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.

Dealing with Clair

PLOT/THEMES

• Clair, a real estate agent, is helping the couple, Mike and Liz, sell their house.  They ask Clair to accept the first offer.  A perfectly good offer is made, however, then a potential buyer, James, enters the scene and offers a higher bid.  All ethical notions go out of the window and Clair is stuck in the middle of the couple's double dealings and receives too much male attention from both the buyer and seller.

STRUCTURE

• Non-linear - The story wasn't in chronological order from what I saw.  It was quite hard to tell as there appeared to be 2 story-lines, however some points seemed to be as if these 2 story-lines were happening at the same time, like when the Italian girl and the investigator wire up the house to hear all conversations going on in the house.  At the end there was a jump in time from when Clair appears to be dying on the floor to when Mike and Liz get another estate agent to help them sell the house.
• 2 narrative story-lines - What occurs within Mike and Liz's house and the investigator.
• Dramatic irony (audience knows outcome but characters don't) - There are a few lines during Clair's phone call that signify something will happen and then this is anchored by the unwanted male attention from the buyer and seller of the house.  There is also a very poignant part when Liz says to her husband that he would "rape" Clair.  Even though the husband isn't the one to kidnap her or rape her or whatever happens at the end, it still foreshadows events.

SIGNIFICANT MOMENTS

• Clair's phone call - seems to be studied by investigator and foreshadows events later on - also sets mood and tone for play as eerie and ominous.
• The Italian girl's Italy call - find out she's involved in the investigation.
• Mike and James giving Clair too much attention - foreshadows events later on in play.
• James and Clair playing snap - clearly unprofessional and they both know it - finally seems like a tipping point which it is.
• James on the phone - see Clair on the floor barely moving - find out what happened to her.

ACTING / MOVEMENT

• The set was a model village with a room behind it and a walkway on top of the room.
• The actors would use the model village space as if it was a room in a house and interact with the model houses as if they were seats, rooms and props.
• The first scene, containing Clair's phone call had interesting movement as it portrayed a passing of time.
• The proxemics of the character revealed a lot without having to explicitly say - for example, James and Mike would get very close to Clair indicating their interest in her.

TECHNICAL DESIGN

• As I said before, they had a model village which they used as if it was furniture and seats etc in a house.  
• The stairs to the bridge were used as part of the house and underneath that was the investigators room.
• There were also model trains behind the wall upstage to signify Clair's house by the railway. 
• Most of the time there was quite a plain white lighting, however, right before the very end, all the lights went off and there were people in masks with torches on stage and walking around in the audience to make it more interactive. 
• Liz's shoes were set in a parking lot of the model village as if they were parked there but she changed her footwear when getting changed for James to come over.  Clair wore 3 outfits, a towel, blazer and skirt and blazer with trousers.  The investigator wore a plumber's outfit as a disguise to get into the house.