Reflection

As I began my research on the play Blood Brothers all signs pointed to its
basing off Alexander Dumas The Corsican Brothers, but as I read this book and
continued researching the musical itself, I found the two are very different stories
with the main connection being the dichotomy of two twin brothers. I looked
further into the reason for the large difference between the two and found that
despite being often called an update telling of Dumas novella, the playwright
Willy Russell actually states that its roots came from some other one-act play
about two children switched at birth I have thus had to revisit my original plans
and now plan to do a comparison of the two works, discussing the similarities
between these two despite their large plot differences and their influence on
works of the future.
The root of these two stories, as I previously stated, rests upon the stark
contrast in personalities between a set of identical twins. In both one leads a
more civilized and refined lifestyle in favor of the rough and tumble way of the
other. Here we meet our first difference between the stories for in The Corsican
Brothers the two have these differences because of different tastes, whereas in
Blood Brothers it is entirely due to the different environments they grew up in. In
fact in Blood Brothers Mickey (the less privileged twin brother) is the victim of
severe jealousy toward his friend (and unbeknownst to him; twin) while Lucien,
the Corsican brother who remained in Corsica while the other (Louis) traveled to
Paris, wishes nothing to do with the highly civilized life his brother leads. It
seems this type of dichotomy between two seemingly identical people who have
starkly different personalities inspired many works in the future, notably films like
Parent Trap and Freaky Friday. The struggle to understand anothers way of life
is a theme common to both Blood Brothers and The Corsican Brothers
Both of the aforementioned works end in death. The nature of the death
though is what causes them to be such different tales. In The Corsican Brothers
an adversary of his in Paris challenges Louis to a duel over a girl. Louis, having
never wielded a weapon before, is warned by the ghost of his father of his
imminent death at the hands of this man and lest the reader doubt the gravity of
this prophesy, Louis dies at precisely the time his fathers ghost revealed the
scene would play out. At the exact moment that Louis is struck with a bullet, his
brother Lucien in Corsica feels as though he himself has been struck with a bullet
in the very same place and instantly knows of his brothers fate. He quickly
hastens to Paris and, being a skilled marksman, avenges his brothers death
promptly before revealing his grief over the loss of his greatest companion. This
tale stands in stark contrast to the way death reveals itself in Blood Brothers. In
this play Mickey, the less privileged of the twins separated at birth, suffers with
depression as a lingering memory of his time in prison. The only good thing in his
life is his love, Linda. When he learns that Eddie, the more privileged of the
brothers and his longtime friend despite the mothers attempts to keep them
apart, had been seen alone with Linda he rushes to the Eddies office, gun in
hand, to confront him about the alleged affair. It is there that Eddie and Mickeys
mother reveals to them the truth of their separation at birth and Mickey in a state
of distress over the fact that his life could easily have been the easy ride that
Eddie had fires his gun at his brother just as the police fire their guns at him,
killing both. In both stories brothers are lost to conflicts over women but The
Corsican Brothers depicts a picture of a strong, loyal relationship between
brothers where Blood Brothers shows how the two can destroy each other.
In reflection of my over-all research for this show, I must admit I am a bit
disappointed in my results. It seems that since Blood Brothers was more inspired
by The Corsican Brothers than based on it, I only got a deeper look at the
themes and ideas behind these stories as opposed to a clearer depiction of the
characters themselves to aid me in my audition for this show. In the future, I
believe I can better serve myself by researching the playwright themselves a bit
more to find out where they drew their inspiration and if that merits any deeper
digging for my purposes. That being said I do believe I have been bettered by
doing the research I did, just not in the way I expected to be. Both these works
played upon the strength of the connection between two brothers. Without
highlighting this, I wouldve been missing a crucial aspect of the character for
which I will be auditioning. Also, having to compare these two works has forced
me to look at the broader themes of the play, allowing me to better understand
the mood and messages it attempts to convey which will inform many of my
choices as an actor. I still believe that reading everything one can find on a play
is the best form of research, but perhaps it would be wise of me to be a bit more
informed on the relevance of what I am reading in the future.
In regards to the learning outcomes I had hoped to achieve by taking on
this project, I believe I was overall successful. I set out to acquire or further
develop competencies within a particular creative domain and through trial and
error of a way to do background research on a show, I have done just that. While
my results may have been a bit flawed, I now know what to do in the future to be
even more successful during the research stages of my craft. I also wanted to
connect, synthesize, and transform ideas. While I did not achieve this learning
outcome in the way I had originally intended, I still believe that I did make
progress towards meeting it. In modern theatre of today nearly every new work is
a retelling of some book or movie or other work placed on stage, this mindset led
me to believe that Blood Brothers would be exactly the same way, especially
when I discovered its connection to The Corsican Brothers. Realizing that, while
Dumas novel may have set off a spark in Willy Russells, it is not a rehashing of
an old story makes Blood Brothers something special. It has certainly
transformed my ideas around it and made me realize that it is something much
more personal to Russell, which connects back to my previous statement wishing
I had spent a little more time researching the playwright himself. I have also
demonstrated here how these two stories connect and inform the other,
something I had to actually think about instead of it being obviously given to me
as the same story as I originally believed would happen. So, in the end, though
my research didnt yield the results I was hoping for, I managed to still achieve
my learning outcomes, which may be the real, lasting prize after all.
I feel much more prepared for this audition process after making sure to
familiarize myself with this show as much as I could beforehand. It has given me
a better understanding of the characters, which allows me to make informed
choices on my audition material and what characters to go for, which I find
extremely valuable. It has brought me as close as I can be to my goal of being
cast in this production this fall and just helps me to feel really solid in my
knowledge when I walk into the audition room. This helps eliminate some nerves,
which would otherwise hinder me from doing my best work, and any nerves we
can eliminate is a very good thing. Also, this project has helped develop a
research skill in me which will allow me to even further eliminate nerves in
auditions and feel even more solid in my knowledge of the material I am
auditioning for in the future. As stated in my proposal, my goal throughout my
time here at UC is to be a steadily working actor and I believe this project has
brought me a step closer to achieving that.
While preparing my dissemination for this project I learned something
more. I was faced with the question of how to market this story to an audience
that has no clue of its existence and I came across the realization of how
universal this story is. The struggle between classes, the love for a sibling, the
desire for what you cant have, everyone can relate to that and thats why
different versions of this story (whether it be The Corsican Brothers, Blood
Brothers, or any other similarly structured story) have persisted through the
years. People want to see what they know, and everyone knows this story. I
cannot wait for this production this fall and I am very grateful for the time I spent
with this story. There always is so much more than meets the eye.