Educating for Rita - direct two scenes.

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James

Educating Rita - by Willy Russell

Coursework Task

In this piece of coursework I have been asked to direct two scenes from Educating Rita by Willy Russel. I am supposed to pick two scenes one from before Rita goes off to summer school and one scene from when she comes back from summer school.

The first scene that I have chosen to direct is Act One, Scene One. This first scene is important as it the first time when we meet Rita and Frank. This is also the first scene where we find out what these two people are really like and how they behave. We also find out in this scene how they react to each other when they meet. We also find out how they think about each other.

The audience sees Rita as an unschooled, working class girl who is ignorant to the fact that she is never going to become something in her life unless she tries hard and pursues her dreams. An actress playing Rita would have to act like she is unschooled, but wants to learn and go off and make her dreams come true. She would also have to be very inquisitive about Frank when she meets him. I would suggest that the actress wears skimpy clothes such as mini skirts, revealing tops, cheap jewellery, black tights and bright red, high heeled shoes in this scene, This is because from what I have read, most working class girls had the mentality that revealing more of themselves, would make themselves look more attractive to men. The actress needs to talk in a northern accent as this play is obviously based in a northern city. She would also need to swear, very calmly as it is in her nature to swear, in most of her speech and act as its normal wording for someone of her type. She would also need to use a lot of slang language and abbreviate a lot of her wording. She also needs to talk very fast showing that she is nervous in front of Frank. The actress’ movements and gestures need to be fast, quick and sharp and she must not sit down until asked to as the audience need to see that Rita is nervous in front of Frank as it is the first time she has met anyone like Frank.

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In terms of her relation to the character of Frank and the way the actors interact on stage, the actress playing Rita needs to interact with Frank more as if they are having a conversation on random things, rather than if Frank is interviewing her for the Open University. I think this because in that scene Rita just starts walking around Frank’s room, going on about the painting on the wall and then why she’s there at the University. A key moment in the scene, which reveals Rita’s character at this stage in the play, is when she says, ...

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