Blogs - Orlando

Orlando "The youngest son of Sir Rowland de Bois and younger brother of Oliver. Orlando is a handsome young man who, under his brother’s neglectful care, has languished without a gentleman’s education or training. Regardless, he considers himself to have great potential, and his victorious battle with Charles proves him right. Orlando cares for the aging Adam in the Forest of Arden and later risks his life to save Oliver from a hungry lioness, proving himself a proper gentleman and fitting mate for Rosalind."

I feel Orlando is a simple creature who's intertwined turmoil's of hereditary neglected childhood and love build a character many feel daunted to play. I believe whilst reading the script one can not look through a prism of time instead with sentiment. By this I mean it is easy to view Orlando with a contemporary view and see him as a lustful and subsuming homosexual. Whereas I don't believe an Elizabethan audience would have taken Orlando like this, instead they would see a simple animalistic creature who seems to only have "one goal at a time" mindset.

During the rehearsal period we decided to undertake an exercise in which we would simlpy say our lines, without any meaning or context but just move when we felt a change in thought. This enabled the actor playing the role to have a physical

Orlando is niave to love and the forms in which one must convey to be an eligable man. Shakespeare dismisses the romantics of the time and then
RosalindThe heroine of the play. Rosalind is the daughter of the exiled Duke Senior and the constant companion of her cousin Celia. She is independent-minded, strong-willed, good-hearted, and terribly clever. Rather than slink off into defeated exile, Rosalind resourcefully uses her trip to the Forest of Arden as an opportunity to take control of her own destiny. When she disguises herself as Ganymede, a handsome young man, and offers herself as a tutor in the ways of love to her beloved Orlando, Rosalind’s talents and charms are on full display. Rosalind teaches those around her to think, feel, and love better than they have previously, and ensures that the courtiers returning from Arden are gentler than when they fled to it.