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.
Showing posts with label characters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label characters. Show all posts
Saturday, 7 March 2020
Friday, 6 March 2020
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.
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.
Thursday, 5 March 2020
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:
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.
Wednesday, 4 March 2020
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
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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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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Saturday, 22 February 2020
22.02.20 - FEST - Mrs Williams
WARM UP
For our warm up we did some sprints from one side of the room to the other. After a few sprints, we added in a jump in the middle of the room. We had to run to the middle, jump, run to the end of the room, run back to the middle, jump again and then run back. After a few times of that, we had to jump up then touch the floor and run. Finally, after a few times of that, we did a few runs with touching the floor, then jumping, then touching the floor again. This made us all warm and ready to work.
MIRRORED CHAIR DUET
We first started off by doing the mirrored chair duet between Louis and Amelie, and Tristan and I. We've already learnt the choreography for this chair duet but I think Tristan and I need to practice this a lot. We aren't confident enough yet so this really needs to be improved so that Amelie, Louis, Tristan and I are all in sync.
RUN THROUGH
After the mirrored chair duets, we did a run through of everything we had done from start to as far as we got. This went quite well but we needed to sort out the order of the plot and our fluency from one scene to another.
PLOT CHANGES AND ORDER
We've changed the plot a bit to make the ending make more sense. Before, we didn't have a complete understanding of what happens to our characters and it was all a bit vague. This is the new scene order:
ENDING
We finished off our rehearsal with figuring out the ending to our piece. First, we had a scene in the bar where David needs to get through all of the people he's hurt. We used physical theatre with round, by, through to show this. Then once he passes Jane, Meredith and Harry, he gets to Fred at the bar and downs a pint as Jane, Meredith and Harry give him a hateful stare. He gets another pint and sits at the edge of the stage, centre stage. Jane, Meredith and Harry walk up to him until he's enclosed and then walk away. After this, Fred has a monologue describing what all the characters are going through. Then the prologue we have at the start is done again, but as an epilogue. We are also with different characters depending on our new relationships with people. Then, in this physical theatre movement with lifts and round, by, through, we find a good position to freeze in to show the relationship between the characters. After that, we all come together to do a bow.
For our warm up we did some sprints from one side of the room to the other. After a few sprints, we added in a jump in the middle of the room. We had to run to the middle, jump, run to the end of the room, run back to the middle, jump again and then run back. After a few times of that, we had to jump up then touch the floor and run. Finally, after a few times of that, we did a few runs with touching the floor, then jumping, then touching the floor again. This made us all warm and ready to work.
MIRRORED CHAIR DUET
We first started off by doing the mirrored chair duet between Louis and Amelie, and Tristan and I. We've already learnt the choreography for this chair duet but I think Tristan and I need to practice this a lot. We aren't confident enough yet so this really needs to be improved so that Amelie, Louis, Tristan and I are all in sync.
RUN THROUGH
After the mirrored chair duets, we did a run through of everything we had done from start to as far as we got. This went quite well but we needed to sort out the order of the plot and our fluency from one scene to another.
PLOT CHANGES AND ORDER
We've changed the plot a bit to make the ending make more sense. Before, we didn't have a complete understanding of what happens to our characters and it was all a bit vague. This is the new scene order:
- Prologue
- Fred's monologue
- Bar movement involving everyone
- 3 boys fragmented monologue
- Mirrored chair duet
- Jane and Meredith's fragmented monologues
- 3 boys argument
- David and Jane plotting
- Jane planting seeds inside Harry's mind
- Swindon 5 train station
- Meredith asking Laurent to walk her down the aisle
- Charles explaining why he doesn't want to marry Marie
- Swindon 5 train station
- Laurent, Charles and Marie talk
- Awkward bar scene - David ranting, Laurent there, Fred splits it up
- 3 boys singing Sweet Caroline - David tells Harry that Meredith is cheating
- Harry and Meredith get into fight
- See Charles and Meredith's past relationship as Charles comforts her
- David's reveal of lies about cheating - Jane breaks up with David
- Harry and Meredith happy
- Charles and Marie argue but then propose
- Laurent and Jane happy
ENDING
We finished off our rehearsal with figuring out the ending to our piece. First, we had a scene in the bar where David needs to get through all of the people he's hurt. We used physical theatre with round, by, through to show this. Then once he passes Jane, Meredith and Harry, he gets to Fred at the bar and downs a pint as Jane, Meredith and Harry give him a hateful stare. He gets another pint and sits at the edge of the stage, centre stage. Jane, Meredith and Harry walk up to him until he's enclosed and then walk away. After this, Fred has a monologue describing what all the characters are going through. Then the prologue we have at the start is done again, but as an epilogue. We are also with different characters depending on our new relationships with people. Then, in this physical theatre movement with lifts and round, by, through, we find a good position to freeze in to show the relationship between the characters. After that, we all come together to do a bow.
Wednesday, 12 February 2020
12.02.20 - FEST - Mrs Williams
MOVEMENT SEQUENCE AND CHAIR DUET
We created a movement sequence for the opening bar scene. We got into pairs which would work the most realistically. I went with James because even though I start dating Tristan, we hadn't met at this point and that is what happens in this scene. The other pairs were Louis and Tristan, Amelie and Silvana and Hugo and Seth. Within the pairs, we had to create a set of movements to a count of 8 so that we could put it in a loop. For example, with James and I, my counts were, grab the beer glass, take a glug, cheer, slam it down and slide it to James. James had the same amount of beats as I did but he was being a bar tender so cleaning the glasses and filling them up with beer. James and I slid the glasses at the same time so the other person caught it. I also had to play drunk as I drink more and more. I came into the scene first, then Louis and Tristan, then Amelie and Silvana and finally Hugo and Seth. Every time the pairs went up to the bar, I had to interact with the partners. When the boys came, I had to try flirt with them and when the girls came, I tried to dance with them. After the 3 pairs came up to the bar, Tristan came back up and I did a chair duet with him. This was to show how we met. We wanted to make the chair duet look as fresh as possible with a real connection. One way we showed this was through having our faces extremely close together. It was quite difficult to make this chair duet as we weren't on staging blocks.
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For this scene, we used the song Friday I'm In Love by The Cure as a stimulus. We liked the fun atmosphere it brought out of the characters and the scene.
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After this scene it goes straight into a scene between Tristan, Louis and James where they have an argument.
PROLOGUE
We decided that it would be best to change the characters around a bit so Tristan was now playing David instead of Hugo and now Hugo was playing Jeff (now changed to Laurent), Meredith's sister. The prologue we started with now didn't work with the new story line so we had to change some things round a bit. I stayed the same but now had to teach Tristan the choreography that Hugo had previously. After that, we went into the bar scene we created this morning and fragmented monologues between Tristan, Louis and Harry.
SWINDON 5
Then we created a Swindon 5 piece to portray the train station when Laurent goes to see Meredith in London. It started off very choreographed so everyone was evenly spaced apart and we didn't have specific characters, it was more neutral. Then after testing the waters we gave ourselves specific characters. I was an old lady so I also walked very slowly and people overtook me. We also added the specific places so it didn't look as if we were walking around aimlessly. We had a cafe downstage left, the departure board downstage right and the platform upstage left.
FULL RUN THROUGH
At the end we had a full run through of the material we had so far and it worked out really well. We also timed it to see how much content we had and it came to around 15 minutes. This was a lot better than what we were expecting. I think we're all a lot more motivated and excited.
We created a movement sequence for the opening bar scene. We got into pairs which would work the most realistically. I went with James because even though I start dating Tristan, we hadn't met at this point and that is what happens in this scene. The other pairs were Louis and Tristan, Amelie and Silvana and Hugo and Seth. Within the pairs, we had to create a set of movements to a count of 8 so that we could put it in a loop. For example, with James and I, my counts were, grab the beer glass, take a glug, cheer, slam it down and slide it to James. James had the same amount of beats as I did but he was being a bar tender so cleaning the glasses and filling them up with beer. James and I slid the glasses at the same time so the other person caught it. I also had to play drunk as I drink more and more. I came into the scene first, then Louis and Tristan, then Amelie and Silvana and finally Hugo and Seth. Every time the pairs went up to the bar, I had to interact with the partners. When the boys came, I had to try flirt with them and when the girls came, I tried to dance with them. After the 3 pairs came up to the bar, Tristan came back up and I did a chair duet with him. This was to show how we met. We wanted to make the chair duet look as fresh as possible with a real connection. One way we showed this was through having our faces extremely close together. It was quite difficult to make this chair duet as we weren't on staging blocks.
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For this scene, we used the song Friday I'm In Love by The Cure as a stimulus. We liked the fun atmosphere it brought out of the characters and the scene.
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After this scene it goes straight into a scene between Tristan, Louis and James where they have an argument.
PROLOGUE
We decided that it would be best to change the characters around a bit so Tristan was now playing David instead of Hugo and now Hugo was playing Jeff (now changed to Laurent), Meredith's sister. The prologue we started with now didn't work with the new story line so we had to change some things round a bit. I stayed the same but now had to teach Tristan the choreography that Hugo had previously. After that, we went into the bar scene we created this morning and fragmented monologues between Tristan, Louis and Harry.
SWINDON 5
Then we created a Swindon 5 piece to portray the train station when Laurent goes to see Meredith in London. It started off very choreographed so everyone was evenly spaced apart and we didn't have specific characters, it was more neutral. Then after testing the waters we gave ourselves specific characters. I was an old lady so I also walked very slowly and people overtook me. We also added the specific places so it didn't look as if we were walking around aimlessly. We had a cafe downstage left, the departure board downstage right and the platform upstage left.
FULL RUN THROUGH
At the end we had a full run through of the material we had so far and it worked out really well. We also timed it to see how much content we had and it came to around 15 minutes. This was a lot better than what we were expecting. I think we're all a lot more motivated and excited.
Tuesday, 11 February 2020
11.02.20 - FEST - Ms Trono
In today's rehearsal I spent most of the time script writing as we needed some more content. Silvana and I scripted the scene where Marie confronts Jane about David's plan. We decided to have the start naturalistic and then go into a physical theatre where it starts with Silvana and then Tristan replaces her. We took some inspiration from Frantic Assembly's 'Things I Know To Be True' with having a monologue whilst still doing physical theatre. We took specific inspiration from a scene where the main character is doing a monologue and there are hands touching and holding her. This was the physical theatre we started to create.
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After that I began to script the scene where David and my character first meet in the bar.
SCRIPT WRITING
Scene where Marie confronts Jane about David's plan
Jane - Hi Marie!
Marie - Hi Jane love.
Jane - How is it living with boys for the first time? Hahaha
Marie - Oh my god it's a lot harder than I thought hahah.
Jane - Trust me it doesn't get any easier!
Marie - Hahaha. *pause* I brought you here because there's something I wanted to bring up. I've heard a little rumour that you and David we're trying to break up Meredith and Harry?
Jane - I-
Marie - Don't worry, I won't tell anybody. I think that you're a lot better than that, to be honest. I know it's not my place to say anything because I haven't known you for too long but you seem a little bit off with David.
Jane - What? No... It's fine.
Marie - Are you sure? You know you can talk to me about anything.
*Into physical theatre*
*Jane's monologue*
Jane - It started two years ago. He seemed like the perfect man.
Scene where David and Jane meet
*On way out of pub, David picks up Jane's jacket*
Jane - Excuse me! Hey you!
David - What do you want?!
Jane - You've got my jacket there.
David - No it's my jacket.
Jane - I'm telling you it's mine.
David - Trust me. I'm not in the mood for this now piss off.
Jane - Seriously check the label.
David - Jesus! Fine!
*Jane waiting with a smug face*
Jane - Hmm?
David - Wow I'm such an idiot. I'm so sorry, please don't think I'm a burglar. Let me repay you.
Jane - For what? It was an honest mistake.
David - No please let me do this for you.
Jane - Look I'm with friends right now but I'll be here tomorrow night.
David - Okay see you tomorrow... Um-
Jane - Jane. And you are?..
David - David.
Jane - Nice to meet you David.
David - Have a nice night.
Jane - And you.
...
...
After that I began to script the scene where David and my character first meet in the bar.
SCRIPT WRITING
Scene where Marie confronts Jane about David's plan
Jane - Hi Marie!
Marie - Hi Jane love.
Jane - How is it living with boys for the first time? Hahaha
Marie - Oh my god it's a lot harder than I thought hahah.
Jane - Trust me it doesn't get any easier!
Marie - Hahaha. *pause* I brought you here because there's something I wanted to bring up. I've heard a little rumour that you and David we're trying to break up Meredith and Harry?
Jane - I-
Marie - Don't worry, I won't tell anybody. I think that you're a lot better than that, to be honest. I know it's not my place to say anything because I haven't known you for too long but you seem a little bit off with David.
Jane - What? No... It's fine.
Marie - Are you sure? You know you can talk to me about anything.
*Into physical theatre*
*Jane's monologue*
Jane - It started two years ago. He seemed like the perfect man.
Scene where David and Jane meet
*On way out of pub, David picks up Jane's jacket*
Jane - Excuse me! Hey you!
David - What do you want?!
Jane - You've got my jacket there.
David - No it's my jacket.
Jane - I'm telling you it's mine.
David - Trust me. I'm not in the mood for this now piss off.
Jane - Seriously check the label.
David - Jesus! Fine!
*Jane waiting with a smug face*
Jane - Hmm?
David - Wow I'm such an idiot. I'm so sorry, please don't think I'm a burglar. Let me repay you.
Jane - For what? It was an honest mistake.
David - No please let me do this for you.
Jane - Look I'm with friends right now but I'll be here tomorrow night.
David - Okay see you tomorrow... Um-
Jane - Jane. And you are?..
David - David.
Jane - Nice to meet you David.
David - Have a nice night.
Jane - And you.
Thursday, 6 February 2020
06.02.20 - FEST - Own Rehearsal
After school, we did a rehearsal. We tried to really get some more of the connections between the characters shown through physical theatre. We worked on the relationship between David, Jane and their siblings. We started off by having Hugo and I doing a chair duet. We attempted to show the argument between our characters through this. For example, in the chair duet, I push Hugo away. We then proceed to get up and do round, by, through to show the conflict in the character's heads as they want to stay with each other but also don't get along and argue a lot. Louis had a lot of ideas so he stepped in for Hugo for a bit.
...
...
...
...
Wednesday, 5 February 2020
05.02.20 - FEST - Mrs Williams
WARM UP
We did a massive warm up with the another year group. We started off by doing the game samurai which is about concentration. The class splits into two groups and there is a leader for each group. The leader then does a movement which the other team has to reply with another movement that correlates. If the leader punches, the other team must cross their arms. If the leader kicks, the other team must jump. If the leader claps, the other team has to spin. If the leader moves their arm either way, the other team must move in the direction of his arm. If the leader puts his hand up, the other team must squat. We then did another warm up which was to move around the space until the teacher said something and then we did what they said. When the teacher said to clear the space, we had to run to the closest wall. If they said opposite, we would have to sprint to the other wall. If they said shell, we had to curl into a ball on the floor. If they said sprawl, we had to have 3 points of contact on the floor. If they said neutral, we had to stand in a neutral position and if they said favourite we had to point to a specific point in the room. Then the teacher played Bohemian Rhapsody and we had to sing throughout the activities. It warmed us all up and motivated us.
PLOT POINTS
Louis gave us some more plot points which were very useful and gave us a great place to start from when creating the other story lines. He created a story for Silvana, Seth, Hugo and my characters. Some of the points he thought of were that Hugo and I are in a relationship but Hugo spends all of our rent money on clothes etc. and then we get evicted so he tries to get us to live with his brother but my character and his brother don't get along at all so I say that I don't want to live with him. I then go and live with my sister and then when we're more stable I want to get another apartment with Hugo but he's more interested in the rich life with his brother. We then break up and then I realise how great life is being single and then Hugo wants me back. We then both realise that we're better off without each other.
IMPROVISATION
We tried to do an improvisation of the bar scene like our Party Quirks exercise in the improvisation unit. This was to show us going in a bar and meeting some of the people. We each had objectives for our characters. My objective was to somehow portray that I had slept with the barman who was Silvana's ex. I found it quite difficult to show it without straight up saying it. We then decided to dissect this scene into two different ones as there were too many conversations going on at once. One of the scenes was focused on my character and her sister Silvana and the bartender. Silvana and I already knew our objective but James didn't so we tried to show him through the scene. I started off quite slow but then figured out ways to portray it in a comedic way. The second scene was Tristan, Louis and Amelie. Tristan's objective was to get in between Louis and Amelie. Yet again it was quite slow to begin with but then they came up with some great ideas. We then improvised some more scenes related to Louis' ideas about Jane and David. We improvised the scene between Jane and David (played by Louis today because Hugo wasn't here) about when he tells her that they're getting evicted. After a couple of tries with different ideas, this turned out quite well. We then did the scene between Jane and Marie which went well so we decided it would be best to script it, and then the final discussion between David and Jeffery. We thought that it would be best to keep these scenes quite short as there is no need to waste time just to get an easy message across.
SCRIPT
Jane and Marie discussion
*Jane and Marie sitting down*
Jane - Ugh! David!
Marie - What's he done this time?
Jane - Blown all our money.
Marie - *Gasps* On what?
Jane - Clothes and shoes.
Marie - He's so stupid.
Jane - But guess what's even better?
Marie - What?
Jane - He couldn't pay our rent and now we're evicted.
Marie - I told you he was bad news. Why do you never listen to me? Didn't I tell you? Huh? I'm always right and you never listen.
*Silence*
Marie - So where are you planning on living then?
Jane - Yours?
WARM UP
For our afternoon warm up, we did something quite similar to this morning with the teacher giving us instructions but this time, when "favourite" was called, we had to point at James and he had to face the audience in neutral. Then pointing just went to looking at him. We did this with a few other people as well to see which looked most powerful. I think that it looked most powerful with James. We also did a game where we all held hands and one person stood in the middle of this circle and then one person on the outside had to try touch the person on the inside but the people holding hands had to try protect that person.
FREEZE FRAMES
We then did some freeze frames. The first one was of the bar scene which everyone was involved in. The other freeze frames didn't involve everyone so the other people just pointed at the scene. Then we made another set of freeze frames for the second plot line in which the first freeze frame was the same. We then tried to come up with a third plot line / freeze frames for the barman.
RUN THROUGH
We then did a run through which was difficult for my character as Hugo wasn't here so I did the movements at the start by myself. The rest of it went well and it was helpful to see where we were at.
IMPROVISATION
We did some improvisation for the scenes involving Frederick, Charles, Meredith and Harry. The rest of us did some script writing and compiled it all in one word document.
We did a massive warm up with the another year group. We started off by doing the game samurai which is about concentration. The class splits into two groups and there is a leader for each group. The leader then does a movement which the other team has to reply with another movement that correlates. If the leader punches, the other team must cross their arms. If the leader kicks, the other team must jump. If the leader claps, the other team has to spin. If the leader moves their arm either way, the other team must move in the direction of his arm. If the leader puts his hand up, the other team must squat. We then did another warm up which was to move around the space until the teacher said something and then we did what they said. When the teacher said to clear the space, we had to run to the closest wall. If they said opposite, we would have to sprint to the other wall. If they said shell, we had to curl into a ball on the floor. If they said sprawl, we had to have 3 points of contact on the floor. If they said neutral, we had to stand in a neutral position and if they said favourite we had to point to a specific point in the room. Then the teacher played Bohemian Rhapsody and we had to sing throughout the activities. It warmed us all up and motivated us.
PLOT POINTS
Louis gave us some more plot points which were very useful and gave us a great place to start from when creating the other story lines. He created a story for Silvana, Seth, Hugo and my characters. Some of the points he thought of were that Hugo and I are in a relationship but Hugo spends all of our rent money on clothes etc. and then we get evicted so he tries to get us to live with his brother but my character and his brother don't get along at all so I say that I don't want to live with him. I then go and live with my sister and then when we're more stable I want to get another apartment with Hugo but he's more interested in the rich life with his brother. We then break up and then I realise how great life is being single and then Hugo wants me back. We then both realise that we're better off without each other.
IMPROVISATION
We tried to do an improvisation of the bar scene like our Party Quirks exercise in the improvisation unit. This was to show us going in a bar and meeting some of the people. We each had objectives for our characters. My objective was to somehow portray that I had slept with the barman who was Silvana's ex. I found it quite difficult to show it without straight up saying it. We then decided to dissect this scene into two different ones as there were too many conversations going on at once. One of the scenes was focused on my character and her sister Silvana and the bartender. Silvana and I already knew our objective but James didn't so we tried to show him through the scene. I started off quite slow but then figured out ways to portray it in a comedic way. The second scene was Tristan, Louis and Amelie. Tristan's objective was to get in between Louis and Amelie. Yet again it was quite slow to begin with but then they came up with some great ideas. We then improvised some more scenes related to Louis' ideas about Jane and David. We improvised the scene between Jane and David (played by Louis today because Hugo wasn't here) about when he tells her that they're getting evicted. After a couple of tries with different ideas, this turned out quite well. We then did the scene between Jane and Marie which went well so we decided it would be best to script it, and then the final discussion between David and Jeffery. We thought that it would be best to keep these scenes quite short as there is no need to waste time just to get an easy message across.
SCRIPT
Jane and Marie discussion
*Jane and Marie sitting down*
Jane - Ugh! David!
Marie - What's he done this time?
Jane - Blown all our money.
Marie - *Gasps* On what?
Jane - Clothes and shoes.
Marie - He's so stupid.
Jane - But guess what's even better?
Marie - What?
Jane - He couldn't pay our rent and now we're evicted.
Marie - I told you he was bad news. Why do you never listen to me? Didn't I tell you? Huh? I'm always right and you never listen.
*Silence*
Marie - So where are you planning on living then?
Jane - Yours?
WARM UP
For our afternoon warm up, we did something quite similar to this morning with the teacher giving us instructions but this time, when "favourite" was called, we had to point at James and he had to face the audience in neutral. Then pointing just went to looking at him. We did this with a few other people as well to see which looked most powerful. I think that it looked most powerful with James. We also did a game where we all held hands and one person stood in the middle of this circle and then one person on the outside had to try touch the person on the inside but the people holding hands had to try protect that person.
FREEZE FRAMES
We then did some freeze frames. The first one was of the bar scene which everyone was involved in. The other freeze frames didn't involve everyone so the other people just pointed at the scene. Then we made another set of freeze frames for the second plot line in which the first freeze frame was the same. We then tried to come up with a third plot line / freeze frames for the barman.
RUN THROUGH
We then did a run through which was difficult for my character as Hugo wasn't here so I did the movements at the start by myself. The rest of it went well and it was helpful to see where we were at.
IMPROVISATION
We did some improvisation for the scenes involving Frederick, Charles, Meredith and Harry. The rest of us did some script writing and compiled it all in one word document.
Tuesday, 4 February 2020
04.02.20 - FEST - Ms Trono
WARM UP
For the warm up we did the same game as yesterday with the numbers and actions in groups. There were a lot more people in todays lesson so at the end we joined into one big group which made it easier to think about what comes next but the flow isn't as good. We also did some stretching to get our bodies moving.
MOVEMENT
Our movement at the end of the yoga scene is quite good but we thought it should be a little bit longer. We decided to add the Swindon 5 by Frantic Assembly at the end. Once Louis gets into the position to propose to Amelie, the rest of us do a Swindon 5 through them with the objective to not let them hold hands. We also wanted to add another layer to this, so every time Hugo and I walk past each other, we hold the eye contact to portray the relationship.
IMPROVISATION
Then to come up with more ideas, we improvised the scene where David and Jane meet for the first time at the bar. We gave each character objectives to portray in the scene. Silvana's objective was to stick with me because she doesn't like being alone in big crowds, my objective was to speak to Hugo (played by Louis in this scene as Hugo wasn't there) and Hugo's objective was to just dance and have a good time. There were a few good points in this scene but we think that this was more of a character development instead of an actual scene to use.
For the warm up we did the same game as yesterday with the numbers and actions in groups. There were a lot more people in todays lesson so at the end we joined into one big group which made it easier to think about what comes next but the flow isn't as good. We also did some stretching to get our bodies moving.
MOVEMENT
Our movement at the end of the yoga scene is quite good but we thought it should be a little bit longer. We decided to add the Swindon 5 by Frantic Assembly at the end. Once Louis gets into the position to propose to Amelie, the rest of us do a Swindon 5 through them with the objective to not let them hold hands. We also wanted to add another layer to this, so every time Hugo and I walk past each other, we hold the eye contact to portray the relationship.
IMPROVISATION
Then to come up with more ideas, we improvised the scene where David and Jane meet for the first time at the bar. We gave each character objectives to portray in the scene. Silvana's objective was to stick with me because she doesn't like being alone in big crowds, my objective was to speak to Hugo (played by Louis in this scene as Hugo wasn't there) and Hugo's objective was to just dance and have a good time. There were a few good points in this scene but we think that this was more of a character development instead of an actual scene to use.
Monday, 27 January 2020
27.01.20 - FEST - Ms Trono
MAIN REHEARSAL VIDEO
...
...
WARM UP
For our warm-up we spent some time playing Zip Zap Boing to get our bodies moving and to put us in the right mindset. This gave us a lot of energy and set the tone for the rest of the rehearsal which was good.
OPENING CHOREOGRAPHY
We continued to practice our opening choreography and refresh our memories. We then performed it and I think it went quite well.
FIRST MONOLOGUE
We decided as a group that it would be best to have James' character to be the first to speak. He, as the bar tender, is pretty much the middle of all the action so I think having him open it would be most effective. We also thought that it would be quite interesting to include some physical theatre around him whilst he is talking, which he could also be involved in. We got this inspiration from DV8 doing Enter Achilles.
...
...
James was having a hard time doing improvisation for this monologue so we hot seated him to help him think of subjects to talk about. I think this has helped him, and the rest of us, enough to be able to write a monologue for James' character.
...
...
...
...
WARM UP
For our warm-up we spent some time playing Zip Zap Boing to get our bodies moving and to put us in the right mindset. This gave us a lot of energy and set the tone for the rest of the rehearsal which was good.
OPENING CHOREOGRAPHY
We continued to practice our opening choreography and refresh our memories. We then performed it and I think it went quite well.
FIRST MONOLOGUE
We decided as a group that it would be best to have James' character to be the first to speak. He, as the bar tender, is pretty much the middle of all the action so I think having him open it would be most effective. We also thought that it would be quite interesting to include some physical theatre around him whilst he is talking, which he could also be involved in. We got this inspiration from DV8 doing Enter Achilles.
...
...
James was having a hard time doing improvisation for this monologue so we hot seated him to help him think of subjects to talk about. I think this has helped him, and the rest of us, enough to be able to write a monologue for James' character.
...
...
Tuesday, 14 January 2020
14.01.20 - FEST - Ms Trono
CHARACTERS
David Loth - rich playboy - Hugo
Harry Thomas - office manager for stationary company - Louis
Jeffery Wilkinson - delivery man - Seth
Charles Brown - physiotherapist - Tristan
Frederick Normandy - bar tender - James
Marie Trainor - charity worker - Silvana
Jane Stephens - dental nurse - Emma
Meredith Wood - homeopathic healer - Amelie
CONNECTIONS
Relationships
Jane + David
Meredith + Harry
Siblings
David + Jeffery
Marie + Jane
Ex's
Marie + Frederick - child together
Best Friend
Harry + Charles

SETTING
East London - trendy place
Many different social classes
Frederick runs the local pub - all go there every Friday and Saturday night
EXERCISES
Jane, David, Jeffery, Marie and Frederick
Jane and Marie at bar to see Frederick, David and Jeffery at bar also
Showing relationships between characters
Some conflict between Frederick and David
Obvious it's the first time David and Jane are meeting
Uncomfortable for Marie because she wants what's best for Jane but also wants to stick up for Frederick.
Harry and Meredith
Just moved in and unpacking together
Meredith showing Harry how to meditate
Says to help with anxiety
He follows and believes - shows love for her
Says she's good for him - seems kind of toxic
Unpacking everything for her - toxic
He tries to keep calm and obeys her - doesn't want an argument
Harry trying to make jokes - she seems a bit sensitive
MONOLOGUE
You know, I'm pretty happy with my life. I've always had a safe, secure and loving upbringing and my family have become my best friends too. I don't know if that's such a good thing though. They're all I need so when they're gone I wouldn't know what to do with myself. I do have David though. He's the only person not related to me that laughs at my jokes. He has supported me through thick and thin. Especially with my long hours at my work. I don't really have much to complain about. David has introduced me to his friends who are all super cool but have a lot of opinions on things. I don't mind that because I have quite a lot of opinions on things too. It's very exciting being involved in all the different dramas. I try to be trustworthy within this but I do have a big mouth, one could say. Hahaha. Anyway, I should be off to work now. Bye David, see you later my love.
David Loth - rich playboy - Hugo
Harry Thomas - office manager for stationary company - Louis
Jeffery Wilkinson - delivery man - Seth
Charles Brown - physiotherapist - Tristan
Frederick Normandy - bar tender - James
Marie Trainor - charity worker - Silvana
Jane Stephens - dental nurse - Emma
Meredith Wood - homeopathic healer - Amelie
CONNECTIONS
Relationships
Jane + David
Meredith + Harry
Siblings
David + Jeffery
Marie + Jane
Ex's
Marie + Frederick - child together
Best Friend
Harry + Charles
SETTING
East London - trendy place
Many different social classes
Frederick runs the local pub - all go there every Friday and Saturday night
EXERCISES
Jane, David, Jeffery, Marie and Frederick
Jane and Marie at bar to see Frederick, David and Jeffery at bar also
Showing relationships between characters
Some conflict between Frederick and David
Obvious it's the first time David and Jane are meeting
Uncomfortable for Marie because she wants what's best for Jane but also wants to stick up for Frederick.
Harry and Meredith
Just moved in and unpacking together
Meredith showing Harry how to meditate
Says to help with anxiety
He follows and believes - shows love for her
Says she's good for him - seems kind of toxic
Unpacking everything for her - toxic
He tries to keep calm and obeys her - doesn't want an argument
Harry trying to make jokes - she seems a bit sensitive
MONOLOGUE
You know, I'm pretty happy with my life. I've always had a safe, secure and loving upbringing and my family have become my best friends too. I don't know if that's such a good thing though. They're all I need so when they're gone I wouldn't know what to do with myself. I do have David though. He's the only person not related to me that laughs at my jokes. He has supported me through thick and thin. Especially with my long hours at my work. I don't really have much to complain about. David has introduced me to his friends who are all super cool but have a lot of opinions on things. I don't mind that because I have quite a lot of opinions on things too. It's very exciting being involved in all the different dramas. I try to be trustworthy within this but I do have a big mouth, one could say. Hahaha. Anyway, I should be off to work now. Bye David, see you later my love.
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