When reading the play 'Far Side of the Moore', it becomes obvious to the listener/speaker that the play starts off in a recording studio, counting down the numbers to begin the first ever live broadcast of the show called 'The Sky at Night'. What's interesting about this play in particular is that the script keeps cutting from past to future. The first spoken line in the play announces the first broadcast of 'The Sky at Night' in 1957, and then it cuts to an elderly Patrick Moore reminiscing his first ever experience on live television, which turned out to become his whole career until his unfortunate death in 2012.
There are many images I had found on the internet showing what a recording studio would have looked like in the 1950's, this is searching for a BBC recording studio specifically. Here are some of the images that came up within my research, including the link as to where I found them: https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=622&q=BBC+recording+studio+in+the+1950%27s&oq=BBC+recording+studio+in+the+1950%27s&gs_l=img.3...1472.12707.0.12895.34.14.0.20.20.0.107.1073.13j1.14.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..0.21.1105.WQ1TQ-o92Fk
Using my imaginative skills, I'd like to see the first image being used to describe what the initial first broadcasting of 'The Sky at Night would've looked like in 1957. The second image could be used to describe what the older Patrick Moore would've used when he was being interviewed about the 'Sky at Night' broadcasts spanning across his whole career. And finally, the third image could be seen as what 'The Sky at Night' studio would've looked like once Patrick Moore had a bit more experience. As we can compare, there doesn't seem to be any crew members in the final image, whereas the first has a full crew.
Other than the recording studio used for the 'Sky at Night' broadcasts, the play would occasionally cut to other places within the time period of 1957. The second location featured in the play is Patrick Moore's house, where he lives with his mother, Gertrude. Just like for the recording studio, I thought it would help me if I was to research what Patrick Moore's house in the 1950's may have looked like as well. Here are some more images, as well as the link as to where I found them: https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=622&q=BBC+recording+studio+in+the+1950%27s&oq=BBC+recording+studio+in+the+1950%27s&gs_l=img.3...1472.12707.0.12895.34.14.0.20.20.0.107.1073.13j1.14.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..0.21.1105.WQ1TQ-o92Fk#hl=en&tbm=isch&q=houses+in+the+1950%27s&imgrc
The overall design of these two houses are quite similar in architecture, as they're both Suburban houses, but it's the second image in particular which I'd like to imagine the setting of Patrick Moore's house taking place.
The Language used in 'Far Side of the Moore'
Much like 'Atching Tan', the play is written in English. But to go a little bit more in depth about the words used in 'Far Side of the Moore', it is much different from that of 'Atching Tan'. The play introduces a whole range of scientific literature, much of it we all, as a group, had an issue understanding and/or even pronouncing when we had first read through the script. What's also much different about the language in this play when compared to the other, is that each character is, and has to be, quite precise with their wording. This goes specifically for the scenes featuring the radio broadcasts and any of the phone calls over the course of the play.
I feel that because of this, it makes 'Far Side of the Moore' a much more interesting play to perform when compared to 'Atching Tan'. When it comes to recording this play in the college recording studio, I think that this play would feature much more issues, as we all have to make sure we're speaking clearly, again, specifically, for the radio broadcasts in the play.
Now I'd like to delve into the language of my three characters, being Studio FM, Percy Wilkins, and George Adamski. These three characters put together, overall, don't have that many lines in the play, but, each has to be performed in a different way. This is mainly because, after doing some research, I had discovered that Percy Wilkins is Welsh, and George Adamski is Polish. Because of this, I've been encountered with quite a challenge, since the Welsh accent in particular is very difficult to pull off in my case. To help with this, I had found a video on YouTube, which would hopefully make my voice come across as having a Welsh accent, here is a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq-mEejECcU
To go along with Gareth Jameson in this video, he explains that the Welsh accent is going in an "up and down" sort of pattern. If I can be able to practice doing this with normal everyday language, then I'm sure it'll come in handy for when I come to performing my Welsh accent in the future.
As for the Polish accent, I already knew how to pull that off. In the past, I'd watched the movie called 'Iron Man 2', which features the villain known as Whiplash. In the comics, Whiplash's character is of polish decent, but he is living in the more harsh areas of Russia with his grandfather. There is a scene in the movie that always makes me laugh, but in this case for the Radio play, it also gave me some insight as to how I should perform a rough Polish accent. Here is the clip from the movie that I'm talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp0xNXb0rXE
Inspiration used for 'Far Side of the Moore'
When it came around to grabbing some inspiration for 'Far Side of the Moore', there wasn't really anything out there that we all, as a group, could think of. That was until our tutor showed us an episode of a series called 'The Hour'. The show was a 2011 BBC drama series centered on a new current-affairs show being launched by the BBC in June 1956, which is indeed very close to the date of 'Far Side of the Moore', being based in 1957.
Whilst watching the show, we could all get some insight into how the broadcasting process of shows would've worked in those days. In particular, I grabbed some insight from Ben Whishaw's character in the very first episode as he's counting down the numbers to the live broadcast. This would've helped my characterization for Studio FM, as he's not really featured too much within the play, alongside not having much variation in his lines.
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