Dramatic Intention

“Dramatic intention” is the purpose of a play, and the purpose of “Cinderella” is to "amuse" as it is a pantomime. This means that our intention throughout our rehearsals was to create a piece of theatre that would be enjoyable for an audience to watch.

As well as having a dramatic intention for the play, we also have dramatic intentions as a performer. Generally a dramatic intention could show the audience how to think and/or feel about a situation or themselves, an example being the effect that class has on people in Willy Russell’s “Blood Brothers”. This play leads you to think about society then and how it has changed over the years. This pantomime allows the audience to cheer on the heroine, Cinderella, while watching the downfall of the Baroness and her daughters, Asphyxia and Euthanasia as they face an unhappy ending.

A dramatic intention that I used during Act 1, Scene 1 was to create a sense of fear and dislike towards the Baroness when she arrives at the mansion. I did this by taking fearful steps away from her after she storms in and showing my confusion and dislike on my face. The Baroness is obviously the villain in Cinderella and she is the problem that must be dealt with in order for Cinderella to achieve her happy ending.

This means that from the offset the audience need to be rooting for Cinderella and from her first appearance the chorus are beaming at her in greeting to show that Cinderella is liked by everyone in Merrivale, automatically making the audience feel similarly (this means our intention is working as we have made them feel a specific way about Cinderella). Another dramatic intention is to get the audience to support Cinderella once she learns of her new stepmother. This is achieved by the simultaneous reaction of the chorus at the news of the Baroness being her new stepmother. Gasps are released and people are shaking their heads in shock at the thought that someone as kind-hearted and sweet as Cinderella should have to deal with a woman as vile as the Baroness. When everyone walks off downtrodden after this terrible news you can feel the shift in the atmosphere as both the people of Merrivale and the audience are left upset at the arrival of the Baroness, and the mistreatment that will fall on Cinderella.

Our dramatic intentions were successfully met as we had the audience cheering on Cinderella and booing the Baroness as she tried to make Cinderella miserable.