Globe Education Online

This is the third bulletin from Celia (Laura Rogers). It covers Celia's key relationships, Laura's back story for the part, and her work on challenging moments in the play.

Relationship with Rosalind

The relationship between Celia and Rosalind is so tight. They are the best friends in the world. They’re more like sisters really: they’ve grown up together; they share secrets; they go everywhere together. They are soul mates, and have a real and strong love for each other, to the extent that I think they would die for each other. I knew Naomi [Frederick, Rosalind] from before this production, but not very well, so it’s been fun finding that relationship with her – it’s been really nice to be playful in rehearsals and find out just how close these two girls really are.

At first, it’s really exciting when a man comes into the equation, but then after a while, Celia realises this is the real deal between Rosalind and Orlando, and she feels like her position has been taken away.

Other key relationships

There are various other characters that are important to Celia too. Touchstone is the jester character that the girls are very close to who goes with them to the forest for protection. Duke Frederick is the nasty evil Duke, but obviously Celia loves him because he is her dad, even if she doesn’t agree with the way he thinks or the way he does things. So that relationship presents the difficult wrench between loyalty to her dad and loyalty to her best friend. Then obviously later in the play her relationship with Oliver is very important; it happens really quickly, but it’s an instantaneous falling in love.

Creating a back story

When it comes to the back story, I think you just have to believe that Celia and Rosalind been through a lot. As far as our story goes, everything has been fine, and then Rosalind’s father is been banished. That seems to have been a very recent event, and so things have suddenly been shaken up. Until that point, it had just been the two girls living in a blissful environment with no cares in the world, but they are suddenly made to grow up very quickly.

Key scenes

The biggest challenge I’ve found is the first scene between the girls because we’ve got to start it on the right note. It’s the first time the audience see their relationship, so you’ve got to really show how close they are within that, but actually, they start off mid-fight, so the text is actually working against you in some respects. You’ve got to be able to show the closeness within that fight so that has been quite a challenge – we’ve had to rehearse that scene a lot!

I also had to carefully think about what she does in the scenes when she is onstage but has nothing to say. So I’ve been exploring how active I can be without taking focus, at the same time as it doesn’t just seem like Celia has fallen asleep in the background! You’ve got to be quiet but keep fully interested in what’s going on.

These comments are the actor's thoughts and ideas about the part as s / he goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply his / her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsals progresses.

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