Preparation&Rehearsal-Suitable Audition Material Exploration

SCHOOL PLAY

Brief Synopsis:

• Fifteen year old Charlie has serious ambitions- to mess with teachers' heads, to front a gang, to ride the motorbike that blows all competition our of the water. But when a new music teacher, Miss Fry, arrives, things start to change.
• First produced at the Soho Theatre, London 2001
• Charlie Silver is bad news in south London's Comprehensive School:
• An ongoing problem to all theatres and a bad influence on the rest of the school,
• Charlie is given numerous detention as punishment for her misbehaviour at school however these detention periods she used to develop her learning into focus on her suppressed musical talents.

Main Themes

·         Suzy Almond's remarkable first full-length play offers variations on a familiar theme by using music as a practical metaphor and by suggesting that the teacher is often as badly screwed-up as the taught.

·         The play focuses on the edgy relationship between tough-girl Charlie and supply teacher Miss Fry

Charlie Silver

Charlie Silver is known as the schools clown however when she is influenced by Miss Fry music which not only changes her way of thinking about music but also herself.

We see Miss Fry trying to turn Charlie from a biker girl into a piano girl and allow her latent creativity to overcome her destructiveness.

Equally, Miss Fry paints a devastating portrait of the future that awaits disruptive troublemakers such as Charlie.

For each of them music offers the  one hope of redemption. But, even here, Almond resists facile uplift by showing the teacher interrupting Charlie's piano practise to find a missing chord that will resolve one of her own songs.


Why this monologue is appropriate for me?

The main reason i selected this monologue is due to the age of the character being 15. This is a similar age to me and only recently i was 15 myself so i am able to comprehend well with the age of the character. Also the monologue relates to school life and also being a similar age i have recently experienced the school environment and have seen peers of mine act in a similar way to Charlie Silver. Also in addition i have the physical appearance similar to a 15 year old

The time period of when the monologue is set was in 2001, this is beneficial to me as i have lived in this time period and are familiar with the social trends.

MY MOTHER SAID I NEVER SHOULD

Brief Synopsis:

·         This play is about difficult relationships between mothers and daughters and explores the themes of independence, growing up and secrets.

·         A story which explores the lives and relationships of four generations of women: Doris, Margaret, Jackie and Rosie. Their loves, expectations, and choices are set against the huge social changes of the twentieth century.

·         When Jackie falls pregnant with Rosie, without a husband, she is unable to cope and hands over the baby to her mother, Margaret. The play looks at the consequences of this secret and each woman's opinion on it.

·          The scenes do not follow in chronological order, so in one scene Margaret will be a young child during the war being comforted by her mother Doris and in the next Jackie will be a child visiting her grandma Doris. This can also be slightly confusing because it is not specifically mentioned how old the characters are in each scene, but mostly it is very self-explanatory.

Main Themes:

·         The main themes of the play are relationships and motherhood. It addresses the issues of teenage pregnancy, career prioritisation and single motherhood. It is also about how the different generations break free from their parents' traditions and culture.

Jackie Metcalfe: ACT 3 SCENE 5

·         Born in London in 1952. 34 years old in scene.

·         Scene set in the garden of Ken and Margret’s suburban semi, Raynes Park, London

·         Late May 1987

·         Jackie run her own art gallery in Manchester but is back in London due to Margret recently passing away

Recurring Issues

·         The structure of the play does not follow a chronological pattern-It highlights how emotional issues are passed down from generation to generation and how this affects their present and future possibilities.

·         There is a vast amount of information, history and emotion passed on through the generations through advice and repeated behaviours.

Historical and Social Context

·         My Mother Said I Never Should was written in 1985 at a time when the opportunities for woman were far greater than they had ever been before.

·         The 1980s is another decade famous for the amount of social change that occurred. During the 1980s there were a number of nuclear stand-offs between the allied USA and UK and Russia. Protests about the American nuclear presence in the UK were rife, and were particularly lead by women.

Why this monologue is suitable for me?