19.12.19 - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

OPEN DRESS REHEARSAL
...

...
Our open dress rehearsal went very well.  I think the fact that there was an audience there made the experience so much better and they all seemed to enjoy it.  I think that I really tried to make every movement exaggerated as the audience was very young.  After performing to them, we received some lovely letters from a Year 3 class.  This boosted our confidence and made the cast a lot less worried for the final performance.

REHEARSAL
...

...
After our open dress rehearsal, we decided that one of the things we needed to work on was our end bows.  We quickly took to this and then had to clean up the set before the performance later that day.

PERFORMANCE
...

...
The final performance went really well and I'm very proud of Split Clarity.  There were some occasional slip ups, however, we improvised our way through it.  For example, Hugo jumped on the earlier music than he was supposed to but when that happened, Louis and I improvised and made it look like we were frightened by the wolf in that piece of music.  I, yet again, tried to really exaggerate my movements and make my through-line objective of wanting to eat the bird or get food from the humans, obvious.

18.12.19 - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

WARM UP
In the warm up, we played a focus game called Samurai.  There are two groups of people with one leader from both and the leader has to do a specific action to which the other team will do the corresponding movement.  If the leader claps, the other team has to spin around.  If the leader puts both arms up, the other team has to do a squat.  If the leader kicks, the other team has to jump.  If the leader puts their arm in a direction, the other team has to follow that direction.  I found this game very fun and interesting and I did quite well in it but I struggled to keep a straight face throughout.

REHEARSALS
Today, rehearsals went a lot smoother.  My character didn't look like as big of a role as the rest of them so we did an improvisation game where my main objective was to get a burger that my class mates had.  I struggled with this exercise in the beginning but after a while it really helped me form my through-line objective the day before the show.  With this new objective, I made some drastic differences to my choreography which is a lot better than what I have been rehearsing for months.  I'm glad I've now changed it and I'm prepared for the performance.  The rehearsals with the orchestra went a lot better as now all of the musicians were there and we were a bit more used to the instruments and timing.

17.12.19 - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

REHEARSALS
...

...
...

...

WARM UP
For the warm up we did the same Sally song as yesterday and two other songs.  For the Sally song, we did lunges for the first part of the song and squats for the second half.  My legs were already aching from all of the squats we did the day before so I really struggled.  Mr Lemon told the cast that your mind quits before your body, so I really wanted to keep going to prove to myself that I could do it even when my mind quit.  By the end of the song, I ended up crying because I was in so much pain, but I felt stronger and happier afterwards.
We did Love The Way You Lie by Rihanna and Eminem:
...

...
Every time Rihanna sang, we held a crunch position and every time Eminem rapped, we did sit ups.  This was a lot easier than the Sally song we did in my opinion as I have stronger ab muscles than leg muscles.
We also did Thunderstruck by ACDC:
...

...
In this song, every time the word "thunder" was said even in the word "thunderstruck", we had to do a burpee.  By this time we were all absolutely worn out so we struggled to carry on.

REHEARSAL
For the rehearsal, we had a bit of a tough time, especially Tristan, the narrator, to adapt to the orchestra as this was our first rehearsal with them.  One of the musicians wasn't able to make the rehearsal which was even more difficult and stressful.  Some of the music was faster and some was slower than the recording that we had previously been rehearsing to.  For example, my music when Tristan says, "In a twinkling, the cat climbed up the tree" was significantly faster than the recording.  Despite all of this, we still managed to make things work.  Our first run through was even worse than the day before, so all of us got down hearted for a bit but then we pulled ourselves together and did a much better second rehearsal.

16.12.19 - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

WARM UP
Today was our first rehearsal from 6-9pm.  This was quite challenging as I'm not used to rehearsing this late but I had quite a fun time.  For our warm up, we were introduced to a workout to a song:
...

...
When the song said "bring Sally up" we had to stand and when it said "bring Sally down" we had to squat.  Mr Lemon made sure we were in the proper form.  This was so difficult for me as I'm not very physically fit.  Ms Trono told me that a part of being an actor is having that physical ability and strength so I will be doing more exercise in order to increase my fitness and stamina.

REHEARSAL
We found out today that Georgia has been in quite a serious accident which means she is unable to do the show so Silvana had to step up to her role.  As Silvana had to take on Georgia's role in a previous rehearsal where Georgia didn't show up, she was already very familiar with the choreography which was helpful.  Silvana really embraced the duck role and accepted the stress, hard work and dedication that came with it.  For this rehearsal, we spent a bit of time helping Silvana with her new role and did our first full run through with costume.  This run through wasn't as smooth as the one yesterday which we were quite upset about as we wanted to prove how hard we worked on Sunday.  After the first run through, our morale was pretty low because we were annoyed with ourselves but we didn't let it stop us.

15.12.19 - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

WARM UP
For our warm-up, we all followed Amelie and Silvana doing stretches and exercises.  These were very effective and warmed up our bodies.

REHEARSAL
Today, Amelie booked a dance room for the cast to rehearse in so we spent about 3 hours rehearsing.  We did a run through and then decided which parts needed the most amount of work.  We choreographed the hunter and wolf's scene but Seth didn't know what to do as he wasn't in the rehearsal when we choreographed it.  He took on the dance quite well and Georgia and Silvana were helping him.  I was quite distracted in this rehearsal as I wasn't as needed that much.  We also helped to block Tristan correctly and involve him more in the scenes.  This breaks that fourth wall, however, we made it very entertaining for what we believe children would want to watch.

12.12.19 - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

REHEARSAL
...

...

In this rehearsal, the wolf character came back from time off so we spent most of the lesson helping him with his blocking, choreography and making his movements larger and more exciting.  As our play is directed at young children, we need the characters to have over-the-top and large movements to keep them excited and interested.  We helped Hugo with this and made his body language more extreme.  It looked much better by the end of it.  We also decided to play with the music a bit and have Hugo move in time with it.  Most of his music is slow and eerie but there is one part in this section where his music becomes quite a fast beat.  We made Hugo walk in time to the music to make it more interesting for the audience.  The cast was quite distracted and out of it today, however, Hugo carried on throughout.

11.12.19 - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

SHORT CLIP OF REHEARSAL
...

...

REHEARSAL DISCUSSION
...

...
This rehearsal was a very tricky one.  The cast's morale was down as we were expecting the two main characters to be there (as those parts are the ones we need to work on the most).  There was a conflict between the theatre company but things were resolved that night.  We decided to spend our time on the parts where we have interactions with the characters who were available for rehearsal (which ended up being 5 of us).  The part we worked on the most was my interaction with Amelie after the duck dies.

10.12.19 - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

DISCUSSION IN REHEARSAL
...

...

REHEARSAL
...

...

We believe that the beginning and end is quite smooth so we decided to work on the fighting scenes with the wolf.  Our lack of characters made it quite difficult to rehearse the parts we wanted to.  Georgia, as the duck, is in the first half and Hugo, the wolf is in the second half, so without either of them it was very difficult to find things to be able to rehearse.  Our space was also quite inconvenient as it is a lot smaller than the auditorium where we will be performing.  We also wanted to focus on linking all of the scenes as we've worked on each scene separately.  We also need to work on the procession with the amount of space provided in the auditorium.
We decided to rehearse in costume as we needed to get used to the tutus and leotards etc. We did a full run through at the beginning to see what needed the most work on.  Louis and Amelie spent a bit of time cleaning up their interaction with each other.  Silvana and Amelie helped Georgia with her entrance. We then spent a bit of time on Silvana and Seth's hunter's scene.  Then we helped Louis and Amelie with their interaction with the hunters.  I liked the idea of having Louis help Amelie down off the tree so we tried it a few times and decided to keep it.  We made the overall interaction with the hunters a bit more choreographed and into a routine.  At the end, we spent some time choreographing my movements for when I climb up the tree.  This is so much better now than how it was before.
I'm very happy with the way this rehearsal went.  The entire cast was dedicated and motivated and it really shows as to how much work we got done.  We were all sharing ideas and helping each other succeed.

Hunters Makeup - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

MY INSPIRATION

My Pinterest board for makeup

WHAT I DID

To create the hunters' look, I simply added some dark browns and blacks in splotches on their faces.  This was to make them look muddy and dirty.

 

Wolf Makeup - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

MY INSPIRATION

My Pinterest board for the makeup

WHAT I DID

I went around the outside of his face with a black liner on a brush making lines and stripes as I went. I also extended this under his cheek bones and added it onto his eyebrows.  Then I lined his eyes and extended that down to the inner corner.  Under that, I added another line and filled in the gap with white.  I then added the lines and stripes coming off of the lowest line.  After that, I filled in his nose and added the line down his cupid's bow.  I then finished it off by added white lines wherever I had the black lines.  For the actual performance, I will apply the liner closer to his hair line so it doesnt look as disconnected.

Peter Makeup - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

MY INSPIRATION

My Pinterest board for the makeup

WHAT I DID

For Peter, I liked the idea of rosy cheeks and freckles.  I added a lot of blush onto the apples of his cheeks in a circle.  I then scattered some freckles over his cheeks.

Grandfather Makeup - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

MY INSPIRATION

My Pinterest board for the makeup

WHAT I DID

I made Seth do different facial expressions to see where the natural contours and wrinkles would be on an old man.  I first made him make an angry face, causing two lines between his eyebrows.  I then made him raise his eyebrows to form the wrinkles on his forehead.  After that, I made him scrunch up his eyes to get the wrinkles around there.  I lastly made his smile to get the smile lines.  I blended these lines a bit and then added some concealer to his eyebrows and eyelashes.

Duck Makeup - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

MY INSPIRATION

My Pinterest Board for the makeup

TIMELAPSE

...

...

WHAT I DID

First I applied a bronzer to her crease and dragged it outwards slightly.  I then took a darker brown and darkened the crease.  After that, I concealed her eyelids then applied a yellow, shimmery eyeshadow over the top.  The reason I concealed before was to brighten that yellow colour, however, the eyeshadow I have isn't very bright or pigmented so I will need to find one that is.  I then blended the yellow eyeshadow into the brown in the crease.  I then added a dark brown/black to her outer corner to give more dimension.  After that, I applied a shimmery, teal blue under her waterline and added a subtle blue highlighter to her inner corner and over the teal blue eyeshadow.  Finally, I added black eyeliner with a wing.  I think that the eyeliner would possibly be better without the wing as Georgia's eyes suit it more.  For the actual production, I would give her stage makeup as well.

 

Cat Makeup - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

MY INSPIRATION

My Pinterest board for the makeup

 


As head of makeup, I have made a pinterest board for the looks I would like to do on each of the characters.  I even tried out the cat makeup on myself to see what would look good.

WHAT I DID

For the eyes, I did a brown, light smokey eye and dragged the darkest shade under my waterline and then pulled that down to create an animalistic look.  I put white highlighter in my inner corner and dragged that down till it reached the brown line.  I did winged eyeliner to add to that cat eye effect.  I believe contacts would be a good idea.
For the face, I added a lot of bronzer (which is quite hard to see in these photos) and also contoured my nose to be wider than normal.  I put a black liner on the tip of my nose and pulled that down my cupid's bow to my top lip.  I extended my top lip out and put 3 dots on each side of my cupid's bow.  I then finished off with adding 3 whiskers on each cheek.

 

03.12.19 - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

WARM UP

For our warmup, we started with a game of Splat to get our blood pumping and bodies moving.  This helped with our energy later on when rehearsing as we were all ready and warmed up

REHEARSAL

In this rehearsal, we solidified our movement for after Peter lets the rope down for me to put over the Wolf.  This time we had the actual tree we intend to use, however, it was quite difficult as the tree was taller than we expected so throwing the rope over was hard.  We came up with a solution to throw the rope out of one of the holes in the tree.  This seemed to end up working, but then we faced another problem.  When I have to jump out of the tree, I have to make sure I jump more forwards than up like I was doing before as I would hit the tree.  We then carried on to do the procession and just went over our movements.

Peter and the cat with the rope

19.11.19 - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

WARM UP
Last week we completed our blocking, so in this rehearsal we did a game at the beginning to see if we remembered each segment of sound and run to where our characters should be.  The only problem with this was that there are many times when the same piece of music repeats so it was difficult to immediately get into position.  This game was, however, very fun and got everyone moving.

REHEARSAL
We kept going over our movements and blocking to improve some details or just to engrave everything in our minds.  We went over the bird and Peter interaction at the beginning of the piece.  This has come a long way from where we started.  I think we need to focus on the wolf a bit more and help him with his choreography.   The cast did get a little tired at points leading to us being quite unmotivated which is something I think we all really struggle with.  I think we need to work on our stamina a lot as this play is 30 mins of movements so we need to have that nailed.

Peter and the Bird

12.11.19 - Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

REHEARSAL
In this rehearsal, we re-blocked the procession so that it makes more sense with the music and the storyline.
Before, our procession was boring and lifeless but we changed it because that wouldn't be appropriate for our target audience as they want it to be interactive and exciting.
We now have Peter, the wolf and the huntsmen interacting with the audience and walking around whilst the cat and grandfather perform their segment.
Then the cat and grandad come off stage and meet Peter, the wolf and the huntsmen and interact with the children whilst the bird performs.
Then we all go off stage and come back on for the curtain call.
This has been improved greatly and now the cast is more confident in the piece.

Actors interacting with the audience

05.11.19 Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

REHEARSAL
In this rehearsal, we tried to block the rest of the piece that we haven't been through to establish where everything will be.  We also figured out a way to catch Hugo, the wolf, with the rope.  We've decided that Louis will hold the rope on either side and then throw it around Hugo's waist.  We've also figured out how to make the stone wall.  We will get some staging blocks and then stick a stone wall wallpaper on top of it.

The footage from this rehearsal:
...

...

22.10.19 Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

WARM UP
In this rehearsal we did the warm up game Chinese Whispers but with actions to get our bodies moving.  We had to use movements from the characters from Peter and the Wolf and it would go down the line until we had a movement that should have but didn't look anything like the movement at the start.  For example, I did the duck's waddle, Peter's skip and the hunter's walk.  This then had to go down the line of people in our theatre company and see how the movements turned out at the end.  Some people had a hard time recreating the movements as they required some skill, e.g. I struggled to recreate Amelie's bird motif as it was too difficult.  Some other people had a hard time to remember what movements were done.

PROCESSION
We then looked at the procession and watched some videos online to help us figure out how we want to choreograph this section.  We looked at contact improvisation for ideas on how the characters could interact with each other as there is no dialogue.  We didn't do too much physical work this
...

...
...

...
We also looked at some procession videos.
...

...

...

21.10.19 Peter and the Wolf - Ms Trono

REHEARSAL
In this rehearsal we managed to finish the blocking for our piece from before the procession.  I think that it will be a lot easier to progress with our movements and choreography now we know where we need to be and at what point in the music.  I believe I need to work on my choreography for in the tree when I'm next to the bird.  I think I need to have a more cat like movement and possibly have some interactions with the bird.  Our energy was a lot better than the last rehearsals however, I think that some people weren't in the best mood.

Example of a procession