Eduacting Rita

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Choose at least two scenes form the play which show how Rita changes as the play progresses. Explain how you would direct an actress playing Rita in these scenes to highlight these changes.

        The first scene i have chosen to direct is Act 1 Scene 1. This is important because this is where Rita and Frank first meet. The audience sees Rita as a nervous teenager even though she is actually 26 who like’s to talk, she is very fidgety. For some reason Rita wants to know everything about frank like his love life ect. An actress playing Rita in this scene would need to have a scouse accents, and would have to look like a chav. She would have to always smile. I would suggest that the actress wears an old dress, old enough that the audience can tell she’s poor. More importantly Rita tells Frank that she hasn’t bought a new dress in a few years so she could get in university, “decide whether it’s another change of dress or a change in yourself. “ The actress’ movement and gestures in this scene need to be constantly moving; she can’t stop moving as the audience needs to see that Rita is more nervous than you would think.

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         A key moment in this scene which revels Rita character at this stage in the play, is when she says “they’ve effin’ an blindin’all day long. It’s all past me the fackin’ grouse.” Here I think the actress should emit a sense of humour around the room. I want her to show that she has a sense of humour and can make people laugh.

        Another key moment in this scene is when Frank offers Rita a drink and she says no because it can kill you, then lights a fag and says only cowards are afraid of dying.

        The second ...

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