proprietor writing in role

All these shiftless fella’s on the road these days, it sickens me. They just sit around a cause trouble with my campers, everyone has to make a living and these Goddamn shiftless fella’s are making people move on faster than they normally would and I’ve started loosing money. Those damn Okies that camped here earlier expected me to let them have three extra people for no charge, those Okies are so damn dumb that they don’t know what they are asking half the time. But as long as they paid for who ever come n stayed I guess that’s alright I made my money.

weinfield writing in role

Ma says that when we get to California things is going to be better; she says we are going to get a big house and we will get jobs and money, I’m really excited to be on the truck maybe Al will let me drive it, Al is my best brother. But I’m glad that Tom is back, I don’t remember him much but he was always nice to me, and grandpa said that he done the right thing, but grandpa aint been speaking much since we got on the truck, he’s just been asleep and grandma is real upset about something. Pa says I aint aloud to sit in the back to the truck till later cos there is something there I aint aloud to see that im too young, but im not too young im 10 years old I aint a kid no more I help out on the farm with Noah and I help ma around the house, when we get to California things are gunna be different.

Family table scene

In this scene Tom comes home and the family welcomes him with open arms. In this scene i play weinfield.

In this scene i walk on with uncle John who speaks to Tom. Tom says "how you kid" to me but because weinfield proberly doesnt remember tom due to his young age he only says "hello" uncle John then gets me to set up the table. The first time we done this it went a bit slow but the more and more we rehersed we got more comfortable with the stage and where props are. I run around a lot in this scene as i am playimg a 10 year old but Pa and uncle John both tell me to calm down so i sat on the end seat of the table next to Noah, i almost block Noah from the audience so when i sat down i made sure to sit hunched with me lega crossed on the chair to make sure he was visible. When Al comes in he kicks me off the seat, this is to represent that weinfield is the least powerful person in the family and is pushed around by the whole family. I found it difficult to play such a young character in the era the play is set as i did not know if he would understand or relise how his family where struggling in the time but i feel the more we rehersed the more i got into the head of weinfield and starting to think like him.

the weedpatch director

The weedpatch director is the opposite to the propietor, he is kind and open hearted. The weedpatch director doesnt care about money as much as he does taking care of people in his camp, this is shown by the fact he doesnt actually want money ' the camp site costs a dollar a week, but you can work it out' this means that the family can work for their keep and dont have to pay if they havnt got the money. The weedpatch director doesnt have that many lines so i dont know how i want to act him, i want him to contrast with the propietor so the audience knows it is a diffrent character.

proprietor

The proprietor is a horrible person, all he cares about is making money, this is shown by the way he speaks to Pa, the propietor wants the family to pay an extra 50 cents so that four me people can stay, it would not make any diffrence to him if the Tom pa and uncle john srtay with the rest of the family, if they stay in the same area and dont have more food it would not make any diffrence to him if they stay or not and i think he knows this but wants the money anyway. The proprietor is a very strong character this is shown by how he stands up to Tom when he asks about the deputy sheriff, the proprietor almost snaps when he says ' No he aint, and the time aint come when us local folks got to take no talk from you goddamn bums neither.' this shows that he is quick to react and that he is very proud of if state and town and he doesnt like people coming into his area and making trouble, he also snaps at 'the man going back' because he starts to talk to the joans about how there is nothing waiting for them, i think this is because the proprietor is worried that the joads will turn around and leave and he will loose 50 cents, he tries to undermind the man going back by calling him a 'labour faker'. i dont yet know if i want to base the propietor on any character from other plays or if i want to make him my own and play him how ever i feel is right.

winfield character

Winfield who is a 10 year old boy, because he is the youngest character in the play he has the least power because of this, all the characters push him around, when we were acting out the dinner scene i was kicked out of my chair by danny's character, i feel like im going to play this character as a quite boy who keeps to himself as he doesn’t actually say much even around his family, because Winfield is a young boy he is going to move a lot so I plan to only stand still very rarely and when ever I have to stand/sit I will still move because young children rarely sit still. I plan to base Winfield loosely around Mickey and Eddie from blood brothers, I want to base him around Mickey’s movement and Eddies quite personality, I think Winfield doesn’t say much because he is too young to understand what is happening and because of this I fell he will adapt to life on the road better than the other family members. When Tom first appears he says hello to Winfield, I would expect a young boy who hadn’t seen his brother tom since he was six would be really excited about Tom finally coming home but all Winfield does is say ‘hello’ then runs off, this could show that Winfield is not comfortable around new people, even know Tom is his brother, because he hasn’t been there for four years it means that to Winfield he is a stranger and he could be scared of Tom because of all the stories of how he killed a man with a shovel.