Thursday 28th January

In today's lesson we started by looking at which staging we wanted for our performance. We first started discussing about having it in the round but we decided that for this sort of play we didn't want all facial expressions to be seen at all times. So we decided we could do it as a square with no back side but shorten the side lengths so even if we are further forward in the stage that the audience around the edge would be able to see what is going on. Once we had decided on the we went on to running through the beginning of the play and starting to get to know our characters and how they work best. So we work shopped ideas trying to add sarcasm into character and for my character I wanted to make her as sweet as possible so that when the audience found out what she did they would be shocked. We also sat and discussed how our characters could be differentiated in order to make our play more interesting. I decided that I wanted to make Rose have her head in the clouds as this will help get across the idea she it intelligent but doesn't think before she speaks because of the drugs.

Research on Oscar Wilde

• Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin on 16 October 1854. 
• His father was a successful surgeon and his mother a writer and literary hostess.
•  Wilde was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford. 
• While at Oxford, Wilde became involved in the aesthetic movement. 
• After he graduated, he moved to London to pursue a literary career
• A first volume of his poetry was published in 1881 but as well as composing verse, he contributed to publications such as the 'Pall Mall Gazette', wrote fairy stories and published a novel 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' (1891).
•  His greatest talent was for writing plays, and he produced a string of extremely popular comedies including 'Lady Windermere's Fan' (1892), 'An Ideal Husband (1895)' and 'The Importance of Being Earnest' (1895). 'Salomé' was performed in Paris in 1896.
• Drama and tragedy marred Wilde's private life. 
• He married Constance Lloyd in 1884 and they had two sons, but in 1891 Wilde began an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, nicknamed 'Bosie'.
•  In April 1895, Wilde sued Bosie's father, the Marquis of Queensberry, for libel, after the Marquis has accused him of being homosexual. 
• Wilde lost and, after details of his private life were revealed during the trial, was arrested and tried for gross indecency. He was sentenced to two years of hard labour.
• While in prison he composed a long letter to Douglas, posthumously published under the title 'De Profundis'.
• His wife took their children to Switzerland and adopted the name 'Holland'. 
• Wilde was released with his health irrevocably damaged and his reputation ruined. 
• He spent the rest of his life in Europe, publishing 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' in 1898. He died in Paris on 30 November 1900.

Research on The importance of being Ernest

Jack Worthing is a pillar of the community in Hertfordshire, where he is guardian to Cecily Cardew, the pretty, eighteen-year-old granddaughter of the late Thomas Cardew, who found and adopted Jack when he was a baby. In Hertfordshire, Jack has responsibilities: he is a major landowner and justice of the peace, with tenants, farmers, and a number of servants and other employees all dependent on him. For years, he has also pretended to have an irresponsible black-sheep brother named Ernest who leads a scandalous life in pursuit of pleasure and is always getting into trouble of a sort that requires Jack to rush grimly off to his assistance. In fact, Ernest is merely Jack’s alibi, a phantom that allows him to disappear for days at a time and do as he likes. No one but Jack knows that he himself is Ernest. Ernest is the name Jack goes by in London, which is where he really goes on these occasions probably to pursue the very sort of behavior he pretends to disapprove of in his imaginary brother.

Jack is in love with Gwendolen Fairfax, the cousin of his best friend, Algernon Moncrieff. When the play opens, Algernon, who knows Jack as Ernest, has begun to suspect something, having found an inscription inside Jack’s cigarette case addressed to “Uncle Jack” from someone who refers to herself as “little Cecily.” Algernon suspects that Jack may be leading a double life, a practice he seems to regard as commonplace and indispensable to modern life. He calls a person who leads a double life a “Bunburyist,” after a nonexistent friend he pretends to have, a chronic invalid named Bunbury, to whose deathbed he is forever being summoned whenever he wants to get out of some tiresome social obligation.

Act I

The play begins with Algernon ‘Algy’ Moncrieff welcoming his friend John ‘Jack’ Worthing to his home, whom he knows as Ernest. ‘Ernest’ has come from his country estate to propose to Algy’s cousin, Gwendolen. Algy refuses consent until Ernest explains an inscription on his cigarette case which calls him ‘Uncle Jack’. ‘Ernest’ admits to creating an alter ego. He is Jack in the country, guardian of his ward Cecily, but regularly leaves for London to visit his pretend brother Ernest. Whilst in London he pretends to be Ernest, a flirtatious socialite. Algy also admits to creating a fictitious invalid friend called Mr Bunbury, whom he visits in the country to get away from London.

Gwendolen and her terrifying mother Lady Bracknell arrive to visit Algy. Jack quietly proposes to Gwendolen, who accepts, saying she could never love a man who wasn’t called Ernest. Lady Bracknell finds them alone together and quickly interviews Jack for his suitability. She learns he was adopted after being found in a handbag at Victoria Station, and refuses the marriage because he has no direct relations. Gwendolen says she still loves Jack and he gives her his country address. Algy secretly reads it.

Act II

Cecily is studying with her governess, Miss Prism, on her uncle Jack’s estate. Algy arrives and pretends to be Ernest, Jack’s brother. Cecily has never met Ernest, she falls in love with his secretive nature and they become engaged. Like Gwendolen, she claims to only love men called Ernest.

Meanwhile, Jack decides to give up his alter ego and arrives on his estate to declare the sudden death of his brother Ernest. Algy, however, is pretending to be Ernest, so Jack has to go along with his story for fear of revealing his own lies. Both men secretly plan to be officially christened as ‘Ernest’ by the local vicar Dr Chusable. Gwendolen then arrives at the estate having escaped from Lady Bracknell. She meets Cecily and they both declare to be engaged to men called Ernest. Jack and Algy’s lies are exposed.

Act III

Lady Bracknell arrives, having followed her daughter, and is shocked to find Algy and Cecily engaged. She is easily won over, however, after learning about Cecily’s trust fund. Jack refuses to give consent unless Lady Bracknell agrees to him marrying Gwendolen.

Miss Prism enters and Lady Bracknell instantly recognises her. She was a family maid who took Lady Bracknell’s baby nephew out in his pram 28 years ago but mysteriously vanished. Miss Prism admits that she had absentmindedly put a novel she was writing in the pram, and the baby in her handbag, which she left at Victoria Station. Jack announces he is the lost baby and therefore Algy’s brother. Lady Bracknell accepts his and Gwendolen’s marriage because he has found his relations.

Gwendolen is confused as to her lover’s real name. Lady Bracknell says he would have been named after his father, General Moncrieff. Jack examines the army lists and finds that his father’s name was in fact Ernest. All the couples embrace, even Miss Prism and Dr Chasuble who have harbored feelings for each other for the entire play.

Tuesday 26th January

In todays lesson we were cast for our contemporary piece and as the class is too big we had to be split into 2 groups. I was cast as Rose from A Handbag. My first thoughts of being cast as Rose was that I believed that she would be a hard character to play as she needs to seem like she is normal but at the same time have a lot of depth to the character. I also thought that A Handbag as a whole will be hard as there are no scene changes and it is all set in the same plain room so we need to be creative so out audience stay captivated when they are watching. So I thought we need to make sure that each bit of the script suits the right theme that it is going for whether it is comedy or thrill. I want to play Rose as a very Innocent girl however when it comes to her past she is very sinister in how she says her line. I also want the audience to understand Rose and every movement she does will be understood. 
After this we did a read through of the script to understand what is going on and this gave me great incite into the play.