About The Cheshire Cat, As Portrayed By Hayley Cooper.

In order to get into character, and design my character, I've had to look into a lot of the previous versions, as well as other evil characters, as traditionally, The Cheshire Cat is not portrayed as evil, merely mischievous, and as I wanted to play an evil character, but I also enjoyed the idea of The Cheshire Cat I simply had to combine the two.

In order to do this I knew i would have to redesign the typical idea of the character. So I started with the basics.

Costume & Makeup.

Because this character, in the original cartoon was portrayed as pink and purple, I opted to keep these colours as they are bright, playful and ever so slightly fitting with the evil motif. I decided to not include my costume in the costume departments production role as I wanted the costume to be very much my own design, as well as the fact that I intended to keep it once performances were done, as I enjoy collecting costumes. This was the basic design for my costume.

First Draft Costume Design

Followed by original makeup designs...

First Draft Makeup Designs.

The makeup has changed the most out of the designs, the costume however, has only subtle differences.

The makeup now looks as follows

Without wig, Final Chosen Design (The White Spaces above eyes to be painted yellow, I was just not in possession of any at the time.)

With wig, collar, fingerless leather gloves and prosthetic fangs. (White spaces above eyes to be filled in yellow, as above.)

There are currently no photos of my finished costume, as although it is completed, i have lacked the time to take any, however, this is an updated drawing of my completed costume.

Final Costume Design.

Once i had designed the look of my character, I began to work on personality.

I created my version of this character as a snobbish, rude, and arrogant cat, who is also rather intelligent, but very aware of it, and often suffers delusions of grandeur, believing himself to be far more intellectual than he actually is. He is crafty, and will befriend anyone he has to in order to better his lifestyle. He will befriend those high in power, hence his closeness to The Red Queen, who is an easy target as she has a tendency to be ditsy, and easily distracted. In order to gain her trust, all The Cheshire Cat would have had to do would be to appear overly interested in her, and occasionally compliment her, regardless of personal opinion. If it will better him, he will do it.

I based my character heavily on Scar from The Lion King, especially vocally, I chose a posh British Accent, with a low tone and slow speech because this is how he speaks, also i felt the accent would fit because of the regal setting.

  This video is a good example of his vocal abilities, on which mine were based, as well as sarcasm and spiteful way of talking.

I took screen shots of Scars poses and physicality from a few scenes of this movie to demonstrate how i have based movements on him.

Scar Stalking Prey, I take note of the placement of the front paws (or in my case hands) and the arched back.

Scar Hunched over, shouting at Hyenas down below him. I like this shot because it shows the power between the two characters, and that Scar is the higher power. This is something I want to emulate, a constant sense of looking down on other characters.

A cunning smile, which is a must for my character, as The Cheshire Cat is so well known for his Cheshire Smile.

Scar in the heat of devising an evil plan. This expression, although slightly frightening, is something i enjoy because it gives a sense of something truly evil in children's entertainment. His smile is once again something i want to emulate.

I enjoy this particularly because it is almost flamboyant whilst being evil, which is a huge character trait of The Cheshire Cat i am portraying.

A laid back scar looks down on others. - I enjoy this because this pose is one my character frequently takes, a high and mighty pose that is also rather lazy in appearance.

I enjoy this photo just because it emphasizes how i want to appear to the audience.

A hunched over Scar wallows in self pity. - I enjoy this because of the spine and lowness of the head. It shows a very crooked character which is how i want to appear.

 

However, Scar is not the only one i have based my character on.

I have taken a lot of inspiration from the musical CATS for obvious reasons.

One character to catch my interest was the character Macavity, he is rarely seen because of his sneaking abilities, so he is only seen if he chooses to be, which i would like to think is like my character, especially as The Cheshire Cat can vanish at will.

Here are some photos of Macavity that i thought were good to learn from.

 

Here's a video about the character. I find this song is really really useful for getting into character, and i listen to it whenever I need to get into character, often as i get into costume and apply makeup. This video is a good example of how Macavity leaves behind disaster and destruction in his path. This character is someone my character would look up to. If my character's ego was small enough to consider idolizing anyone but himself.

Another character from CATS i would compare my character to would be The Rum Tum Tugger.

The Rum Tum Tugger is a flirtatious Tom Cat, he is big headed, fussy, and very full of himself, he conducts himself with the utmost heir of importance and is constantly flirting with all the female cats in town.

He is a lazy cat that thinks the world of himself, which is a trait he and my character share.

The last two characters from CATS that i based my character around are actually a double act, twins, they are Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer. The two cats are supposedly the most notorious cat burglars in all of London. They are mischievous, playful and troubelsome, and i took these traits to create my character.

One thing i particularly take from CATS is their movement skills, although they are obviously acrobats and dancers, i find the way they glide across the floor on all fours to be amazing, I want to try to copy this movement on stage, or at least make my movements bigger.

As it stands currently, my movements are catlike, however they are still too subtle for pantomime, so I have to work on making them bigger.

Fortunately for me, my conservatory, at night, functions almost as one large mirror, reflecting myself and my movements back at me, meaning I can see how i look when i move, so working on it is much easier than simply taking advice from others and working on that.

When I can get the chance, I often rehearse lines, songs or just movement in there so that i can make sure that i am getting it right, and can find areas to improve.

The last area of inspiration for me was both the original and new Cheshire Cats, though this was more appearance and vocals more than anything, as the personality traits are not as similar to mine.

However, i did take much inspiration for the costume from the original cartoon design.

Using the pink purple and yellow motif, with my own punky additions of spiked collars, fingerless leather gloves, studded belt, ripped shorts (see The Rum Tum Tugger for an idea.)

This clip is also a great example of the voice i wanted, however, it would have to be much bigger, as this is for a pantomime, so it would need to be less subtle.

These are all the things i have used to create my character. However I am still developing it and still working on how to make it more evil, as recently, the evil characters all received feedback stating that the evil team did not come across as evil enough, to combat this, i created a powerpoint designed for the evil characters, helping to make them come across as more evil, myself included.

I find it harder to make my character evil, as my character was never a traditionally evil character, so i am having to play on the idea of mischief, and play highly on the idea of a self inflated ego, laziness and disregard for others. My movements need to be slicker, bigger and more interesting, and my vocals need to sound more like Scar and Stephen Fry's Cheshire Cat.

 

https://skydrive.live.com/view.aspx?cid=DBDD3B196F0C2CAB&resid=DBDD3B196F0C2CAB%21175

Here is the link for the slideshow i created.

22 Days Until Showtime.

Tonight we have a 3-7 rehearsal after school, and a lesson 4th period with Sarah on rehearsal.

Rehearsals tonight will be the whole of act one, including extras and dancers with as much costume as we have currently (as some are being rented, but due to price we cannot have the costumes until a week before performance).

Rehearsal schedules have been drawn for the next two weeks.

23 Days Until Showtime.

Since blocking the scenes and staging the entire script, we have been focused heavily on rehearsal, including the rehearsal of songs, we are now approximately 23 days away from our first performance, and we are having a runthrough of act one during a 3-7 after school rehearsal. We are now at a stage where everything is slowly coming together, and everyone is off of scripts, minus a few forgotten lines, we are not yet ready for performance but I believe the next 23 days will be used effectively and hopefully we will get all we need done.

Posters and tickets are going out this week, I have been designer for these posters, and there are multiple character posters going out, as of yet I do not have photos of all of the characters to make the rest of the postes, due to a techincal issue with the camera, but I aim to have all of the posters done by the end of the week, and they will begin to go out as soon as they are printed.

Performance wise, I have learnt all of my lines, however I need to work on learning cues for when those lines fall, as occasionally I won't realise my line follows another. Other than that I believe I have developed my character effectively, but I need to constantly work on projection, regardless of the fact that i will have a radio mic, I cannot let vocal projection slip.

BTEC Performing Arts - Lesson Five & Six

After deciding on the table arrangement, we continued to work through the final scene, and it was then structured as follows.

-The White and Red Queens and their corresponding friends sit at the table, all of the evil characters sit on the right side (from the audiences point of view) of the table, and all of the good characters sit on the left, all squashed in, and then the queens are sat on their thrones at either end, the Hatter is sat in the center, on a toadstool prop.

The Hatter begins talking, but as usual, he is talking in rhyme, and this makes all those on the table rhyme also, except for The Red Queen, who refuses to take part in these silly games. Even though the rest of the characters have no say in the matter either way, they simply cannot help it. After the rhyming stops, the Hatter talks of how he stole the remaining pages for himself to stop the fighting in wonderland, but in saying that the pages will go to the most deserving, inadvertently starts a fight, as the Red Queen misinterprets it as the most deserving meaning, the strongest, or the one who comes out best in a fight.

-A fight scene commences between the two queens, and The Red Queen distracts The White Queen and then pushes her to the ground, she then snatches the remaining pages from The White Queen and The Hatter, and shows off about having them. As she gloats the good characters use Fairy Gee's want to pop one of The Red Queens balloon boobs, distracting her, whilst the good characters free Alice and capture Hook, Smee and Evil Stepmother. While they do that, Tweedle Dee takes the remaining pages and hands them to Dum as a peace offering, he accepts and gives them to Alice, who in turn, gives them to the Hatter, back to the original owner. The Cheshire Cat sneaks away as The Red Queen is captured and chained up by Rapunzel and Little Red Riding Hood, and then everyone notices that The Cheshire Cat is missing, he is seen sneaking offstage but is caught by Prince Charming and given the 'Cone of Shame' a pet cone to stop animals from biting wounds, but also greatly humiliating, he is grabbed by the scruff of his neck and with The Red Queen is lead off to her own dungeon.

-Each of the characters are sent back to their books, evil characters are banished from Wonderland, never to return, and the good characters return to their books, but not before a song. The song 'We Go Together' from Grease plays, and this is when the characters go off and everybody takes their bows.

This scene has been very clearly structured now, and is almost perfect, the only thing it lacks is slickness and smoothness, and that is simply due to amount of rehearsal time.

We are roughly 6 weeks away from performance currently, and i believe with hard work, this pantomime is going to be a massive success. I am trying my hardest now to learn lines and be off scripts in one or two weeks time.

All scenes are now blocked and staged and ready, all that is left is to rehearse until perfect.

BTEC Performing Arts - Lesson Four

In this lesson we didn't have a warm up, but we worked on the final scene, Act 2 Scene 4, The Mad Hatter's Tea Party, in which we discussed various ways in which we could set up the table, my original idea, as script writer, was to have one long table, spanning the width of the stage, with the Hatter in the middle, and the two queens on either side, next to The Red Queen would be all the evil characters, squashed in together along one side, and the same with the good characters next to The White Queen, the squashed in look would be funny because all of them would be cramped, too cramped to fit in at that table, whilst trying to eat.

However, as this was not discussed beforehand, most people did not understand how the table had been originally mapped out, meaning lots of people had different ideas, some wanted the table to go down the length of the stage, getting bigger as it got closer to the audience, so at the edge of the stage, it would be large, but at the back of the stage it would be smaller, giving the appearance that the table was very long, however, this would mean it would be hard to see all characters, and some audience members would be able to see some characters, but not others, not just this, but the illusion would only work for those sitting next to the isle, for everyone else the angle wouldn't be right and the purpose would be lost, not to mention the excess material and wood used to craft the table. In terms of practicallity, this idea would just not work, and so was cut.

The other idea that was discussed was the idea of having two tables diagonally at either side of the stage, one side for evil, and one for good, but this would look too much as though it were broken and in bits, which in some aspects may work, seeing as the Hatter is 'Mad' but in the end it was dropped. This idea has a better chance of working, however, in terms of stage space, it may be problematic. So this idea was cut also.

The third idea mentioned was the idea of completely removing tables, and having it laid out as a picnic, however, this was also impactical in terms of stage space, as the fight scene at the front of the stage could not happen, because there would be a picnic blanket with cultery, plastic food and crockery, and so fighting over it would be too dangerous to continue. So we got rid of that idea too.

We later, went back to my original idea, of having a long table, covered in table cloth, that will seperate during the fight scene between the two queens. Because this idea works out of practicallity, which i mentioned at the start, but due to many people having ideas, we had to try all options, just in case we found something better, but as it came down to it, we didn't.

The idea of having the table in a line works in terms of being practical, because it leaves pleanty of space at the front, however, the Queens thrones are moved from next to the Hatter to the ends of the table, simply because the bases that they are on (mounted on wheels for movement) are too large, and would not allow the rest of the characters to be at the table. So the queens were moved to the end, and benches were put along the tables for the other characters, allowing maxium squashing to occur. The reason this works is because the space left at the front works for the fight scene, and the queens being at the edge means that they can get out of their seats easily, without an awkward fuss or knocking the tables over (although this was an original idea that was scrapped due to lack of interest) As the fight scene commences, the tables have to be seperated so that they can allow the evil and good character to rush to the aid of thier queens. The tables would be moved away, to the back, diagonally towards the back of the stage, towards the book, because there was not enough room offstage to fold the tables away, plus it would leave the stage bare.

BTEC Performing Arts - Lesson Three

To start this lesson off, as usual, we had one of BTEC lead in a warm up, this time it was Beckies turn to lead the warm up session.

She decided to work, simultaneously on voice and movement, by giving our characters emotions to portray. She told us to think of a line that our character would say, and then walk around saying that line, in a particular emotion. For example, walk as if your character was sad, whilst saying your line in the same manner.

We went through happy, sad, angry, scared and surprised.

For this i chose the line "Hello my friendzzz..."

For happy, i just played up mischievous and cunning, as i think Chesh' would only be happy when he was getting his own way, or causing havoc. So i strode around purposefully, yet still delicately on the balls of my feet and toes, with a lot of arm movement thrown in because i like to make his mannerisms quite large and elegant looking, so when he strides, he strides through the air in a bound, and as his feet reach the floor, his arms carefully keep him balanced (key as cats have superb balance) As for the line, i read this with a slight chuckle in my voice as though he were pleased with himself, and to really live up to the cliche... like a cat that got the cream.

Next we did sad, which was harder to put to my character, as i had never envisioned him to be much of a one who had time to be sad, however, needs must and i attempted to put something to the character. I decided he would still attempt to have a spring in his step, but only every now and then, mostly he'd just drag his feet, and hunch his back severely. He would occasionally try to maintain some slyness and slickness but it would be lost in translation as his sadness interrupted his stride. I would say the line in a way that would be almost mumbled, because although the line is "Hello my friendzzz." in order to do this line, i thought he could being saying hello, purely out of politeness (though i don't believe he would be all that big on polite, being evil and all) but i thought that if he were to say it, much like the occasional dragging of his feet and tail (though of course, it's harder to show that without actually having a tail myself...) his voice would drag too, into a gentle mumble.

For the next one, angry, i decided to have my character fly into action, as i thought, if he were angry, he would move faster than he already does, meaning i had to swiftly dart around the room, in and out of people, charging towards whatever he was angry at. After all, he is a cat, if he were angry, i would think it only appropriate he would pounce. When i first tried to find inspiration for my character, i looked towards Scar from The Lion King, as he was a perfect role model to base this character around, and when he gets angry (which is often) he really gets angry. I figured it would be best to take inspiration once again from Scar and put it into Cheshire, and so his actions were very much like that of a much larger wild cat, as apposed to the kitten he sometimes pretends to be (a little like Puss In Boots from Shrek 2) As for the line, i think it was simple enough, i just made it sound cunning, devious and very much as though, even though he was angry, he was preparing for revenge, making the "Hello my friendzzz." sound very sinister.

We moved onto scared for our next emotion. Now i do think my character has tendencies to show cowardice from time to time, but i wasn't quite sure how to put it into action on this one, so i just improvised without thinking too hard on the matter. I ended up making him seem quite twitchy and nervous, as well as quiet and he would hide behind the things in the room, such as pillars, and even other people. Though if this is how i really feel the character would react, i am not sure, he would probably be similar, but not as twitchy perhaps. That seems far more characteristic of The White Rabbit.

Our last emotion to work with was surprised, for this i found the movements easy, as they were just more upright and unsure than usual, very similar to the way a meerkat stands whilst on lookout, but it makes them look very surprised. However, the line didn't really fit at all, but i just said it with a surprised tone anyway.


In the lesson we started to block Act 2 Scene 1, the scene where the good characters are feeling hopeless after the kidnap of Alice, The White Queen then attempts to cheer them up by singing "If You're Happy And You Know It..."

We decided to have an action for each character. As The White Queen started, she had the well known "Clap your hands!" command, to start the characters off, and to give the audience a chance to sing along.

We then created one for each character.

For Prince Charming, we had "If you're happy and you know it, strike a pose!" at which point all character strike a pose.

For Fairy Godmother, we had "If you're happy and you know it, make a wish!" followed by a wand waving action.

Then we had Red Riding Hood, who was hard to find one for, but in the end we decided as she is off to visit her grandma, we had "If you're happy and you know it, wave to gran!" at which point, an extra, dressed as an old lady would come out and say "Hello dear!" dressed as an old woman. But as this happens three times, we have 3 people dressed as old women appearing from different parts of the stage.

For Cinderella we had "If you're happy and you know it, sweep the floor!" and they all mime sweeping actions, this was because of Cinderella's past spent cleaning and cooking for her evil stepmother and stepsisters.

For Rapunzel we had "If you're happy and you know it, brush your hair!" but because this character has the tendency to be very Chavvy, Rachel, the girl playing her, improvised "If you're happy and you like totally know it, brush your hair!" which when she said it fast, and over and over again, was really quite funny and so has been kept in.

Tweedle Dum is on stage at this point, sulking and being upset about not finding his brother sooner, i put forward the idea of The White Queen singing her line again but tripping up Tweedle Dum so when she gets tot the line "and you know it..." she would fall off stage and say "I'M OKAY" so the song would go "If you're happy and you know it *crash* I'm okay! (still in tune)" But we finished the session before deciding what to do fully with that.

We later did an after school lesson where we worked on blocking Act 2 Scene 2, in which we worked on basic staging of characters, and spacing, plus many physical, visual jokes, such as The Red Queen standing over Alice whilst wearing a long dress, meaning Alice is stuck inside her dress. The Red Queen, knowing Alice has the book on her persons still, reaches under the dress to get it and pulls out a number of other items before finding the right one. This joke however, can only work if everything looks right, for instance, the dress must be long enough, and the timing has to be spot on for it to be funny. These are the things we have been working on.

BTEC Performing Arts - Pantomime Posters.

In a previous lesson i came up with an idea for posters to advertise the pantomime, as my production role has been script writer, and will be makeup artist, i will have nothing to do in the gap in between, as the script is finished, and makeup has been planned, but it will now not come into play until performance, and dress rehearsal, i offered to be an odd job person, helping with costume, props, set, publicity, and anything that really needed an extra pair of hands, as i didn't think it very fair - or very fun for me! If everyone else had to work the entire length of the panto, and i only had to do my work at the very start, and very finish, so whilst in a lesson working on publicity, i offered my idea to create posters.

My idea was not to create a single poster, but rather a collection of posters, one poster for each character/s so, for example, the mad hatters poster would consist of the top half of his head, his hat included - naturally, his eyes looking up, towards the title, that is written across the hat on editing software. Other characters, such as the two tweedles, would share a poster, characters like mine, The Cheshire Cat, would have only the smile, photoshopped to be without the rest of the face, and edited to be stretched further than it was. This would then be placed against a purple background. Sarah, who plays cinderella suggested just having her sparkly shoe (her glass slipper) for her poster, and i believe that for some characters, simply something that represents them would also work as a poster.

I was asked to create a draft version of the poster for my next lesson, which i have just done now, this was done on a very bad webcam, where as the real ones will be done properly, with makeup and with an SLR camera and more time and editing, so it will not look as rough as these. This is what i created in about 10-20 minutes a moment ago.

I also had to keep in mind budgeting, so i looked for a few websites, to save going around printing centers, trying to haggle for a cheaper deal, i remembered how much cheaper it can be to order online, i found a site that sells 50 A5 posters for £21, or 50 A4 for £24, and seeing as there was only £3 difference, i decided we could probably manage the bigger ones, but i will discuss this with the group, as bigger does not always mean better. But for future reference, for myself and the rest of the group, this is the link.

http://www.flyers-printing.co.uk/flyer_printing/price.asp?hd=130&size=A4

To the A4 Size

http://www.flyers-printing.co.uk/flyer_printing/price.asp?hd=130&size=A5

To the A5 Size

I will, very obviously discuss this with the class in the next production lesson that we have, on Monday, and hopefully, the idea shall be well received and the prices deemed not too expensive.