Character Backstory

My character: Abanazar

Who am I?

-          Young, approximately 25 years, early mid life crisis

-          Horrible/evil

-          Moderately wealthy, gambles

-          Sly, snakey

-          Vain

-          Confident

-          Dirty laugh

-          Strutting walk with power

-          Articulate – strong

-          Patronising

-          Jewellery – big ring – necklaces – bangles

-          Dramatic makeup

Where am I?

-          Evil lair – dark – dragons den – bare

-          1400s – 1500s

-          Outside – whether gloomy but hot

-          Isolated

What am I doing?

-          Pacing constantly

-          Tapping lip/raised eyebrow thinking evil

-          Lotto ticket, scratching scratch card

-          Conquer the world

-          Talking to myself

-          Making evil plans

What do I see?

-          Green

-          Emptiness

-          Spiders

-          Old things – trunk

-          Dart board with a picture of the emperor on

Why am I here?

-          Serious poker addiction

-          Planning my evil schemes – conquer world

-          Nobody likes me, no friends, worthless

-          Retired magician

-           

How do I feel ?

-          Lonely

-          Angry

-          Pre-Menstrual

-          Vain – narcissistic

-          Over thinking/planning, good organiser

Backstory

-          Awful

-          Bizarre

-          Aggressive

-          Narcissistic

-          Appalling

-          Zealot

-          Angry

-          Ruthless

-          A bizarre and narcissistically appalling zealot around reeking - Peking

I am Abanazar, a magician. I was living on the streets of China kidnapped by an evil circus ring master and forced to perform black magic to thousands. I was even better than dynamo! I became the most popular magician the East had ever seen. I was used by the evil Ring Master to steal the things that the audience gave up for the tricks, watches, money etc. I got wealthy and famous. When everyone realised my underhand activities I lost everything, my fame and wealth, even the circus didn’t want me because I was now worthless. So, I had to try and make it on my own. I went off into the world to build up my fortune again and won lots of money at the poker tables only to lose it again backing bad investments for inventions from my Chinese dragon’s den,( my lair). I then promised myself I would never be a nobody again. The circus made me bitter and resentful, though these are two of the things I like most about myself. I started to make plans for how to make the universe my own!

Synopsis

The play starts with an evil magician Abanazar entering her lair. Sound effects are heard of the stereotypical “dun dun dar” noise. It is a large entrance with green lighting also signifying who the character may be, she arrives on stage with a malicious laugh. She explains how she wants to rule the universe and make everyone her slave, she uses the spirit of the ring to help her find it. The spirit is a sort of genie that lives in Abanazar’s ring, she enters with a bang and a mystical purple lighting her mood is a constant attitudal state. This is the first sign of Abanazar having magic powers, she tells her that it is no use going there by herself so, Abanazar must find a boy by the name of Aladdin from Peking to help her retrieve it as he is mortal, honest and true, this makes him eligible to enter the magic cave containing the lamp. Abanazar hatches an evil plan involving finding the magic lamp and becoming the all most powerful one. This starts the play off to a ‘wicked’ start as she proceeds to Peking.

The City of Peking is a brightly lit place, there isn’t any green or evilness to be seen. This shows a complete contrast to both scenes, you now know that you are watching happy villagers doing a dance in an, all happy, excitable place. Once the dance is over a strapping young lad is on with great dominance to the stage, this character is Aladdin. He speaks with the villagers to start moving the plot forward. He finds out that the princess is coming through the market place and he wants to be there to see her, though this is forbidden as no one is allowed to see her face. Aladdin’s mum is then introduced with a sound of crashing plates as screaming as though there has been a murder. This is the typical dame over reacting, she lightens the tension with a few jokes and innuendos, and generally starts to break the 4^th wall with the audience.

Abanzar arrives in Peking and wants to find Aladdin. There are contrasting scenes in which as Abanazar leaves Wishee Washee, an energetic young boy, riding a scooter enters, really breaking the 4^th wall this time. He addresses all the boys and girls with laughter and happiness. This shows a counter acting character which balances out the good and evil, uplifting the audience and getting them gripped to both sides of the play.

Widow Twankey (the dame) comes on to some music that she dances to, once she has finished Abanazar enters. Their conversation is full of sarcasm from both parts and results in Abanazar finding out she has only gone and bumped into Aladdin's mum. She asks to meet him with a cunning plan developing in her mind. Abanazar greets Aladdin saying he looks just like his father who has passed away, she says she is his father's sister and has riches beyond belief. At first they don’t not believe her and nor do the audience, but Aladdin and Twankey are too poor to let this opportunity pass by. They choose to believe her false story and she goes away saying she will return to collect Aladdin to go to the cave ‘of riches’.

Thrilled Aladdin goes away to meet his love, The Princess Jasmine. She is a young lady who is always accompanied by her handmaidens, who are at her beck and call though it seems she doesn’t necessarily want them there fussing over her. Jasmine's father is the Emperor, he is very powerful and likes everyone to know it and be reminded of it, they are also quite poor so, he is forcing Jasmine in to a marriage, with a rich man, who she doesn’t want to be married to. She then meets a boy called Aladdin, they both then instantly fall in love, like in a fairy tale. They both get caught talking to one another and as no one is meant to see Jasmine's face the Emperor summons someone to chop Aladdin’s head off. However Wishee Washee cleverly helps Aladdin make a sneaky escape.

After that Abanazar has a scene where she summons the spirit of the ring for the second time to find out where the cavern is hidden. There’s a riddle given by the spirit, which Abanazar deciphers quite quickly. She then goes to find Aladdin.

Aladdin is trying to speak with the princess and gets a chance to tell her that he is going to a secret cave containing lots of jewels and when he gets them he will be able to marry her instead of the rich Prince Pekoe. This conversation soon cuts out as the Emperor spots them again. This time he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Abanazar strides on to the stage yelling “stop” and with a mystical sound effect freezes them all with her magic. She explains that they must leave at once. Aladdin makes his final farewell to the princess they both leave the stage then everyone unfreezes and turn to confusion as they limply walk off stage.

In the laundry is Wishee Washee along Widow Twankey, they both sing some upbeat songs and speak with each other and the washing is being done at the same time, Wishee goes out the back to do some more washing. Aladdin comes in and bids farewell to his mother and starts to leave for the mountains, then they hear screaming, Aladdin goes to check it out and it turns out Wishee has shrunk as he had fallen into the washing machine.

Abanazar is now on the search for the magic lamp. Both Aladdin and herself are searching in darkness both confused as to where they are actually going. Aladdin spots the cave and Abanazar uses a spell to open the cave. She hurries Aladdin persuasively to get into the cave and bring her the lamp. He then starts to figure out that something fishy is going on so once he finds the lamp he refuses to give it to her. Extremely angry with this, Abanazar shuts the cave opening closed again and leaves him to die there.

Now very worried and upset Aladdin is left by himself locked in the cave. He ponders for a while and then remembers that he had been given the magic ring just before he went in to the cave. He rubs it and out pops the spirit of the ring. She explains to him that she can’t help him but gives him a poetic riddle for a clue. Smart Aladdin figures it out quite quickly, rubs the lamp and then the genie appears, wearing funky clothing and a large bushy afro. The Genie has infinite power and helps him to escape the cave and says that he can grant any wishes for him. There is a singing and dancing number then it moves on to the interval.

The beginning of act two is the princess skipping on to stage with her hand maidens boasting about how she has not yet been caught being outside of the palace gardens. SoShy, (one of the hand maidens) is very worried because she would get in lots of trouble also, however princess doesn’t seem to mind and makes a dash for the boating lake with the maidens when she see the police officers approaching.

The police officers are a comedy duo and are meant to be looking out for the princess. They both lose sight of her and one gets more annoyed with the other. There are some jokes and slaps around the head before the more sensible of the two officers blows her whistle for everyone to come running. They Question widow Twankey but she cleverly wriggles herself out of punishment and the police officers believe her and leave. Twankey tells all the villagers to go and look for Aladdin. She was also on her way to leave until she hears the Emperor speaking. Between then they are making jokes and innuendos, until he has enough of her ridiculousness and leaves
.

Wishee enters with some shopping saying he has been looking for Aladdin everywhere and hasn’t had any success with finding him. That’s when Abanazar enters with her melodramatic acting. She lies to them both saying that Aladdin fought with an animal and now he is dead, they all believe her until Aladdin appears from nowhere clutching the lamp. He then wishes for the genie to banish Abanazar. The Genie then takes it upon himself to take her down to Essex.

After that everything is calm and peaceful in the city of Peking. Aladdin asks the Genie to build him a grand palace. He also asks for himself to be the richest man in china. The wish is granted. He goes to a party with all great people to see the Princess and ask for the Emperors blessing. As soon as Emperor hears he is the richest man he quickly agrees. A celebratory party is made for them both. For now everything seems like it’s all happily ever after, however Abanazar has come up with an evil plan to get her precious lamp back.

Aladdin leaves his lamp in the safe hands of his love, Princess Jasmine. However, Abanazar, disguised as a peddler, makes her think that’s it’s a good idea to swap the lamp for a shiny new one. As the princess is about to make a decision on what one she should swap it for she snatches the magic lamp away, laughs at her foolishness and summons the genie. The Genie helps her to transport the palace and all it contains too far off Egypt.

Everyone comes rushing back and the hand maidens explain what had happened just a few moments before. Everyone freaks out but then Aladdin remembers that he has the magic ring still. The spirit appears and takes them on a magic carpet ride to Egypt to save the Princess.

Abanazar explains to the Princess that she will be her slave for eternity. The Princess refuses to be, so, Abanazar throws her in the dungeon and leaves her there to come to her senses. Aladdin appears to save the day, they come up with a plan that she should pretend that she has changed her mind about being a slave and call Abanazar back into the room. Aladdin then uses the magic ring to freeze Abanazar and claim the magic lamp back. They all return to Peking and live happily ever after.

The change up...

Jack and The Beanstalk to Aladdin

The rehearsals for Jack and The Beanstalk had commenced as soon as the auditions were over. Everyone had started to learn lines and perform on the stage, though with script still in hand. However, a couple of weeks in, we got the news of a change of pantomime. We were no longer doing Jack and The Beanstalk, and were now underway with the rehearsals of Aladdin. The actors were staying as nearest to equivalent to their original role that they had been cast as, but there were a few extra parts which was good as others could have another chance at auditioning for those parts. We had a time limit in which we had to learn the lines for the first act and another date was set for when we had to know the second act.

The reason for the sudden change in pantomime was the fact that we have an acting company in the same area as our college, that were doing the same pantomime as ourselves and we did not want to create any confusion for local people so we decided to make ours different, which is a good thing as not many people would want to see the same pantomime. This meant we would not be in direct competition with this particular acting group. On the other hand, this was difficult as we were now behind and had not got as much rehearsal time as we had started out with. Everyone was trying their hardest and we were getting on with it as best we could. Also, I am quite familiar with the pantomime and plot but to be on the safe side I looked up the *synopsis of the play.

As we have all stayed relatively the same, I was still playing the part of the evil character, in this case, Abanazar. This had come to be a challenge of mine as the character has a very male dominance about it and I had been asked to play the part as a woman. I was trying to use the same persona as I used for the evil character in the first panto, however,  it was proving difficult as they are two very different types of evil. The one before was a henchman and this was the only evil one in Aladdin. I was now making my new character more sarcastic, driven to win and overall disgusted in everything she sees. To portray this I had come up with a permanent scowl she will wear throughout the performance. She also clutches a prop of a creepy looking stick which she points at people she wishes to do damage to, this gives the dominance to the character as she points at most people.

Audition Process

Audition Process

The auditions were held on the 24^th September 2014, they were for a pantomime called Jack and the Bean stalk. After doing a read through, I started to take a liking to a couple of the characters, these characters were the part of Simon and the Fairy. I began my preparations for the auditions. I chose the piece of text I could best portray the character with, then learnt the lines within that particular extract, so that I could be off book for the audition fast approaching. In doing this I found that I was adding movement and gestures at the same time, putting my own unique twist on the characters. I also tried this out on my fellow peers and family to get their thoughts on how well it would work with the character. For instance, with the fairy who I auditioned for, she seemed to be a poetic, bubbly character, whereas I wanted to make the character different so I turned her from this dainty figure to a Rap Artist. Whilst doing this, I also ad-libbed a few nursery rhymes in the form of a set of rap “bars” and inserted some rap hand gestures, facial expressions and a 'drop and lock' walk usually associated with rapping.

I researched more about the pantomime and watched some clips on YouTube. (insert clip tag). As well as this, I read through a synopsis to make sure I fully understood the plot to get the characters to correctly fit in the play. In doing this, I found that I was adding movement and gestures, this developed my characters even more. The other character I auditioned for was the part of Simon, he was your stereotypical ‘cheeky chappy’, loved by the audience, type of character. I think the movement I incorporated for him was lots of fuss. I wanted the character to be a constant buzz of energy catching the attention of all watching with large movements and big smiles. This is key for a character like Simon as he has to connect with the audience for them to reply, take part in the pantomime and most importantly make it enjoyable to participate in for all of the audience.

The reason I auditioned for these characters in particular is because I liked the energy and comedic edge in them, I like the way they flow throughout the whole piece. They have high energy and bubbly personalities that I could really make original, I could see myself playing these characters as I am quite excitable myself. Though to get these characters to the best standard it would require a lot of confidence which would have been my struggle as that is something I need to work on and build up. Also the amount of audience participation that they make happen is another factor; it takes confidence to do that also. Audience participation is one of the main characteristics of pantomime, you need to keep the audience entertained and gripped, participating throughout.

I believe the audition went well, though I was asked to audition for the part of the evil character as well as the other two at the time of the audition, this was a minor setback as I didn’t expect it to happen and I hadn’t actually learnt the lines or prepared anything for this part. However, it was nice to be asked as I did end up enjoying the acting out of the part as I could be very melodramatic. I exaggerated the speech and movement to give the full effect. The reasons why I thought it went well is because I remembered the lines and was not given any prompts throughout, I projected my voice and annunciated clearly, also I performed to the best of my ability at that time and that’s the most you can do at the end of the day. 

In the end, I was successful in getting the part of the evil character: Nausea which I had not originally intended to audition for but saw it as an opportunity to really involve myself in what I considered an amazing part.