Costumes

Today we started to have a talk about what we wanted our show to look like for our audience. We briefly talked about set and then we had a debate on costumes.
Set was simple to sort as we all agree e wanted a table and a couple of chairs but to adjust this set to suit a young offenders institute. So we said we look in covering the corners of the tables in foam and instead of chairs we could get foam cubes to sit on. This set would work for a institute as it helps show the safety in institute which they talk about in the play.
Costumes was harder to set as we all have different ideas for different reasons:

All white:
Shows that there clearly in a institute and that there all inmates (realistic)

All white with 1 iteam of clothing:
This has the same reason as above but the idea of an extra iteam to help show individuality.

IOBE clothing:
We also thought about having them all in costume for "Impotence of being earnest" (IOBE) as they are all doing there dress rehearsal of the show.

Normal clothes:
I suggested normal clothes to try a trick the audience at first into thinking we are normal people so that when they hear clues of the horrible things that we have done it could be more of a shock to the audience.

Grey clothes:
This is similar reasons to wearing white except by wearing Grey it shows less purity with our characters and a more darker tone.

Singular colour:
We each wear a single colour that represents our characters.

Grey and white:
To show realism like some young offenders institutes. Grey bottoms and white tops.

Character reasearch part 2

http://www.streetsoflondon.org.uk/about-homelessness

7,500 people sleep rough on the streets of London every year. They come from every walk of life, and many of them want to find work.
Relationship breakdown, redundancy, poor mental health, alcohol/substance addiction, domestic abuse – these are just some of the reasons why people end up homeless.
people don’t choose to be homeless - they find themselves sleeping on the street because they arefacing a major crisis that means they’ve ended up with nowhere else to stay.

Sleeping rough has serious consequences. On average, homeless people die at just 47 years old, compared to 81 years for the average UK citizen. A homeless rough sleeper is 35 times more likely to commit suicide than the average person.Two thirds of rough sleepers surveyed said they had been insulted by a member of the public, and one in ten said that they had been urinated on. We need to change attitudes towards homeless people – they have a right to be treated with the same respect as anyone else.The streets are a dangerous place to be - homeless people are 13 times more likely to be a victim of violent crime than the general public, and 47 times more likely to be a victim of theft.

NSPCC definition of child abuse:
Child abuse is any action by another person – adult or child – that causes significant harm to a child. It can be physical, sexual or emotional, but can just as often be about a lack of love, care and attention. We know that neglect, whatever form it takes, can be just as damaging to a child as physical abuse.

An abused child will often experience more than one type of abuse, as well as other difficulties in their lives. It often happens over a period of time, rather than being a one-off event.

Physical:
Physical abuse is deliberately hurting a child causing injuries such as bruises, broken bones, burns or cuts.
It isn’t accidental - children who are physically abused suffer violence such as being hit, kicked, poisoned, burned, slapped or having objects thrown at them. Shaking or hitting babies can cause non-accidental head injuries (NAHI). Sometimes parents or carers will make up or cause the symptoms of illness in their child, perhaps giving them medicine they don’t need and making the child unwell.

Neglect:
Neglect is the ongoing failure to meet a child's basic needs and is the most common form of child abuse. A child may be left hungry or dirty, without adequate clothing, shelter, supervision, medical or health care. A child may be put in danger or not protected from physical or emotional harm. They may not get the love, care and attention they need from their parents. A child who's neglected will often suffer from otherabuse as well. Neglect is dangerous and can cause serious, long-term damage - even death.

Trafficking:
Child trafficking is child abuse. Children are recruited, moved or transported and then exploited, forced to work or sold. They are often subject to multiple forms of exploitation.

Children are trafficked for:
Child sexual exploitation.
Benefit fraud.
Forced marriage.
Domestic servitude such as cleaning, childcare, cooking.
Forced labour in factories or agriculture.
Criminal activity such as pickpocketing, begging, transporting drugs, working on cannabis farms, selling pirated DVDs, bag theft.

This has been my further research into creating and developing my character of Alan in a Handbag. I have looked at homeless life in London as Alan has spent some time in London with nowhere to go. I also looked further into child abuse as before I had only look at sexual abuse, this time I looked into the other forms of abuse I know Alan has received and some I believe he could have received. This is all to help me to create my character profile for Alan.

Algy research

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/i/the-importance-of-being-earnest/character-analysis/algernon-algy-moncrieff

Algernon Moncrieff is a member of the wealthy class, living a life of total bachelorhood in a fashionable part of London. He is younger than Jack, takes less responsibility, and is always frivolous and irreverent. As a symbol, he is wittiness and aestheticism personified. He — like Jack — functions as a Victorian male with a life of deception. Unlike Jack, he is much more self-absorbed, allowing Wilde to discuss Victorian repression and guilt, which often result in narcissism.
Along with Lady Bracknell, Algy is given witty lines and epigrams showing his humor and disrespect for the society he will inherit. In discussing the music for Lady Bracknell's reception, Algernon says, "Of course the music is a great difficulty. You see, if one plays good music, people don't listen, and if one plays bad music, people don't talk." This is Algernon's wit and wisdom contained in a single line. Occasionally, he even congratulates himself on his humor: "It's perfectly phrased!" He poses and moves luxuriously about the stage with the studied languor of the aesthete who has nothing to do but admire his own wittiness. One might certainly see him as a representation of Wilde's cleverness and position in the aesthetic cult of the 1890s.
Parallel to Wilde in deception, Algernon is leading a double life. He uses an imaginary invalid friend, Bunbury, to get out of boring engagements and to provide excitement in the otherwise dull life of Victorian England. As he says, "A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it." This secrecy, of course, was also a facet of Wilde's life, which was unraveling before his Victorian audiences all too quickly by the time the play opened in London. With his irreverent attitudes about marrying and his propensity for a secret life, Algernon represents the rule-breaker side of Oscar Wilde — the side that eventually would meet its downfall in a notorious trial.
Finally, Algernon functions as an expression of the lengths to which Victorians had to go to escape the stifling moral repression and guilt brought about by a society that values appearance over reality. Algernon's constant references to eating and his repeated actions of gorging himself on cucumber sandwiches, muffins, and whatever food might be handy are symbols of total self-absorption, lust, and the physical pleasures denied by polite society. Just as institutions such as the church (Chasuble) and the education system (Prism) function to keep people on the straight and narrow, human nature denies these restrictions and seems to have a will of its own. Algernon symbolizes the wild, unrestricted, curly-headed youngster who is happiest breaking the rules.

http://m.sparknotes.com/lit/earnest/canalysis.html

Algernon, the play’s secondary hero, is closer to the figure of the dandy than any other character in the play. A charming, idle, decorative bachelor, Algernon is brilliant, witty, selfish, amoral, and given to making delightful paradoxical and epigrammatic pronouncements that either make no sense at all or touch on something profound. Like Jack, Algernon has invented a fictional character, a chronic invalid named Bunbury, to give him a reprieve from his real life. Algernon is constantly being summoned to Bunbury’s deathbed, which conveniently draws him away from tiresome or distasteful social obligations. Like Jack’s fictional brother Ernest, Bunbury provides Algernon with a way of indulging himself while also suggesting great seriousness and sense of duty. However, a salient difference exists between Jack and Algernon. Jack does not admit to being a “Bunburyist,” even after he’s been called on it, while Algernon not only acknowledges his wrongdoing but also revels in it. Algernon’s delight in his own cleverness and ingenuity has little to do with a contempt for others. Rather, his personal philosophy puts a higher value on artistry and genius than on almost anything else, and he regards living as a kind of art form and life as a work of art—something one creates oneself.

Algernon is a proponent of aestheticism and a stand-in for Wilde himself, as are all Wilde’s dandified characters, including Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband,Lord Darlington in Lady Windermere’s Fan, Lord Illingworth in A Woman of No Importance, and Lord Henry Wootton in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Unlike these other characters, however, Algernon is completely amoral. Where Lord Illingworth and Lord Henry are downright evil, and Lord Goring and Lord Darlington are deeply good, Algernon has no moral convictions at all, recognizing no duty other than the responsibility to live beautifully.

Character reasearch part 1

Child sexual abuse or child molestation is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation.

While children may exhibit regressive behaviours such as thumb sucking or bedwetting, the strongest indicator of sexual abuse is sexual acting out and inappropriate sexual knowledge and interest.

Child sexual abuse often occurs alongside other possibly confounding variables, such as poor family environment and physical abuse

A well-documented, long-term negative effect is the repeated or additional victimization in adolescence and adulthood. A causal relationship has been found between childhood sexual abuse and various adult psychopathologies, including crime and suicide.

Research has shown that traumatic stress, including stress caused by sexual abuse, causes notable changes in brain functioning and development.

Physical effects of sexual abuse:

Depending on the age and size of the child, and the degree of force used, child sexual abuse may cause internal lacerations and bleeding. In severe cases it can cause death.
Child sexual abuse may cause infections and sexually transmitted diseases.


Types of Sexual abuse:

• sexual assault – a term defining offenses in which an adult uses a minor for the purpose of sexual gratification.
• sexual exploitation – a term defining offenses in which an adult victimizes a minor for advancement, sexual gratification, or profit; for example, prostituting a child, and creating or trafficking in child pornography.
• sexual grooming – a term defining the social conduct of a potential child sex offender who seeks to make a minor more accepting of their advances, for example in an online chat room.

Early signs of a serial killer:

• Psychopaths have a strong tendency towards antisocial behaviour, so watch for extremely antisocial children.
• Many serial killers start as arsonists. Arson is psychologically attractive because it involves manipulating power and control, something that serial killing also offers.
• This is one of the strongest warning signs. Children who torture or kill small animals like squirrels, birds, cats, and dogs without showing remorse are highly likely to be sociopaths.
• Many serial killers are abused – physically, psychologically, sexually – as children by a close family member.
• From a young age, many serial killers are interested in voyeurism, sado-masochistic pornography, and fetishism.
• Despite higher than normal intelligence, many serial killers have trouble keeping jobs or work in unskilled labour.
• Bed wetting is also a sign of serial killer at young age if the child in question is still wetting there bed later in their life compared to other children of the same age.

To help me understand my character of Alan I have look into the issue of sexual abuse because in the play it is clearly presented that Alan is a victim of sexual abuse, I have looked at the negative reprocutions this can have on a teenager physically and mentally which will help me better understand Alan as a character. I also thought it would be interesting to look in to signs of a serial killer at a young age as I believe from what I found in the research that Alan fits most of theses signs from lines in the script or by my understanding of the sub text. This is to help me start my character profile of Alan.