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.

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.

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.

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