Roberta’s Theatre- Establishing a character
Date: 2025-06-30 05:02
(Roberta’s Theatre- Establishing a character)
[Mon Jun 30 2025]
Inside a Shadow–Draped Drama Studio/span>/spanThe drama studio occupies a spacious rectangular room with high ceilings
supported by exposed wooden beams that have darkened with age. Black painted
walls absorb most of the light from the overhead theatrical fixtures,
creating pools of shadow in the corners where old props and costume racks
gather dust. The polished hardwood floor bears scuff marks from decades of
rehearsals, with tape lines marking various stage configurations. Along one
wall, a bank of mirrors reflects the room’s depths, though some panels have
developed a clouded, mottled quality that distorts reflections in unsettling
ways. Folding chairs stack against the far wall near a small raised platform
that serves as a practice stage, while heavy black curtains hang from ceiling
tracks, ready to partition the space or block the tall windows that face the
campus quad. The air carries a persistent mustiness beneath the sharper
scents of paint and sawdust, and certain floorboards creak in a rhythmic
pattern even when no one walks across them. A door in the northwest corner
leads to Plymouth House, its frame slightly warped so that it never quite
closes properly, allowing drafts to whisper through the gap./span>/spanIt is about 60F(15C) degrees. The mist is heaviest At Panama and Woodcrest/span>/spanShaking her head at Roberta, Eloa gives Roberta a faint smile, “Is okay really. Here for Miss Roberta class. And other people here for it too. Would not want rob them.” She picks a seat to sit down on, near Kurt.
Lorelei breezes into the room aimlessly, features lighting up as she realizes she’s in the right place. Caught between a bad-girl instinct to sit at the back of class, and the spotlight of the front and center, she sort of drifts to a suitably prominent seat and lackadaisically lowers herself to a seat, legs crossing demurely, then recrossing slightly less demurely as she leans forward with interest.
“Oh, I didn’t mean now.” Roberta confesses with a lack of shame virging on uncaring.
Moving to the edge of the stage, Roberta takes a seat. Motioning to various students, Kurt, Eloa and Lorelei, she invites them to “Take a seat.”
Indeed, the stacked seating has been arranged before the stage propper in round robin style.
We’ll not preamble today. This one should be that little shorter as it’s a followup to our established themes of friday.”
Glancing around, elbows on knees, chin resting in her cupped palms, posture open, Roberta asks, “Do any of you remember what we established before the weekend?” Brows raise in invitation for those here before to fill in the gathering, Roberta’s attention drifting– shaded behind sunglasses this early in the day– to each of the student body in turn before focusing on Eloa, Kurt and Lorelei again in wait.
“We discussed character. And character with depth and flaws. And make character. The lady who want be knight to win princess who no like women and also has best friend who want princess but also want be knight?” Eloa calls out, glancing around at Lorelei and Kurt given well, she’s the only student.
Lorelei props her chin in her hand, elbow balanced delicately atop a crossed knee as she nods along to Eloa’s recap. Her gaze flicks toward Roberta, then back down as she adjusts the laces of her corset idly, seemingly content to listen and soak in the tone of the room for now.
nods to Eloa. Fingers snap, the sound echoing through the room– Impressive wearing gloves. The albino grins to Eloa. “Objective, obstical, subtext, theme.” she outlines with correct buzz-word terminology.
That shrouded gaze drifts lazily throughout the students who bothered to show, mental notes taken to see who’s napping– Who’s actually paying attention. It’s a performance in and of itself. A casual outward-facing aesthetic with an attentive undertone.
“Our noblewoman,” she adds, “Is the third child of her family. She was unwanted because her parents wanted a son. That left our prospective protagonist with an issue. She loves the princess. Homosexuality isn’t appropriate in the medieval age. But also, as was also established, our aspiring knight was saddled with the man the princess actually loved, a childhood friend, which provided our conflict point.”
Those raised elbows lower, Roberta leaning forward confidentially to regard the gathering as crossed arms meet knees in a familiar way. “It was Mister Steiner who suggested the themes we’d approach this from.” The tilt of the head to allow the point to Kurt. “We established that this shouldn’t be a happy ending Disney style. It had to be captivating, accept modernity, and also offer something straight forward, but not obvious. We ended up deciding on a coming-to-terms with acceptance story.”
“So, now we have our outline for character, we need to establish our secondary characters to frame the piece. The question then… Who jumps immediately to mind as issential side characters? And what will they contribute to the story– Not nearly as deep an assessment as creating our protagonist, but each character has their own story.”
“The King? The father of the princess.” Eloa suggests, crossing her ankles as she looks over at Lorelei and Kurt as if saying that she’s gotten the easy answer out first and now they’re left with the hard answers. She rubs at her arms a little as she watches them.
Lorelei flashes Eloa a wry little smile at that look, as if to say thanks so much with a glint of playful sarcasm. She shifts in her seat, back straightening slightly as she toys with a sheer sleeve. “Maybe someone from the order the knight is trying to join?” she offers after a moment, her voice light but thoughtful. “Someone already successful in it, maybe not totally supportive. A rival, or even a mentor who doesn’t think she’ll make it.” She lifts a shoulder in a vague half-shrug, eyes still half-lidded, casually engaged. “Gives her something to prove that isn’t just about the princess.”
Roberta nods to Eloa. “A good one, but we have some who are issential to our story. They’re crutial to its structure by the outline of our protagonist. That said, we can easily expand our cast with both the king– the princess’s father– Possibly the queen, if not both. Likewise the disapproving parents of our heroin.”
Lorelei gets an approving flash of a fanged grin. “Another structuring piece. A mentor is someone who would direct our protagonist towards her goal, who is someone to prove wrong– Every piece needs at least one lovable asshole.”
Roberta’s gaze sweeps again. “Can we think of anyone else we need?”
Roberta meant to nod to Lorelei
“An actual love interest for our main character. Whose her other best friend, who loves her but she is too blind to see? And constantly abuses and he just eats that abuse because he’s good guy.” Eloa comments, reaching up to drag her fingers through her hair. She glances over at Kurt to see if the man has fallen asleep.
Kurt hums thoughtfully, eyes flitting from person to person. “We’ve got a mentor, our distant authority figure, and the third part to our love triangle… I haven’t heard anything of a true and proper antagonist quite yet.”
Holding up a finger, Roberta prompts. “King, mentor, protagonist.”
“What about the princess herself, the princess’s childhood friend? They’re so obvious that they are easy to forget, no?” Another grin for Eloa. “A comic relief character- Our cast is growing. This is good.”
“And evil guy.” Eloa nods her head at Kurt, “Browser who want kidnap princess for himself. Try and trick her to go with him to distant land. While hurting people around princess to isolate her.”
nods to Kurt. Fingers begin to raise and she looks around as she lists- “King, disapproving parents of our protag. Our protag, princess, love interest, mentor, actual love interest, antagonist.”
“That’s a wide cast for a small set piece. But this being the creation process and basic as we are, could we cut the cast down? We need to establish if any of our players are redundent. Could any of our established characters pull double duty? And if so, how?”
It’s fine if we cant cut our cast down. If we construct our piece well, there shouldn’t be redundency.” Roberta suggests.
nods to Kurt. Fingers begin to raise and she looks around as she lists- “King, disapproving parents of our protag. Our protag, princess, love interest, mentor, actual love interest, antagonist.”
“That’s a wide cast for a small set piece. But this being the creation process and basic as we are, could we cut the cast down? We need to establish if any of our players are redundent. Could any of our established characters pull double duty? And if so, how?”
“It’s fine if we cant cut our cast down. If we construct our piece well, there shouldn’t be redundency.” Roberta suggests.
Lorelei’s gaze flicks upward as she toys idly with a loose curl, voice lilting as she offers, “Someone like… a mirror. Not a literal one, but a character who reflects the protagonist’s doubts and fears. Someone who always seems to echo back what she doesn’t want to hear, but needs to.”
Kurt chuckles softly, “Split that between the love interests. That said… Could very well have the rival slash unintended mentor, and the antagonist in full, be the same person. Childhood rivals, though our main character being the younger, that rivalry is mostly one-way. A mentor as she’s a young adult, albeit unwitting. Very much the ‘you couldn’t do it if you tried, but I might as well show you’ trope. And in the third act, antagonist. Traitor to the kingdom who somehow wraps the love interest in?”
Seeing the others already cutting down on the cast, Eloa just nods her head, not really contributing much this round as she combs her fingers through her hair a little, glancing over at Lorelei and Kurt while paying most attention to Roberta.
Lorelei lets her legs recross again as she shifts in her seat, casting a thoughtful glance toward Kurt. Her voice drifts in as if she’d only just remembered to say it aloud, “Could also keep the monster after all, just… not as something to fight. Maybe something that’s been sleeping in the land too long. That no one even talks about anymore. But it starts stirring once she begins changing, and people blame her for it, like she’s woken it.” Her fingers trace little shapes along her thigh, noncommittal. “It wouldn’t need to speak. Just loom.”
“Or make it cause disaster and have people blame her for being gay.” Eloa crosses her ankles back the other way as she leans back her seat, trying to find a comfortable position in the chairs. She ends up slouching a bit in the bucket seats as she looks over at Roberta, “Like gods wrath and stuff.”
Kurt says “I feel like we need a bastard half-brother in here, somewhere. A false heir, causing trouble in some fashion. Prompting internal dissent? A civil war?“
“That’s a good example of compiling themes into a character.” Roberta suggests to Lorelei. “It’s something the mentor could do unintentionally. Our mentor may simply be a realist who doesn’t want our knight to get hurt and so is pathing the groundwork for character growth. Though of course, that would all depend on how we frame the character.”
“Good.” Roberta tells Kurt. She accepts a few suggestions from the rest of the student body, but Roberta’s majorative attention focuses on Kurt, Eloa and Lorelei this morning.
“So, authority figure in the king. The knight’s disapproving parents, the knight, the rival/mentor/antagonist, the princess herself. It’s possible the rival and knight have to face the monster which is what establishes the rival as the antagonist.” she offers. “Hold that thought,” she tells Kurt, Eloa and Lorelei as she looks at the clock.
Picking up a tablet, Roberta makes a few notes that will likely be revisited at a later date. Then, Roberta’s eye catches a student who’s not paying attention and an easy suggestion that sees the youth jamming his thumbs up his nose and promptly leaving– Roberta is apparently not above hostile hypnotism for disobedient students.
“A good place to end things.” Roberta suggests. “We’re nearing the hour mark.”
Standing, Roberta claps her hands. Addressing the student body at large, she raises her voice. “Your homework for this class is to think on what we covered friday and today. Consider how we can progress our story. Give me an outline of the plot– There is no wrong answer. I want to know how you all think.” A beat as Roberta rubs her hands, a job well done. “The second part is to answer a simple question. Come to me after class, email me, text me with your answers. Why am I addressing the first two lessons in this way rather than lecturing you, or having you memorise what I need you to know directly- Not a trick question. There is a purpose.” A last look around and Roberta announces. “Get ye gone!”