collected to show how Angelo is someone with a lot of power and responsibility and control. To further enhance my performance I focused on movement. I noticed that my feet have lots of nervous energy and my hands touch my face a lot. As an exercise to get rid of this nervous energy I put my hands behind my back and kept my feet in place and focused on using the language to tell the story. What I felt this do was give me so much more control of my diction, pronunciation and the language devices Shakespeare has used in his writing like metaphor and imagery;

'O cunning enemy, to catch a saint with saints doth bait thy hook...'

To add another layer to my performance, My teachers taught me how to picture myself in the room the character is in during the soliloquy and interact with objects in the room. I decided Angelo is in the privacy of his private quarters where he is free to express himself without judgement and let loose. I pictured a door behind him, a window to the left of him and a wall to the right and the audience in front who  could represent a mirror. I experimented by walking to the window and saying a line, then looking back to where the audience would be, and then face the wall and then turn and look at the door. By saying;

'What do I love her that I desire to hear her speak again and feast upon her eyes?'

to the window, showed Angelo was dreaming and feeling desire and love for Isabella. By saying;

'O fie fie fie, what dost thou, what art thou...'

to the imaginary wall shows how he is having conflict in his mind between trying to stay close minded and disagree with sexual desires or accepting his new emotions of his feelings for this girl and how this has made him angry.

During my rehearsal period of this audition speech, I have been taught, experimented and implemented different techniques and devices that have helped me characterise Angelo, filter out the things that were damaging my performance and hopefully made my interpretation of this Shakespearian speech one that the audition panel will like giving me the highest chances of a successful audition.

Why I have Chosen this Monologue
I have chosen this speech because it caught my eye when reading the play, Measure for Measure. It caught my eye as Angelo is a high class character who has a lot of power and wealth and responsibility and has chosen to use it in a controversial manor. He can be looked at as a man who is quite evil and wants an easy excuse to kill people in order to achieve a clean, sex free town. Or, he can be seen as a man who has not experienced the feeling of lust yet and therefore disagrees with it and is punishing a man who has broken the law as it is his job to do so.
In my opinion, Angelo, although being a high class character too, contrasts really well with Edgar as Edgar is someone who is from a high class background who has renounced his own name, becoming a crazy beggar in order to survive loosing everything he once was. I am playing Edgar as in shock, fearing the worst, scared and thinking of an escape plan, where as Angelo is calm, collective and wanting to understand about his scenario by asking questions and trying to figure out how he can get this girl he likes as evidenced above.
This piece will be used as my back up piece when auditioning for drama schools which are as followed;

• Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
• Central School of Speech and Drama
• Guilford School of Acting
• London academy of Music and Dramatic Art
• East 15
• Drama Centre London
• Guildhall School of Music and Drama
• Bristol Old Vic
• Rose Bruford

These schools all require me to perform 1 classical and 1 contemporary and ask for one classical piece to be called upon if necessary. I have chosen Angelo's monologue as my backup monologue as I have performed the character type before and Edgar is a completely new type of character that I have never had the experience of playing which has given me the challenge of learning something new, and been a great learning curb during the rehearsal period. I really believe that both classical monologues are rehearsed to the best possible standard for my level of experience as I have used all of the devices and techniques taught onto me to analyse, research, characterise and understand the text hopefully making my performance of Angelo's monologue; if called upon too do so, one that hits the criteria of the panel.

Angelo being portrayed by other actors - http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03358/measure_for_measur_3358995b.jpg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/staticarchive/9f008dd1866c30c9669da902469e35cf1a870639.jpg

Edgar - King Lear

Edgar is the legitimate son and heir of the Duke of Gloucester. He has a half brother/bastard called Edmund who wishes to claim his father's position as Duke to gain power and wealth. Edmund is a bastard and therefore; unlike Edgar, is not a rightful heir. In order to obtain what he wants, he writes a letter in Edgar's name stating that Edgar is planning to murder his father to steal his position and then shows this letter to Gloucester. Gloucester responds with utter surprise and confusion, feeling betrayed by his son who he loved and trusted and sends mercenaries to hunt and capture him, bringing him back to the castle where he will face his punishment; death, for his treason. Edmund then lies to Edgar saying how he is being hunted by the Duke causing Edgar to flee into the woods where the monologue takes place.

Fear
Edgar is on the run. If he gets caught he will die. He's scared and worried about these consequences.

'I heard myself proclaimed... No port is free...'

This line shows his fear as he has heard men shouting his name and he cannot escape Gloucester because there are mercenaries everywhere looking for him. He is stuck in the woods with know where to go. With this information, I decided to experiment with different energy states to find the right energy to accurately portray Edgar's fear. I started of walking around a room at normal pace and then pictured someone walking behind me in the dark but at a reasonable distance that would make me uneasy but not scared for my life yet, walking slightly faster and checking behind my shoulder. I than sped my pace until I was running around the room and pictured myself in a paranoiac scenario which was set in a dark woods where I envisioned voices coming from every direction closing in on me. This really helped increase my heart rate and I felt myself breathing heavily constantly checking my shoulders and rapidly moving my eyes around. I thought this was very powerful energy and slightly to in realistic for my Edgar so I toned it down from a 10/10 to around 8/10. With this emotional energy I had just created, came the ability to remember it and use it during my monologue. In my opinion, I believe doing this exercise helped me instantly remember the energy I need to be in during the first section of the monologue quoted above which will hopefully make my performance much more believable and one that will make my audition hit the right criteria.

Survival
As a human, when being hunted, fear is instinctual. Fear is a chemical that exists to spark the survival instinct in our minds. Edgar is experiencing this in this speech. He is in fear which is now triggering these ideas he is having of how he will escape the hunt and stay alive.

'Whiles I may 'scape, I will preserve myself, and am bethought to take the basest and most poorest shape that ever penury in contempt of man brought near to beast. My face ill grime with filth...'

He is coming up, on the spot, with a plan. As he thinks in the moment, these ideas come to him and he eventually, at the end of the speech, successfully devises this plan of how he will survive;

'That's something yet, Edgar I nothing am'

So, to find this instinctual emotion, I used the exercise used to find fear, and pictured; in this dark wooded scenario of being in danger, salvation in the distance. A way out, a road with traffic, people and light but the only way of getting over to this salvation was to overcome my personal fear of spiders. A dark forest where I can hear voices and the only way out is past some giant river of creepy arachnids. What I experienced next was my first instinctual reaction to surviving, my first idea was to become invisible to the spiders and simply walk among them to escape. In reality this is a very far fetched idea that is only possible in the minds of our imaginations and may seem very naïve. But what I learned from this interesting exploitation of the human mind, was that invisibility is exactly what Edgar is trying to achieve but in a real way. He is becoming invisible by changing his smell, appearance, voice and personality and becoming someone else, a 'poor Tom' which is a homeless beggar. He is hiding in plain view. I believe by understanding that he is coming with a plan on the spot, by understanding the energy and emotions Edgar is experiencing through a simple exercise that exploits my own mind, I have learned how to naturally and convincingly portray someone who is in a survival situation and therefore my audition will hopefully hit all of the right criteria.

My Exterior Vision

Edgar is from a high class and privileged household as he is the son of the Duke of Gloucester appointed by King Lear himself, a position that makes the Duke on of the most powerful men in the country. I have chosen Edgar to be 19 as there is no information that directly tells me his age but he is very naïve being easily manipulated by his brothers evil plan and later on in the play I found that he and his father meet under the disguise of 'poor Tom' under accidental circumstances and yet he does not tell his father that it is him. I have pictured Edgar to be wearing pretty much nothing at all during this scene as I think, during his escape from home, not had time to get changed into any thing. As the speech progresses, I picture him slowly becoming Poor Tom by rubbing dirt on his body, messing his well groomed hair up into knots and cutting his arms with things he has found on the forest floor;

'And with presented nakedness outface the winds and persecutions of the sky. The country gives me proof and president of Bedlam beggars, with roaring voices strike in their numb and mortified bare arms, pins, wooden prick, nails, sprigs of rosemary...'

With this research of how I think he looks I decided to use some actions against some dialog. For the line evidenced above, to symbolise Edgar thinking about cutting his arms up to look like a crazy man, I would gently lead the audience to look at my left arm by moving my right hand over my forearm. Also, at the start of the line I decided to lift my head and arms and body up to the 'sky' so that the audience can understand that Edgar is thinking of how he will survive facing everything that God throws at him. This is evidence that I have used hand movements and types of actions and gestures alongside certain lines to enhance the importance of the story the language is telling.

Reasons for Choosing - link to Central speech list - https://www.cssd.ac.uk/content/audition-speeches-ba-acting-courses

Before my research into classical speeches started, I was delving into every drama school website I planned to audition too to cream as much information possible. To sum my findings up, I need to have prepared two classical speeches from the Jacobean/ Elizabethan era and on contemporary piece after dates which varied from school to school. For one of my classical pieces I chose this speech. Now it didn't come to me in a dream, actually from Central School of Acting's website which contains a large list of male classical monologues that the school would like candidates to use. I found that Edgar's speech was amongst one of the most interesting speeches on the list, and one of which had a pace that I have never acted to before which I thought would be a good way to show my adaptability as an actor.

The speech is a high energy and fast pace speech which I am physically able to do with the help from acting exercises such as stretching and relaxing my bodies tensions. This monologue also challenges my vocal ability in a positive way as I have discovered new things like the stage whisper which appears to the audience as a whisper even though I still have to project loudly out.

To conclude, I believe that with my research into the play and the character, exploring context, characterisation and experimenting and developing everything in rehearsals has added truth and believability to my performance hopefully making it memorable and criteria hitting giving me the highest possible chance of being selected out of the vast amount of candidates. With virtuous practice and direction I do believe I am ready to use this monologue as my audition piece.