Guess Who Is Going to Dinner Interview

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Interview

Interviewer: Hello Mrs. Hannah Pritchard, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak with you!

Hannah Pritchard: Hello my darling! It’s truly wonderful to be here in your lovely company.

Interviewer: So Mrs. Pritchard let’s get to the questions shall we? Myself and our lovely readers want to get to know you better, so let’s start with where are you from originally and what your family was like.

Hannah Pritchard: Well my dear, my name before I was married to my darling husband was Hannah Vaughan. I am a true English woman; I was born and raised here in England. I’ve spent most of my acting life in London but all that comes later in my life, so I shall just stick to the beginning for the moment. Now to speak of my family, my darling brother Henry was in the acting business as well as my two sweet sisters (“Twickenham Museum”). My parent’s names were Edward and Judith Vaughan; they played a very insignificant role in my early life so I feel no need to mention them in talking about my earlier life (“Twickenham Museum”).

I married my husband William Pritchard, who was an actor as well, and we had 4 absolutely wonderful children; two of them went to the theatre. My dear son later became a time treasurer at Drury Lane, which will always hold a dear place in my heart (“Twickenham Museum”). My daughter as well made an effort to join the delightful art of acting on stage; she even studied under my dear friend and fellow actor David Garrick. But when my lovely daughter’s acting capabilities proved to fall far short of her tremendous looks, her career didn’t take off nearly as wonderfully as we had hoped (“1911 Classic Encyclopedia”). She did however manage to play Juliet in Mr. Garrick’s Romeo and Juliet, which I participated in as well (“Twickenham Museum”). Later in her life my daughter married another actor named John Palmer (“1911 Classic Encyclopedia”). So I suppose you could say I came from quite the acting family! In summary my brother, two sisters, husband, son, and daughter, all became part of theatre. This only made them all the dearer to my heart that they shared something that I loved so much (“Twickenham Museum”).

Interviewer: Wow you really did come from quite the acting family! Well let’s continue to look at your back-round shall we? What influenced you in your early life to make you get interested in the arts?

Hannah Pritchard: Well that’s a very difficult question for me to answer my dear, I’m not sure I ever really thought about what made me love acting so passionately. Well I suppose an absolute huge part of it was my artistic environment. As I mentioned before I had many artistic people in my life such as my absolutely darling siblings who all went into the astounding art of acting. Oh you how it is darling when your brother or sister gets a new toy and sparkles with an absolute brilliant shimmer and all you want is for that gorgeous new toy to be yours? Well it’s very similar, if I saw that my siblings were doing something new and exciting, well by God I wanted to do the exact same thing!

            Another aspect of what inspired me to get interested in the arts was my husband William. I married William very, very early in my life. Therefor I was immersed into acting through him as he also loved acting extremely deeply. When people see someone who they love so dearly (for example the way I love my husband) and you see something making them so terribly happy, it makes people curious and also quite a bit envious about what fantastic activity can fill someone with that much joy (“Twickenham Museum”). I suppose another aspect of how I got involved in the arts was that I grew up and was baptized at St. Martins in the Fields which was extremely close to Drury Lane which was where I spent much of my acting life (“West Minster Abbey Founded 960”). Whichever reason it was, if not all of them, inspired me to have the amazing career that I have built for myself and I’m so grateful to anyone or anything that inspired me to pursue something that mean so much to me.

Interviewer: I can truly see what a positive impact these things had on inspiring you so early in your life. Now it is time for our next question: What role did mentor/mentors play in helping you develop the interests and talents you have now as an artist?

Hannah Pritchard: Oh that’s so interesting you just asked that! For I was just about to begin speaking about my dear friend and mentor David Garrick. His style was very naturalistic and he believed in very genuine performances. My dear friend’s style was very close to that of Gielgud and Fonda. This defiantly influenced me in my talent as a comedic actress because Garrick showed me how to be genuinely funny to the audience as opposed to the very previously popular style of over exaggerated gestures, poses, and extreme facial contortions. You see sweetheart, at the time the acting theory was that there were specific facial expressions or poses that conveyed a certain feeling to the audience members. But my beloved Mr. Garrick believed in making the audience feel an emotion by using a true and realistic expression on your face and conveying the author’s intentions of the piece (“Library & Culture, Bookplace Archive”).

            Another way that my cherished companion influenced me in his acting style was the way he had rapid alternations between passion and humor which left the audience utterly spellbound (“1911 Classic Encyclopedia”). I call him my mentor because this unique style inspired me to have this same precise effect on my audiences. When David became the patentee of Drury Lane I joined his company and have acted with him for 20 indescribable years. He even became such a trusted friend in my eyes that I allowed my breathtakingly stunning daughter to study under his teachings. David Garrick was my only mentor, but there is no doubt in my mind that his mentorship was the only guidance I needed; he influenced my talent tremendously and I would be far less of an actress than I am without his presence in my life (“1911 Classic Encyclopedia).

Interviewer: Well it sounds to me like he was a very admirable man and that you were very blessed to have such a great person in your life to guide you! So let me continue on with the question: What was the world of acting like when you became a part of this beautiful art form?

Hannah Pritchard: Well something that was extremely prominent when I entered this whole new world was how women were used onstage. Women’s bodies were quite the spectacle onstage at that time, but really that’s no shock to me considering how rare it had been previously to see women (however fantastically talented they may be) on stage. The use of women’s bodies to entertain and arouse the audience was very customary. Something that always outraged me was how utterly and totally helpless women were portrayed as. You would have a play where a woman is laying helplessly on stage while a large powerful man takes advantage of this poor, fragile little creature. Rape scenes absolutely disgusted me, they were used to further characterize women in a vulnerable and arousing way while exposing their bodies instead of showcasing the exceptional talent that they possessed (“Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation”).

            Something that I always found rather interesting was women were often dressed as men to increase sexual appeal to the public. Now at first this might confuse you but I assure you it’s quite simple: the fairly tight fighting trousers emphasizes the hips, buttocks, and legs that were previously covered up by a frock and skirt. While yes, women’s bodies were used as sexual objects earlier in theatre, we were in fact so much more than that.  We women were greatly responsible for reviving many of Shakespeare’s marvelous works that had been neglected after the Restoration.  I personally pride myself to be one of those many women who worked really and truly very hard to enrich theatre life (“Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation”). I apologize for some of the previously risqué conversation, I do believe I’m blushing a bit.

Interviewer: Haha, don’t worry it’s perfectly fine!  So now that we know what the world of acting was like when you entered it, why don’t we discuss what major cultural, economic and political situations of the time impact your work?

Hannah Pritchard: Well let me see dear, at the time the culture was changing. It was such an interesting time to be an actress because how my ever-changing surroundings would affect the style of acting that I was requested to do. For example love; rationalism switched the idea in theatre from having faith in God, to having faith in man. This of course influenced the types of plays that were done. Then before we knew it rationalism triggered something called sentimentalism, this was used to make people feel sympathetic to misfortune. This changed my style of acting because I had to be gentler and softer in my acting to arouse the feeling of compassion in my adoring audience (“NOVA- Northern Virginia Community College”).

            Hmmm, now let me try to remember what else was going on at the time, I do believe my memory is slipping a bit. Well, economically, the Industrial Revolution definitely influenced my work in the theatre. You see, an enormous number of people moved into the cities to be closer to factories because that’s where all of the manual work was. This was quite beneficial for me because this caused the standard for the middle class people to rise, therefor, more people could come and see theatre because they could afford it! Which was quite lovely for me because you know it’s always nice to have an audience (“Regents Prep Global History”). Now let me see, politically, at the time King George was our monarch. All these dreadful conservatives wanted to reunite the church and the state. Now this was problematic because what the church believed was faith in God, but the new ideas of rationalism was controversial to that, there for the church did not respect our hard work (“MacroHistory and World Report”).

Interviewer: You most defiantly had many impacts to your work due to your surroundings then didn’t you! So let’s get on a little more of a personal side if you don’t mind, what were your major accomplishments and the methods that you used in your art?

Hannah Pritchard: Oh dear, this question makes me feel awfully boastful, so my apologies now my darling! Well the first time I ever performed onstage was with my cherished friend David Garrick, where he and I portrayed Chamont and Monimia in Thomas Otway’s The Orphan. I also portrayed Rosalind in As You Like It (“Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation”). Rosalind is quite an interesting character to play, she is very confident and knowledgeable; and her exuberant personality draws the audience’s attention to her undeniably (“Sparknotes”). Incredibly, we performed this wonderful production twenty-one times and later 6 more times that season (“Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation”).

I also portrayed Viola in Twelfth Night, and I do believe that show ran six nights as my memory recalls. Oh! And it ran twice more later that season. We positively revived that play! It hadn’t been performed in 72 years, and I believe we did splendidly. My most famous role in fact is that of Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s twisted yet mesmerizing play Macbeth (“Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation”). Lady Macbeth is a ruthless, ambitious, and demented character who is so greedy for power she manipulates anybody in her way of the power she is after (including her husband) but by the end of the play she goes simply bonkers with guilt (“SparkNotes”). I’ve always wondered what allowed me to envelope that character so thoroughly…hmm I guess I shall never know (“Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation”).

Interviewer: Ah I see, well um let’s um move on to the next question shall we? You built such an admirable career for yourself, what opportunities did you have that to turning points in your life and your art?

Hannah Pritchard: Oh well darling, as I mentioned before, David Garrick took me under his wing and I acted in his company for 20 years. I could not have been the actress I am without his guidance and for that I am eternally grateful. But in fact, I was first discovered at the Bartholomew fair, and actually I was not discovered as an actress but as a singer (“1911 Classic Encyclopedia”). Oh I’m sorry! You’re probably a tad confused, well how about I give you a little background on this fair and perhaps that shall help a bit.

You see the city of London civilized the town of Smithfield; now at the time Smithfield was a very undeveloped and rude society (“British History Online”). It was a shameful place, and absolutely filthy (“Great Expectations”). But then London paved the streets and filled the streets with thriving life. This revived city is where my place of discovery was started. The Bartholomew fair had joyous toy-shops, finery, detailed pictures, and beautiful ribbon shops. Everywhere on the streets people were selling pork and pastries that would simply make your mouth water. Then there was the overflowing talent; you would have people who could dance gracefully on ropes as if they were dancing on solid ground, and there were operas as well like Gay Beggar’s Opera with simply divine singing. This was where I was discovered and I will forever have a soft spot in my heart for that fair (“British History Online”).

Interviewer: That’s something I never knew before, so thank you for that! Now on a more serious note, what hardships or roadblocks did you have to overcome in order to be an artist? Surely it wasn’t all easy…

Hannah Pritchard: Well you are very right madam, it most surely was not an easy road. One of perhaps my biggest roadblocks was getting over the loss of my sweet, precious boy. His name was John, and he died while in infancy. The bond between a mother and her child in indescribable, and when that bond is torn away from you it leaves quite the hole in your heart. Now of course I have my three other darling children, and they mean the world to me, but it doesn’t erase the pain. I miss him more than words could possibly describe, but I channeled that piercing pain and anguish into my art. That was the only thing I could do, and I’m so grateful that I had my acting to pull me through such a dark time in my life (“West Minster Abbey Founded in 960”).

            Another hardship that I have had to overcome was, to put it frankly, just being a woman. Women at the time were expected to be pretty, delicate, housewives who were hidden away at home. We were allowed basic reading and writing skills, but we were harshly discouraged against learning any more than that in our educations since according to society, our only job was to have lots and lots of babies. We women had absolutely no say in politics or government because we were thought of to be too sensitive to have any real input on such matters. But not only could we not control what happened to us due to our government, we couldn’t even own our own bloody property! Everything we had belonged to our husbands! Now yes I did have a splendid husband but it doesn’t mean that I might not want to maybe own a script or two that truly belongs to me! So of course, attempting to have a job and be active in theatre when society thought I should be at home with my children, defiantly proved to be quite the hardship that I had to overcome to become the person that I am now (“Chandler-Gilbert Community College”).

Interviewer: Well you have certainly proved to be quite the strong, independent woman, and I’m honored to be speaking with you. Now on a lighter note, who are the people that you admire both in the arts and beyond and why do they inspire you?

Hannah Pritchard: Well the first person I just thought of was of course my dear friend and fellow actress Ms. Catherine Clive, haha of course we all called her Kitty. Oh goodness, I admire her for so many reasons it’s to pinpoint them. Well, she came from a very poor Irish family and she always showed a talent and destiny for the stage. Even though my darling Kitty had no funding to do so, she made something great of herself, and that is one reason I admire her. She was also a wonderful actress, the first role she ever played at Drury Lane was the page named Ismeres in the tragedy Mithridates ("Catherine (Kitty) Clive"). Also, in the Merchant of Venice (which I was involved in as well) my dear Ms. Clive played Portia, and it was said that it wouldn’t have been possible without Catherine. Therefor I admire her talent as well (“Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation”).

                        Later in her life, my admirable friend married a barrister but she later divorced him, now at the time this was quite the scandal. However that didn’t matter to her, she was strong and independent and that is another reason I hold her in such high respects. Catherine was originally a tragic actress, but later switched to a comic actress in “The Devil to Pay” and from then on she was defiantly a crowd favorite. Now perhaps this is what I admire most about her, she wasn’t particularly gorgeous or considered at all pretty by the public, but she was so unbelievably talented that she was unreservedly praised by major people in theatre like Goldsmith, Johnson and even my dear Garrick himself. I truly admire Catherine Clive, and for far more than just her acting but for the admirable person she was ("Catherine (Kitty) Clive").

Interviewer: I can see why you would admire her so strongly! And now our final question, what personal stories best illustrates how you became so astoundingly successful in your joyous art?

Hannah Pritchard: Well the beginning of my success was when I first acted at Drury Lane and I was Gertrude to Garrick’s production of Hamlet. I do believe most of my successful acting was Shakespeare’s works, for example: Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Merchant of Venice, and of course Macbeth. According to what the critics had to say of me, and do pardon me if I sound boastful in any way, I had a unique ability to play the combination of comedic and tragic roles. For instance I could play roles in performances in Much Ado About Nothing, which is quite the hilarious play. Or I could play Lady Macbeth who is quite the menacing and slightly off her rocker character (“Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation”).

                        Oh and speaking of Lady Macbeth that was of my many things that led to my success. Once again, I feel rather boastful so my apologies, but the critics said that not only did I give an accurate portrayal of her complex character but I got my audience emotionally involved in the play. As an actress, that most defiantly would be one of the greatest compliments I could ever ask for. Haha oh and I do remember the first time David and I truly made a sensation was when he played Ranger and I played Clorinda in Benjamin Hoadly’s The Suspicious Husband. Speaking of my lovely David, someone claimed I was as good as him once and I do suppose that put him off a bit. But really, David is one of the reasons I was a success, he’s the one who taught me how to make people laugh (“Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation”).

Interviewer: That truly is a road to success, well that’s all the time we have. Thank you so much for allowing me the opportunity to interview you Ms. Pritchard; you are truly an amazing artist.

Hannah Pritchard: Oh darling, call me Hannah, and you are so welcome love. I know you’ll do great things in your life just as I have.

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