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CourseworkHelp
:Scripted Performance Piece : Be My Baby
For my scripted
performance I chose to do half of scene nine and all of scene ten from
the play ‘Be My Baby’.
The play is
set in 1964 in the attic of a mother and baby home, where young, pregnant,
unmarried girls were sent to have their babies and put them up for adoption.
There are three
characters in the part of scene nine and scene ten, which we performed
which was also the number of people in our group and each part tested
our own ability.
During the
scenes we see the development of two of the main characters, Mary and
Queenie. Mary is from a family who are financially comfortable, she works
in a bank and she seems fairly intelligent. I played Queenie, who is from
a working class background, seems common compared to Mary and has her
heart set on a singing career. In scene ten especially we see Queenie’s
character develop when we discover some of her ‘darker’ past as she reveals
that she has already had given birth to a baby boy before. The other character
in our scene is Matron, who doesn’t really say much, is very strict and
seems cold, but at the end of scene ten we see her in a different light
and she seems a little less frosty towards the girls, Queenie in particular.
Queenie is
loud, vivacious and more glamorous than the other characters. She is from
Nottingham and with her background she would most likely have an accent,
even if it were just a slight one.
I imagined
Queenie to be very down to earth and calm, examples of this are when Mary
is trying to run away and think of ways to get out of the home and she
suggests:
“We’re in the attic!!!” (Page 47, Scene 9)
and
“In your condition? “ (Page 47, Scene 9)
I also imagined
Queenie to be very supportive, concerned, kind and caring, but somewhat
secretive.
I say and think
this because she tries to help Mary when she needs it, tries to talk her
out of running away, and looks after her when she goes into labour.
Yet she keeps
the fact that she has already had a baby a secret and it seems she hasn’t
told anyone about her past.
Examples of
this are:
“Has it gone?” (Page 48, Scene 9)
and
“I’ll run a bath.” (Page 52, Scene 10
and,
“’Cos I’ve had one alright, I’ve had one!!!”
(Page 49, Scene 9)
I also imagine
Queenie to be very opinionated and very nosy.
Examples from
the script that show this are:
“You’re acting like a kid!” (Page 45, Scene
9)
and
“What will you tell him?” (Page 52, Scene
10)
During my performance
I had to express a range of emotions, from nostalgia to panic.
The first emotion
I conveyed was curiosity, by interrupting the heated discussion Mary and
Matron were having by asking:
“Where are you going?” (Page 44, Scene 9)
Another example
of an emotion I expressed was disappointment. Queenie tries to hide the
fact that she is disappointed that Mary tells her she can’t sing.
“I’m not bothered.” (Page 48,Scene 9)
Another emotion
I had to show was anxiety. Queenie seems nervous when Mary goes into labour
and this is one of things that I think leads her to reveal that she has
already had a baby. You can tell she is nervous by the short ‘stilted’
sentences.
“If it is you’ll be all right. If it is you’ve
got hours.”
Another emotion
I had to express was nostalgia, when Queenie talks about her son. She is really enthused just by thinking about
him.
“William
Thomas Burns. Dead bright, crawling at five months, into everything like
his Dad.”
Another emotion I had to put across was kindness. Queenie immediately
decided to run her friend a bath after her ordeal of giving birth while
locked in an attic as well as helping Matron when she requests it.
“I’ll run
her a bath” (Page 52, Scene 10)
To make the scenes realistic I had to incorporate movements and
gestures into my speech. Examples of such were holding my bump (Queenie
is also pregnant), just resting my hand on it when I was standing up.
Another is putting my hand at the small of my back when getting up as
if giving myself support or balancing myself, due to the weight at the
front of me. Also during part of the script Mary tries to
comfort/cheer Queenie up and gets her to go and sit in her bed. Also to
give to the impression that I was pregnant I moved slower, e.g. getting
out of a chair, getting up off the bed. Also when I was comforting Mary
and trying to calm her down I touched her arm in a reassuring way.
When questioning someone I would lower my eyebrows and look at
that person pointedly,
“Did I?”
(Page 53,Scene 10)
When Queenie was concerned for Mary I would obviously shave a
concerned look on my face.
“What will
you tell him?” (Page 52, Scene 10)
Shaking my head and pursing my lips when disagreeing with Mary,
example of which is:
“I’m telling
you kid it’s a dead end.” (Page 45, Scene 9)
Frowning when Queenie tries to open the door and finds it locked:
“Holy bloody
cow!” (Page 46, Scene 9)
Smiling and looking decidedly happy when Queenie talks about
her son that she gave up:
“I had him
for nine. He was walking at nine, would you believe?” (Page 50, Scene
10)
I used different voice tones throughout the scene to help convey
my emotions and make the scenes more realistic.
Examples of this are, when Queenie was shocked and I gasped:
“You what?”
(Page 48, Scene 9)
When Queenie was anxious and trying to get the attention of Matron
so I raised my voice,
“Matron?
Get here!!!” (Page 49, Scene 9)
When Queenie was trying to keep calm and started singing,
“Going to
the Chapel and we’re gonna get married” (Page 49, Scene 9)
Being polite but firm when Mary asks Queenie to go with her to
the coast and grabs a hold of her arm.
“Get off!!!”
(Page 45, Scene 9)
Being quiet and softly spoken when talking to Mary when she has
a hold of her baby and Queenie and Matron are trying to coax her into
giving up the baby.
“Come on
now…” (Page 52, Scene 10)
The dramatic highlights of the scenes were when Mary goes into
labour and Queenie tells Mary that she has already had a baby,
“’Cos I’ve
had one, all right? I’ve had one!” (Page 49, Scene 9)
This is because it is a shock not only to both the characters
but to the audience as well; Queenie never meant to tell her and she hadn’t
told Mary, therefore adding to the drama.
The costume and props showed that we were in an ‘institution’
as we were wearing blue pinafores and white shirts, showing that there
was some sort of order, like a school. We used duvet covers and chairs
to make beds, we had a doll and a baby blanket and a towel as props to
try and make the scene more realistic an try to give the audience a better
idea of what was going on.
Also in the script the characters play a record called ‘So Young’
by the Ronettes. I managed to get a copy of this so e could play it when
it was required.
The lighting should be dark blues coming from where the windows
would be as it is nighttime during these scenes in particular:
“And how
will you get out the house? She locks every door at night.”
(Page 45,
Scene 9)
Also could be used are a pair of table lamps or a large white/yellow
lamp, maybe or maybe pink/blue/green/purple depending on what colour the
room is.
I didn’t feel nervous when it came to the final performance,
but apparently I acted like I was, which wasn’t intentional. I was happy
with our final performance as I didn’t think the other members of my group
had learnt their lines that well and we’d practiced properly only once
or twice due to absences. I remembered all my lines, and remembered all
the movements and gestures we’d practised and what ideas we’d been given.
I think the very first time when Matron left,
“You’re acting
like a kid.” (Page 45, Scene 9),
went really well as this was the bit me Marie and I had really
practiced we even went over parts of this over the phone.
The only part of the script I was unhappy with was the fact that
Queenie had an accent that I had never heard before, is rarely on T.V.
and that I couldn’t find on videos or anything that I could pick it up
from. I did try to get the accent and did research on it but without success.
So I just spoke with my usual accent as I could learn how to speak with
a Nottingham accent.
We encountered a few difficulties during rehearsals for example
the positioning of props and using the space available .It was difficult
as we needed two beds, we needed a tape player and we needed to choose
the best place for the door.
Learning the lines in scene nine where Mary thinks the baby is
coming, we kept confusing lines that are similar like:
“It’s the
excitement.” (Page 48, Scene 9) and
“Nerves and
Excitement and…” (Page 48, Scene 9)
Another difficulty I had was trying to get the tape, but I eventually
managed to get it through one of my Mam’s colleagues at work.
Other than that we were fine. I don’t think our performance was
brilliant, but I thought it was okay. A number of different factors affected
the final performance, lack of rehearsal, effort, etc.
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