Anne Page

Anne's an interesting bird.  She's is the driving force of the B-plot in the show, and the only chance we have at a "happy ending".

At first blush she seems just the typical ingenue:  young, beautiful and destined for marriage.  And when you examine just her lines she doesn't have a lot to say.  She doesn't want to marry Dr. Cauis; she thinks Slender is a joke; she seems to have chosen Fenton.  But why Fenton?


Fenton is said to have been a hell raiser, and he readily admits that he first wanted her because of her father's money.  Is she attracted to him because he's the bad boy?  Or is she attracted to hinm because his parents want nothing to do with him?  Is is attraction or is it rebellion?

Anne and the Merry Wives

When I did Romeo and Juliet, the actress playing Juliet and I looked at the script as more of her just wanting to get out of her parent's too firm grasp.  Eventually Juliet's tragedy comes from her allowing the lust of the moment overtake and sort of sensibility.  Anne could be seen and played in the same vein.  She is so desperate to get out of her parent's overbearing clutches, that she will take the best thing that comes along.  And that happens to be Fenton.

When you look at some of the lines that Mistress Quickly says about Anne, you get a very clear sense that Anne has quite different motives than simply falling in love.

Certainly a more interesting choice than playing the pretty wallflower.

Her plot will need to be further developed in the opening dance number.  We need to identify with her dilemma and the men's desire for her from the onset of the play, primarily because she is in so little of it.

Anne and Fenton

Anne and Slender

Anne, Slender and Simple

Costume Notes:
 
--Prairie dress, not gingham, but young looking, attractive  

--Blue fairy costume (robe, headpiece)