Week 1

Practically we had to plan how to develop our chosen scene and make this contemporary and able to be filmed. The scene that was chosen was Act 3 scene 5 when Rosalind is disguised as Ganymede and tries to convince a shepherdess called Audrey to fall in love with Silvius however  Audrey has fallen in love with Rosalind who at the time is disguised as a man. Making the whole thing very comical for the audience who knows whats happening on both sides of the story.

I have focused a lot on characterisation this week especially, doing a 3 hour work shop based on characterisation development and status's of the character. Many exercises helped to show how much my character has a higher status than others in the scene. For example one exercise was was physically showing height wise how much of a status difference we all had as our characters and as soon as Rosalind enters the scene while saying "And why? who might be you're mother that you insult, exult and all at once over the wretched?" She suddenly lowers Audrey's and i was always on top the chair looking down upon Audrey. This helped me to see that Rosalind is trying to be 'Cruel to be kind' to Audrey to make her see sense in this whole situation.

Finding and developing the character for me has been a challenge, this may be because of her dramatic changes of her attitude. For example in a duologue with Orlando at first she is being all soppy and in love with him then the next moment cold as stone and insulting him. Showing her confusing of her true feelings. This made me think that maybe this character tries to have a stone hard personality but actually in fact when she hasn't got her barrier up towards others she is a soft delicate women but doesn't show it. My point is backed up by how comfortable she actually is when she is disguised as a man, she is cocky and confident and totally out of her own character.

As well as characterisation i studied on the actual language and the texts' meaning. This would help us not only know what we are actually saying but make it sound as realistic and natural as possible, using the language and literature techniques such as Iambic pentameter to help through the guide lines that Shakespeare wrote within the script. As i wrote notes and annotated my script i realized that in fact Rosalind spoke more prose than verse, even though she is a nobel character which means they normally spoke in verse. However there is verse with Iambic pentemeter as shown from below from her character:

 "I'll graff it with you, and then i shall graff 
it with a medlar; then it will be the earliest fruit
i'th'country: for you'll be rotten ere you be half ripe,
and that's the right virtue of the medlar"

This is a quotation from Rosalind from Act 3 scene 2  when she is talking to Touchstone however she is now disguised as Ganymede and trying to shove off touchstone because he keeps talking about how obsessed Orlando is of her. This one of few that are in Iambic pentameter but also has other literature devices such as rhymes.