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.

03.03.2020 - Contemporary Theatre Research - Mr Lemon

BRECHT

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

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

WAITING FOR GODOT
page 36

25.02.2020 - FEST - Ms Trono

WARM UP

We started out by playing a game called Samurai.  This made us really concentrate on the movements that the other group were doing which helped us get in the mood for rehearsals to properly concentrate.

RUN THROUGH

We tried to run through the scenes we had but a lot of us got confused because of the new plot changes and where the scenes were placed.  After clearing up the order of the scenes, we were able to do a second run-through that went much smoother and motivated us again.

SCRIPTING

Amelie then went ahead and scripted the whole piece to make it a lot easier for us all.  She left some scenes in red that she didn't know exactly what happened within them so I tried filling out as many of those as possible.

24.02.20 - FEST - Ms Trono

In today's lesson with Ms Trono, we explained everything we had completed over the holidays in terms of script writing and rehearsals.  Then we all got into our separate groups to complete as much as possible.  I had in mind to fragment Amelie and my monologues but as she wasn't at the start of the lesson, I decided to help Silvana with brainstorming the set and props and Hugo with brainstorming the costumes.  This is the type of idea we came up with for the costumes.
Louis/Harry
Tristan/David
James/Fred
Hugo/Laurent
Seth/Charles
Amelie/Meredith
Emma/Jane
Silvana/Marie

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.
...

...
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.