STREETCAR COMMENTS ON TIMED WORK
This post contains feedback notes on a timed production answer set as homework. It also includes an extract from a model answer with some comments.
I hope you find it helpful
TASK
Stella goes into labour and is taken to hospital at the end of Scene Eight. After Stella has given birth successfully a nurse on her ward notices that she does not seem as happy as she might and asks her what is wrong. Write the dialogue between Stella and the nurse as Stella talks about her concerns for her sister.
Give careful consideration to your language choices, form and style, in order to convey a sense of Stella’s voice. You should use dramatic dialogue form.
CONSIDER
· You should aim to use two or three stage directions. Use them to comment on a tone of voice – normally placed in brackets after the name of the person about to speak. And stage directions placed on a separate line showing setting and action
· Stella must dominate text – the nurse is used to trigger Stella’s thoughts and ideas. I think it would be much easier for you if you presented Stella as bursting with things to say rather than have the nurse desperately trying to get Stella to speak.
· This is a challenging task. You are showing the examiner that you know and understand this play well. To do this well you must communicate Stella’s concerned, guilty, hopeful, sympathetic, attitudes towards her sister as well as showing her love and support for Stanley.
PLANNING / CONTEXT
Below are some observations I’ve made about Stella’s situation and state of mind at the point the monologue begins. These observations will form the basis for Stella’s dialogue
· Stella may be concerned for Blanche in Laurel alone –abandoned / Stella’s guilt. Refer to scene 1/7/8
· Stella may speculate on Mitch’s absence/ his rudeness/Mitch’s mothers’ health/ what Stanley has said about what he has found out. Refer to scene 8
· Stella may have doubts about Stanley. For example will he make a good father? He plays cards, goes bowling, can be violent and drunk. Refer to scene 4
· Stella may be concerned about Blanch flirting with Stanley. Refer to scene 2
· Stella may comment on the cramped apartment scene 1/3/7
· She may feel relieved that Blanche will go or she may feel disappointed that there will be no one to help her with the baby in the first few weeks
· Stella may feel the stress levels will improve
· Stella may realise that Stanley thinks everything is going to be like it was before Blanche arrived. But life is never going to be the same again with a baby. Scene 7/8
EXTRACT OF AN ANSWER
[A single room in a maternity ward of a hospital. It is very late the same night. Stella is in bed. She is alone and awake. A night nurse is doing the rounds.]
Stella Nurse! Excuse me! Nurse! Can I just talk to you a moment.
Nurse Sure honey. Let me just put my things down. That baby isn’t gonna arrive for a while yet. There’s plenty of time to talk.
[She pulls up a chair. As she sits down Stella grabs at her arm as if she’s in pain.]
Stella I’ve just gotta talk to someone. I’m really worried. It’s my sister. Oh God! I don’t know what’s going to become of her. My husband’s told her to leave. They don’t get on and she nowhere to go. [Pauses and wipes a tear from her eyes]
You know the place is so cramped. You can hear practically everything anybody does in the next room or upstairs. My sister’s just not used to living like that. She’s used to servants and space and everything neat and tidy. But the apartment is so small. But now with the baby they’ll be no room. [Pauses again to catch her breath]
We hoped she was gonna marry but I don’t think so now. Mitch was the best thing that’s happened to Blanche for years but I reckon he’s gone. Stanley – my husband has seen to that. Spreading a load of gossip and lies. So now she has nothing. [She talks half to herself] I wonder where he’s got to. Maybe his mother’s ill again. Yes that’s probably it! It’s his mother.
Nurse Now there honey! Don’t you get yourself upset. You calm down now d’ you hear me. That baby’s gonna need you strong when he arrives.
Stella Yes! Yes! I know. But you don’t understand. When she needed me the most, when they were all old and dying I just left her. I abandoned her! I just left for the city. [Pauses. She cries uncontrollably. Then suddenly stops]
And now………[she wipes tears from her eyes] I’m having a baby. I’m abandoning her again. I feel so awful. I just can’t let her go back to Laurel - that awful place – alone.
COMMENTS
Below are eight key quotations from the extract above and some basic comments showing how I’ve used the quotations to embed or link the extract to the play.
QUOTATION
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COMMENT
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1
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My husband’s told her to leave
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Refers to scene 8 of the play
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2
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You can hear practically everything anybody does in the next room or upstairs
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Refers to scene 3 where Blanche and Stella are laughing in the back bedroom as Stella talks about hearing Steve and Eunice upstairs.
Stella’s statement reinforces the idea that the apartment is too small and there is not enough room for them all to live comfortably.
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3
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We hoped she was gonna marry but I don’t think so now.
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Refers to the dialogue between Blanche and Stella near the end of scene 5 where Blanche states she hopes her relationship with Mitch will lead to marriage. It also picks up the end of scene 6 where Mitch indicates their relationship is serious and will lead to marriage.
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4
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You know the place is so cramped
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See note 2 above
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5
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Maybe his mother’s ill again
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Refers to scene 3 where Mitch tells Blanche about his mother and tells the men around the poker table about his mother.
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6
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When she needed me the most, when they were all old and dying I just left her.
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Refers to scene 1 where Blanche accuses Stella of abandoning her in Belle Reve to cope with the loss of the building and the deaths of family members.
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7
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I just can’t let her go back to Laurel - that awful place – alone
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See note 6 above. It also reflects what Blanche said about Elysian Fields when she first arrives in scene 1.
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8
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I’m abandoning her again.
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See note 6 & 7 above
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