Research
Throughout the time spent going through the rehearsal
process I had time to research pantomimes and the typical ‘bad guy’ in a
pantomime to help develop my character and get a greater sense of your typical
Pantomime.
I looked up the definition of a Pantomime and this is what came
up – “a theatrical entertainment mainly for children, which involves music,
topical jokes and slapstick comedy and is based on a fairy tale or nursery
story, usually produced around Christmas time.”
As well as this, I went on to Youtube (a media site), and
found a clip of the Pantomime villain in a variation of Aladdin which was shown on Itv, to see how he, being the equivalent to my character, portrayed his
After this I looked up on the internet some stereotypical
insults that a villain would give to their audience, but unfortunately I didn’t
have much luck with that one, although I did find out some information about
audience participation.
Audience participation is an essential part of Pantomime. For
example, as I am the villain I would have to say: “Aladdins dead isn’t he?” and I would
then be given the reply of “oh no he isn’t!” The audience should always be
encouraged to: “boo”, “cheer” and “ahh” the characters.
Also, I found out information
about why certain stage directions are set in place aswell. You wouldn’t think
there was a reason why the villain always entered from the left and the fairy
always enters from the right, the reason for this is that there is a hangover from
Pantomimes roots in Comommedia Dell Arte where the right side of the stage
symbolises Heaven and the left side symbolises Hell.
Another feature of Pantomime is cross dressing. The leading male, known as the ‘Principal Boy’ is traditionally played by a young women In tight fitting male clothing to show her femine aspects, and another older women ‘The Pantomime Dame’ who is play by a man. Here is a rehearsal clip of our very own Principle Boy and Dame...
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