Since researching Dawn French and Miranda Hart, I have been looking at other larger female idols such as Rebel Wilson in her hit movie Pitch Perfect and Melissa McCarthy in her hit films Bridesmaids Identity Thieve and The Heat.

What at I found similar between these two actresses is that they are both big, and that they play the funny side kick role as support actresses. In Pitch Perfect, Rebel plays a young college student called Amy, or Fat Amy, “so that people like you don’t make fun of me behind my back”. She addresses the fact that she is big from the very beginning. When I first saw this clip I was shocked because you shouldn’t have to state your size to someone you meet, they should like you for who you are. But then I realised, I always used to make jokes about my weight to fit in with new people and I related with Fat Amy in that aspect. One of Melissa McCarthy’s most remembered  film role was in Bridesmaids as Megan. Megan was a secret agent and was the Groom’s sister. She was the one that nobody wanted to be around because she did not fit in. She was an overweight, boyish character, very similar to the character Alan in The Hangover movies.However, Melissa McCarthy has now become so popular with the public that she is the female lead in films, such as Tammy. In addition, Rebel Wilson is too very popular with the public, and they are both considered comical geniuses.

In certain ways, I can relate to McCarthy and Wilson in the fact that I was always cast as the fat, funny sidekick in musicals or plays. For example, I was cast as Mabel in the musical Fame. I was really happy about this, I had my own solo and was considered one of the lead roles. What I did not realise was that underneath the name Mabel was the description, “worlds fattest dancer”. I mean, I did not mind, I was cast in the show. But I felt I had a pressure to be funny because if I didn’t joke about my size, I wouldn’t be comfortable with people laughing at me. One thing I have been thinking about, was when I was cast as Scaramouche in We Will Rock You. I was much slimmer in this role, but if I was to audition again with the same abilities as I did before, would I be cast as her again? Probably not. I would be cast as The Killer Queen, who is more voluptuous and much bigger in her presence.

“The problem of how the female comedian is to construct her own identity through her performance, for there remains the potential for the weight of traditional meanings to push the female body, and especially the fat female body, back into the place of object, or butt, of the comedy.” (Hole, 2003)

This, from my experience, is very true and is something that I will include in my performance. I want to state my size from the beginning just like Fat Amy, so that people won’t be laughing at my weight, but hopefully be laughing at the jokes I make.

References.

Hole, A. (2003). Performing identity: Dawn French and the funny fat female body. Feminist Media Studies, 3(3), pp.315-328.

After researching comedians such as Dawn French and Miranda Hart, I am now certain that the best way for me to convey my idea is through comedy. During my time tabled lesson, we had one task which was to write a diary entry and to perform it  to the class. I decided to talk about my relationship with my sister and how we hated each other when we were younger. Although this was quite a serious matter, I tried to keep it light hearted with my delivery and tone. This serious subject then became quite comical and the feed back from my fellow class mates was brilliant. I want to incorporate this style and delivery into my final performance.

Final Idea

I want to talk to the audience about the ‘ideal image’ that society wants people to conform to, and how I am going to break these so called ‘rules’ in which we have to follow because of our size. I am going to discuss how I have always been big and bullied by my ‘friends’ because I did not look like them. I am then going to talk about my love of dance, and how as a child I was never allowed to dance because of my size and state that just because I’m big, does not mean I cannot dance and then go one to break these ‘rules’ by performing The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. However, the comedic twist is that I cannot actually dance.

Style

Most recently, Dawn French is performing a Solo show in which she describes is “somewhere between a monologue, a play, and an autobiographical slide show” (Logan,2014). I envisioned my performance to take on these qualities, for example, my story is autobiographical and I want to talk to the audience directly. In regards to the ‘slide show’ aspect, I am going to film my rehearsal process which will include footage of me training, exercising and also interviewing friends and family about my idea for my show. I really enjoyed how Major Tom kept referring to the videos and re-enacting the moment on stage and I feel this would be a good approach to use, especially for comedic purposes. I can imagine myself recording my dance lessons, looking awful while trying to learn a ballet piece and completely contrasting that by trying to perform the dance as accurately as possible. I feel that I will need to develop this idea and practice a lot as I only have ten minutes, but I am certain I am going to film my process.

Title

I have been playing around with titles most recently, and came up with the following:

• How To Teach A Hippo To Dance.
• The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fatty
• Keep Going Fatty
• And… Break

After thinking about it, I really liked the play on words with The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fatty and I shall perform my final ballet number to The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

References

Logan, B. (2014). Debut standup comedy tour puts TV star Miranda Hart on the spot. [online] The Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/feb/28/call-the-midwife-star-miranda-hart-standup-comedy-tour [Accessed 21 June. 2015].

Dawn French, born 11th October 1957, is a English born actress, comedian and writer.

Dawn French www.bbc.co.uk

I have always adored Dawn French, from her role as Geraldine in The Vicar of Dibley, to her comedy sketches in French and Saunders. For me, she has always been a role model. She is a larger lady and she knows she is, and a lot of her stand up comedy consists of her joking about her weight. She also has a very clever delivery, pulling very animated facial expressions which encourages the audience to laugh further.

One of the main influences for my performance is in The Vicar of Dibley, where Geraldine performed The Mirror in a talent show. The Mirror consists of a ballerina performing in front of a mirror, to which Geraldine plays the reflection. This, for me, was the first time i had laugh at the fact that you can use your body size to make something funny and this is what I want from my performance. I want to portray a serious situation, but sugar coat it in comedy.

Another sketch that Dawn did with her comedy partner Jennifer Saunders, was French and Saunders Dancing Academy. In this sketch, Dawn is a ballet dancer who has fallen and grazed her knee and is unable to complete the rest of the choreography so they hire a professional dancer to fill in for Dawn. The comedy lies in Dawn’s dancing skills, and the complete contrast between the dancer and Dawn herself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_tBnkUEsQg

After this research, I would like to explore the idea of using dance in my performance. I’ve always wanted to dance as a child but was told that I was to big, and that I should focus on a proper career and not waste my time. The funny thing is, I’ve never been able to dance, so one is hoping this will only add to the comedy. But if I did dance, it would prove that no matter what your size, don’t let other people tell you what you can and can’t do because of your size.

References

French & Saunders Dancing Academy with Darcey Bussell & Anthony Dowell – BBC Comedy 1993. (2012). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_tBnkUEsQg [Accessed 20 June 2015].

Edgar Degas. A French born artist who identified and engaged with paintings of dancers.

Below are some images of the paintings Martin told me to have a look at. These paintings are very traditional in reference to how a dancer should look like. After having a closer look at the paintings, the dancers look quite lonely, even though they are with other dancers. It makes you think about what life would be like as a professional dancer and how much work they have to put in to look  a certain way. They also look quite sad. None of the dancers look happy to be dancing. These paintings make you think  about the demands each dancer has to go through and makes me wonder about my developing idea of learning to dance.

References

Edgar-degas.org, (2015). The complete works – Edgar Degas – Page 1. [online] Available at: http://www.edgar-degas.org/the-complete-works.html [Accessed 22 Apr. 2015]. 

Since my last blog post, I have been exploring the idea of body image and body size and how that relates to what society says you can and cannot do. I will be focusing on my own experience of my struggle with accepting how my body looks.

From a young age, particularly in primary school, I was bullied because of the way I looked. I have always been tall and I had big feet, but it was this bullying that inspired me to change the way I looked. In secondary school I was always involved with sport, no matter what it was, from rugby and netball to running and shot put. I dropped the pounds and toned up, but I was still bullied because I was still bigger than everyone else.  It was only when I decided to ignore the comments because I can’t change my height or the muscles I built.

Now I am in university, I have noticed the change in my body. I have put on a lot of weight and I admit that, but that shouldn’t stop me from doing what I want to do. I know I can loose the weight again but just because I have  put the weight on, doesn’t mean I can’t be happy and not pursue the things I want to achieve.

My performance is an exploration of this and has developed when I have not been taken seriously in auditions, especially dance auditions because of my size. So I am going to change this. I am going to prove to those who told me I can’t do something by performing a dance routine. I am challenging those ‘rules’ that society has placed due to peoples image.

I will take my own research and explore why a persons size is constantly being challenged. In addition I will constantly document my findings and my own feelings/ development towards my performance.