Character 4

Name: Reginald Earnshaw
Age: 31
Place of birth: Malvern, Worcestershire, UK
Residence: Frome, Somerset, UK
Education: Homeschooled
Relationship status: Single, never married
Occupation: Supermarket cashier
Personality: Anxious, nervous, distant, introverted

Backstory:

• Reginald was born on a farming estate in Malvern. His parents had a wealthy business going on from home; they would supply eggs, milk and dairy produce to local shops and food establishments in town. His father taught him the tricks of the trade as a young boy, hoping that he would inherit the family trade when he became older. His mother schooled him and other local students in a converted barn at home, earning money in tuition fees and grants from the government.
• Two years after Reginald's birth, a sister, Lily was born in August 1949. Reginald developed a close relationship with his younger sister, seeing himself as her protector.
• During early childhood, Reginald's parents would not allow him or his sister out to play with other children; the only contact they had with children their age was during their school sessions, but this contact was also limited. This forced the siblings to spend more time with each other. They would go and play on the farm together, look after the animals and go walking to the corner shop to buy sweets.
• At the age of 16, Reginald's relationship with his sister began to grow more romantic in nature. He would often stroke her hair, sleep with her in bed and kiss her in private. Due to their sheltered childhood, the siblings had no grasp of what was acceptable in a brother-sister relationship, and over time, their relationship began to develop into incest. Reginald engaged in sexual intercourse with his sister at least twice, unbeknownst to his parents.
• Lily eventually fell pregnant with Reginald's child, unable to tell her parents, she broke the news to Reginald after school one day. Reginald, ashamed of his conduct and scared of the consequences should this reach his parents, he descended into a fit of rage and pushed his sister over. She fell and hit her head on a stone, which cracked her skull and caused a brain hemorrhage, killing her. Reginald tried to stem the bleeding but due to inadequate knowledge of first aid, he could not, and he wept over his sister's body for hours before returning home, her blood still on his hands.
• At the sight of her son with blood on his hands, Reginald's mother questioned as to what he'd been doing. Reginald tried to cover his crime up by saying that he'd just helped his father slaughter a cow for a family meal. His mother dismissed this as usually, his father would slaughter the cows alone. Reginald eventually broke down and told his mother that he had killed his sister accidentally and the blood was indeed hers.
• Overcome with grief, the mother asked Reginald how his father was going to react when he found out what had happened. Driven by fear, Reginald packed a bag and left his home for the first time since birth, fleeing on a bus to Frome in Somerset.
• Reginald slept rough on the streets of Frome for around two months until moving to a homeless shelter. He continually had nightmares about his sisters murder and his unborn child.
• Reginald eventually took refuge with the Salvation Army, which offered him food and shelter until he could find a job for himself. He eventually undertook a job in a local Sainsbury's grocery shop as a cashier.
• After having earned enough money to fend for himself, Reginald left the Salvation Army and moved into a small bedsit in the centre of town. He still continued to have nightmares about his sister and his unborn child.
• When questioned about his past, Reginald becomes increasingly nervous and anxious. He remembers things that his sister used to enjoy in life (chocolate, flowers) and immediately associates them with her, which heightens his anxiety. He has often been rude to customers due to them asking for products he associates with his dead sister, but due to his past, the managerial staff do nothing but warn him.

=======================================================================

Research

"The Ballad of Lucy Wan"

Lucy or Lizzie Wan is a traditional northern folk song which details the incestuous relationship between a brother and a sister. The sister becomes pregnant with the brother's child, and out of rage and shame, the brother kills her and tries to cover up his deed. This directly influenced Reginald's overall story.

Fair Lucy she sits at her father's door,

A-weeping and making moan,

And by there came her brother dear:

'What ails thee, Lucy Wan?'

'I ail, and I ail, dear brother,' she said,

'I'll tell you the reason why;

There is a child between my two sides,

Between you, dear Billy, and I.'

And he has drawn his good broad sword,

That hung down by his knee,

And he has cutted off Lucy Wan's head.

And her fair body in three.

'Oh, I have cutted off my greyhound's head,

And I pray you pardon me.'

'Oh, this is not the blood of our greyhound,

But the blood of our Lucy.'

'Oh, what shall you do when your father

      comes to know?

My son, pray tell unto me.'

'I shall dress myself in a new suit of blue

And sail to some far country.'

'Oh, what will you do with your houses

      and your lands?

My son, pray tell unto me?'

'Oh, I shall leave them all to

      my children so small,

By one, by two, by three.'

'Oh, when shall you turn to your

      own wife again?

My son, pray tell unto me.'

'When the sun and the moon rise

      over yonder hill,

And I hope that may never, never be.'

(Zierke, 2017)

Another inspiration for this character was a song influenced by this ballad written by English singer-songwriter Kate Bush, entitled "The Ballad of Lizzie Wan" in demo form and "The Kick Inside" in the final recorded version. Both versions are presented here.

 

Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth

Reginald's haunting dreams of his sister's murder that plague him are directly influenced by the character of Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's Macbeth, specifically the scene where Lady Macbeth is seen sleepwalking through the chambers of her home, trying to wash the blood of King Duncan from her hands.

"Here's the smell of this blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand."

- Lady Macbeth, Macbeth (5.1)

========================================================================

References:

Bush, K. (1978) "The Kick Inside". In: The Kick Inside [CD]. EMI Records.

Shakespeare, W. (1606) Macbeth. London: Wordsworth.

Zierke, R. (2017) Lizie Wan / Lucy Wan / Fair Lizzie (Roud 234: Child 51). Available at: https://mainlynorfolk.info/martin.carthy/songs/lucywan.html. (Accessed: 29 April 2017)

Quotes On Improvisation

“Joan [Littlewood]’s way involved constant effort to keep the production fresh. ‘It’s all very well putting a bubble up,’ she says; ‘but you have to keep it afloat’. Hedley remarks that ‘if something worked brilliantly, she’d change it, just to stop actors recreating it'; and Spinetti recalls how she plastered the walls of the green room and corridors of the theatre with notes, such as ‘Darling, you’ve got greasepaint on your heels, get off’, ‘Your performance is wonderful but your feet are waiting for a bus’, or ‘The purpose of getting on a stage is to get off, preferably in time for the pub’.” (Arditti, 1994).

“Creativeness must never cease, the only question being the choice of material on which to base it ... In our kind of acting we make frequent use of improvisations ... This kind of creativeness gives a freshness and an immediacy to performance.” (Stanislavski, 1947: 63-64)

“Great improvisers ‘go with the flow’, accepting that they’re in the hands of God, or the Great Moose. Their attitude is the opposite of those ‘beginners’ for whom improvisation is very difficult and who find the demons on the stage just as threatening as those in life. When a great improviser is inspired, all limits seem to disappear.” (Johnstone, 2014: 341)

“The ability to create a situation imaginatively and to play a role in it is a tremendous experience, a sort of vacation from one’s everyday self and the routine of every day living.” (Spolin, 1963: 2)

“We approach improvisation through psychological replay, which is silent. Replay involves reviving lived experience in the simplest possible way.” (Lecoq, 2014: 27)

“If it has not been programmed with a mass of material about the play, the situations, the characters and their interrelationships, it will only produce the material it has, which will naturally relate to the here and now, the situation in which the actor is actually present, along with a mass of cliche responses he has learned from other situations. This is not improvisation. This is ‘mugging’, ‘fooling about’, a totally self-indulgent activity.” (Barker, 1977: 90)

“In order to enter a room all you need to know is what status you are playing. The actor who understands this is free to improvise in front of an audience with no given circumstances at all.” (Johnstone, 1979: 47)

“We play people, elements, plants, trees, colours, lights, matter, sounds – going beyond their images, gaining knowledge of their space, their rhythm, their breath through improvisation.” (Lecoq in Frost and Yarrow, 2015: 184)

 “[Improvisation] is not a condition of relaxed awareness where one does not need to impose order on the external world or the imagination: order is found in the world and in the imaginative response to others.” (Frost and Yarrow, 2015: 223)

"Improvisational theater, with its requirement of both total attention and spontaneity, [and] Psychodrama, because it forces an awareness of roles and role-playing." (Ferguson, 1980: 90)

========================================================================

References

Arditti, M. (1994) Joan Littlewood: Making a Scene. Available at: http://www.michaelarditti.com/non-fiction/joan-littlewood-making-a-scene/. (Accessed: 29 April, 2017)

Barker, C. (1977) Theatre Games: A New Approach to Drama Training. London: Meuthen.

Ferguson, M. (1980) The Aquarian Conspiracy. Los Angeles: Jeremy P Tarcher.

Frost, D. & Yarrow, R. (2015) Improvisation in Drama, Theatre and Performance. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Johnstone, K. (1979) Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre. London: Meuthen.

Johnstone, K. (2014) "Afterthoughts" in The Improvisation Studies Reader: Spontaneous Acts [2014]. London: Routledge. pp. 65-68

Spolin, V. (1963) Improvisation for the Theatre. Illinois: Northwestern University Press.

Lecoq, J. (2014) "Improvisation" in The Improvisation Studies Reader: Spontaneous Acts [2014]. London: Routledge. pp. 27-31.

Stanislavski, K. (1947) "Improvisation" in The Improvisation Studies Reader: Spontaneous Acts [2014]. London: Routledge. pp. 63-64

Video Evaulation

Script:

I suppose my key learning point throughout this whole process was trying to achieve a certain authenticity to the characters I was creating and make it as spontaneous as possible. Although improvisation is something I have had experience with briefly, roleplay is where I have had the most experience, as I used to roleplay online and still continue to do so. But what was lacking that type of roleplay is that it is purely writing a type of interactive fan-fiction; the characters don't come alive physically, only mentally and everything is pre-meditated and there's no spontaneity there at all. It's even more difficult if you're portraying a canonical character from a film or television programme; for example, I roleplayed in the Doctor Who universe, so if you were to play the role of the Doctor, that character has basically been written for you, there's a wealth of information about him on the internet and in books for you to build his role with. It's not altogether original and it's altogether authentic because it's not your creation. It’s not exactly spontaneous either because when you write with another writer, plotting is important – they don’t want to go into a storyline or a plot thread with no discussion, so any sort of excitement or risk is blown away entirely. I believe Keith Johnstone really sums up what I was looking for in pursuing this module - he wrote that "When a great improviser is inspired, all limits seem to disappear" (Johnstone, 2014: 341). I wanted to use the inspiration I get on a daily basis, which basically comes from anything such as TV, film, a book I've read, a personal experience I've had and really dissolve those limits I encountered with the roleplay I was doing before and find a new creative process.

There were several so-called learning blocks that I encountered throughout this process. One challenge I found quite difficult was the authenticity that I wanted to create - now I'm pretty inexperienced when it comes to improvisation; I'm used to having a script, memorizing it, blocking it and just repeating those movements and those lines. I read a small quote by Clive Barker that completely and utterly sums up that sort of acting experience and how I had to really get myself out of that cycle - "“If it has not been programmed with a mass of material about the play, the situations, the characters and their interrelationships, it will only produce the material it has" (Barker, 1977: 90). The performance has to have some sort of authenticity and creativeness on my part, because if I'm just copying how I would react in similar situations instead of going with the instinct of the character itself, it would just become "'mugging’, ‘fooling about’, a totally self-indulgent activity" (Barker, 1977: 90). Another learning block I encountered was finding the physicality of my characters because I wanted to explore characters outside of my age, outside of my gender; there's women, people who are at least 20 years older than me, people with experiences that I can never have, so I had to do a lot of research and a lot of observation work in public places to anaylse how those sorts of people would act in real life. The most difficult was the character of the woman with her social media relationship, she took the longest time to come through. When I would perform her to others, people enjoyed it as a comedic piece, but I would always get the response - "I don't believe you're a woman, you just look like a campy man". It's because I was ignorant to how a woman of her age would act, I hadn't bothered to do the research so I had to really backpedal and really make sure to do my research and incorporate it completely or else it would just become caricature. Joan Littlewood wouldn't have been impressed by that I don't think, I definitely would have been subject to her famous little catchphrase, "STOP BLOODY ACTING!"

One thing is for definite after completing this module, improvisation is something that I really want to explore more of and really hone my technique when it comes to improvising and using it to an advantage. Before this module, improv was extremely difficult - I always had some sort of mental block going on trying to come up with things off the top of my head, but I've found that after completing this module, that mental block seems to have shifted and things flow more naturally when it comes to improv, which is something I'm very grateful for. In terms of looking to the future, Jacques Lecoq provides quite an apt quotation in his writings that basically says that roleplay and improvisation doesn't just apply to the re-enactment of human behaviour - “We play people, elements, plants, trees, colours, lights, matter, sounds – going beyond their images, gaining knowledge of their space, their rhythm, their breath through improvisation" (Lecoq, 1972: 41). So in terms of thinking of what to do next, I believe that I should expand my knowledge, expand my technique, but also expand the variety of characters that I play - animals, plants, trees, colours - they probably have all sorts of personalities that seem fascinating and I guess if I were to do something similar, I'd move away from humans and focus on elemental beings instead. But people are so full of poetry, it's going to be hard to try and break away from that because a lot of what we find ourselves inspired by are personal experiences – what people have done to others, what we’ve had done to us. It would be hard to try and find a similar connection with something such as a tree ... but maybe you could if you thought long and hard about it.

Character 3

Name: Arthur Jenkins

Age: 26

Place of birth: Brixton, London

Residence: Canary Wharf, London

Education: Evelyn Grace Academy, Brixton, self-employed

Relationship status: Single

Occupation: Amateur, self-employed police detective
Personality: stern, blunt, rude, inquisitive, authoritative

Backstory:

• Arthur is the only child of a doctor and an accountant. His father had a strong reputation within the Brixton area due to his doctor's surgery being local and serving many members of the community.
• As a child, his father owned a collection of Sherlock Holmes and detective memorabilia (books, films, TV series, magazines etc). At the age of 5, he sat down with his father and watched the 1959 film adaptation of Arthur Conan-Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Enthralled by the detective skills of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur developed an admiration for Conan Doyle and stories of famous detectives such as Hercule Poirot and Phillip Marlowe. This eventually developed into a lasting obsession that began to affect his everyday life.
• He insisted on going to school dressed as Sherlock Holmes, which made him very unpopular with his peers, often becoming the subject of jokes and teasing. During his time at school, Arthur began to develop a hard exterior which affects his empathy with other people's situations, a trait he takes advantage of with his detective work.
• English literature and Biology were his strongest subjects.
• Left school with 5 GCSEs (English, Maths, Biology and Chemistry) and eventually dropped out of sixth form college due to disinterest in his subjects and the constant need to tie everything he learns into his fascination with detectives.
• Arthur spent the latter half of his teenage years following police investigations around attempting to help solve any crimes that were happening in the area. He was banned from several police stations.
• Currently lives in a shared flat in Canary Wharf, living off of jobseekers allowance whilst attempting to pursue his detective work.
• Arthur is very stern and inquisitive. He is always scrutinizing people for signs of anything that could convict them of committing any sort of crime he can think of.
• He constantly carries a notebook on him so he can obsessively record every detail he comes across.
• He often comes to outrageous, irrational and offensive conclusions and accuses people of committing crimes they couldn't possibly have committed.
• His favourite films are The Big Sleep (1946), Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), Dial M For Murder (1954), Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
• His favourite books are: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, And Then There Were None,
• The Spy Who Came In From the Cold
• He enjoys listening to classical music, especially Mozart, Bach and Rachmaninoff.
• He likes to walk with his hands behind his back, he gets an air of authority and knowledge from it.
• He has little to no empathy for the situations of other human beings, very typical behaviour of a sociopath. He rarely gets on with people and is often labelled rude and pretentious.

========================================================================

Research:

The "Don Quixote" Complex

One major aspect of this character is that he sees himself as an intelligent, resourceful detective who has an eye for solving crimes. This stems completely from his fascination with detective novels and the actions of fictional detectives such as Philip Marlowe and Sherlock Holmes. This is reminiscent of the novel Don Quixote (Cervantes, 1605), which tells the story of a man who reads so many romantic novels, he believes he is a romantic hero himself.

    

Fictional Detectives

Whilst creating this character, I drew a lot of inspiration from the BBC television series Sherlock, a modern day retelling of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. The character is portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch, and displays the same sociopathic tendencies as Arthur. The character is very observant and is able to make very accurate evaluations based on minute details such as the brand of watch a character wears or the fabric of somebody's clothing. Although the evaluations are true and accurate, he is very blunt and unsympathetic in his analysis and still manages to offend people with them. This was the primary basis of this character.

"Anderson, don't talk out loud, you lower the IQ of the entire street."

"I am the most unpleasant, rude, ignorant and all round obnoxious arsehole that anyone could possibly have the misfortune to meet."

Although Sherlock Holmes is the primary influence on the character's detective preoccupation, he is also well read in detective fiction, both classical and contemporary.

The 20 Best Crime Novels of All Time (Telegraph, 2014)

1. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

2. Strangers On a Train - Patricia Highsmith

3. The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey

4. The Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

5. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie

6. The Madman of Bergerac - Georges Simenon

7. The Nine Tailors - Dorothy L. Sayers

8. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

9. Miss Smiller's Feeling For Snow - Peter Hoeg

10. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

11. The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

12. The New York Trilogy - Paul Auster

13. Misery - Stephen King

14. The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler

15. LA Confidential - James Elroy

16. Fatherland - Robert Harris

17. True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey

18. Fingersmith - Sarah Waters

19. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - Kate Summerscale

20. Get Shorty - Elmore Leonard

The 12 Greatest Fictional Dectectives (That Aren't Sherlock Holmes)

12. Alex Cross - Along Came a Spider

11. Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers series

10. Precious Ramotswe - The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency in Botswana

9. Ralph Dibney - Batman series

8. Charlie Chan - The House Without a Key

7. Nero Wolfe - Fer-de-Lance

6. Jessica Fletcher - Murder, She Wrote

5. Hercule Poirot - Agatha Christie series

4. Dirk Gently - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

3. Miss Marple - Agatha Christie series

2. Veronica Mars - Veronica Mars

1. Columbo - Columbo

(Inglis-Arkell, 2015)

The Sociopath

Arthur shares multiple character traits with the modern incarnation of Sherlock Holmes, who regards himself as a sociopath.

Psychopaths and sociopaths share a number of characteristics, including a lack of remorse or empathy for others, a lack of guilt or ability to take responsibility for their actions, a disregard for laws or social conventions, and an inclination to violence. A core feature of both is a deceitful and manipulative nature. But how can we tell them apart?

Sociopaths are normally less emotionally stable and highly impulsive – their behaviour tends to be more erratic than psychopaths. When committing crimes – either violent or non-violent – sociopaths will act more on compulsion. And they will lack patience, giving in much more easily to impulsiveness and lacking detailed planning.

(Mallett, 2015)

In the BBC series Sherlock Holmes, Holmes pronounces to Watson that he is a 'I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high functioning sociopath, do your research', and this fascinating self assessment is one that gets many viewers questioning what precisely a sociopath is.

Sherlock's proclaiming himself a sociopath makes the term seem almost romantic and interesting rather than immediately disturbing when usually we would think of the traits of a sociopath as belonging to a villain, not a protagonist.

(Loewen, 2017)

========================================================================

References:

Cervantes, M. (1992) Don Quixote. London: Wordsworth.

Inglis-Arkell (2015) The 12 Greatest Fictional Detectives (Who Aren't Sherlock Holmes). Available at: http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-12-greatest-fictional-detectives-who-arent-sherloc-1718145839. (Accessed: 29 April, 2017)

Loewen, S. (2017) Characteristics of a Sociopath. Available at: http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/15850/1/Characteristics-of-a-Sociopath.html. (Accessed: 29 April, 2017)

Mallett, X. (2015) The difference between a psychopath and a sociopath. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/the-difference-between-a-psychopath-and-a-sociopath-10422016.html. (Accessed: 29 April, 2017)

Telegraph (2014) The 20 Best Crime Novels of All Time. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10616667/The-20-best-crime-novels-of-all-time.html. (Accessed: 29 April, 2017)

Character 2

Name: Stacey Freeman
Age: 26
Place of birth: Swansea, Wales, UK
Residence: Swansea, Wales, UK
Education: Comprehensive school, sixth form college
Relationship: Single (but looking)
Personality: Obsessive, passionate, paranoid, pushy

• Stacey was born in Swansea to two loving parents. However, the demands of a newborn child proved too much for her father and he left, leaving her mother to raise her.
• As a young child, Stacey's mother raised her with Disney movies and the idealistic portrayals of princesses and beautiful women. Stacey often had fantasies of becoming a princess herself and finding her handsome prince whom she would marry and live happily ever after with.
• Stacey attended nursery school and eventually fell into a friendship group with the same interests as her (romance, boys and princesses) and made firm, friendly relationships.
• Stacey would spend her nights as a girl in her room, listening to the latest chart music, reading magazines and playing with her vast collection of dolls.
• As she got older and progressed into primary school, Stacey eventually developed an interest in romantic comedy films. She developed this after attending a screening of the film Clueless at the local cinema with friends. Fascinated by the romantic storylines punctuated with humour and light-hearted characters, Stacey felt that she could live her own romantic comedy and thus developed a life-long fascination for the tropes and plot lines that accompany rom-coms.
• During her teenage years, Stacey collected rom-coms on video tape and DVD when they came into fashion. Her personal favourites are Never Been Kissed, Love Actually, Pretty Woman, Sleepless in Seattle and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Her favourite actors are Colin Firth, Keira Knightley, Julia Roberts and Drew Barrymore.
• With the emergence of Internet dating, Stacey created an account on Facebook shortly after graduating from comprehensive school. She also signed up to dating networks such as eHarmony.
• After several years of casual dating whilst attending sixth form college, Stacey met a man on Facebook shortly after receiving her A Levels. They began a steady stream of conversation using the site's messaging system.
• Due to her fascination with rom-coms, Stacey was adamant that the events of a rom-com took place in real life, having had no real life experience of relationships. Stacey became increasingly dependent on talking to this man, and would spend any spare minute messaging him, probing for personal information and his whereabouts. If he fails to reply within a few minutes, she becomes increasingly anxious and paranoid, thinking that he has grown tired of her and wants her to go away.

========================================================================

Research:

The Rom-Com

As a part of my research into this character, I felt it important to analyse the standard formula of a romantic comedy film, as the character lives her life as if she were in one of them. This included the types of characters seen, music and plot points.

(Wysaski, 2013)

15 Best Romantic Comedies of All Time

1. Annie Hall (1977)

2. When Harry Met Sally (1989)

3. Sabrina (1954)

4. It Could Happen to You (1994)

5. Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

6. Bridget Jones's Diary (2000)

7. Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

8. Kissing Jessica Stein (2001)

9. Clueless (1995)

10. Pretty Woman (1990)

11. My Best Friend's Wedding (1992)

12. Love Actually (2003)

13. Father of the Bride (1991)

14. Coming to America (1988)

15. The Wedding Singer (1998)

(Heyman, 2015)

"Romantic comedy is an attractive genre for Hollywood: often big bucks at the box office, for lower-than-average production budget (less need for digitally enhanced aliens - plastic surgeries provided by actors themselves). In short, something to get the producers squealing with delight. Traditional Hollywood thinking suggests that marrying romance and comedy creates a match made in date movie heaven, if the romance ropes in the females, and comedy the males. Whether this ploy works in reality or not, the genre's escapist aspect of light-hearted plots and practically guaranteed happy endings appeals to a large chunk of people." (TV Tropes, 2017)

Online Relationships

The character's life at the point I am presenting revolves around a relationship she is having with a man on the internet. I found it crucial to conduct research to determine the difference between engaging in a relationship face-to-face compared to through a computer screen.

"For the past decade, Paul J. Zak, a professor of neuro-economics at the Claremont Graduate University who sometimes goes by “Dr. Love,” has been conducting studies on how relationships maintained over social media differ from relationships in real life. What he has found is that there’s hardly any difference at all.

“It’s as if the brain doesn’t really differentiate between you posting on social media and you being there in person,” he told me. “We’re such hyper-social creatures that we have a large release of dopamine when we’re with other people. But we can also get that release through Twitter or any social media, really.”" (Delistrady, 2014)

========================================================================

References:

Delistrady, C. (2014) Online Relationships Are Real. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/online-relationships-are-real/380304/ (Accessed: 29 April, 2017)

Heyman, J. (2015) The 15 Best Romantic Comedies of All Time: From Annie Hall to The Wedding Singer. Available at: http://www.vogue.com/article/15-best-romantic-comedies. (Accessed: 29 April, 2017)

TV Tropes (2017) Romantic Comedy. Available at: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RomanticComedy. (Accessed: 29 April, 2017)

Wysaski, J. (2013) Every Romantic Comedy Ever. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYMmlZb3FNM. (Accessed: 29 April, 2017)

Character 1

Name: Jamie Mulligan

Age: 18

Place of birth: Cardiff, Wales, UK

Residence: Canton, Cardiff

Education: High school drop out, college student

Relationship status: Single

Personality: Aggressive, bitter, sarcastic

• Jamie was born in Cardiff, the son of an accountant and a nurse. At the age of 3, his mother, Susan, died in a car accident, which meant that his father, John had to adapt to life as a single father and provide for his son.
• Jamie grew up with a very formal childhood - he attended school, with particular strengths in English, creative writing, music and geography. He enjoyed exploring his father's extensive music collection at home and reading books that originally belonged to his mother, which instilled in him a passion for music and literature.
• When Jamie entered high school, his father began getting involved in finding a new partner for himself after the death of Jamie's mother. He eventually began seeing a woman who worked at the local Tesco's in secret, not wanting to tell Jamie for fear of him getting upset and protective of his mother's memory.
• As Jamie progressed through high school, he was bullied and teased for his interest in books and music rather than sport and was often labelled a "poof" by other boys. This began to sow the seeds of resentment that Jamie would carry through his teenage years towards his father. Jamie kept the fact that he was being bullied a secret, retreating into his favourite music from his dad's record collection, particularly the music of The Smiths and Morrissey. The song "What Difference Does It Make?" became a particular favourite of his, and he'd often write the lyrics in ballpoint pen on the inside covers of his school books in an attempt to challenge the strict authority he came across at school.
• When Jamie was 16, John, who had been keeping a steady, private relationship with his girlfriend, revealed his new partner to Jamie. Jealous of the affection his father showed her, Jamie immediately rejected her and became increasingly angry at his father, accusing him of betraying his mother's memory finding love so soon after her death.
• Due to the family tension, Jamie's grades began to suffer and he eventually dropped out of school in the middle of his GCSEs, much to the dismay of his father. Jamie lost all motivation and drive to receive an education, causing his father to force him to undertake a music course at a local college.
• Jamie failed multiple exams at college and nearly got expelled for getting into an argument with a pupil over The Smiths. Situations at home did not improve. Jamie would argue with his father on a daily basis, threatening to attempt suicide or harm himself if John lets his girlfriend live with them.
• Jamie is currently now in the last few months on his music course, hoping to start a band after completing the course.

Personality and Interests:

• His favourite bands are The Smiths, Oasis, Joy Division and Kasabian. He particularly sees Stephen Morrissey, lead singer of The Smiths, as a hero and often quotes his songs when he is trying to prove a point.
• Jamie has a dream of being in a band and being as famous as his idols.
• He often turns to alcohol to attempt to escape his problems, finding a certain numbness in being inebriated that helps him forget his life as it is now. If he has to attend family gatherings, he insists on getting drunk if John's girlfriend is present and has often threatened death on her in private conversations with friends.
• He enjoys watching violent gangster films and often daydreams about taking revenge on his father for his "betrayal".

========================================================================

Research:

Attention seeking + Narcissistic behaviours

One essential element I sensed from creating this character is that he is very attention-seeking and narcissistic as a result of his anger towards his father. Attention seeking can be a mental condition of itself, so I believed it was essential to ensure that research was conducted in order to make the representation of his attention seeking as realistic as possible.

Excessive attention seeking is not a character flaw. It is a brain wiring response to early developmental trauma caused by neglect. The developing brain observes its environment and wires itself accordingly to survive in that world that it presumes will be like those experiences. Newborns are extremely dependent on getting their mother’s attention for survival. The more their needs are neglected during early development the more the child equates getting attention with survival and safety. In turn, the more he or she develops the belief system that it is necessary to go to whatever lengths to get attention.

Histrionic personality disorder is characterized by a long-standing pattern of attention seeking behavior and extreme emotionality. Someone with histrionic personality disorder wants to be the center of attention in any group of people, and feel uncomfortable when they are not. While often lively, interesting and sometimes dramatic, they have difficulty when people aren’t focused exclusively on them. People with this disorder may be perceived as being shallow, and may engage in sexually seductive or provocative behavior to draw attention to themselves.

Sometimes, however, our natural propensity for attention seeking shifts from a place of healthy sociability and self-care to a symptom of serious psychological distress. In these cases, attention seeking can take the form of behaving in a loud, dramatic, or inappropriate manner, exhibitionism, exaggerating behaviors and emotions, sexual provocation or promiscuity, and engaging in blatant self-destructive acts like substance abuse or even self-injury. Too often, maladaptive attention-seeking behaviors are discounted as character flaws, a dramatic personality, or manipulation. However, these behaviors typically arise as a response to deeply painful trauma or psychological disturbance and reflect a desperate attempt to cope with overwhelming emotional turmoil.
(Gordon, 2014)

Dysfunctional Father-Son Relationships

What is possible between a father and son? What can men do with the array of untapped emotions that shield them from knowing themselves?  As adult men we can’t pretend away old unresolved wounds because the hurts eventually resurface in other areas of our lives.  The unexpressed hurt and anger often transfer onto our love relationships, parenting, challenges at work, and problems with authority.

If we decide to tackle this wounded relationship in therapy, we will invariably encounter an array of painful childhood memories.  We will experience waves of disappointment, rage, and grief at the loss of what we never had with our fathers.   By bravely revealing and working through this boiling cauldron of emotion we may come to a meaningful resolution.
(Goldenberg, 2016)

Father-son relationships are trickier, just as loaded with expectations and fears as mother-daughter. For so long, a son idolizes his dad. There is a mythology around the Superman dad that young children embrace. He’s the biggest, strongest caregiver in their lives for years.
But there’s a point in which this narrative gets challenged, as it must. A boy goes from wanting to be just like his father to wanting to be his own person.
When a son realizes his father is just a man, mortal and flawed, he begins to assert his own identity and challenge his father’s authority and knowledge. A battle of ego and burgeoning manhood collides with wisdom and command.
(Sultan, 2014)

For boys, it seems that a bad father is worse than no father. In my study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, I talked to a group of 99 young men about the quality of care that their fathers provided throughout their childhood and adolescence. The young men, in their late teens and early twenties, were from inner-city Islington, in north London. What emerged was that those who had poor care from their father - either when he was present in the home or absent following divorce - were more likely to develop behaviour problems in their teens than those who had had good paternal care.
(Hepworth, 1998)

The "Rebellious Teen"

Two common types of rebellion are against socially fitting in (rebellion of non-conformity) and against adult authority (rebellion of non-compliance.) In both types, rebellion attracts adult attention by offending it.

The young person proudly asserts individuality from what parents like or independence of what parents want and in each case succeeds in provoking their disapproval. This is why rebellion, which is simply behavior that deliberately opposes the ruling norms or powers that be, has been given a good name by adolescents and a bad one by adults.
(Pickhardt, 2009)

Rebellious Spirits go beyond the stereotypical "rebellious teen" and include people who flagrantly violate rules and social norms, act eccentric or weird, and often don't care what people think about them. Sometimes they even lack normal friends and usually lack good posture. They may be Chaotic Good, Chaotic Neutral, or Chaotic Evil, but they are always chaotic.
(TV Tropes, 2017)

15 Classic Teen Rebellion Movies
1. The Breakfast Club (1985)
2. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
3. Cry-Baby (1990)
4. An Education (2009)
5. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
6. Ghost World (2001)
7. Heathers (1989)
8. Heavenly Creatures (1994)
9. If... (1968)
10. Kids (1995)
11. The Outsiders (1983)
12. Pump Up the Volume (1990)
13. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
14. Thirteen (2003)
15. West Side Story (1961)
(IndieWire, 2013)

The Smiths and Morrissey
Jamie idolizes the music of the band The Smiths and its lead singer Stephen Morrissey. The Smiths are notable for their songs that attack authority, the judgement of others and describe dysfunctional and broken relationships. Morrissey's lyrics are often described as bitter and confessional.

"The Smiths: 10 of the best"
1. Hand In Glove
"And if the people stare, then the people stare / I really don't know and I really don't care..."

2. Reel Around the Fountain
"It's time the tale were told / About how you took a child / And you made him old..."

3. This Night Has Opened My Eyes

"He said he'd cure your ills / But he didn't, and he never will..."

4. This Charming Man
"I would go out tonight / But I haven't got a stitch to wear..."

5. How Soon Is Now?
"You shut your mouth, how can you say / I go about things the wrong way / I am human and I need to be loved / Just like anybody else does..."

6. The Headmaster Ritual

"Belligerent ghouls run Manchester schools / Spineless swines, cemented minds..."

7. Shakespeare's Sister

"Oh, I can smile about it now / But at the time, it was terrible..."

8. Asleep

"Don't try to wake me in the morning / For I will be gone..."

9. I Know It's Over

"I don't know where else I can go / It's over, it's over, it's over..."

10. London

"But did you see jealousy in the eyes / Of the ones who had to stay behind?"
(Hann, 2015)

Quotes from Stephen Morrissey:

"What’s the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning? Wish I hadn’t."

"I just feel that when all is said and done, I am not insane."

"Artists aren't really people. I am actually 40 per cent papier mache."

"When they bury me in the earth and chuck earth on my grave, I'd like the words 'Well, at least he tried' engraved on my tombstone..."
(Wright, 2015)

======
References:

Gordon, B. (2014) Excessive Attention Seeking and Drama Addiction. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/obesely-speaking/201411/excessive-attention-seeking-and-drama-addiction. (Accessed: 29 April, 2017)

Goldenberg, D. (2016) The Psychology Between Strained Father and Son Relationships. Available at: https://www.psychalive.org/psychology-behind-strained-father-son-relationships/. (Accessed: 29 April, 2017)

Hann, M. (2015) The Smiths: 10 of the best. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/jan/21/the-smiths-10-of-the-best. (Accessed: 29 April, 2017)

Hepworth, C. (1995) Sons damaged by fathers behaving badly. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/sons-damaged-by-fathers-behaving-badly-1526679.html. (Accessed: 29 April, 2017)

IndieWire (2013) 15 Classic Teen Rebellion Movies. Available at: http://www.indiewire.com/2013/03/15-classic-teen-rebellion-movies-100828/. (Accessed: 29 April, 2017)

Pickhardt, C. (2009) Rebel with a Cause: Rebellion in Adolescence. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/surviving-your-childs-adolescence/200912/rebel-cause-rebellion-in-adolescence. (Accessed: 29 April, 2017)

Sultan, A. (2014) What can make father and son relationships difficult. Available at: http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/relationships-and-special-occasions/parenting/aisha-sultan/what-can-make-father-son-relationships-difficult/article_b1d70afd-bc6b-59ee-92ad-a83f52e81d56.html. (Accessed: 29 April, 2017)

TV Tropes (2017) Rebellious Spirit. Available at: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RebelliousSpirit. (Accessed: 29 April, 2017)