My Production Journey
09/09/24 + 16/09/24
In our 2 induction days at the start of college we focused on icebreakers and games to learn each other's names and become comfortable with the year 1's and year 2's, as we will be working with them in the upcoming projects, therefore it's important to be familiar with them and connect as a team. We also got to know the college by doing a scavenger hunt to take photos in certain locations, whilst being in groups with the makeup artist students, to get to know them too as we will be working with them during shows. After rushing around, and tactically going from the bottom to the top on the list of places, our team won. Here are some photos from this:
We then started to learn about Steven Stanislavkey, who created the 7 levels of tension: used to present the characters emotions, 1 being low in tension, relaxed and unbothered, 7 being full of tension, angry or urgent. We also worked on ‘Given circumstances’ which gives reason to the lines we are reading, what has happened before the scene, what are the characters backstories, when is it set, what are the problems the characters are overcoming etc; all of this gives depth to the characters/scene.
All the first and second year acting students gathered in the theatre, where we played a few warm up games such as: cat and mouse, wah(similar to splat), and 13. These all involve working with other people, quick thinking but also thinking ahead. We then practised tounge twisters, working in pairs and presenting them to the class to teach everyone. We aimed to speak slowly, but emphasise each syllable. I found this tounge twister hard so have been working on it, ‘a big black bug, bit a big black bear, and the big black bear bled blue black blood’.
Then, to develop our awareness of our first performance at the globe, we learnt about the three types of theatre we will be using. Firstly: Immersive theatre, transforms audience members from passive recipients to active participants. Secondly: Interactive theatre, which breaks the "fourth wall" that traditionally separates the performer from the audience. Thirdly: Promenade theatre, the audience moves from place to place, sometimes moving with the actors.
To work on our upcoming Globe performance, our class surrounded 4 people in the centre, moving forward at the sound of a clap. We added onto this by tilting our heads to the left in sync at the first clap, then starting to hum at the second clap, then reaching a hand out towards the people at the third clap, then slowly lowering the hand at the fourth clap. We developed this further by having people laugh menacingly, sing a creepy nursery rhyme and having a random piercing scream. The film & tv actors took turns being in the centre, and said us moving as a group in sync helped make it very creepy/scary.
Furthermore, we sat in groups to create our own villains, by picking different characteristics from famous villains and combining them together. Then, we moved into groups of different characters we were interested in auditioning for. I learnt about Carrie and Nancy (with Bill Sikes) from Oliver Twist, but ended up focusing on Nancy for my audition - I will be auditioning with Alfie from first year.
We also focused on improvisation this week, by playing games that involved quick thinking, such as: the rule of yes, in which we take on board an idea and say “yes” to continue the idea, and develop it further. This teaches us to accept new ideas instead of shutting them down, it also teaches us to act quickly and put ourselves into a scenario without overthinking. We played a game in which we had to take an object and turn it into 40 different things. At first we used a chair, which I found the most difficult. Then we switched to a broom which was a lot easier, as it could be made into more things, and was easier to imagine as something else - my team managed to make it 40 things before the 3 minute timer was up.
22/09/24
On Monday, the year 1’s and 2’s were in the theatre together, where we played some warm up games, and learnt a new one in which we have to make an object/animal, such as a giraffe, elephant, palm tree, toaster, which involves fast thinking and concentration. We then had a challenge, where Kelly told one person a location, and we all had to join the scene silently once we’d worked out what it was. We guessed most of them right, apart from one which we thought was a zoo but was actually just a park, and one which we thought was a roller coaster but was actually a nail salon!
After this, we split off to rehearse for our upcoming audition, Alfie and I focused on perfecting the cockney accents and the way we say our lines. We then moved on to blocking the scene, trying to incorporate some stage combat. One of the moves was a fake hair pull, in which Alfie placed his hand on my head and I grabbed it and moved it about. We tried to block the scene so that we could be clearly seen by the audience, and so that it had movement to it. We developed this further by adding a headlock into it, and a kick at the end to include some more violence to really emphasise the aggressiveness of Bill Sikes.
In our acting technique lesson with Kelly on Tuesday, we learnt how to present different emotions depending on whether you're acting for stage or screen. For stage, expressions should be large to ensure the audience can see the emotions you're portraying, as they are sitting far away, so subtle expressions can’t always be seen. For screen, there is power in having subtle expressions as a close up camera shot can highlight these, making them be seen more easily than on stage. We worked on this by facing the mirror and staring at our face, changing expressions using our past memories to provoke emotion. We also worked in pairs to present a scene, using minute facial movements to match the dialogue.
On Wednesday, we all auditioned for the characters we wanted to play in the ghost light tours. Our audition went really well, we were told it was ‘excellent’ and that we ‘worked well as a pair’, which was important to us as we wanted there to be a clear connection between the characters. We were given some feedback, telling us to think of ideas of how to get the audience involved in the piece. Later on, people performed their auditions with the class as an audience in order to incorporate them into the scenes. Kelly encouraged people who had gone for the same roles to do this to showcase their skills in order to have a better chance of getting the part. Alfie and I performed ours, I ran through the crowd, pushing them apart and hiding from Bill. Bill then screamed at the audience asking where I was. We hadn’t practised this but it went really well, the blocking was different to how we rehearsed but it worked anyway. I wasn’t expecting to show it to everyone, and only had about 30 seconds to prepare after finding out we were doing it. Therefore I had some nerves, but I decided to use them in my character as Nancy too was filled with panic as she was scared of Bill. This really helped my acting, and if I get the part I will think back to how I felt then in order to portray Nancy the best way possible. Once we’d finished everyone cheered very loudly, and congratulated us, it felt amazing and made me so proud. It showed me that I am able to act, encouraging and motivating me to keep working hard. It was great to see everyone perform, and have everyone support each other.
On Thursday, we read through the script for Pinnochio, each of us taking on roles. I took on the role of Pinnochio as I am going to audition for him; I really liked his character because it was a comical role, something I would like to have a go at. In the afternoon we sang through the song ‘Toys’ and spaced it. My character was a young child who had a sister (Jasmine), and we both were desperate for toys but our mum wouldn't let us buy any. The video below shows what we did:
30/09/24
We focused on murder mystery on Monday, working in groups to tell a true story with one lie trying to make our stories realistic so the other groups couldn’t work out when we were lying. To warm up we played mafia boss which is a game that involves thinking tactically, and acting well if you're hiding something.
We also worked on a murder mystery scene from the play mousetrap by Agatha Christie; I played a French woman called ‘Yvette’ who plotted against others to try and work out who the murderer was.
We finished the last section of Stanislavski's technique on Tuesday, walking round the room and giving a backstory to the actions Kelly asked us to do, e.g hide from someone or something. We were given an assignment to do, in which we have to create a scene where there are 3 characters who are discussing their jobs in an old movie theatre. Using Stanislavski’s techniques we have to research the objectives of the characters, their actions, the given circumstances and the magic if. We will then perform this piece in groups of 3, and hand in the research we have completed.
Also, we read through the script of the ghost light tour, we should be starting to piece our sections together on Monday. Then, as part of some research for our performance we went to the York dungeons. I was extremely scared, but I managed to pay attention to the actors and the event. The things that stood out to me were: the actors' large characters and their ability to project well so that they could be heard even when they were being spoken over; the costumes and makeup; the set; the immersive aspect which included the audience and forced us to speak and get involved; the pitch black/darkness was also scary as it left us with the fear of the unknown.
I auditioned for a film project called ‘the famine’ which is about a family during the war times. I went for the role of ‘June’ who is a young, innocent girl (10-11) whose father becomes deranged from the struggles of hiding in a bunker, leaving her traumatised. The audition went well, I worked with George and Connor - I got to audition twice because I worked with them both which meant I had more opportunity to show what I could do. I was given some feedback to make it less theatrical, and avoid speaking to the audience. After the audition, we were called back to do an improvisation scene. George and I created a scene where I stole from a shop, and he told me off but calmed me down - this allowed us to show the bond between the characters. Overall, I was happy with my performance, and whether or not I get the role it was a good experience.
07/10/24
On Monday we played some new games: one was called ladders which involves sitting in pairs in a line, and running up and down all the pairs whilst racing your opponent, the other is another running game, where you run around a circle when your group gets shouted (jets, bombs and airfire). It’s important for actors to have stamina and to keep fit in order to be able to last long days filming, performing etc. We then were given the first draft of our cast list, I got the role of Nancy and Alfie got the role of Bill. We then had to work in groups to think of ideas for the scene: for the lighting we thought it could be flashing when Nancy is being killed to emphasise the chaos, and then possibly go very dark after she has died - so that it is silent. For the clues, Bill is going to collect Bonnie's bracelet from the audience, and have a photo of bullseye (his dog) fall out of his pocket. For props Bill will have a bat which he uses to brutally kill Nancy. We hope the emotional expectations to be fear, and sympathy towards Nancy.
The next day, we took a break from the globe rehearsals to work on a scene from ‘the flick’ which will be our first assessment piece. We also played village which is my favourite game, I led it this week which was really fun as I could see everyone trying to work out what was going on. Then we went back to rehearsing for the show on Wednesday, where we were given the full cast list, in which I found out I’d be playing Nancy for both nights! My costume will be a long Victorian red dress, with some Victorian boots.
On Thursday we learnt about the caucasian circle with Tom, we read some of the script and learnt that ‘The main action of the play consists of a parable that is performed to celebrate the decision in the dispute’.
Next, we practised our phone call scene with Kelly. We worked in pairs to read the lines of the person on the other side of the phone, we did this back to back so that we couldn’t see each other's faces, only hear the voices like you would on a phone call. This helped to improve our reactions to what is being said, so that when we perform it without anyone speaking it is easier to portray the emotions the character feels from what they are hearing on the phone.
https://youtu.be/WdqXy78C5l0?si=fJKhVXp_itia5cjQ
https://youtu.be/1QQBB3cwNM0?si=gRgiZWwj8KOsIbY5
https://youtu.be/6P7XzoTJRa8?si=cfiP7lmfVDfWYYWv
We also sang through some Pinocchio songs, and learnt some of the audition songs as the auditions will be as soon as we get back from the half term. I’m going for the role of Pinocchio and the Blue Fairy. After rehearsing some more for the Globe, we played a game of empire, which is a good game to work out what other people are thinking, and pushes us to try to remember what has been guessed already.
14/10/24
This week has been focused on the globe, rehearsing in our scene groups and also running through the show as a whole, and see how the clues linked together. We ran the show with both casts so everyone had a chance to get used to it as a whole. It was great to see it come together, and watch everyone's pieces they had been working on. We also rehearsed the song Toys to perform on Wednesday infront of the musical theatre course, here’s the video of our performance:
On Wednesday we went to see heathers which was amazing! Although I think the storyline isn't very logical, it was a great show to watch, some of the singing, dancing and acting was great. It was a good experience to watch some live theatre, and I’m very grateful we were able to go for free.
Here are some photos from the run-through of the ghost light tours:
21/10/24
This week was our performance week! You can see my evaluation of this on my separate blog post.
After a week off, we had our auditions for Pinocchio! My evaluation of this can be seen on the unit 2 blog post.
We also went to see war horse during this week, it was the best piece of live theatre I've ever seen. The acting was amazing, I truly believed every character on that stage, and became invested in the story because of this. I read the book when I was younger, so I was familiar with the story but couldn't quite remember exactly what happened. The set was really interesting, there were multiple horses on the stage, with a baby one, and a larger one to show the passing of time. The horses were controlled by people wearing farmers clothes, and they were made to be noticed instead of be invisible, but somehow my attention was drawn to the horses not to the people inside them. The lighting was used to intensify certain moments, during the gunshots it was flashing, during sad moments it was dark, during the death scenes it was red. There was also a screen above the stage with images on, which would move with the people on stage, so if the horses were galloping the background of fields would be moving at the same speed. A really emotional moment was when there was blood on the screen, which slowly turned into poppies.
This week we started to focus on blocking and running through scenes for Pinocchio. On Monday we played a game of lockers to warm ourselves up and get us focused which was needed on this Monday morning. Then we walked around the room as a child, before getting into groups of 3 and telling each other our names, where we lived, our parents, and our personalities as these children. We were all acting as almost perfect children who live in Idilliea, the town Pinnochio is set in. My character was called Jessica, she lived on 4 Cotton Lane with her mummy, daddy, and sister, but wanted to make some new friends at Gepetto’s sweet shop. We then got into groups of 6 and made some scenes up, my group made a scene where there were 4 children going into a sweetshop, a teacher, and a lovely sweetshop owner. I played a child as that is the role I will be playing as Thalia when I’m not Pinocchio or a marionette.
On Tuesday we worked through our assignment of ‘the flick’, rehearsing the scenes and nailing our dialogue for the performance next week. We then did some independent study in the LRC, I updated my audition type up and looked at costume ideas for my characters. We then vocally warmed up, and sang through Toys, before blocking it and rehearsing the movement. As there are 4 Pinocchio’s and Thalia’s I watched the other casts when it wasn’t my go, to work out where I needed to move to etc. It looks really good as there are moments of freeze-frames and slo-motion to highlight specific places on the stage that are moving at normal speed. Here are some photos from the rehearsal:
Then, on Wednesday, we warmed up with the level 2’s so we stood in a circle and introduced ourselves as the character we play. We then got into small groups, and had a hot seat so we took turns to stand up and answer questions about our characters. Then, we walked round the room as children again, but this time as crazy children who had no control. My take was to be a cheeky child who is eating loads of sweets, and fighting any children who tried to take sweets from me. We then made freeze frames in small groups, in ours we tied our shoelaces together. We did this to help us understand the level of crazy and energy we must have for the delinquents scene in Pinocchio, where all the children go wild and out of control. We then sang through satisfaction guaranteed and worked out who was singing the child parts.
On Thursday, we spaced satisfaction guaranteed, and ran through it multiple times with the different casts so everyone knew what they were doing. My character is made from a machine, and is a perfect child who meets their father and mother. The rest of the children are equally perfect, and even move perfectly whilst playing together.
18/11/24
This week, we focused on blocking scenes, and piecing things together. Each day we played games to warm ourselves up in the morning, for example: nun (to work on concentration, and staying focused to avoid laughing), splat (concentration and reaction time), moving day (to stay alert). We also played some new games as the second years have to lead warm-ups for their assessments. We all stood in a circle, and had to pass the jingle bells around the full circle without them making a noise, to make this harder we then had to cross through the circle walking backwards to give the bell to someone else. We used the bells again for a different warm up, where one person sat on a chair blindfolded, and had to try hear anyone who was walking past and point at them to get them out. I had a turn on the chair, and it was very difficult, mainly because people around the outside were moving making it hard to hear the persons footsteps - my other senses were heightened because my sight was taken away.
We also finished our assessment piece this week, ‘the flick’ which Kelly assessed.
I used the ‘Magic if’ to imagine my emotions if I was in Avery’s position, which helped me to express her frustration. However, I’m quite an honest person, so unlike Avery I don’t struggle with expressing my feelings. But, I do sometimes struggle to say what I want in the correct way, in order to avoid hurting feelings - much like Avery. The given circumstances helped during the rehearsal and performance as they allowed me to imagine the surroundings (of the cinema), and to be familiar with the other characters personalities making it easier for me to bounce off them.
Growth:
I felt that I understood the character well, however, after seeing the other performances I felt I could have made her quieter, even more shy. We performed it first with an American accent, as it is set in Massachusetts, but our redirection from Kelly was to switch to an English accent. Although this would usually be more natural for me, I struggled as I had become so used to doing an American accent with the lines, so some of my words still came out American. Despite this, I continued and didn’t let it affect my performance. I think my character was better with the British accent, as in the American accent I sometimes went a bit too sassy. As a team we worked well together, and managed to make the conversation seem natural. To improve we could work on it more with our British accents to make it more fluent.
In ‘Toys’ there is a slow motion section, so to improve this we did a workshop to learn how to move properly. To do this we walked around the room, moving at normal speed, then gradually getting slower. We played a game of slo-motion tig, and all tried to match each others speed to make sure it looks realistic. We also did exercises like walking through mud, or water, or golden syrup, to change the levels of effort.
We added onto I’ve got no strings, by including a ballet section in to match the music, to stay as Pinocchio, I try to make my ballet dancing somewhat stiff, with little technique. We also incorporated the audience in it more by doing a full run of the song, before having Stromboli tell everyone to get involved, and Pinocchio teach the audience the arm movements and claps. The music starts again and Pinocchio sings the first two verses again, encouraging the audience to join in with the actions.
25/11/24
This week we created the blocking for Stromboli’s solo, which has 5 puppets, all of which are played by the Stomboli’s and Pinocchio’s in the other casts. We all move in sync, being controlled by Stromboli. To make it easier, we all move without being held by Stromboli, and moving with a movement of his arm, since he has created our persona’s he can control them. This video shows our second, not very successful attempt at the lift.
For the delinquents seen on pleasure island, we try to have some controlled chaos, by starting the song with an empty stage and only the roustabouts at the front, then we include a roller coaster that swoops through the back of the stage. We made this by having 6 people stand in pairs in rows, and moving up and down, left and right with a slight delay to make it move like a real roller coaster - I’m a part of the roller coaster when I’m in the ensemble. As the song goes on, the stage fills with kids, who fight in silence to avoid shouting over the dialogue at the front between Gepetto and the roustabouts.
We started to polish the show this week, making sure each scene is done properly, and running through act 1 and act 2 fully to see how everything joins together. This was helpful for me, as we did multiple runs for different casts, so I had the chance to practise every scene as all 3 characters, I now feel a lot more confident with what I’m doing. I also made sure to run through my lines whenever I wasn’t in a scene, I think it’s important to know your lines fully to allow you to be completely in character. It's also a lot easier to do scenes if you don’t have a script in your hand, as it breaks the flow.
I felt poorly this week, so I missed out on some singing to rest my voice, but as a class we spent a morning with Tom going through every song in the musical, to ensure everyone is familiar with the tune and lyrics etc.
I am focusing on set design for my production role, so I spent some time painting set and decorations after college.
02/12/24
This week we were running through the whole show before we moved into the theatre. On Thursday and Friday we worked in the Arc studio, polishing certain scenes like the animal scene, pleasure island, finale and bows. After blocking the bows, I felt so excited about the show as it made me imagine the feeling I'll get after performing. As a warm up game, we worked in pairs and had to count to 3 together, saying one number each. The numbers then changed to claps and stomps, making it very confusing; this game was good for concentration, it made me really focused. We did a costume run through on Friday to ensure all the costumes worked well together, and were suitable. Whilst waiting during scenes I’m not in, I’ve been going through my lines which I now feel very confident with.
Over the Christmas holidays, I mainly relaxed to let myself rest after having such a full term. But, I finished off my production diary and Pinocchio evaluation, which can be seen on a separate blog, and I started learning lines for the feature film.
6/01/25
This was our first week back at college! On monday, we played some games to warm ourselves up, including wap, which is one of my personal favourites. It is a high concentration game where we have to pass a wap (a shout) around the group. We then split into groups of 4 to discuss our targets for this year. My target was originally to focus on more naturalistic acting, which would fit well into the next term with connections and the end of year play. But after speaking to Kelly, I’d also like to push myself to play a character with lots of depth, possibly with more than one personality, to switch between personas.
On Tuesday we read through the script of our new national theatre connections play. The national theatre of Great Britain is located in London and is a prestigious performing arts venue. The NT was founded by Laurence Olivier and was based at the Old Vic theatre in Waterloo until 1976, at which time Queen Elizabeth opened the new location, which houses 3 auditoriums and plenty of spaces for rehearsals and performance workshops. In addition to performances at the National Theatre, also known as ‘The Royal Theatre’, the company tours around the Uk performing in different venues. The company presents a range of performance styles, such as: Shakespeare, international classic drama, and new plays by contemporary writers. The first production in the NT was ‘Phedre’, starring Helen Mirren. Since this, many acclaimed actors have performed for the NT. This company has been extremely successful, and has created its own streaming service in which its plays are recorded and broadcasted online for people to watch. National Theatre Connections is a competition that aims to challenge and inspire young performers. Groups all over the country take part in this competition, to try get the opportunity to perform at the national theatre - which our course achieved last year.
Our play is called ‘Normalised’ and was written by Amanda Verlaque who is an Irish writer and director, from Dublin, who has strong moral views about the mistreatment of the LGBTQ+ community. She produced the acclaimed play called, ‘This Sh*t Happens All the Time’ which covers this theme, including themes about homophobia, misogyny and coercive control. She worked in TV drama as a script editor, storyliner and producer before starting her writing career, and now writes for stage, screen, audio and VR. The play ‘Normalised’ follows different groups of teenagers, discussing themes of grief, homophobia, bullying and family. The lead character ‘Jay’ is struggling with the death of his boyfriend ‘Colm’, who’s twin brother refuses to accept he was gay. A group of teens fight for the meadows to be protected, a special place that Colm and Jay used to visit together.
After having a PD day on wednesday, we returned to college on Thursday where year 1 and 2 split in half. In year 1 we focused on classical theatre with Tom, reading through a midsummer night's dream, and learning about the different types of classical theatre: tragedy, romance, comedy and history.
Our acting technique lesson focuses on learning about Uta Hagen, an American actress and acting teacher who is known for her emphasis on truthful acting. Her key ideas involved: emotional truth is essential, use personal experiences to connect with your character, and focus on deep character analysis through the ‘nine questions’. This week we focused on the first two, about emotional truth. To do this, we separated into pairs, and spoke about important emotions we had experienced, such as heartbreak and happiness. This was a difficult task, as it meant being vulnerable with your partner, but it helped to make me really remember the emotions I felt in that moment. We then improvised a short exchange to explore emotional dynamics by staging a breakup in our pairs, but switching the narrative. So for the first attempt I broke up with my partner, and the second attempt he broke up with me. We had to imagine lots of details around us to get us in the moment, we did this by imagining we were in a restaurant we had been to before (I chose Uno momento) and noticing everything around us, where our table was, who the waiters were, what it sounded like, how busy it was, all these things helped to set the atmosphere, and therefore rely on personal experience to fuel the characters emotions. I have broken up with, and been broken up with before in a relationship, therefore I withdrew from these experiences to imagine how I would feel in both situations, substituting my own feelings for a character in a similar situation to have a more truthful portrayal. It is important to be careful when using emotional truth, to keep it healthy, and avoid damaging your mental health by taking things too far.
We also had tutorials with Tom in which we learnt about topics linking to the connections piece, such as homophobia, genders and sexuality. Then to finish the day off we Sang a song from a marvel series ‘Agatha all along’ called ‘Down the road’. We split into different groups and had harmonies in each one, which all blended nicely together sounding very cohesive.
13/01/25
On monday we played lots of games in the morning. Including lockers, where we have to line up in Pairs, and stay very focused to reply to the captain the second our locker number is called. We also played ninja which I am improving at! It’s very difficult, but it gets easier the more you play it. It’s all about concentration, to work out whose go it is and be aware of who is looking to target you to get you out. We also did a task where we laid on our backs and thought of different events, celebrations or moments in our lives. One memory was a time when you were extremely proud. I chose my GCSE results day, as the moment I opened that paper and saw my grades was like a catharsis of stress. This was to engage our emotional memory, and use it in our acting. We then got into pairs and spoke about important memories, telling each other as much detail as possible so that the other person could visually imagine it.
Later on, we had independent study time, in which we had to decide on our SMART targets. My target for this term is to try the costume production role on the end of year show, researching consistently to find the correct style of costumes for that time period, to suit the atmosphere of the show. I aim to complete this to a merit standard or above. We also had a research task, developing more on the connections piece, to do this, I wrote a diary entry for the character of Sam, explaining her feelings about a specific scene with her crush.
Diary entry
Character : Sam
Scene 6
This is a scene where the character of Sam speaks to her crush Rosa about her feelings towards her.
Dear Diary,
Today I did something stupid but it was worth it. I finally told Rosa how I feel. I felt sick as the words were coming out of my mouth. I was filled with sudden panic that I'd misread the signals, and she didn’t really like me back. Thankfully, my original thoughts were correct, as she too has feelings for me! Well… atleast I think she does as she agreed to go on a date with me.
I can't believe it. I don’t know how I was so bold, it was so unusual for me! I suppose I can be a confident person, but I’m usually so awkward with asking out girls. But I had to take the opportunity whilst it was there! Who knows when I would’ve got another chance to speak to her alone.
I spoke to Rosa and Reema earlier on in the day, there was definitely some tension between Rosa and I, I think that’s what pushed me to be bold and ask her out. But, Reema made it sort of awkward, making some snarky comments, and then Rosa told me to ignore her, I don’t know what's happening there. I’m a little worried Reema isn’t a huge fan of mine. I guess it's because her and Rosa are so close, maybe she feels threatened by me? But I think she seems great, I hope we can be friends.
I also stayed back on Monday night to meet the new first years for next year. We told them about the amazing opportunities on the course, why we love it, and why they should join. I spoke about how I felt you gained the most experience on this course from doing 4-5 shows, films, and general acting & singing lessons.
On Tuesday, the year 1’s were given scripts to work on in pairs. This was an opportunity to practise Uta Hagen's 3rd idea of the ‘9 questions’ which are: Who am I? What are the circumstances? What are my relationships? What do I want? What’s in my way? What do I do to get what I want? Where am I? What time is it? What do I do before the scene begins? Using a no context scene we answer the 9 questions to create a rich inner life for the character. Our scene was about a person who wanted to buy something from another person, and this is the character I built by using these questions:
I found the question: ‘What do I do before the scene begins?’ the most useful because it allowed me to understand lots of emotions about the character, what her energy levels were like, what had happened to affect her mood, how much patience she had, and how difficult her day had been beforehand.
In the afternoon, I helped out with the year 2’s showcase practising, discussing different ideas with people and deciding which pieces I wanted to be a part of. I’m going to be a part of ‘Shakers’ which will be directed by Scarlett Walker, and a rom-com piece involving Delroy and Beth.
On Wednesday, we focused on some more connections work, where we got into groups and developed ideas about a certain character. Our character was Reema, we had to section information into facts and inferences.
We then played a new game with Abby, called busy bees. In this game we have to walk around the room as bees, then when Abby shouts out a letter, you have to pretend to be something that begins with that letter. However, if someone had the same idea as you then you're out, or if your idea is rubbish you're out! This game requires quick thinking, creativity and strategy to make sure no one else picks the same as you. We then moved onto a game with moral questions. We had to stand on the side of the room based on if we strongly agreed, or strongly disagreed. We were asked silly questions at first like ‘Pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza’, then progressed to deeper questions about mental health, politics and homophobia. After each question we were given the chance to explain our reasonings. I enjoyed discussing these topics, and hearing everyone's different views. This game was a challenge set by the writer of our connections piece, to get us thinking about moral questions, and hear lots of peoples views to understand the views of our characters.
Later, we were set a task of imagining we were going to a birthday party, this was to develop our emotional truth. I decided to walk into the party late, as that’s what I usually do. I also pretended to take some photos with my friends, and picked lot’s of food at the buffet - all things I usually do at a party. I enjoyed this task because it got me thinking about how I would act in certain situations. I can use this technique to find similarities from me to my character.
On Wednesday evening we started filming for the feature film. I was extremely nervous as I’d never done any film work before, and was playing a leading character. It was a very enjoyable experience as I was able to play my character without worrying about blocking myself from the audience, I could simply act as you would in the real world, with the cameras moving around. It’s very different to theatre acting, as all movements are a lot more subtle, the camera is up close so even the twitch of an eye can be detected. It’s also interesting as there is less time spent rehearsing and more performing. This is because in theatre performances you rehearse for weeks, then perform it all in one go. But in film acting you rehearse before shooting each scene - this is how we did it for the feature film. It means you have to be on the ball, and ready to snap into character for every take.
We continued to film all day on Thursday, filming one of the main scenes, where Gracie’s murder takes place. In this scene we have our scripts as props, I found this helpful as it was almost like a comfort blanket; I knew I could scan over the script if I needed to check my lines before the next take. However, if I wasn’t happy with how I acted in one of the takes I had to let it go as there isn’t enough time to retake everything, we have to stick to the schedule to get it finished in time.
20/01/25
Back in the theatre on Monday, we worked on some trust exercises. To do this, we got in a circle and had to turn to the left, so that we were all facing the person next to us. In silence, we then had to sit down when the moment felt right, so that we were all leaning on each other - it worked when everyone trusted one another. We then had to get into pairs with someone of a similar size and shape: put our feet together, face each other, then balance by leaning back and holding hands. After doing it once, we swapped partners to be with anyone, we then repeated the exercise and learnt that it didn’t matter if they were the same size as us if we both trusted each other. We repeated this again, getting in bigger groups of people, balancing and leaning. This exercise also gave us a reminder of what it’s like to rely on another person, and do an action with them. This helped with the next task, where we played imaginary tug of war. This was so much fun, I got so invested and became the team leader, sharing tactics and building energy in the group. But, when we competed with the other group, the war kept going for a long time as neither team wanted to lose. Will and I decided to take the fall, and accept defeat to keep the competition realistic, as in real life one team would eventually win. We repeated the competition and changed it so that we knew which team was going to lose. This was easier as it meant the tug of war wasn’t dragged on, and let us work with the other team better.
On Tuesday, we started to perform our no context script pieces, but ran out of time, as I had to leave early to go audition for Beth and Alex’s play. I worked with Layla in the audition, and we played twins, I was the confident, talented one, and she was timid and self-concious. I thought the audition went well, however I forgot a line during it as I hadn’t been off script for very long. We also went to our prep for employment lessons where we learn more about technology to help us in the future.
Also in the theatre on Wednesday, we played a game of cat and mouse to get everyone warmed up. Afterwards, we were given some time to go and rehearse for the connections group auditions. I had to do 2 auditions, one in a group with Scarlet and Milo, and one with Emily as my romantic interest. I was happy with both my auditions, however I think I could have spoken louder to ensure everyone watching could hear it clearly.
We filmed all day on Thursday, it was a very long day, but was successful as we got a lot of scenes done. We continued filming all day Friday too.
27/01/25
On Monday we started with a game of G’day bruce, which was very easy for everyone as we have been practising. We then got into groups and had to read a given line in a different emotion each, e.g: angry, upset, confused, desperate. Our line was ‘Please! Don’t leave me, I’m begging you!’ We then had to create a comedy scene, our story was three friends tying their mates shoelaces together and leaving him stuck whilst they went and ate at his favourite restaurant. Then, we had to create a tragedy scene. In this, we had 2 gang members stab a brother, and the other brother was distraught begging him not to die. It would be a challenge to try to make a tragedy scene without involving death. After this, we worked in new groups and planned some ideas for DNA and Normalised. We planned some set design, working out what would work for both plays. And planned some costumes for the characters, based on their personalities. I’m in charge of costumes for DNA, so I have been taking notes and asking each actor what they believe their character would wear to get some insight.
The next day, Tuesday, the year 1’s worked on improving our projection, as it was one of our major flaws during our auditions, and there will be no mics for the next 2 plays. To do this we sat as if we were at a dinner table having a meal, but we all had to be slightly deaf and therefore couldn’t hear each other. The challenge was to speak loudly without shouting. After this all stood at opposite ends of the room, with some people in the middle. Each person had to repeat a given line along the room changing from quiet to loud - without shouting. This was really helpful to make us speak with projection when performing. Then, the rest of the class performed their no context script pieces, so that Kelly could write down some feedback for us to work on. This afternoon we filmed scene 7. In the evening I rehearsed for my upcoming audition, analysing my script.
Wednesday was our audition day. After warming up with a game of wap and look up look down, we began rehearsing for our call back auditions for ‘Normalised’ and our auditions for DNA. I felt prepared for the call back because it was the scene I'd practised in my previous audition.
This time, I worked with two different partners, which was helpful as it gave me a chance to create chemistry with someone else. If I was to redo this audition, I would try to keep eye contact with my scene partner for longer, as I often felt overly awkward and had to look away. However, I felt I took the note from the last audition, and made sure the scene was awkward for the characters but not for the audience. I also was given some redirection from Tom, to change my line about me being a ‘physic’ to pretend to be a fortune teller, to go overly dramatic with it as an attempt to make Rosa laugh in the scene.
For my DNA audition, I worked in a large group to create a scene where we find out that the boy we killed isn’t really dead. It was a difficult scene as for the most part I was standing in silence. This pushed me to focus on my reactions and relationships to other characters. Then for my dialogue, which was written with a lot of stutters, I portrayed Leah as panicking whilst trying to get her words out. I was proud of my audition, however I felt I’d done better in rehearsal, I was very nervous, as we were performing in front of the whole class. It was enjoyable to watch the other pieces as it was interesting to see how everyone else interpreted each character.
This Thursday, we continued with the audition process, with lots of recall auditions in the afternoon. But, to start with we had an acting technique lesson with Kelly, in which we were working on presenting a dinner table scene of a family of 3, who have lost a son who has run away, leaving the family tense and distressed. We will be filming this scene next week. As I'd missed the last two lessons due to filming, I joined a group and took on the role of the mother, as I felt she was an emotional character with lots of depth. She is torn by grieving someone still alive, and is frustrated at her son for his behaviour, pushing her anger onto her daughter, forgetting her value and she is taking her for granted. Here is a video from the rehearsal this week:
https://stocktoncollege-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/02300264_stockton_ac_uk/EcLcEmjiXTdIj0U-Bmh4C9YBuee0f-xQWjrLgTo2nojwFw
To improve I would:
Spend more time eating at the start, then completely stop by the end as if she feels sick
Go to retaliate at Emma before the father interrupts
Learn my lines to avoid stumbling on words
For the recall auditions in the afternoon, I auditioned with a monologue by Leah (from DNA), and worked with George who played Phil. In this scene, Leah rambles on to Phill about how she wants to know what he’s thinking, and how she talks too much. This monologue is interesting, as Phil’s silence speaks volumes about their relationship, in terms of unrequited feelings. Leah’s non stop talking is a direct contrast with Phils quietness, and in my opinion shows her insecurities, and overcompensation on not feeling good enough - filling silence with words. Here is my analysis of the script:
I was proud of myself in the audition, and for the first time feel as though I did it the best I could. I chose to sit on the floor as the scene is set on a field; we leant against the pillar as if it was a tree. I tried to give the monologue structure, by building the scene up, starting slow and getting faster so that by the large paragraph I was speeding to show Leah’s thoughts exploding. I used a range of emotions, disappointment, longing, frustration, and confusion.
We had our final day of filming on Friday. This feature film has been an amazing experience, the whole cast are so talented and I’ve learnt a lot about how to adjust my acting to suit the camera, for example, what might feel close in person looks far away on camera. You also have to pay a lot of attention to detail for continuity, meaning everything must be kept the same in between and during takes to make sure it looks correct from all angles. I worked with Keiran a lot as he was my romantic interest, we worked well together and bounced off each other well. Overall, I loved the experience. I can’t wait to make more films in the future as I hope to focus my career on screen acting. If I could redo this again, I would develop certain scenes emotionally, before the filming day, as when you’re on set it's chaotic and quick, so there isn’t much time given to rehearse before shooting.
03/02/25
On Monday, we started with an improv game led by Scarlet. You play this game by starting with one person in the middle of a scene, and one by one every person joining but changing the scene each time. Then when the last person has joined, one by one again everyone leaves the scene, going backwards in order. This game requires: characterisation, creativity, focus, memorisation, teamwork and acceptance. We then played moving day, which I won. Afterwards, we got into groups of 6, and read lyrics to a Beatles song allowed using good pronunciation. We then developed this to reading the lyrics with more emotion, this is to improve our sight reading. We used the lyrics of this song as a stimulus to create a scene. Our scene worked well because we used teamwork, at the start a few people led it with their initial ideas, but as the scene was being made we all added to it, including everyone's different ideas.
In Tuesday’s morning lesson we finished off our work on our no context scenes, by changing them using the feedback we were given by Kelly. Feedback on 'The Bargain' Be careful that you never deliver a piece that is fully in side profile. JJ try to do some thinking about who the character is - create more of a backstory for him it will really help to take you to the next level of thinking when your thinking as someone else. Lets think about the environment more and the world. Put some physical movement into it to make it more interesting. To improve our piece, we included a door and therefore changed the location. Originally we set it at a storage unit, but changed it to be at my house. This changed the character's motives, making me unbothered as I didn’t have to travel anywhere, and making JJ frustrated that he spent so much time coming to my house. We used the door to add more physical movement in it to make it more interesting. Then in the afternoon, we rehearsed ‘Shakers’ which is a play that we will be performing in the year 2’s fringe festival. This is being directed by Scarlet, and coincides with the boys performance of ‘Bouncers’. I am playing Carol, and in the story we are servers at a bar, complaining about rude customers (who we mock and pretend to be). I also started to learn the dance to Cell block Tango from Chicago, directed by Milo, also for the Fringe.
On Wednesday, we played a game of ninja and wap to warm up, before focusing on our next projects, DNA and Normalised. In DNA I got the role of Leah! I’m very excited but also very nervous, as she is such a complicated character it’s going to be tricky to pull off. However, my main focus is to keep on top of the lines, ensuring I can develop her character to the best of my ability. After rehearsing the first scene, which involved Leah’s first monologue, I got some feedback from Abbie in which she said I understand the character. In Normalised I’m going to be a part of the ensemble in Jamsey’s gang, meaning I’ll be playing a chav. I created a character for this part, called ‘Becca’ and gave her a backstory of having a past relationship with Jamesy, making her extremely jealous of Reema as Jamesy is clearly interested in her. Becca is fun to play as it’s the opposite of me, and of Leah in DNA. I’m grateful I’m part of both plays, as DNA has a brilliant story, but Normalised allows me to perform at the Newcastle Royal, and gives us a chance to perform at london.
On Thursday, we started the day by filming our dinner scenes in the green room with the film and tv students. I wore a white sweater as it reminds me of something a mother would wear. The scene was done with 4 shots, 3 close ups on each person and 1 master shot. I was happy with my performance, but felt it wasn’t very emotional. I find that aspect of filming difficult, as you have to be able to snap into character very quickly. To improve, I would be going over the lines before filming, just to remind myself of all the emotions I would be feeling in the characters' situation. Later on, we continued working on DNA, rehearsing the first scene again and developing the moment. When I was not needed in the scene I spent time learning bits of my monologue - the faster I'm off script the faster I can develop my acting, it’s difficult to work with others with a script in your hand.
Character Analysis - Leah - DNA by Denis Kelly
An extremely complicated character.
Desperate to be liked.
Very insecure, seeks validation and confirmation, shown by her asking questions constantly.
Has low self-esteem, which she tries to hide with her chatter.
Desperate to connect with Phil, she needs his approval.
She feels separate from the death of Adam as she wasn’t there when it happened, therefore she kills the hamster to try to feel something, to understand how the others felt, but she can’t because a hamster is so different from a human.
She is not really a part of the group, she is only there because of her obsession with Phil. She doesn’t believe she really has friends, which is true as everyone in the group only truly cares about themself, barring Jan and Mark, the only true friendship.
She is an outsider because she doesn’t agree with the others' morals.
She acts as a moral conscience and is the emotional core of the play, someone the audience can relate to.
Phil stays cold and doesn’t let her in, he barely speaks and when he does he is straight to the point. Leah constantly speaks but waffles when she does. They are a direct contrast of each other, which shows the imbalance in the relationship.
Her monologues reveal her longing to connect with Phil, and her trying to make sense of the situation she is struggling to understand.
She ponders deep questions about humanity, morality, and identity in an abstract/absurd way.
She is emotionally drained.
Her inability to connect with Phill symbolises her greater isolation within the group.
10/01/25
Back in the theatre on Monday, we started the morning off with a game of lockers to get us focused, and a game of cat and mouse to get us energised. We also played a new game led by Jasmine. It is similar to splat, except there are different poses which were all valentines themed; cupid, broken heart, awkward proposal, bouquet of flowers, and a rose. This game requires a lot of concentration, and memory skills to remember what each pose was. After this we got back into our groups for the upcoming productions: DNA 1, DNA 2, DNA 3, and Normalised. We planned together different ideas for costume, sound, lighting and. 
As my production role is costume, I have been planning outfit ideas for each character based on their personalities. Collectively, we decided to not have it in school uniform, as we imagine the story to take place during a half term, or school holidays as the kids have so much time to hang out and meet up. But, Eve will be in uniform at the end, to show how long she has been lost for. We then started rehearsing in our groups, as I am in both Normalised and DNA, I took part in the scenes I was needed for in Normalised, then practised my monologue with Phil in the afternoon. This was Leah’s second monologue, which I am really struggling with. In this, Leah attempts to kill herself in front of Phill to see what he’d do, which is nerve racking to try and act as it’s so out of my comfort zone. I learnt all my lines for scene 1 over the weekend, so I focused on developing the acting of the monologue, with some help and direction from Lily Day.
On Tuesday, we had our acting technique lesson with Kelly, in this we learnt about the practitioner, Stanford Meisner. Stanford Meisner’s approach is for the actor to not focus on themselves and instead concentrate on the other actors in the immediate environment. He is also known for the Meisner technique: ‘To live truthfully under given imaginary circumstances.’ The Meisner approach to acting emphasizes three elements: emotional preparation, repetition exercises, and improvisation. It aims to connect actors with their scene partners and respond to stimuli. In our given exercise we had to get into pairs and describe the other person, who had to repeat what they were saying back to them. This was to work on repetition to concentrate on and listen to what the other actor was saying. We then were given a short script, a small argument set in a quiet cafe. We started it by simply reading the lines. We then developed it by reading the lines with any emotion that seemed fit. We then took a few minutes to decide some context about the scene to give reason to the lines we were saying, this was to focus on emotional preparation. After this we all sat around as if we were all in the cafe, taking it in turns to play out the scene, everyone reacting to each other. It was also a good exercise to practise a stage whisper, as we were trying to not disturb the peace of the cafe whilst being very angry. In the afternoon we had a rehearsal for bright young things, Beth and Alex’s play.
On Thursday, we learnt about medical acting. We started by watching scenes from casualty, as Kelly’s friend had been in the show. Then, we were given a script and had to google the words we didn’t know to make us understand what they were, and therefore allow us to perform it with more realism. We practiced the scenes after in pairs, imagining we were examining a patient. Me and JJ asked someone to step in as a body for us, so we could know what it was like to have the patient there. Afterwards, we had a Shakespeare lesson with Tom, we finished and performed our pieces, Hannah and I performed our argument between Helena and Hermia, our goal was to give the piece movement and use as much space as we could. After lunch, our group rehearsed scene 2 in the theatre, and finished the blocking for it. Then we had a vocal warm up with Tom, and sang through American idiot. We then spaced it as a dance/movement piece which was so much fun.
17/02/25
After taking Wednesday and Thursday off sick, I started the week on Monday in the theatre with the rest of the class. We played lot’s of games to warm ourselves up, including ‘Why are you late’. In this game, one person goes out the room, and everyone else has to create a random reason as to why they are late, then mime it to them to explain, without the teacher seeing. This involves using a lot of body movement to show things, and a lot of creativity to try different things to make them understand. We then played a chinese whispers game, but with miming instead of whispering. One person started the chain off by miming a situation, which had to be repeated to each person down the line, up until the final person showed us all what they had seen. After this we got into our groups (mine is DNA 1) and finished off a group piece everyone started last week whilst I was off. Our piece showed each character’s reaction after following Phill’s instructions to form the plan. My character (Leah) went home to an empty house, and killed her hamster, which is later mentioned in the play.
On Tuesday the year 1’s started with our acting technique lesson, taught by George in year 2 for his assessment.We learnt about the practitioner, Michael Chekhov who’s an actor that follows the teachings of stanislavski.The first warm up we did was to understand the Physchological gesture, in which we were given an emotion and had to do the first gesture that came to mind. For example, for sadness we may hold our head low, or curl up. Then, we focused on qualities of movement, in which we walked around the room embodying the different emotions that were given to us. Then we moved onto the imaginary body. To do this we imagined a character we had played in the past or were going to be playing in the future and we found similarities and differences between ourselves and that character. We then walked round the imaginary character before stepping into the space and becoming it. Finally, to learn about radiating and receiving we got into pairs and performed a short scene. I worked with Jasmine and we interpreted the script as quite fast paced, overlapping each other talking which worked well as we were given positive feedback about it. We chose an overall emotion each, mine was stressed, and hers was chilled, no matter what happened in the scene we kept to those emotions. On the afternoon I taught Lola and Layla a tap dance I knew as I have performed it before, for them to perform in their showcase. Also, we ran through some of Shakers, before heading to the Bright Young Things rehearsal. In this we worked through lots of scenes and also played some games to enhance our characters. One of these was to enter a party as your character, doing what your character would do. As I’m playing Frankie the assistant, I ran around fetching drinks for my bosses, and touching up everyone's makeup as if I was still in work mode.
On Wednesday, we had a dance warm up to lift spirits, in which music was played and we had to dance in groups, swapping around to dance with different people. This helped to raise people’s energy and encourage everyone to let loose. After this we stretched our body’s, legs and arms as part of this physical warm up. It’s important to keep fit as an actor to have good stamina and energy levels. Next, we got into small groups, and had to create a short scene based on a line. Our line was ‘You two are like bulls in a China shop when you get going’. Our scene had two children and a mum, the kids were fighting over a game and the mum was helplessly trying to split them up. We added in texan accents to make it funnier. After performing this, we were given specific redirection - ours was to play it like it was a Shakespearean play. When improvising, we changed the fight to a dual, and spoke in Posh voices with old language. We then played a game led by Abby where three people stood at the front, and had to deliver a line with different redirection. My favourite redirection was to deliver the line, ‘if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again’ as a mother who was not mad just disappointed. In the afternoon, we ran through the final group scene of DNA, freestyling it as we went. It was very intense as everyone was so committed to the scene, we were all very impressed with how it went, and we know we can build on it even more with some blocking, and losing the scripts. Finally, I learnt the movement piece that had been started last week. The stimulus was a person standing still, with lots of people moving rapidly around them. As we touched this person we all became heavier, as they became lighter.
https://stocktoncollege-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/02401167_stockton_ac_uk/ER1dC0CctrZOrAI3a9humZUBnTx5e4QAp9ZcEtg4SOBSEw
On Thursday, we learnt about medical acting. We started by watching scenes from casualty, as Kelly’s friend had been in the show. Then, we were given a script and had to google the words we didn’t know to make us understand what they were, and therefore allow us to perform it with more realism. We practiced the scenes after in pairs, imagining we were examining a patient. Me and JJ asked someone to step in as a body for us, so we could know what it was like to have the patient there. Afterwards, we had a Shakespeare lesson with Tom, we finished and performed our pieces, Hannah and I performed our argument between Helena and Hermia, our goal was to give the piece movement and use as much space as we could. After lunch, our group rehearsed scene 2 in the theatre, and finished the blocking for it. Then we had a vocal warm up with Tom, and sang through American idiot. We then spaced it as a dance/movement piece which was so much fun.
02/03/25
On Monday, we played a game of moving day to wake us all up, then moved on to play Wink murder, in which I was one of the killers, but was caught out and didn’t win. Afterwards, our group rehearsed the second group scene, working on it by running it once extremely quickly to get into a rhythm, then running it again at a slightly slower pace. We showed Kelly our first two group scenes and were given helpful feedback, such as making sure to listen to what each other were saying, and not preempting the last line. It’s difficult as it’s so fast paced, but with work we can improve this. Overall, Kelly was very impressed with our performance. On the afternoon, Jamsey’s gang got together to discuss all of the scenes we’re in, and work out how we can become a tighter, chavier group.
We played lockers on Tuesday morning, which is one of my favourite games as it’s so speedy and requires so much focus but is still really fun. As not many of our group were in, the girls in Shakers decided to run through our first two scenes to keep developing it and making it flow better. In the afternoon we did a partial run through of Bright Young Things up until scene 12. This was helpful as I was able to see how each scene ran into each other, and work out which side of the stage I should be going off and on in. I was told by Kelly that I was too similar to myself in the role I was playing, and that I needed to look into what a runner was like, and make my character busier by using lots of props, and seeming very chaotic.
On Wednesday morning we played a game of ninja, and village. Most of our group was in so we rehearsed and blocked group scene 4 after showing it to Abby who helped us with the spacing of the scene. Later on, we recaped the Leban technique as our last lesson on that topic.
10/03/25
We started the day on Monday by playing a massive game of village with the whole class. This was fun as there were so many people playing it was more hectic, and harder to find the vampires. After this we played cat and mouse to get everyone moving. Then, our group rehearsed scene 1 from DNA in the black box room, as all of our cast was in. This went well and we ran it a few times, improving it to make sure no one was blocking themselves or each other. As we were pushed on time, we skipped ahead to scene 4, as our Lou hadn’t rehearsed this before. We explained the blocking to her, and ran through. However, it was quotes stoppy and starty as we wanted to get the spacing correct. In the afternoon, I worked with the Normalised group, running through the last few scenes of the play. I also spent some time sitting at the back of the theatre watching the scenes I wasn’t in to help them make sure they were projecting enough to be heard everywhere.
On Tuesday, we warmed up altogether, playing a game of of buzzy bee’s and moving day. After prep for employment, we were given time to work on the year 2’s fringe festival, which meant time to work on Bouncers and Shakers. We started to piece them both together, having shakers scenes, then bouncers scenes. We also used the bouncers in our scenes as customers to fill the stage up. In the afternoon we had a bright young things rehearsal, in which I used the feedback I was given, and changed my character to have lots of props, and seem in a constant rush. I was watching Jane the Virgin, and saw a runner in the show working on a film set, he had lots of props, and seemed to be constantly on edge, whilst not completing anything to the standard wanted by the directors - I will take inspiration and aim to make Frankie more like this. This evening, the level 4’s hosted a traitor's games night, to fundraise for their upcoming play of ‘Jane Eyre’. This is like a game of village, where there are faithfuls and traitors, the faithfuls have to banish all the traitors to win, and the traitors have to make it to the end undetected, murdering people each night. I was chosen to be a faithful, which I was slightly disappointed with at first, but was actually fun as it wasn’t stressful. I ended up winning the game with two other people, successfully banishing two traitors along the way.
On Wednesday, we went into rehearsing straight away, our DNA group got together and rehearsed scene 4 as that is the one we are least familiar with. Our goal was to get it running smoothly by the end of the rehearsal, which we achieved. At half 11, all the Normalised ensemble had to go to the theatre to clear up the spacing in the group scenes. This afternoon, we did a full dress run of Normalised, which was very helpful, as my chav costume helped get me into character very well. As the main Normalised cast were doing a tech run, this left us some time to rehearse more of DNA. We did our very first proper run today, including all of my monologues which we had been skipping previously to save time. I enjoyed this run, as doing it from the start helped all the characters feel the rhythm of the play, and kept the storyline going through our performances. It was nerve racking to perform my monologues for the first time to everyone, and although we only got to the third one, it helped me gain more confidence. When I got home, I read over my lines for the first three monologues, and annotated the last one which I have yet to learn.
Thursday was our show day. In the morning, the people not in the maincast left to rehearse anything we needed to, I ran through a monologue from DNA with Lola who also plays Leah in the other cast. She gave me some tips to give the monologue more dimension, and add a sense of humour to it. The monologue starts by explaining how humans are like Bonobos, but changes to Leah strangling herself to get Phill’s attention, before going back to the topic of Bonobos. This in itself is comedic as it’s such a random thing to do. To make it funnier, I now look back at Phil as I’m laying on the floor playing dead, to see if he’s looking at me. This also helps explain to the audience why I’ve just tried to kill myself, and makes the awkwardness in it more funny. Later on we had a run through of any group scenes in Normalised, before having a break to get ready for the show. The show went really well, Jamsey’s gang got a compliment from the director, as we had done well with the small part we were given, reacting well to support the atmosphere of the play.
10/03/25
On Monday, we all brought our costumes in to get photos for marketing. We also had a run through in our costumes, to get the feel of it, like a mini dress run. Whilst in the theatre, we sorted our the lighting, Abby was in the light box up the top, and we shouted up letting her know what the lighting ques were. I took charge on this, writing in my script at the start and end of every scene. We had three main light settings, one was a white light on the street for Jan and Mark dualogue scenes, one was on the feild for Phil and Leah, which had more of a green tinge, and the other was the woods for the group scenes. However, when Bri has her melt down we added a spotlight on her to intensify the moment, and had a red spotlight on Eve when she appeared in the last scene. Some scenes we wanted to end with a black-out and some didn’t so we had to clear this up.
On Tuesday year 1 had a lesson first thing to discuss the Normalised write up, and what to include to do it correctly. We then gave each other feedback, getting into pairs and giving the other person a WWW (what went well) and an EBI (even better if) as seen in my notebook. After our last prep for employment lesson, year 2 showed Kelly and Tom all of their fringe pieces, meaning I had to show them the first scene of Shakers with the girls. They liked it, but said they didn’t think we understood all the jokes, and should turn down our male persona’s to let the script bring the humour. Therefore, we worked on it after, going through the scene and playing down the male persona’s to not take away from the other comical aspects. Then as usual, in the afternoon we had a Bright Young Things rehearsal, in which we did a full run through, I learnt my lines whilst I was offstage, and wrote down which side I was going on and off on in my script.
On Wednesday, we had a tech run making sure the lights were correct, and so was the sound. For the sound we had wind on the street, and birds chirping on the feild. The speakers were broken so the sound was not clear, we ended up deciding to not use them and just have silence, apart from a heartbeat, which opened and ended the play. After, the other casts had their tech runs, so we rehearsed in the white box room, sorting out any mistakes we made beforehand - which was mainly the last scene, which we messed up lot’s of lines on, and therefore distrupted the blocking. We also played a game of ninja with the whole class, this was a fun distraction from the chaos of show-week. I helped Adam and Hayley rip up Eve & Adam’s shirts, putting eyeshadow on it to make it look muddy, and bloody. We put lot’s of mud on the cuffs of the shirt, and blood on the rips to make it realistic. To get it even muddier, they put them on the grass outside and stomped on them.
I watched cast 2 do a run through in the theatre, and wrote down notes to give to them, to help them improve. I tried my best to gve them lot’s of positive feedback, as well as constuctive criticism.
Thursday was our show day! My cast had a show in the morning at 10.00am, meaning we arrived at college early to get ready and run over a few lines. This performance was in front of a school, and it went very well. A few of the group scenes lines were muddled up, but we just made sure to iron these out afterwards. The school gave us some feedback, and were impressed with what they saw. We had a discussion with them afterwards, and they asked us lots of questions about character building, working and directing as a group, what we found hard and what we found fun. We told them we really worked on our characters, understanding their emotions and reasonings to make the performance believable. We also said it was enjoyable working as a group, as we all supported each other, and listened to one another's ideas, integrating them all. We found it hard to rehearse properly, as the whole cast weren’t able to get together very often, because of the other plays (Normalised & Bright young things) that are going on at the same time, and to align everyone's schedule. I also struggled with the monologues, as there’s so many I tried to find the balance between not dragging them on but not speaking too quickly. I enjoyed the group scenes the most, it was more of a push to make those believable, as you had to try to listen to other people instead of just reciting lines.
After this morning show, we had some time to go through the director's notes for connections. Some of the notes that are relevant to me are:
Then we used these notes to change parts of the play. As we were short on time, we focused on moving the shrine further forward on the stage to stop it from being hidden at the back. We ran through the last scene with this set change, to see how it would feel and to make some new spacing. DAY IN LIFE, PHOTOS
Then it was time for our evening show. This went really well, the audience found lots of elements of humour in the play, which allowed us to play off it more. The moment where I strangle myself then check if Phil was looking worked well, I changed where I fell, as in the first performance I was too far forwards so couldn’t be seen by everyone in the audience. Sometimes it was difficult to stay serious when the audience was laughing, but I managed. The mistakes we made in the lines earlier were fixed as well. Kelly gave me some feedback from my performance, saying I was excellent, and the monologues were executed very well, especially the Bonobo monologue and the De ja vu monologue. Tom was using the script to check how accurate our lines were, and congratulated me on being so spot on, word for word, instead of paraphrasing.
For DNA, I worked on costume as my production role. To do this to a high level, I gave everyone some guidelines about what their costumes should be: try use things you already have, casual teenage outfits, 2010-2020 vibe, things you would wear outside, no large logos and match it to your character. We decided to not wear uniform to switch it up, as DNA is ussually done with school uniform, but we thought we could show off the characters more with wearing own clothes. I put a poll in the chat, and explained the benefits of not wearing uniform.
I had lot’s of discussions with people about what their character would wear, for example we decided Phil should be the only one with a hat on, to make him seem effortlessly cool. Jan and Mark had similar style outfits, both wearing leather jackets. Danny wore something smarter, with fake glasses, Cathay wearing something quirky and slightly rough etc. I kept a log of what people were wearing on my phone, and tried to get as many photos off people before the show, unless I had seen it in person. Here are all the photos I got:
24/03/25
On Monday, after a game of lockers we played scarlette’s game where we create a scene, one person entering at a time and changing the scene, then one person leaving at a time in the reverse order so we go through and end all the scenes we just made. After, we created a scene based on two lines. The opening line being: ‘He must fall asleep at some point, then we can make our escape’, the last line being: ‘well that was an unexpected turn of events’. We used the seats in the theatre as our set, and based it in a classroom. The story was us all being in detention, and trying to bore our teacher so much he falls asleep, but instead of falling asleep he dies. We were given the afternoon to chill out and reset, or catch up on any written work, after such a hectic time last week.
On Tuesday, we had a year 1 lesson, which we started by playing some games, including buzzy’s bee’s and 13. I lead a game adwell, where we stand in a circle and one person does an action and an explanation to what they’re doing, everyone else copying the action but changing the explanation as to what they’re doing. This pushes everyone to be creative, and to think quickly on the spot. After this we were told about our next assignment, UAL 7, and were explained how to write this to the best standard, everything we needed to include. Next, we were given the rest of the morning to focus on the fringe pieces, so we rehearsed all 3 scenes of Shakers, deciding we needed to have a rethink of the second scene, which we changed last week after getting feedback from the class. We are struggling to take down the extravity of the male characters without losing the energy. The next step for this project is to start learning the lines and get off script, now the other shows are almost over we have more time to do this. On the afternoon, we had a bright young things rehearsa, in which I was not impressed with my performance as I wasn’t very focused. I will learn from this and bring 100% effort to the next rehearsal.
On Wednesday, we warmed up with a game of 13 and Village. Then, we read through the script of lovely bones for the first time, everyone joining in and reading in for roles they were interested in. I’m most interested in the role of Linsey, as I think her character has a lot of depth, dealing with her grief over her sister, and being left behind to live with everyone around her grieving. I also think she has a certain fierceness to her, as she is eager to know the truth to what happened to her sister, pushing her to even break into Mr Harvey’s house. Then, we read through the railway children, I enjoyed the story but I am definately more interested in the lovely bones as I feel like it will push me more, and is a deeper, more intense story.
Thursday - long warm up, village, wah, question splat, led buzzy bee’s, american gday bruce, delivering monologues, short paragraph redirection in pairs, vocal warm up with tom, talk about railway (location, story)
31/03/25
On Monday we played a new game, where one large ball is passed randomly around the circle, and then we have to repeat the order we just went in. We then made this harder by doing it with a smaller ball. Then we used both at the same time. It’s a good game for memory and focus. After we played cat and mouse which requires a lot of energy, important to have in physical theatre. We were then prepped for our auditions, advised to find monologues that link to our character, and not ones we already had. Luckily, I found my monologue over the weekend, so now I can focus on learning and developing it. I also spent some time on Monday doing some character research, which can be seen on my separate blog post.
On Tuesday, Two second years lead the first years in a warm up, to work on projection. We did a few exercises to increase our volume. We walked round the room, and stopped suddenly, then faced the furthest corner and spoke a vowel to it as loud as we could without shouting. We did this for all 5 vowels, using our arm to push forward and imagine the sound travelling with it. Then we got into pairs and stood opposite them, saying a line from a show we’ve done. Everytime we said it loud enough for our partner so hear, we took a step back, and kept increasing the volume as we moved. We had a tech run of Bright Young Things, in which we ran through the full show as the sound and light crew worked out where everything should be.
Wednesday was our audition day! I started the day with a healthy breakfast at home to keep me full and energised, before coming in early to finish off some character research for Lindsey, and read through everything I’d written. We then entered the theatre and were reminded of our expectations, to be professional, and responsible, to use the notes we had been given and put our all into the auditions. My audition was in the morning, I practised in the kit room, going through it a few times till I nailed it and captured each emotion. My evaluation of this can be seen on the separate blog post. I spent the rest of the day catching up on my written work, writing my evaluation of this audition, and my Normalised performance. Later on, we had a dance lesson with Abby, this was a nice end to a long day.
On Thursday we had our show of bright young things! We had a tech run again in the morning, with lots of people going in and out to do railway children auditions. I had an audition in which I did Amy’s monologue from Little Women, the 2019 film. I was happy with how I did it, as I had only planned to audition on that day so I learnt it very quickly. However, I felt like I’d rushed through the monologue, and therefore didn’t take my time to emphasise the tone and emotion in my speech. In the afternoon, we had recalls for Lovely Bones. I got a recall for Lindsey, who I auditioned for originally. For the callbacks, we had to read through two scenes. One was a family scene, with Lindsey, Jack(dad), Abigail(mum), buckley(brother), and Susie in heaven. I liked this scene as it involved Lindsey storming out, and saying how she was ‘handling this alone’. This linked very well to my original monologue audition, as in it I talked about needing to be alone. The other scene was with Sammuel(her boyfriend). I worked with Adam in this and aimed to capture the chemistry. For both call backs we had to do it in an American accent to show that we were capable of it. I was pleased with how both of these went, and am hoping I’ve done enough to get the part.
After these were all done, we did a dress run of BYT. It didn’t go very well on the whole, because lot’s of lines were missed, and it ended up being quite stoppy and starty. It was also the first time we’d done it fully with the lighting changes and all the props. However, we were given our notes afterwards, and we pulled through for the show! Everyone’s chemistry was great, the lines were done correctly, and it all flowed really well. The audience loved it, as all the jokes were landing so there were lots of laughs. The audience clapped when they needed to; it was partly my role to encourage them to clap or boo. I had to focus a lot as to where I needed to be, even though I only had a small role I moved about a lot, going on and off all the time, with lot’s of props. I managed to come on correctly for all but one scene, as I took a prop trolley off, then couldn’t get back on in time.
07/04/25
On Monday, we started in the theatre, and played some warm up games such as: 13, village and bla. After, I lead a warm up for everyone, a different version of cat and mouse. Kelly taught the year one’s this a while back, where you stand in rows with your arms out, then turn 90 degrees everytime the leader shouts ‘turn’. The cat has to chase the mouse, whilst they both run through the rows without cutting through. I told everyone how to play, then shouted ‘turn’. Most people enjoyed this game, as it was different to the ones we usually play. Then we had different sheets of paper on the floor around the room, this was so that we could work out what we wanted to do for the different production roles. These include: costume, makeup, set, lighting/sound and marketing. We had a sheet for each of these twice, one for railway children and one for the lovely bones.
After a full day of independent study on Tuesday, we were back to rehearsing on Wednesday for our performance the next day. We decided to do two full runs of this, to not overwork it but to make sure everything was correct and everyone was happy and confident moving forwards. In the afternoon, the cast list came out for our next shows! I was given two roles, one of the leads in the railway children (Phyllis), and the part of Ruth in The Lovely Bones. I was surprised by both of these roles, but I understand why I’ve been given them. For the railway children it gives me a chance to work with Tom, and let me work on part of that family dynamic. Phyllis is a young girl, who’s sassy and witty. Something which I haven’t done before, she also speaks in a posh accent. This character is different from me, so it will push me to keep trying to play roles that aren’t me. In The Lovely bones, Ruth is a quirky, edgy character, whereas Lindsey (who I originally auditioned for) is very similar to me. All the accents are American in TLB, making me different once again. After speaking to Kelly, she explained how these are the best roles to keep pushing me forwards, and allows me to be in both pieces.
Thursday was our Newcastle Theatre Royal performance! At the start of the day, we travelled to Newcastle on the coach, which I spent the time highlighting my lines for The Railway Children - I find it much easier to learn lines when they are highlighted, as it keeps me in the right headspace and is easier to follow. After arriving at the theatre, we had a warm up lead by Noah, doing vocal exercises. We did a few new ones, such as imagining we were eating a piece of chewing gum that got bigger and bigger to stretch our mouths, and then throwing it around and catching it, sliding up and down the vocal scales. Then we stood in a circle and imagined a football rolling around us, having to jump over it. We then added a tennis ball into this rolling the opposite way. It was a good game to push our imagination, as everyone could envision the balls rolling around. We were doing all this in the rehearsal room , which was roughly the same size as the stage. Therefore we ran through the first and final scene in that space, makine sure we were utilising the full stage. After this, we had a short fresh air break and some food before getting into costumes.
We were then taken down to see the stage which was amazing! The theatre is so beautiful it felt surreal to know we would be performing there, even if the seats weren’t full. We had a tech run, and a full run on the stage before getting ready, doing our makeup and hair. I love being in costume as it helps me feel so much scruffier. We had a physical and vocal warm up on stage lead by the theatre’s manager right before the show! The show went really well, I interacted with others more which is something I wanted to try and improve on, and I really went full out, being as mean and scruffy as possible. The chemistry was there with everyone in the performance, we did ourselves proud. The audience gave us a standing ovation, which meant they really enjoyed it. We watched the other competitors' show, which was nice to see people working just like us.
On Friday we had the last DNA performance at North Feild. We did a vocal warm up as usual, singing a couple songs and saying a few tongue twisters. The show went very well, I was nervous to do my monologues, but as the kids were all drama students they were interested in the storyline. After, we had a chat with the students who asked us questions about what we did to produce it, in reply to which we told them about our production roles. We also told them what a day at college looks like, and how many projects we do. I enjoyed DNA but I’m relieved it’s finished so we can focus on the end of year shows.
28/04/25
On Monday, we read through both scripts. I read through the Railway Children first, then joined The Lovely Bones read through when we were finished. During the Railway read through, I did it in an RP accent straight away, although I find it easy to do, if I keep practicing it I will get it spot on. This read through was helpful, to start learning who was playing each character and familiarise ourselves with our opposites, and scene partners. The Lovely Bones read through involved some discussion, about each character and there importance, also discussing the importance of each scene. We were told that Ruth is an edgy, misunderstood girl who’s different from most people but plays a pivotal role in the story, as she saw and felt Susie Salmon after her death.
On Tuesday, we had our first Railway Children rehearsal, in which we started blocking the show, from the beginning. We started the play as if everyone was at a train station waiting for trains to arrive, before entering a freeze frame with the 3 children walking in (Bobbie, Peter and Phyllis). We also started using the suitcases straight away, as they are going to be used a lot in this show, as props, set etc! As we are performing this at a museum, we have minimal lighting/sound, and no real set so the suitcases act as a transformable set for us. Moving the suitcases about can also help break the play up into scenes, as the script has none and is only split into 2 acts.
Next, we had some time to rehearse TLB(The Lovely Bones), in which we did scene 5????? where everyone is out looking for Susie. All the cast are on stage at this point walking around with torches, like a search party searching for anything relevant to help find Susie. In this, Ruth speaks to the police officer at the front, with other school children, including Lindsey and Ray. This is the first time the audience sees Ray and Ruth interact, when they say the same thing at the same time, creating a spark between them. To make the scene dynamic, some of us go offstage to grab an old fashioned telephone, then bring it back on discreetly, before holding them all up towards Susie, crossing the wires over each other to make it look complex. This took a lot of practice to get the wires across smoothly, and quickly, making sure all of our doubles knew where to stand and which phone to hold.
Then on Wednesday, the Railway cast gathered in the white box room and started brainstorming ideas for how to use the suitcases. We thought of things that were needed in the play such as: the family’s home in London, a moving train, a still train, perks’s office, the family’s home in the countryside, the kitchen door, the tunnel, etc. We tried some of these ideas, creating different pieces with the suitcases as seen in the photos.
After this we did some accent work, sitting in a circle and each reading aloud one of our lines in our correct accent, Yorkshire or RP. My feedback was to make it softer, and add more emphasis to certain words. Then we had a run through of the play in the dance studio, going through all the things we did yesterday, and adding in some of the new suitcase designs such as the train, practising the set changes and making sure everyone was using the right suitcase.
Finally, for TLB we ran through Ruth’s interview scene with Detective Fenerman. It started with Susie running into Ruth (re-enacting the encounter between them that happened right after Susie’s death). Then Ruth burst into this description about what she saw, over exaggerating everything, and trying to be poetic. I played this scene as spooky and intense, attempting to make the detective shocked by how strange Ruth is, whilst infuriating Susie who was not fond of Ruth.
On Thursday we got through a lot of The Railway Children, adding more scenes to what we’d already done, incorporating the suitcases. We even made a moving train, which the 3 children watched and waved to. As a trio, we worked a lot on getting the lines into our heads, running through them at any spare moment in order to bounce off one another. The sooner we are off script the better, to ensure we can do the scenes properly and lift the scenes up. As there are so many lines, I’m spending a lot of time after college and on weekends learning these lines, with the help of my family, and an app which I recorded all the lines in.
06/05/25
After a bank holiday on Monday, we were back in college on Tuesday. We worked in Tom’s room, and added to the blocking, to make us half way through the script. We added the scene where we speak to Perk’s at the station, and then return to our house where we tell the story of Mother being poorly. In this rehearsal, I kept writing in my script, with different colour pens to remind myself of set changes, stage directions and acting notes. In the afternoon, in TLB I ran a scene through with Lindsey, trying to present my character as mysterious and weird, making a moment intense when it doesn’t need to be. I felt I didn’t understand my character yet, so I took some time in the LRC to create a mindmap of ideas and research about Ruth.
On Wednesday, we played a game of question splat and ninja to get us up, moving and thinking. Then we had a run of the Railway Children, but without the suitcases. We made sure everyone still stood in their places and moved accordingly, imagining they had suitcases. This was helpful to work out where everyone needed to be without the hassle of the props. It was also suitable for the small space we were working in. We ran up to page 38, which is where we have blocked up to so far - and where I am up to off script.
In the afternoon, we did the memorial scene in TLB, in which Ruth reads a poem out to everyone. I was given some guidance by Kelly, to take my time when reading the poem, and emphasise the pauses. We tried it at first just speaking to the audience, then changed it to have Susie stand in front of me, allowing me to read the poem to her. I then look up to the sky, searching for Susie’s spirit, then, when a commotion starts, I snap out of my ‘trance’ and turn my attention to Lindsey fainting. At the end of the scene, I watch everyone walk away and return my glance back up to the sky.
On Thursday, we worked in Tom’s room doing a run through of TRC (The Railway Children). We did cast 2’s run, meaning I was part of the ensemble, this gave me a good chance to focus on which suitcases I needed to put where, and the set I had to move about etc. After this had finished we went to work on our production roles. I helped Sienna create the cover for the program of TRC, and then made a list in my notebook of the clothes needed for different characters.
In the Afternoon, we went to watch level 4’s production of ‘Jane Eyre’. This was done at Middlesbrough Town Hall, and the performance area was a square area boxed in by 4 pillars. The set and angles changed throughout to allow all of the audience to see bits of the show with a straight on view. This was helpful to watch, as when we perform TRC it will be in traverse, with the audience on either side of us. It also is a period piece, just like TRC, although it was a different period it was still interesting to see the costume, and different way of speaking/living for the olden days. They also had minimal props, so it was good to see what they did with what they had, they used 4 lights next to each pillar which added to the atmosphere, and used things like cloths, tables and chairs to add to the scenes.
12/05/25
On Monday I started in TLB, practicing the scene where Ruth meets Ray in the cornfield. We also practised the memorial scene, in which I kept trying to push myself to make the poem I was reading more dramatic. We then had a Railway rehearsal, where we blocked the end of act 1, the section where we stop a Railway disaster. I worked with the other casts Bobbie and Peter, as we were the only 3 available. This meant someone from each cast knew the blocking and could therefore help the others learn it.
On Tuesday we had an audition for a company that is doing Shakespeare productions over the summer, which is paid work and has 2 different shows to audition for. I put my availability for both, to allow them to find a role that suits me. For the audition we had to perform a short monologue, around 90 seconds. I performed Helena’s monologue from ‘A midsummer night’s dream’. I learnt this a while ago so I was very familiar with it, therefore I focused on slowing it down, and moving through the monologue instead of rushing which I think I achieved.
After a brief introduction from the creative team in the morning, we began working on some physical movement. The first thing we did was play a game of bucket ball, in which you get into separate teams and have to keep hitting the ball in the air and try to get it in the bucket at the opposite end of the room.
We then played a new game called ‘Cabbage’, in which everyone crawls around on the floor with their eyes closed. One person is assigned to be a King, whilst everyone else is a cabbage. If two cabbages bump into each other, they whisper to one another ‘cabbage’, quietly to stay hidden from the Kings. If a cabbage bumps into a King, they become a King too. The Kings have to try to bump into people to make them a King too. The game keeps going until there is only one cabbage left who wins the game. In this round it ended up being me!
After this warm up, we began some physical movement. We walked around the room to start with, at our regular walking pace, then were instructed to change our pace from a 5 to a 7, so increase our speed and urgency. Then we were given key words to instruct us to places. ‘Centre’ meant we had to touch the pillar in the middle of the room, ‘Flat’ meant we had to touch the outer walls of the room, and ‘Look’ meant we had to look at someone else.
Then we had to find a space, and come up with 4 different actions that you might do before going on a night out. I chose: eating, showering, straightening hair and doing makeup. Then we had to make these actions a lot bigger. For example, I changed my eating to scooping my bowl from the floor and digging my spoon into it with a large arm movement.
Next we got into pairs, and had to create 3 sets of 3 actions, following on from our story and what happens next on the night out. These were inspired by: ‘Round(moving round the person), By(standing next and touching the person), and Through(moving under or through the other person)’. To put these actions into swing, we started the piece with some music in the background, and walked round the room with urgency. Then we moved in and out with the command words, before doing our own 4 actions, then getting into pairs and doing the 3 sets. We repeated this sequence to get into the flow. Our aim was to be creative, think quickly, and make our movements strong and precise.
Later, we did some singing, starting with a vocal warm up. In this vocal warm up we had a new variation of the tongue twister ‘Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers’. We sang this on a scale, repeating the line moving up and down in pitch. After warming up, we were taught a song which will be in the production, learning the tune line by line doing call and response with the teacher. After we were all familiar with the tune and lyrics, we got into a clump, and sang it as if we were a model student, headboy/headgirl. I decided to play at it as self absorbed, acting as if I knew I was above everyone. We switched this after to swap to being naughty kids who were sent to this school but didn’t wanna be there. Finally, we did it as if we were in a school playground/quad area, and could be any character we liked. I decided to be a crazy drama teacher who was desperate to get kids to join in and sing. I tried to push myself with these characters, placing myself at the front of the clump to make sure the audition panel could see me.
Then, we were given a monologue, which was about a group of boys planning to attack a woman. We had to devise this piece in small groups, and create it to be in a video game setting. In our group we all shared our ideas, and listened to one another, incorporating everything in. It was hard to get it started, but once we had the ideas rolled naturally.
We gender swapped the piece, having us 4 girls as the men, and the 1 boy as the woman.
On Wednesday, we ran through all of act 1 of TRC with both casts. Cast 2 went first, meaning my cast could focus on set changes and ensemble work. This was a helpful time to get my head round what I’m doing when I’m not performing as Phyllis. After, we blocked all of act 2. Act 2 is much shorter and easier than act 1, so we managed to get it done in one go. After, I did some costume work, I developed my costume powerpoint, finishing off all the ideas. Then we looked through the bags of costume Tom had, and chose the right things for each character, here are some photos I took:
On Thursday, I brought in all the costumes I had for the railway children: 4 pinafores, 2 dresses for Phyllis and 2 petticoats, 1 of which rips with velcro. We did a full run with cast 1, in which I wore my costume. This helped me get into character even more. This went well, but I need to focus on learning my lines for act 2, as I only know act 1 so far.
In the afternoon, I did the final Ruth scene, in which Susie enters Ruth and reunites with Ray. This scene is really moving, as Ruth finally sees Susie clearly and is happy for her, grateful she can give her the opportunity to enter Earth once more. I faint and fall to the floor, then Susie speaks to me wanting to wake up. When I wake up, I see her, and move around her, swapping bodies allowing her to see Ray. Susie and Ruth speak a line in unison to show their connection. VIDEO
19/05/25
On Monday we had a cast 2 run of TRC, so I spent my morning in with TLB cast, practising scenes with my scene partners: Lindsey and Ray.
We then sorted through all the costumes for TRC, doing final checks that we had everything we needed. I made a list on my phone of every item of clothing each character should have, and checked it off once I’d seen it. I went through the clothing rack with Tom, and dished out all the pieces to everyone, making sure all the ensemble had suitable costumes aswell as the principles. I took lots of pictures of costumes, and sent them to the others on this production role.
We also went outside to take photos in costume for some promotion, which have been posted online to encourage people to come watch. We managed to use the railway tracks used by the construction course, here are the photos:
On Tuesday we started with a physical warm up led by Erin and Rose. This involved heart racer excercises to get our blood flowing and body’s moving, then changed into a stretch. At the end I helped them, and showed the class some helpful arm stretches.
We had quite a few people missing for TLB in the morning, so we took this time to work out some sound ideas. We shared our ideas with Kelly, and she shared hers and decided which sounds should go wear, to match the emotions of the scene and create more of an atmosphere. I made a playlist on spotify containing all the songs in the play, and some that would be suitable if we needed extras. I also made more notes in my script of where the songs go. Then we ran a few scenes, testing out some music options to see which ones fitted the best. We did this for the scene where Mr Harvey humms a christmas song, which gradually gets louder as it turns to music when buckley plays a song on the record player in the house. For this, I was eager to play: ‘I want a hippopotamus for Christmas’, as I felt it had a somewhat ominous and sincere atmosphere to it.
In the afternoon, we got into our costumes for TRC and did some videos for the marketing director. We did some of the scenes from the play, doing lots of different shots and angles. These will be edited together in a video for promotional use. Then, we had time left over, so we played a game of question splat to wake us up, and then we managed to do a cast 1 run through of the first act, meaning I was playing Phyllis. I managed to get almost all of my lines right, which I was pleased with, but checked over my script to correct the ones I got wrong or missed. I was also given a few notes, all of which were based on the delivery of certain lines which I will now correct.
On Wednesday, we had a full run of cast 1 in TRC. We ran through the whole of the play, having a five minute break at the interval. The main notes we were given were to push our characters bigger, up the volume, and listen to one another. The biggest issue is the lines, as some lines are being missed or mistaken, which disrupts the flow. We were also advised to speak the lines as if we were telling the story, which will come more naturally when we are more familiar with being off script.
Then, in the afternoon, I spent time working with the TLB cast. We spaced the opening scene, in which all the ensemble stand together and speak 1 by 1, introducing themselves. This is what I said: ‘Hi, my name is Jessica Green, I’m 14 years old and I wanted to be an author.’ Slowly, all the introductions start overlapping, till it all goes quiet and we turn around to face the back, where ‘The Lovely Bones’ is displayed on a screen, and Susie Salmon comes forward and introduces herself. This really creates the atmosphere for the whole play, as each of us represent one of Mr Harvey’s victims. We ran this a few times, I speak first so I learnt when to come in with the music. Then we went through scene 34 with Kelly. We haven’t done this scene before, so it was helpful to go through it with Kelly’s direction. She added in some extra details, such as creating a circle of candles to stand inside to make it spooky, and directions on where to stand and move to. In ther evening, I watched lots of videos and clips from different characters who I felt reflected Ruth, as I am having a hard time creating her character.
On Thursday, we did a vocal warm up, to get our voices ready and warm for the rehearsals. We did some tongue twisters in american accents to practise our diction, especially our pronunciation of the letter ‘r’ which is strengthened in this accent. We said this: ‘Red range rovers race rapidly and roughly past red lights’. Then to work on how we pronounce ‘the’ we said this: ‘The tree and the Animal. The bug and the Ear. The frog and the Insect. The frog and the Owl. The rabbit and the Unicorn.’ When ‘the’ is in front of a vowel, the sound changes to ‘thee’, when its infront of a consonant it changes to ‘thuh’. As a class, we split in half and stood opposite each other, half of the room saying one sentence, and the other saying a sentence very similar but with a slight change. This exercise was to get us to focus on our diction to really differentiate the difference between the two sentences.
The Lovely Bones group planned to have a full run of all 3 casts. As it started with the first 2 casts, this left me time to go work with the Railway children, in which we did jobs we needed to get done. For me, this meant I could help sort through the costume rack to ensure all the costumes that we needed were together, and all the ones that weren’t being used were put aside to save us taking them to the museum when they weren’t needed. Then, Ash, Delroy, JJ and I, went through a scene we were struggling with, where we find the boy in the tunnel. When going through this scene, the main issue was messing up lines. Therefore we kept running it till we got it right, trying to up the energy each time as well. We also got into costume to film some short scenes for promotional use, which is being filmed in the style of the office, as if we are being interviewed. Then, we squeezed in a full run with cast 1 (my cast), which went very well. Our main focus was getting all the lines right, which we were very close to doing. In this next week off, I will be working hard, going over my script till I get every line spot on.
I also found some time to go through my Lovely Bones script in more detail, and analyse each section, with specific ideas and movements for me to do. This really helped improve my character as it allowed me to think less about coming up with ideas of what to do on the spot, and think more about the emotions and how to portray my character in the scene. Cast 3 did a half run at the end of the day, as we ran out of time to finish it. In this short run, I went full out, and tried to push my character to its limits - which worked well, and made me proud of how well i’d pushed myself out of my comfort zone.
02/06/25
After a week off, we were back in college on Monday. We started the day by doing a run through of cast 1 in TRC. Over the week off I’ve been practicing my lines, mostly act 2 as that is my weakest area. However, when we did the run today I messed up the lines in the opening scene. I think this is because I've been so focussed with the others I have put it out of my mind. Therefore, I looked over my script again when I got a break during the day, familiarising myself with the start of the play. The three children also messed up some lines in one section of the second act. So, we sat in a circle and spoke through our lines, making sure every one was correct, with the help of Emily who read the extra lines for us.
During the run, my main focus was to keep being childlike, and take the maturity down. I did this by keeping light on my fight, and moving energetically. I also tried to keep my voice high pitched, just as younger children do.
Then, in the afternoon I worked with TLB, watching them finish their cast 2 run, and trying to learn my lines. I stepped in for Ruth, as the cast 2 Ruth was unavailable. This was handy, as it meant I was able to do a scene which I hadn’t done previously. I now feel familiar with every scene in this play, and confident in that I know what I’m doing - which was my goal for today. Then, we had some spare time, so I ran through a scene with Jasmine (Susie), perfecting the part where she enters Ruth’s body. We want to make this scene really powerful, so we are trying to keep it slow, and in perfect synchronization, to become 1 together. I showed the costume team, the other Ruth’s and Kelly, my costume, which they all approved of. I have two costumes: one for the first part of the play when I’m a teenager, and one for when I’m older. For the younger one, I will wear fishnet tights, and a shorter skirt. Then when I’m older, I'm switching to a longer skirt with regular tights, and a darker & more mature jacket. Here are the photos: 
I was also given the Lovely Bones book from Jasmine, which I am reading now and trying to get through as much as possible. There are lots of additional notes about Ruth which will be helpful to allow me to keep building the character.
On Tuesday, TRC cast spent the day preparing for moving to our performance location on Wednesday. So, we packed away everything depending on our production roles. I helped the costume team put the costumes into the suitcases, and also helped the rest of the people take down the tunnel set, and fold it up carefully ready to be transported. I also kept going through my lines, reading my script all day, taking it in turns with my double (Sienna), filling in for each other. It got to the point where I knew every line off by heart, and was no longer worried at all.
I also took this day to organise myself with TLB, making a list of every scene I’m in and the order. This is helpful to know when I need to be on, and can be easy to look at to wrap my head around the order of the play. As I have been so busy with both shows, I haven’t had chance to sit through full runs, as I’ve been going in and out to get the full use of my time. Since I’d finished my jobs in TRC, I watched the full second half of TLB cast 1 run, stepping in on the afternoon as the other Ruth’s were unavailable.
Also, we watched the level 2’s show in the afternoon, to support them and give them an audience to perform to.
Wednesday was our show day! We started early in the morning, doing a full run at college with the whole company of cast 1 (my cast). This meant we had every member of ensemble, so could see what it would be like when we performed it in the evening. The run went very well, barely any lines were missed, and the whole flow of the piece was brilliant. Then, we got the coach to the Locomotion museum. The venue was very large, with a high roof and therefore different acoustics. When we did a dress run in the afternoon, we had to project very loudly, as the cafe and museum were open to the public so we had a lot of noise to speak over. However, when we performed in the evening it was a lot quieter, so the acoustics were kinder on us.
The costume team unpacked everything in our dressing room area as soon as we got there. We decided to push the tables out to the side to give everyone the most amount of room, and we hung the costumes on the clothes rail, unpacking them from the suitcases. All the costumes were split into different hangers and costume bags for different characters, and were all steamed by Milo to make sure they weren’t creased.
The evening performance went very well! I was so pleased with how myself and the rest of the cast did, and I truly believe it was the best it could have gone. We had rehearsed so much we knew what we were doing, and knew our lines without thinking about the, allowing us to ease into our characters and tell the story with energy and realism. My full evaluation can be found on my separate blog post, assignment 8. Here are some photos from the show: 
On Thursday, it was the other cast's turn to perform! I arrived at the museum at 9.00, at which time we all got into costume and prepared for the 10.00 show. This show was for 2 primary schools. As I was an ensemble in this cast, it was nice to feel more relaxed, and relieved that my big section was over. However, I made sure to stay focused and on the ball to help out and keep the other cast's performance running smoothly. I knew which set I had to move, which was mainly the tables and chairs, and a few suitcases. However, there were lot’s of bits of the set which didn’t have anyone sorting. So, when I knew a set change was coming up, I would sit at the end of the audience to be prepared to move things that needed taking off or changing. I ended up taking off spare chairs, and a pram, which I repeated in the evening show. Also, there were supposed to be a few trains passing by, with people carrying suitcases as wheels, however no one went on for this. Therefore, myself and Milo jumped in to cover the trains ourselves. After the show, we had to pack everything up again, into all the suitcases, move all the tables back and tidy the dressing room before getting on the coach back to college. When we arrived at college we put everything in the theatre, ready to sort through on monday.
On Friday, I arrived at college early in the morning for a dress run of TLB. My main goal for this run was to enhance my character, as it was the first time I’d done it in costume, and fully without my script. I also wanted to keep focused, to practise my entrances and exits, and learn when I needed to be on stage and in what order my scenes were. Overall, it went well, however I did go on late for one scene, which I will be extra ready for next time.
09/06/25
On Monday, we had a warm up in the dance studio, where we played a game of cabbage which we were taught at the Shakespeare workshop, so I helped teach everyone the rules. We also played the sheep and wolf game which we learnt a while ago, so we had a quick demonstration of that before playing together. We also played some cat and mouse, which is the perfect game to get everyone moving. We then rehearsed in the space as a full company, and focused on scenes that needed to be changed blocking wise. We did a cast 2 tech run, to finish sorting out all the sound and light ques, in which I sat in the sound box to help the sound technicians understand what needed to be done fully, as I have been helping with sound as my production role. I enjoyed doing this, as not only did it give me a chance to see how the play looked from an audience perspective, but it was good for me to see how the sound ques worked, as I could see how it was all lined up with different titles for each one: including the name of the music and the sound number which went up in 0.5s. I also saw how to turn the volume down as a set amount, which saved the technicians having to alter it for every scene. Then in the evening, I stayed back to help paint the floor. It was already black, but had been scratched and marked so it needed a once over. We were limited to our resources, but we found a black tub of paint and a few old rollers & brushes, so we painted as much of the floor as we could, and painted some of the bars on the set at the back.
On Tuesday, we warmed up in the morning with a quick game of 13 for focus, and a game of empire, in which I made a list of all the characters on my phone. I then did a trial hairstyle on Charlie, to pin the front bits of hair out of her face, which worked well. Then we had 2 cast 1 run’s, one in the morning and one dress run in the afternoon before the show. I spent this time checking where I needed to be for the ensemble scenes. The show that night went brilliantly! I was part of the ensemble, and I gave myself a character to link myself into the story. I decided I was a girl in Lindsey’s literature class and Ruth’s art class, which also gave me something to talk about when I was faking conversation in the back of scenes. Near the end of the play, I changed to become a child that moved into Mr Harvey’s house with her family. I took off my scarf to look younger, and took on some props to decorate our house with. Every scene was executed very well, and we had great feedback from the audience.
On Wednesday, Rose and I lead a morning stretch, to wake everyone up and get their bodies moving and stretched. We stretched our arms, legs and backs, holding each stretch for 8 counts and ensuring everywhere was fully warmed up. We spaced the opening scene with all the ensemble girls in, to get us into the right positions to match the lighting, and to make sure everyone knew the running order. Then we had another 2 runs, a run in the morning and a dress run in the afternoon. In the morning run we made it quite bitty, stopping and starting, so that notes could be given and improved on before the full dress run later. The show went very well again that night, for this show I was ensemble, a child in the house, and also a girl in the cornfield who Jack Salmon mistakes for Mr Harvey. When I did this part in the dress run, I was advised to scream even louder, which I did in the show. We also added some commotion to make it look like we had a fight with Jack.
On Thursday, Jasmine and I went through our main scene together to ensure we were connected, keeping the pace very slow, and moving as one. Unfortunately, the cast 2’s first act hadn’t been recorded, so we performed it again to get it filmed. The sound technicians weren’t in till later, so as I’d been working with them, I stepped in. Abby showed me everything I was unsure about, how to play each que, stop and start them, skip forward and back, change the volume etc. She also taught me how to do the projections for the videos. I had a play about with everything, checking that I was comfortable in what I was doing. Then we started the run, and I did very well! I accidentally played a video too early instead of clicking off it, but I just stayed calm and stopped it straight away. I didn’t make any other mistakes, and my ques were on time and in the right order. I focused a lot on ensuring the sound levels were suitable, adjusting it based on how well I could hear the actors. Then after a smooth dress run in the afternoon, we had our evening performance! The full evaluation of this can be seen on the separate blog post: UNIT 8.
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