How did your role emerge and how was it communicated?

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A2 Drama and Theatre Studies

Unit 4

By R s Warren

"The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with

many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shore less

seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-

present peril; both joy and sorrow sharp as swords. In that realm a man

may, perhaps, count himself fortunate to have wandered, but its very

richness and strangeness tie the tongue of the traveller who would report

them. And while he is there it is dangerous for him to ask too many

questions, lest the gate should be shut and the keys be lost."

J.R.R. Tolkien, "On Fairy-Stories,"

How did your role emerge and how was it

communicated?

The art of the fairy tale has been around for centuries. Their continuing

popularity indicates that there is more to them than sheer entertainment

value, that they contain a deeper meaning which touches us on some

profound level, and helps us in some way to understand or cope with the

world.

My main role was that of the Tramp, he was the most important character

I played on a psychological level. Before we had even started the actual

scripting of the play we all knew that there would have to be some

characters that parodied those of genuine fairy tales. The tramp was one

of those characters, my first impressions of him was that he was a wise

old man, perhaps he was a wizard, but as the play progressed we created

the tramp in order to fit in with the rather dysfunctional story.

I also played a child from the two school scenes.

I created the tramp to be a similar character to Lucy, the young girl, his life

has been similar to hers, in many ways, this is made clear in his final

monologue in which real truths about his existence and hers are foretold.

In what way was the stimulus material developed through drama

process?

"Using one or more traditional fairy tales, investigate the themes,

and produce a piece of theatre for a post 16 audience."

We had many ideas between us, maybe too many, it came to the point

where we had to look at our own views of what 'post 16' really means in

society today, could we really justify a nude version of the three little

pigs... My nightmares engulf me.

In my opinion a fairy tale is meant for any age group its all in the

interpretation, if one tries to force adult objectives into that of a fairy tale

then the true meaning of the piece will be lost. Now if you let the audience

make their own connections, then the result should be fascinating. They

will end up questioning there own moral values, because they made the

assumption that we were being rude while we may have had only innocent

intentions.

The fairy tale journey may look like an outward trek across plains and

mountains, through castles and forests, but the actual movement is inward,

into the dusty old lands of the soul.

The dark path of the fairy tale forest lies in the shadows of our

imagination, the depths of our unconscious. To travel into the wood, to

face its dangers, is to emerge transformed by the experience. Particularly

for children whose world does not resemble the simplified world of

television sit-coms ... this ability to travel inward, to face fear and

transform it, is a skill they will use all their lives. We do children, and

ourselves, a grave disservice by censoring the old tales, glossing over the

darker passages and ambiguities.

It is this darkness or fear that I think is necessary to create a piece that

would be more entertaining to a post 16 audience. The rest of my group

didn't agree, so we replaced it with violence, drug abuse and anorexia

instead.

How did group skills contribute to the development of the drama?

We had one major problem in our group, each one of us, apart from Ed,

was a leader, we all had our own ideas as to how we wanted the play to
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develop. I think the hardest thing that we had to get over was the inherent

need to control. We never once sat down and talked about how we

thought we were doing or how we could improve the play, in fact after the

third rehearsal we didn't talk much at all.

It was strange to see how different members of the cast responded to the

pressure. Some used to storm out at least twice a lesson, others would sit

in the corner dishing out genuinely cutting frowns. ...

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