For Thursday’s Rehearsal, 9/8
* Bring rehearsal clothes

* Re-read the play

* Practice the warm-up

* Practice dialect

For Friday’s Rehearsal, 9/9

 

* WEBSITE STUDY

* Quick Guide: all text and videos, ending just before “Bean’s work”

* Home Page: How to Use this Site, then go down to Stuff to Explore

* From Stuff to Explore, click on Genre Studies – read all text and see all videos in the Commedia dell’Arte Section (Overview, History, Characters, Personality Quiz). You can skip the British Panto section for now.

* Go back to Stuff to Explore, click on Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters. Read and see everything on that page.

 

For Sunday’s Rehearsal, 9/11

 

* WEBSITE STUDY

* Quick Guide: Start at “Bean’s work. Read all text, see all videos related to: England’s Seaside Holiday Experience, Punch and Judy Puppet Shows, Panto Performances, and “Why Punch and Judy and Panto Matter for OMTG.”

* From Stuff to Explore, click on Historical Tidbits: study text and videos in all sections: April 1963, Politics & Society, Arts & Entertainment, Brighton.

* From Stuff to Explore, click on Skiffle & You. Read all the text, see all the videos.

*

* THREE CHARACTERS

* Find video clips of three British characters (fictional or non-fictional) who you think would be useful in building your character. Send the links and specific instructions to Ayla and to Shilarna in an e-mail by 9 am Sunday morning. You’ll have five minutes to explain and show your links to your fellow cast members. We’ll work with those characters’ physical and vocal attributes in rehearsal.​

 

For Monday 9/12, due @ 9 AM

 

PREPARATORY DEVELOPMENT ASSIGNMENT

 

1. Essential Character Biography (min. 300 words)

 

In first-person narrative form (complete sentences, no bullet points), tell your reader a story about you using all the facts you know about your character. Draw your knowledge only

 

from the play – what you do, what you say, what others say about you. Use the opportunity to begin to give your character a voice. Nothing in this section of the assignment should be invented, and you can quote directly from the play. You can write “in dialect” if you like, but it isn’t necessary. Your spelling, grammar, syntax, etc. should only be incorrect if it is intentionally creative. (Trust us, we know the difference!)

 

2. Staying in Stock? (min. 300 words)

You have now learned a bit about Commedia’s stock characters and also the stock types of British Panto. Using examples from the play, explain how strongly your character is grounded in the stock characters/types you have read about or seen examples of on video. Describe at least two moments from the play involving your character that demonstrate its stock characteristics. Describe at least one moment from the play that seems to take your character “off-type.” This should be written in your own voice, not the character’s voice.

 

3. Connections (min. 600 words)

 

Rank all the characters in the play in terms of their potential to impact your character. In other words, who has the most effect on you? Who has the least? No two characters can hold the same rank. There must be a clear and defensible order. Now, take the top three. Explain how you are connected to each one and why each one of them has the power to impact your actions, emotions, etc. Roughly 200 words per character. Feel free to invent details, but use as much direct detail from the play as possible. This can be written in your own voice, or in your character’s voice. You choose.

 

4. World of the Play/Worldview of the Character (min. 500 words)

 

After doing research into the period and region, explain what England in 1963 feels like for your character? Secondarily, what is it like for your character to be in Brighton, as opposed to elsewhere in England? Draw on as many details from the play as you can, but feel free to invent as much as you like as well. This can be written in your own voice, or in your character’s voice. You choose.

 

 

* * * * *

 

Combine all these parts of the assignment in one document and e-mail them to Shilarna, Ian, Eve, and Ayla by 9 am on Monday, 9/12. Assume that your fellow actors will read what you’ve written. Your writing will be used to form the basis of “Character Conversations” in rehearsal on Monday night (9/12) and will also form the basis for a second individual meeting with either Ian or Shilarna.