The Lady in Waiting

When you are not familiar with the way a character would speak, it is often necessary to do research the way that actors and professional scriptwriters do take yourself off to the kind of place in which such a person might spend time and listen carefully to conversation around you. In the short script The Lady in Waiting, the authentic-sounding and very different voices of Scarlet and Miss Peach are the result of considerable such research on the writer s part. 

Christian Taylor s The Lady in Waiting (see Appendix B) proceeds in an Act I-Act II structure, essentially resulting in an open-ended conclusion. 

The tone of the short melodrama is usually realistic. Christian Taylor s The Lady in Waiting and Graham Justice s A Children s Story are each presented realistically. This means recognizable characters in recognizable situations. The result is a dramatic arc for the main character that does not veer from the expected. 

Christian Taylor, in his script The Lady in Waiting, explores stereotypes and lost opportunities. Susan Emerling, in her script The Wounding, explores the issue of sexual abuse in the life of a young girl. All four of these films deal seriously with the lives of the women who are their major characters. Finally, Anais Granofsky and Michael Swanhaus, in Dead Letters Don t Die, write about loss and the capacity of love to help renew life. 

No detail was overlooked. The Lady-in-Waiting, who would accompany the Queen, was informed as to the details for the Royal Nose-powdering (a euphemism for the toilet arrangements). 

Here is a description of the protagonist of Christian Taylor s Lady in Waiting, a ritual occasion script, the first time we see her ... 

Read in their entirety the first three student scripts in Appendix B Another Story, Lady In Waiting, and Sleeping Beauties.7 Pay special attention to the way in which characters are described the first time you meet them. After you have read each script, go back to evaluate these descriptions. How well do they function, in light of what you now know of the character s behavior Is there particular information you weren t given about a character that would have been helpful If there is change or growth in a character, how does the writer show this (Try to be specific.)... 

Wait said the lady. Thank you for coming, Bernardo. I have another matter to discuss with sier Alfeo. She waited until her son had stalked out in dudgeon and Jacopo had closed the door behind him before she continued. Bring the casket. ... 

Meanwhile, at home in his lavish lair, anxious Yolpone passes the hour of waiting by watching a performance of his household fools. After a short interlude, a knock interrupts the playing. Volpone hopes for Mosca s return, but the dwarf tells him it is the English lady. Yolpone is to be tormented by Lady Would-be, and Mosca is not present to devise a trick to delay her. 

From the article [in the preceding issue] and also from a certain incident that took place in the College, I understand that all the lady students have turned suffragettes. My real object in writing this article is to warn our own Little Band to be very careful and take great care of themselves. I think that perhaps they had better wait until they are older for the present they must be good little girls and study their Chemistry.09... 

This power, exercised without limitation, will introduee itself into every eorner of the eity, and country — It will wait upon the ladies at their toilett, and will not leave them in any of their domestie eoneerns it will aeeompany them to the ball, the play, and the assembly it will go with them when they visit, and will, on all occasions, sit beside them in their earriages, nor will it desert them even at chureh it will enter the house of every gentleman, watch over his cellar, wait upon his eook in the kitehen, follow the servants into the parlour, preside over the table, and note down all he... 

We make this same agreement quite often. He always assumes that I am waiting for a lady. Regrettably he is almost always wrong in that, and the visitor is some nervous client with a clandestine appointment to... 

I sold a lady la particular producti and she came in a few days later saying how great it looked and I enjoyed waiting on her so much that I actually remembered her name and the IproductI color without looking. This is so memorable because She was just really friendly and fun to talk to. I was proud that I remembered all the information about her because I would like to think that it showed her that she is a valued customer here and not just another account number. 

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