07.03.2020 - FEST - Final Performance

WORKSHOP

We did a workshop in the morning with Larisa Faber.  She is a successful actress in Germany and Luxembourg.  We started off with getting our bodies moving with a quick game of Stuck in the Mud.  This was quite a good ice breaker with people we hadn't met before as we had to get quite close to them.  We all worked well as a team.  Then we did some stretches and massaged our legs and feet.  This was very soothing and well-needed.  We then started massaging our faces and stretching them out to make our jaws relaxed.  To help relax our jaw, we put our hands in front of our face and shook them with our mouth open.  We got into pairs and I went with Louis.  We then had to do an exercise where one person was the actor and the other was the director.  We had to each hold the other person's right hand with our right hand.  Then the director would move the person around how they wanted the actor to move.  For example, if the director rolled on the floor, the actor would have to roll too. We had to have a lot of trust in our pairs so we could trust that they wouldn't make us do any movement that would hurt us.  I was quite lucky as Louis and I are friends so we have trust in each other whereas some people paired up with people they didn't know.  Then we switched roles.  Then we started saying our monologues within this activity.  Louis used his fragmented monologue with James and Tristan and I used my monologue after the mirrored chair duet.  When the director would move a certain way, the actor had to try respond with their voices as well as their bodies.  For example, if I pulled Louis closer to me, he would whisper because I would be right next to him and he wouldn't need to be so loud.  Then we did the same activity without holding each other's arm.  If the director ran back super fast, the actor would have to run after them attempting to keep the same distance between them.  This was obviously a bit harder to react to as it wasn't as authentic, but when doing a piece of theatre, it won't be authentic like it's happening in real time, but we, as actors will have to portray it like it is authentic.  Larisa was very accepting of everything we did and praised moments when we felt uncomfortable or shy because we could learn off of them.  After that, we discussed what our objective was for our monologue.  It was a bit more difficult for the characters doing direct audience address, but we soon figured out an objective for why everyone was saying what they were saying.  My reason was to try get the audience to sympathise with my character.  With this new objective in mind, Larisa went round all of us and made us try and get our partner to stay interested on what we were saying and not loose interest.  Larisa wanted us to experiment entirely with absolutely everything, even if we didn't plan on using it in our piece.  There were points where we were shouting, singing, dancing and jumping around.  It was a lot of fun and gave us an entirely new perspective on things which were hilarious.

WARM UP

Once we finished the workshop, we went to go have a little break and eat.  Then we started to do our makeup and get into costume.  We then went upstairs to have a small warm up.  First we played Zip, Zap, Boing to make ourselves more energetic.  After that, we stretched our muscles and then did a speed run through.  This was to see if we knew all of our cues and it was so much fun.  Everyone was saying their lines but in double speed so it was super funny to see us all running around. 

PERFORMANCE

The performance went really considering we were all feeling very nervous.  I think the nerves properly kicked in when we were backstage and we could hear the audience coming in.  Once the music was on I think we all just got our head's in the game and went for it.  I'm glad that we had a physical theatre movement at the start as it was a comforting way to begin the play.  We were all very smooth and made sure we had eye contact so a relationship was shown through the characters.  I like that we all really committed and even though we should have thought of it earlier, we added in a few lines when we thought it would make more sense.  For example, I added that Tristan lied to me too so the audience wouldn't get confused that I'm not a bad person after all.  Although I'm very happy with the outcome, a few things could have gone better.  For example, I messed up one of my lines in the fragmented monologue between Amelie and I.  Luckily, she noticed and picked it up quite quickly.  Another thing that went wrong is that the sound cue was slightly off for our mirrored chair duet.  What made it even harder to fix was that Amelie and I had the first move but couldn't see the other person.  Luckily, Tristan and Louis could see what was going on so they made sure that we timed it perfectly.  When I was doing my scene with Tristan, I spilt the "gin" all down my arm and face.  I tried to carry on and just roll with it.  The final thing that didn't go to plan was that because the staging blocks were too far forward, I tripped on them.  Luckily, as I'm the "local drunk", this wasn't too much of a bad situation.  Overall, the audience reacted very well to this piece.  They were laughing a lot at many different things I didn't expect to get such a large reaction out of.  I'm really happy with how everyone did and the energy we kept up throughout.  I'm really proud of us for creating something so fun and amazing.

06.03.2020 - FEST - Mrs Williams

WARM UP

We started by having a little group warm up with the drama group from the year above.  We did some body and voice warm ups.  For the body warm ups we did some stretching.  For the voice warm ups, we did the sing sirens and uh-oh's.

SFX AND LFX CUES

We then started sorting out the lighting and sound cues.  First we had to sort out the script as although we knew what was going on, the script didn't have precisely what we were doing.  If the sound and lighting technicians saw the script, they would be quite confused over what cue goes where.  Once that was sorted out, Louis and I went to go find the music we were using to put on a USB stick.  The music we were previously using was on Spotify so we needed to find versions to download.  We were very lucky in finding all of the songs quite quickly.  We did have to make some alterations with the timings of the audio but it all went smoothly.

VENUE

We then went to the Mierscher Kulturhaus which was the venue we were going to perform at.  We got a little tour of the venue including the backstage and the stage.

SOUND AND TECHNICAL REHEARSAL

We spent an hour doing a sound and tech rehearsal.  This was very helpful to see the size of the stage considering it is a lot bigger than what we've been used to.  There was one issue that arose which was that the lights were bit more forward than we were expecting.  This meant that the staging blocks had to be further forward than we were used to leaving us not a lot of space in the front.  We all acted very professional during this sound and technical rehearsal and we overcame problems together as a group.  Another big type of difference is the fact that we had to project our voices throughout the room.  There are many more seats and the venue is a lot larger so we need to make sure everyone will be able to hear clearly.  We were told that we need to watch out for the floor mics as they are very expensive and we will break them if we stand on them.  We also taped down where our set is going to be in the performance.  We eventually chose a song to play during the bows which was Sweet Caroline as it is very wholesome and will make the audience feel happy hopefully.

REHEARSAL

We then spent some time fixing the middle scenes when Hugo enters as the energy seems to drop.  The beginning and end have high energy but then middle just needs a little boost.  Once that was fixed we decided to do a speed run-through for a bit of fun and to make sure we all knew the lines and our cues. 

PERFORMANCES

Amelie, Silvana and I stayed after this to watch some of the performances in the festival.  The first one we watched was not my favourite, to be honest.  Some of the actors were very quiet which was probably due to nerves and opening the entire festival which reminded us we need to really be louder than we think.  The second show was more to my taste and everyone seemed to be quite excited especially the main character played by a girl named Marta.

05.03.2020 - FEST - Mr Lemon

DRESS REHEARSAL 

We did a dress rehearsal in front of a few members of staff and students.  I'm very happy with how this turned out and people seemed to enjoy it.  I hadn't eaten anything all day but I had 2 coffees so my body was shaking a lot.  I'm glad this happened in the dress rehearsal and now I know that I'll eat something before hand.

REHEARSAL

We then did some touching up on some scenes which Mr Lemon's help.  He gave us some raw audience feedback as he hadn't watched the show yet.  Some things we need to work on before our final performance on Saturday are:

• Mirrored Chair Duet 
• This is a little bit out of time so we need to make sure we fix our synchronicity
• Hugo and Amelie train scene
• They needed to look more like family and less awkward
• Louis, Tristan and James fight scene
• They needed greater reactions and slow down some parts to build up tension and make James's character more dominant and controlling
• Enhancing Seth's character

RUN THROUGH

We then did a full run through to see if we could apply these new changes to the performance.  I wasn't in the right mindset and I was muddling everything up.  I think I lost a bit of faith so I needed to just get my head back in the game and think properly.  Overall I think we did quite well.

04.03.2020 - FEST - Mrs Williams

RUN THROUGH

We did a run through once we got into costumes.  As this was the first time putting on the costumes, some didn't fit or were too difficult to move in so some people have to try get some other things to wear.  We didn't do a warm up so we weren't more flexible or energised.
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NOTES 

• Didn't warm up so too tired at beginning
• Like the overlapping lines but need to look at the way they say them
• Need a transition between fragmented monologue to the mirrored chair duet
• Need to include the relationship between Jane and Dave in fragmented monologue and include Dave's jealousy
• Need the boys to react more to Meredith and Jane's monologues
• Need to show that the boys being up all night
• Then need to show the passage of time from 7am to Jane coming into the bar
• Laurent saying 'she doesn't have friends'
• Laurent and Charles need more energy in their voice
• Scene 9 and 10 need help
• Charles hair in eyes
• Could have the Brighton folk in the brother's bar - Marie planning the wedding
• Fred puts the music on because joke didn't make sense
• Need a scene between Dave telling Harry about Meredith cheating to Harry telling Meredith to get up 
• Possibly have yoga with Marie and Meredith planning wedding
• Charles react more to the speech to Marie
• Have music playing after everyone says Happy Engagement - plays - all awkward and silent with "I think I wanna marry you" playing - Fred turns it off
• Jane accents

SCENE 2-3

There isn't enough of an introduction to my character so we've decided to add in a little bit of context into the boys' fragmented monologues.  When they say "boys", Amelie and I come in and hug our significant others and James explains our relationship.  This is a good transition to scene 3.  James also suggested that we start the mirrored chair duets too soon so with this new transition, it works quite well and lets us have the music playing for a little longer.

SCENE 5

We've added in a short monologue for my character before she goes into the bar to see Dave.  This shows the passage of time as the scene before makes it appear that it's very early in the morning but this technique helps to show it's later on in the day.  I felt like my character was too much like myself so I've exaggerated an accent so that the whole characterisation is different.

WARM UP

After lunch we did an actual warm up.  First we did some solo stretching to loosen our bodies and then we got into pairs.  In these pairs, one person had to hold the other person's wrists and try to keep them away from touching their shoulders.  We then switched who was holding and who was trying to hit the shoulders.  Then we did an exercise where we had to hold hands in a circle besides one person.  That person had to try touch a specific person in the circle but everyone in the circle had to keep that person safe.  It was a lot of effort and warmed us up.

SCENE 9 

This scene is a bit lost within the plot so we've attempted to rephrase it and make it more prominent.  Then we did some improvisation with Amelie, Silvana and I to pretend we see each other for the first time in a while.  After completing that scene, it just still seemed a bit too lost so we've scrapped it and now they're going to see each other in the bar.  We had to change a few lines from the previous scene to make it work however, it's not too much.  Now it goes from Seth and Silvana's scene to a split scene of the bar, then James shows the passage of time in audience address and then Seth and Silvana being in the bar planning the party.  There isn't the meeting point now which helps.

RUN THROUGH

We then did some more run throughs to help us some more.  In this run through, we tried altering some scenes as we went along.
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03.03.20 - FEST - Ms Trono

WARM UP

We started this rehearsal with a quick game of splat.  We made sure to keep it quick as we wanted to have as much time to go through our piece as possible.

RUN THROUGH

We then did a full run through.  I think this is our main focus to get a load of run throughs done by Saturday so we are as smooth as possible.  This one went pretty well but it's just still not as smooth and flowing as we were hoping for.  We changed a few things about the physical theatre in the prologue and epilogue by making them all a little bit longer.  By making them longer, it makes the movements look more emotional and showing more of a relationship between the characters.  Before we changed this, it looked a bit too choreographed and it looked like there wasn't a good enough relationship between them.

SOUND CUE

Louis and I spent some time making the sound cue for our performance.  We struggled a bit with finding out how to explain when the sound cue is and when the sound should stop or fade out.  We eventually got it done.

03.03.2020 - Contemporary Theatre Research - Mr Lemon

BRECHT

Our group has been reduced to just Amelie and I.  We have decided to do a Brecht play possibly as we will be able to do a lot of research on the context.  We haven't done any Brecht work as well, so we want to do something new.

MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN
The first play we looked at was Mother Courage and her Children which is about a woman with her three children who try to trade with soldiers to profit off of the war.  All her 3 children die throughout the play due to the war.  We looked through the script to find a place where there is a duologue and found that within pages 64-76, there were a few.

WAITING FOR GODOT
page 36

02.03.2020 - FEST - Ms Trono

WARM UP 
For our warm up, we played the 1,2,3 game again.  It helped us get our head into a concentrating mode so we could have a good run through.

RUN THROUGH
We did a run through for as long as we had time in the lesson.  We did very well but yet again we need to focus on some of the scenes to improve.  We will focus on these scenes in our after school rehearsal.

02.03.20 - Contemporary Theatre Research - Mr Lemon

In our group, we have 3 females and 1 male so I think one of the important things to do is to make sure we can find a play with some contextual background.  We've already found the play Colder Than Here by Laura Wade.

COLDER THAN HERE - Laura Wade

This play works well so far as there are 4 characters, 1 male and 3 females.  This play is a comedy about a woman with bone cancer and her family coming to terms with her death.  There isn't a lot of context to the play to research besides the themes of death.  After some more research, I have discovered that the burial sites in Wade's play are natural after the green burial revolution in Cumbria in the early 1990s.

RIDERS TO THE SEA - John Millington Synge

This is another play we have found with 3 female actors and 1 male actor.  The problem with this is that it was published in 1904 so too early for this unit.

HIS RETURN - Percival Wilde

Yet again, this has 3 female and 1 male actors but published in 1922 so we are unable to do it.

01.03.2020 - FEST - Own Rehearsal

WARM UP

In this rehearsal we made sure everyone had learnt their lines before so we could have the smoothest and most effective rehearsal.  We warmed up with a couple games of splat.  We played with high energy to get in the mood and so we were all warmed up.

RUN THROUGH

We spent the whole rehearsal doing run throughs to see which scenes needed working on.  It was quite difficult to do the entire run through as we had a cast member who wasn't able to come.  Some aspects of the plot we thought could be improved were the bar scene.  We think that these movements could be a little more synchronised as it looks a bit muddled up at the minute.  We also need to work on some scenes like the plotting scene between Jane and Dave.