Character Profile

Bisto

Name:

(James Connelly Jr) Bisto. He has a nickname called Bisto, as of an incident in which gravy was spilled all over him at Christmas time. He loves the name, and hardly anyone knows his real name.

Age:

 43

Gender:

 Male

Status:

 In the road, Bisto is a guy of high status as he is fun to be around and also knows a lot about music and alcohol which other characters are interested in. Outside of the road he is an outcast like the rest of the people of Road.

Parents:

 Bisto's father is James Connelly Sr, he was a failed actor who moved to Road, because it was the only thing he can afford, this is where Bisto gets his high energy from. His mother Deidre Connelly was a cleaner who didn't earn a lot of money. She was always annoyed and had constant fights with her spouse James.

Friends:

 Bisto's best friend was a boy called Derek Cutter, who he met in Primary School, they both wanted to be DJ's from a young age but Derek went on to achieve great things DJing all over the world while Bisto stayed in Road. They still keep in touch but aren't as close as they once were. Bisto is also a friend with Scullery, they both love food alcohol and music and are around the same sort of age.

Occupation and Monetary Status:

 Bisto is a DJ who, works at the Millstone Pub 5 nights a week, Tuesday through to Saturday but not Sunday or Monday. He earns about £50 per night which works out to be about £13000 per year. This is quite a lot of money compared to the people on Road.

Religion:

 Bisto is an atheist, in the past he has often clung to God but God never answered his prayers, this is why he is often seen as quite fierce when talking about sex, alcohol and other things that would be looked on as a sin by some religions.

Ethnicity:

 Bisto is a white male. Both his parents and grandparents were English, Welsh and Dutch.

Social Skills:

 In public Bisto is easily approachable, he's easy to talk to but still will come off as arrogant, if he sees a girl he likes he will go up to them and introduce himself but will often be rejected.

Education:

 Never went past secondary School, he studied at the local school and got poor grades, he only got 1 O level in Music.

Where they live:

Bisto lives in a small house, that's quite modern, he is very frugal and would hardly even use heating or lighting, and is one of the reasons is short term girlfriend left him.

Past experiences:

Bisto has always had a passion for music but was told by his father not to pursue it as he despised the world of entertainment after never finding success in Acting. Bisto didn't listen to him and went into DJing and fell out with his quite conservative father. The job of being a successful DJ didn't work out but still kept doing it as he loved it.

In Secondary School, at Christmas time the school had a free Christmas Lunch, Bisto sat with his friend Derek and others and they all had a great time. However, at the time Bisto wasn't extremely popular, gravy was thrown all over him and everybody started to laugh, and went 'ahh Bisto', this was one of the first times Bisto got attention even though it wasn't for the right reason and he started to crave it, and is one of the many reasons he's so flamboyant. It's also the reason he kept the nickname Bisto.

Bisto, for a small time joined the Army but was quickly kicked out because he wasn't disciplined enough. He joined with some of his friends, who lasted in the army a lot longer, but unfortunately most of them he doesn't know or are dead. Except Curt, who came back from the war alive but was emotionally scared as shown in the script.

Personality and Appearance

John Travolta on the left, Grease (1978).

As I found out what character I was, I started to do research about him and make artistic decisions surrounding the character. I started off by looking into his appearance and thinking about his personality, I envisioned my look to be much like John Travolta's out of Grease, Grease came out in 1978 and Travolta would of been a popular icon for people to follow back in the 80s.  After researching into Travolta's trademark the leather jacket, I found that they were quite expensive. I thought about Bisto again and even though he isn't frugal he certainly couldn't afford one. I think that instead Bisto could wear something very colourful, like a Hawaiian shirt, I will also wear black skinny Jeans as y that time Flares were out of fashion, I will also think about wearing a colourful jacket to boost the poignant and arrogant DJ, I think that Bisto is also quite fat, he enjoys his food and will often eat a burger and chips before going out to DJ. He also drinks a lot of beers and sweet Ciders which are very calorific. I then went on to look at Bisto's personality. I first thought of James Buckley's character from The Inbetweeners, in this his character Jay Cartwright is a foul mouthed, low status character, who is very sexually driven. This is much like my character Bisto who has the same traits as Buckley's character. I feel that this personality was good but wasn't completely the same as Jay Cartwright's considering he is quite a lot younger and isn't into the music Bisto is into. I also thought about the scenes I was in. The first scene I am in is on page 31, I looked into this scene and asked questions about my character in this scene.

James Buckley, The Inbetweeners.

Bisto's first scene

In this scene the stage directions are as so: 'Bisto, the pub DJ, enters with a pack of leaflets. (On them is something like 'Bisto and his Beatoven Disco. Tonight at the Millstone Pub'.) He throws these out to the audience as he speaks. He wears a hat with two stuffed fingers on top in the V-sign. I was told that this now wouldn't be set outside but in the pub, for this I had to change one of the lines. The line was along the lines of 'later why not come down to the Millstone Pub and move up and down with Bisto.' Now that I'm in the pub and disco already in changing the line to 'later why not move up and down with Bisto and his Beatoven Disco. ' This shows how I'm in the pub for this scene and won't confuse the audience.

Who is Present?

The only people present in this scene is myself and the audience. Scullery may also be present but I don't interact with him in this scene.

When is it Happening?

I think Road is set over a night, with the first scene of Road starting at about 5:30 pm and the last scene going on till about 2 am in the morning. I think my first scene is set at about 6:30 pm, I think its earlier in the night as he is trying to attract people to his Disco.

Placement of Scene

The scene before this one is Joey and Clare's scene where we first see these characters, we find out that these two characters are severely ill, this is quite sad scene for the audience to see, after this I need to completely change the mood and make the play happier. I feel like my scene is the comic relief to the play. After my scene it goes back to Clare and Joey, I hope that this first scene of mine will be very happy and bouncy to really contrast the scene before and after. 

Other Questions

Set in Public or Private: Public place know as the Millstone Pub.

Outdoors or Indoors: Indoors in Pub.

Physical Characteristics: I would say Bisto is very claustrophobic in this scene, I think he is also very persuasive and reminds me of a con artist or scam lawyer as he seems to be quite a slimy character, I will do this by showing my physical characteristics as quite laid back and quite egotistical.

I don't think my character has any boundaries in this scene as he will approach any audience member and may even flirt with them.

Subtext

Under the words is where we find subtext the meaning behind the lines, I feel Ihave many lines with great meaningful subtext, for example Bisto's famous line "you'll get used to me, you'd better" has a great meaning to it, Bisto craves for attention with this line and is almost forcing people to like him, I feel in this earlier scene Bisto wants to hook the audience in coming to his Beatoven Disco later, even though he may be scaring them away as he is quite aggressive he believes he is quite persuasive and this is one of the many reasons he is quite egotistical. I also feel like the line 'I hopey so' can also be said in two different ways I feel like it can be said quite sarcastically if I don't get a response off the audience or it can be said in a jolly way in which I'm trying to entice the audience into coming to the Beatoven disco, I think I will say it in the jolly way as the character would want people to come to his disco. 

Bisto's Second Scene

Bisto's second and last scene is set in the Millstone Pub and its the start of the Beatoven disco. This is my main scene and the scene in which I want to make the most memorable.

Who is Present?

in this scene its just me and the audience and also maybe Scullery. In this scene I will interact with the audience a lot more, and even Scullery at certain points.

When is it Happening?

As expressed before I think road takes place over one night with the first scene being at 6:30, I think this scene is set at 8pm when the Beatoven Disco starts.

Placement of the Scene

 This scene is after Joey's and Clare's scene where Joey has just died, I need to make sure my scene is better than the one before so I can lift the emotions of the audience and make them happy and laughing. This will be difficult but I'm ready for a challenge. This scene is one again comic relief. After my scene, it goes into Scullery, Manfred Dor and Lane. This scene is quite funny in the way that Nyakeh who plays Manfred has interpreted it, I think this is good because nearer the ending of my second scene the mood drops a bit when Bisto is talking about how he loves the audience as its very sentimental and very contrasting to the rest of the scene. I feel like at this point the audiences spirits need to be lifted again and this is done expertly by Nyakeh.

Other Questions

Set in Public or Private: Public place, Millstone Pub. 

Outdoors or Indoors: Indoors in Pub. 

Physical Characteristics: Like the other scene Bisto is very bouncy in the scene trying to get the audience up on there feet and dancing however there are also parts where he's aggressive, 'dance you buggers!' I will use a pointing gesture at this point to make Bisto seem even that bit more aggressive.

My character again has no boundaries in this scene and will wink at any member of the audience as he believes everyone loves him. 

Subtext

For my last scene Bisto's catchphrase, "you'll get used to me, you'd better", I started to make the saying more sentimental because I wanted to add variety but also because I believe as it gets later on into the night he has more to drink and becomes less aggressive and develops more of a loving attitude. Also when I say 'this next one's dedicated to you, well you know who you are darling', Bisto thinks about a girl at this point, I'll use Stanislavski's system to vision someone from my real life to make the subtext more invigorating. 

Reference:

Books:

Road by Jim Cartwright

Websites:

http://www.newrockbristol.co.uk/collections/leather-jackets (Leather Jackets)

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=John+Travolta+Grease&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=667&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=geEiVYrrGOrG7AaI74CoDg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#imgdii=_&imgrc=1ykxcqxxW3AQWM%253A%3BjzW9NuERPJ7ujM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.eonline.com%252Feol_images%252FEntire_Site%252F2011418%252F300.grease.cm.51811.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.eonline.com%252Fnews%252F316992%252Fjohn-travolta-s-attorney-slams-allegation-star-groped-grease-cohort-jeff-conaway%3B300%3B300 (John Travolta Grease Photo)

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Jay+Cartwright&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=huIiVdWrFI6S7AbFuICwBg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=667#imgdii=_&imgrc=wPw-TlY3Xt_3WM%253A%3BkrWfoP1MgHpxIM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fstatic.televisionando.it%252Ftelevisionando%252Ffotogallery%252F625X0%252F36059%252Fjay-cartwright.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.televisionando.it%252Ffoto%252Fthe-inbetweeners-serie-di-culto-gb-in-onda-su-mtv_3365_10.html%3B450%3B337 (James Buckley Inbetweeners Photo)