You are the director of a new production of the play “Blood Brothers”. Give advice to the actors playing the roles of Eddie and Mickey about how to tackle the age changes.
You are the director of a new production of blood brothers. Give advice to the actors playing the roles of Eddie and Mickey about how to tackle the age changes. You must comment on at least two scenes in detail. If you have seen a production of Blood Brothers you may also refer to this. In the scene when you both meet for the first time you must consider your body language. You must consider how an eight year old would walk and stand. An eight year old would have fewer worries than someone who is older than them so they would walk not really paying much attention to what is around them. You would also have to think how someone who is better off would walk compared to someone who is from a less well off background. You have got to consider how to use the tone of your voice. At first they were a bit shy. But after they first met you would have to consider how an eight year old would not be shy so they would say anything so say your lines so the audience have no clue to what you will say next. Another important factor to consider is the way you deliver your lines. You should deliver your lines in a free flowing way. When they are swearing you should not feel like people might be offended. In the scene when you Mickey and Eddie meet for the first time after they have both moved to the country you should pay attention to your body language. This time Eddie and Mickey are both 16
English Literature - Blood Brothers
Explain how a key extract from the play Blood Brothers by Willy Russell might be staged and explain the role of the chosen character in this part of the play. "Blood Brothers" was written by Willy Russell, who was born in Whiston on the outskirts of Liverpool in 1947. The play Blood Brothers was first performed in a secondary school in Fazakerly, a suburb of Liverpool in 1982. On the first night it was performed in front of four hundred pupils, there were minimal props, scenery and music, but over the years it has been developed onto Broadway in 1993. It has been translated into at least ten different languages and is performed regularly all over the world. The play is set throughout the 60's, 70's and 80's with the main themes brought out towards the end of this period. Russell's intentions in the play and the portrayal, reflects the idea of social differences. The social class differences are projected vastly throughout the play and the question of, "Is a working class resident able to break free of their working class" arises. Mickey and Edward are the key characters in the play and are both twins however they are unaware of this fact. This is because when the mother (Mrs Johnstone) gave birth to twins, she would have 9 children and this would have proved almost impossible to provide for all, therefore she decided to give one of the twins to her employer, Mrs Lyons. As a
Examine how Willy Russell presents the nature/nurture debate in Blood Brothers.
Natalie Baker Examine how Willy Russell presents the nature/nurture debate in Blood Brothers. Where you live determines your future. This was very true during the time in which Willy Russell's Blood Brothers was set. It was all about the amount of money you had, what job you had and who your relatives were. It was all about how you spoke, the clothes that you wore and the school that you went too. It was all about class, but did any of this determine the kind of person you were. Are you born an intelligent, nicer individual just because you are born into upper class, or are you born a thief just because you are born into middle class? It was the nature vs. nurture debate, which Willy Russell used to ask the question, does class determine your future? In Mickey and Eddies case it did, although they started off as two very similar boys who enjoyed playing games and running about, it was inevitable for the two boys to lead two very different adult hoods. For Mickey, he thought that he would never be anything more than a factory worker and that because of where he came from, meant that he couldn't possibly do any better. It's the same for Eddie, except he knew that he could be whatever he wanted to be because of the money he had and the school that he went to. Willy Russell based a lot of his story around the effects that Margaret Thatcher caused. She made the gap between
Willy Russell's 'Blood Brothers'?
Blood Brothers Essay Neither mother is without guilt. How far would you agree with with this statement about the mothers in Willy Russell's 'Blood Brothers'? The story introduces us to the situation of twin boys separated at birth and they grow up in different controlled environments. They both live a different life and have the same tragic fate and die. "You do know what they say about twins, secretly parted don't you ... that if either twin learns that he once was a pair, they shall both immediately die." This was a predicted unofficial superstition that comes true. Mrs Johnstone is the main character. We meet her at the begging of the play and discover that her husband has left her. She already has seven children and has an extremely difficult life. Mrs Johnstone can be regarded as guilty for a number of reasons. One such reason is that she buys more things then she can afford, "When I got me job, I thought I would be able to pay." Mrs Johnstone explains. Mrs Johnstone also accepts Mrs Lyons plan to give a child to her, Mrs Johnstone agrees. Mrs Johnstone can be called a lair as she lied to all her other children about one of the twins. She tells them one of the twins has died, "He's gone up to heaven love." Another guilty deed Mrs Johnstone did was her lack in discipline she had for her children. She didn't punish her children when they did something wrong. If
Blood brothers - Willy Russell writes entertaining drama and champions the socially disadvantaged
"Willy Russell writes entertaining drama and champions the socially disadvantaged" Discuss this statement with reference to blood brothers. I will be looking into this statement and giving for and against evidence as to whether it is true or not and if Russell champions the socially disadvantaged. This could however be interpreted in different ways, Russell may be seen as sympathising with the lower class people who were generally looked down upon during that era and seen as the scum of the earth; he was possibly showing that these aren't bad people by putting you into their lives. Others perceive that Russell purposefully portrays the middle class, for example Mrs. Lyons in a negative way. Soon I found after reading part-way through that both are 'disadvantaged' in one way or another. A good comparison between social ranks and classes are between Mrs. Lyons and Mrs. Johnstone or between Mickey and Edward; when this play was written people were 'disadvantaged' if they had some of the problems these characters have, Mrs. Johnstone can be classed as lower/working class; also she has a lot of children with little income coming in. she notes how hard she has to work by saying, "an' me, I can't stop havin' them... I'm back on me feet an' workin' the next day y' know." She shows how she has to force herself back to work to make money even after the notoriously stressful and
I now feel that I fully understand the form and structure of 'Blood Brothers'. It is a episodic comedy/tragedy that really shows you how tough it was to live as a working class in 'Thatcher's Britain'
25th March 2006 GCSE Drama - Written Portfolio Paper 1 - Unit 2 The text that we have been studying in Drama is Willy Russell's 'Blood Brothers'. Willy Russell was born in Whiston, near Liverpool, England, in 1947. I believe that his upbringing that he had, and his social and economic circumstances greatly affected the writing of 'Blood Brothers'. He was brought up in a poor area, in a poor family that was treated by the government very badly. We hot seated Willy Russell and found out a lot about him. We found out that he was the author of 'Blood Brothers' and that his parents and how they behaved greatly influenced the play because of his working class background. We then went on to find out that he studied Literature at school and achieved an 'O' level in the subject, the only grade that he achieved in schooling. He hated 'Thatcher's Britain' because he had strong views on the working classes attempts to gain access to middle-class culture, he believed that every person should be treated the same no matter what their financial state. He believed that Margaret Thatcher helped the rich and made life difficult for the poor. These views that he had greatly affected his writing because in every play that he wrote, the poor were displayed to be courageous and battling even though they were treated badly, and the rich to have the easy life with not a care in the world and
Producing Blood Brothers
Bedford Theatre Company 21 Church Street Bedfordshire Dear Mrs Smith I would like the opportunity to present my staging of a scene from Blood Brothers by Willy Russell. The play is set in Liverpool and was written in the 1980's; it was first performed in a secondary school in Fazakerly, a suburb in Liverpool, in 1982. Russell's main intention with the play was to discuss class divisions and was it a bold statement against Thatcherism which he conveyed perfectly through his use of lyrics, music and language. The play is put together from comedy and tragedy in a successful relationship that works. In the scene that I have chosen, Mickey Johnstone and Edward Lyons have been in trouble with the police. The policeman goes to their houses and speaks to their parents; Mr and Mrs Lyons and Mrs Johnstone. I have chosen this scene because it clearly shows class differences between Mickey's family and Edward's family in the way the policeman behaves towards them. Dull lighting falls upon the Johnstone's living room. Mrs Johnstone is patching up a pair of ripped trousers, sitting on a worn armchair opposite a mismatched sofa. The backdrop is of a dusty room with stained brown walls. The atmosphere is calm. Then the policeman knocks on the door, Mrs Johnstone sets aside her sowing and gets up to look out of the window next to the door. When she sees the policeman she starts to panic,
Explorative Strategies essay
Explorative Strategies essay (Response Phase) As part of our Drama GCSE unit on Blood |Brothers we were requires to use a vast amount of sills and drama techniques in order to improve our understanding of Blood Brothers; in order to do this we completed various exercises to develop our explorative skills. One of the improvisations we had to partake in was the re-enactment of the finale scene in Blood Brothers. As we had already seen the Blood Brothers production, this acted as both an advantage and a hindrance. This acted as an advantage as we had an idea of both characters and therefore an insight into how we could perform this re-enactment, however the disadvantage was that this may prevent us from having our control over the character, this may also prevent us from using our own imagination to interpret the character and their actions as we would have been heavily influenced to mimic what we had already seen. However though we already had familiarity with the production, as it had been a considerable amount of time from when we had seen the production, our drama teachers refreshed our memories by establishing a class discussion on the subject, and the main themes of Blood Brothers. As a group discussed the main themes, scenes and then discussed the finale scene into depth; while doing this we discussed what body language and facial expressions were used and what we
Blood Brothers Portfolio.
Blood Brothers Portfolio For this section of the exam we have been studying and exploring the play "Blood Brothers" by Willy Russel. We have used many explorative strategies to help us interrupt the text and show us the themes and issues of the play. I enjoyed most of the exercises we did, but found many of them challenging. At the start of the workshop, I found it extremely hard to use a Liverpool accent effectively, and I tried to get around this problem by not using one at all. However, I found that this did not solve the problem as the accent was an important property of the characters and emphasised the rich/poor divide. We used many explorative strategies to explore the themes, issues and characters brought up in the play. One exercise, which help me explore all of these, was hot sitting. We asked Edward and Mickey questions and interviewed them as an adult and as children. It was interesting to see that their opinions of the world were very similar when they were children, but very different as adults. This shows us, that no matter how similar two people are, if they are born into two different classes, they're paths will lead away from each other. It was also interesting to see how Edwards opinion as an adult was much more childish and ignorant then Mickey's. This is probably because Edward had never had a financial difficulty in his life, so he couldn't understand
Drama notes for Blood Brothers by Willy Russell.
Drama notes for Blood Brothers by Willy Russell Lighting * There was a great contrast in lighting between the countryside and the city. In the countryside it was bright and the scenery consisted of typical green rolling hills and a crystal blue sky. However in the city the lighting was much darker and the scenery consisted buildings and skyscrapers. * When the front door of Mrs Johnstone house opened light flooded on to the stage. The purpose of this was to generate the idea of presence of Mrs Johnstone and her children living inside the house. * A followspot was used in several parts of the play to follow predominant and important characters. * The stage was lit up with a red light at the beginning of the end. This was used as an indicator of the bloodshed to follow. * A red light also appeared when Mrs Lyons came on to the stage. This illustrated her madness and guilt stricken conscious. This was also done by the use of blackouts. * A blue light appeared at the end when the narrator came on to the stage and sang. * To illustrate the madness of Mrs Lyons in song flashing lights came on. This made the audience feel uneasy and uncomfortable with the character of Mrs Lyons. Sound * Throughout the play, music was used to stir emotion from the audience. It also helped to move along the action and always conveyed a theme or message or emotion. * Echo was also