The Life and Times of Footman Wilson

After the first read through we started to block the play. This can often be one of the longest parts of the rehearsal process. The character that I play in Coram Boy is Alexander (as and adult), this means that I do not appear until act two, which gives me the first half of the play off, or does it? 

Throughout the process of blocking the first act I realised just how much I have to do, even when my character is still played by someone else. The street scenes, party scenes, searching scenes and moving props on and off stage are all vital to the play and the world in which it is set. This element of the rehearsal process can be laborious but it is necessary, learning all the tiny parts in which I serve drinks at a party or take a chair off the stage is essential to creating a fully realised play.

In an acting technuque class we learnt about how when we are doing actions an actor should think about what they are doing, why they are doing it and what exterior forces are effecting the action. I found this really helpful for doing the non speaking roles, it makes what I'm doing interesting and precise. I am not just an actor serving drinks because I have to, but I'm footman Wilson carrying out my duties in a hot crowded room but all I really want is to get paid so to look after my daughter who is not well. It adds a personal thought process which the audience will never know but they will notice that I have more depth then just walking in the right places.

 By using what I learnt in another lesson blocking the first half of Coram Boy went from the bit that I'm not in to the bit where I am footman Wilson an unlisted character that caries out important roles of building atmosphere and helping with the movement of props.

Research

Coram Boy is set in 1742, a time that is removed from our own. This research has helped me relate to the time and ground me the my contextual understanding of the play. 

Social

• 74% of children die before they are five, this figure goes up to 90% with children who live in workhouses.
• In the early 18th Century a third of the population die from small pox.
• The roads between towns, cities and villages were dangerous due to the number of highwayman that patrolled them. 
• Religion was out of fashion in the early 1700s but by the mid 18th Century there was a great enthusiasm reinstalled in the nation. 
• In 1742 construction started for the Coram Foundling Hospital. 
• In upper class families that sent their children to school, the girls would study embroidery and music in contrast to science and other more academic subjects that boys were taught. 
• The upper class had a social hierarchy of their own. There was the landowners, who had political power, the gentry and then the yeomen. This was on top of the strict class boundaries of the middle and working classes.

Cultural

• The Church and the state were separated but in 1710 there was an attempt to reunify the two entities, this failed in 1714. 
• The first performance of 'Rule Britania' was in 1740. 
• Handel composed 'Messiah' in 1740 and it was first performed in 1741 in Dublin. 
• The west tower of Westminster Abbey was built in 1745 
• Slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1833 but anti-slavery feelings were expressed by the Pope as early as 1741.

Economic

• In the 1700s half the population worked in agriculture and manufacturing. The Industrial Revolution was in its infancy, but the might of industrial Britain was not created at this time. 
• In 1712 Thomas Newcomen invented the steam powered piston engine which laid the foundation for the steam engine and the development of that to power trains, this was a driving force of the Industrial Revolution. 
• 1747 saw Liverpool overtake Bristol as the leading slave trading port. 

Political 

• In 1743 George II led the English army into battle in the War of Austrian Succession. This was the last time a British monarch led the army into war. 
• In 1707 England and Wales (which was invaded by the English in 1283 and gradually absorbed into the English political system) created a union with Scotland. 
• Gloucester was run by merchants. 
• 1742 saw Prussia (Germany) and England create an anti-French treaty, England and France were fighting throughout this century. 
• The 1751 'Murder Act' meant murderers would suffer public dissection or hanging in the gibbet. 
• In the mid-1700s an act was past that prevented infants from being raised in workhouses. 
• The early 18th Century saw the fist premier of England in Walpole who used bribery and political maneuvering to invent a his own job, leading parliament. He was the first person in public office to live at 10 Downing Street. In 1742 he was forced to resign due to a poor election and questions over his leadership when dealing with a war with Spain. He was replaced by the Earl of Wilmington, Spencer Compton, who held office until he died a year later. 
• In 1751 a tax on gin was introduced to try and lower the excessive drinking problem that England had. 
• The Empire was taking shape throughout this period, it was based on merchantism which meant private companies such as the East India Trading Company would do business overseas and be supported by troops from the state. India was taken over in 1757.