AAS (33) - CIDNT - Voices, lifts & final scene

Unfortunately James wasn't in this lesson but, due to a tight time schedule, we had to continue blocking our scene, but would add him in next lesson. We skipped the beginning paragraph that Christopher speaks and the "left, right, left, right"'s; we continued with where we left off with the first voice section. Our movement for the first voice section is as follows:

• Ollie M's shoulder goes under James' armpit (as James moves towards Ollie and lifts his arm to form this position). James picks up Ollie and move him round from facing the back to the front. -- This disorientates Ollie and symbolises the fact that he is being forced to face something he hasn't had to deal with before.
• I push Ollie round in a circle whilst miming to be on the phone. -- I am being a typical Londoner. Lives up to stereotypes. Shows commotion. Disorientation.
• Ollie ends up facing stage left, and is pushed by Kat into Oliver Kelly's back. -- Shows danger of London.
• The two Ollie's do a lean, where Ollie is leaning backwards on Oliver's back. -- Shows support.
• Ollie is pushed forwards into me. We all do the lift that I explained in the previous blog.
• As Ollie is put down, I move round so we are back to back and we both have our knees bent. -- This is supposed to symbolise us both sitting on a bench.
• Oliver then walks through the middle of us both, causing both Ollie and I to fall to the floor. Ollie falls as his character but I fall and then mime holding a cup to suggest I am a beggar. Oliver stands stage left holding his arm out straight to the side. He is then pushed round in a circle as if he is a ticket barrier.
• We then have a pair section (Kat & James, and Oliver & I) whilst Ollie walks around and between us. As I am on the floor being a beggar, Oliver walks past and throws an imaginary coin into my cup as he then helps picking me up. He then turns around and becomes a busker and as I turn, I throw the same imaginary coin into his cup. I then become a tourist as I mime reading a map and being lost. -- We all wanted to keep changing characters to show the diversity and range of different people in London.
• We all then walk round Ollie in a circle, at different speeds, different directions and to different places. -- The purpose of this was to disorientate Ollie and to re-create the hustle and bustle of London.

We then moved on to creating a lift where Ollie would be up high in the air and everyone else perfectly still for the Information section. We tried doing a pencil lift where Kat and I lifted Ollie's legs and he had to hold his core perfectly straight. Kat and I then had to hold this lift for the entirety of the Information section. We had some difficulty with this lift as we had to hold it for so long and we were all struggling to keep him still. Therefore, we decided to change it - Oliver bent down between Ollie's legs and then stood up so Ollie was sitting on Oliver's shoulders. This meant that Ollie was then sitting down and didn't had to focus so much on staying perfectly still. It also meant that Kat and I didn't hurt our hands! To get out of this lift, Oliver bends his knees slightly and leans forward, giving the effect of throwing Ollie off of his back - Ollie jumps forwards and lands in a crouched position. We wanted Ollie to be lifted to suggest that he is mentally far away from this place and his head is "in the clouds", as it were.

We then skipped the section with Ed in, as James wasn't in, and instead moved on to the scene with Punk Girl and Man With Socks. However, we did create a short movement section for the "train coming, train stopped, doors open, train going, silence" part. For the "train coming" line, we all look to our left as if we are watching the train coming towards us. For "train stopped" we all look back to the front to show that the train is directly in front of us. For the line "doors opening" we step back slightly, look frightening, to show that we don't want to get in the way of the doors. For "train going" we all look to our left to suggest that the train has just left the station. For the word "silence" we all look to the front and sigh a breath of relief. These five movements are repeated every time this line is repeated.

Throughout the entire scene, we were planning on having two pieces of steel decking at the back of the stage. Everyone would then stand on this steel decking for this scene to show that we were on the tube platform. This gave us a higher level, enabling Ollie to jump down to the floor for when he is looking for Toby on the tracks. We perform this scene in a naturalistic manner. We thought this would be interesting as it is the most critical and shocking scene, but it is done naturalistically. This reflects how Christopher would not see anything wrong or shocking with his actions as, in his mind, he is simply looking for and trying to get back his pet rat. The contrast of the everyday scenes performed in creative physical theatre styles with the shocking scene performed naturalistically emphasises how Christopher finds the everyday London scene of crowds terrifying and disorientating, but the madness of being on a tube track perfectly understandable.

Next lesson, we shall put James in to what he has missed, as well as hopefully completing our entire piece.

Auditions (25) - Elements & "Look Back in Anger"

This lesson was a workshop run by Tom, entitled "Elements". He said that to add more depth to a character, or even just to develop a role, you should consider the elements. The four elements are earth, air, fire and water. Tom didn't explain how to add the idea of elements to your character, or how to assign an element to a character, but instead made us walk round the room as all of them - all apart from fire. For fire he made us "imitate" the flame.

• Walking as Earth:   Initially we had to walk round as ourselves, but then start walking as someone that made us think of Earth. I found this quite challenging as I wanted more information on what he meant, but I wasn't allowed anymore as it was a case of experimenting. I decided to walk with a slight bend to my knees and pressing my feet more into the ground. My thought process behind this was the "earthy people" are more comfortable and what you see with them is what you get. Therefore I wanted to show that I'm more relaxed by having bent knees but confident by having a stronger connection to the ground. When walking around as "earth" we were told to increase the intensity of what we were doing by 10. This was to ensure we weren't walking as ourselves. It was supposed to look silly and feel unnatural.
• Walking as Water:   I found this one a lot harder as I couldn't think of anyone that was like water. I really didn't know what to do for this so I just thought that the person would be less confident and bold, and so may be quite indirect with their movements.
• House on Fire:   For this exercise, we told that the curtains in a house had a little flame at the bottom of them. We then had to imitate this flame and become this flame as it grew and spread. We then had to be it when it came close to a gas canister and blew up. I found this exercise the most difficult as I didn't understand the task. I wanted a clearer instruction but was told just to do it. Therefore, I was really confused but tried my best at becoming this element in terms of emotion more than movement. I thought about being quite cunning at first, and then proud as I got bigger and then angry and pleased as I then exploded.
• Walking as Air:   I found this task a bit easier as we had done this task for two other elements prior to Air. I thought that someone who could be described as air would be quite free and full of energy. I thought quite literally about this one, and imagined someone whose energy and personality filled the room. However, I was told that an "airy" person would be more "air-headed" than bubbly. 

We were told that these elements can be assigned to different people's characteristics, though some people can be more than one. We were also told that people may have different opinions or views on what certain people would be. I could accept that people could be more than one element, but struggled to connect these elements to people without labelling the elements. I can't deal with things if they are not orderly or fit into categories, therefore I initially found this whole concept of elements very difficult to accept.

Assigning elements to characters & people:   To help me understand the idea of elements more, we discussed different characters and people and what element we thought they would be. We began by taking the characters from the musical "Rent" and discussed what we thought. We said that Maureen and Angel would be air as they are both very free characters. We said that Roger would be fire as he is quite unpredictable. We also thought that Collins and Mark would be water as they both tend to follow the crowd. However, two characters that we felt would be more than one element are Mimi and Joanne. We said that Mimi would be water but with an element of fire too - this is because she can be someone who's easy to get on with and quite mellow and vulnerable, but can be quite destructive too - she is self-destructive. Joanne would be water in the fact that she is submissive but earth as well because she stands her ground at time as well. To ensure I understood the idea of elements I wanted to know what element people thought I was. I was told that I would be earth as I stand up for what I believe, I am grounded and am genuine.

Tom then stated that you should "ALWAYS SHOW THE GENERAL ELEMENT OF THE CHARACTER. VISITING OTHER ELEMENTS IS FINE, BUT SHOW THEIR TRUE ELEMENT THROUGHOUT". This means that characters are almost always one element more than another, but they may become other elements at various points, however, you should always show the true them.

We were then told to do our monologues but with the idea of elements in our minds. We all performed our monologues twice this lesson, once as the element that we thought suited our character the best, and then as the element given to us by Tom:

1. Air trying to be Earth:   I thought that my character is very much air as she is upper-middle class and is very much under her husband's thumb. She is very submissive and gets pushed around a lot by her husband - her husband would be fire. In this monologue, she tries to build up the courage to tell her husband how she feels and that how he has treated her is wrong. However, because I was air, I really tried to show her vulnerability. I think this way definitiely worked better for my character than the next way. However, when I do this monologue again next lesson, I shall show that although she is really trying to be earth, she still is and always will be air. I feel like I got to earthy during this attempt thus losing her vulnerability and how weak she is.
2. Earth dealing with fire:   I was asked to do the monologue again but this time as if I was earth trying to deal with fire. Having this direction in mind, my body language altered. This time, my feet were flat on the floor and my elbows were digging in to my thighs. I found this quite challenging as I had to look stronger than before, but still look weak enough for the monologue to make sense. I was doing okay with this until I ended up moving my feet. It would have been okay if I dragged my feet up on to the balls, but instead I just slid them - this made me look more like water than earth. 

Tom came up with the following quote to summarise what we had just felt: "EXPLORING OTHER ELEMENTS THAT ARE NOT APPROPRIATE FOR YOUR CHARACTER MAKES YOU MORE AWARE OF WHAT IS". This means that it is good to be re-directed and experiment with other elements as by doing this, you learn what element suits your character best. 

Business (16) - Task F - Printing Costs

I have been emailing "Print Express" and "Orbital Print", as well as looking at the "Solo Press" website (https://www.solopress.com/). I have been comparing prices for 60 posters, 600 programmes and 1200 tickets. To make the investigation fair, I kept the paper types the same for each quote I asked for. I kept the sizing and type of binding the same too. If we looked at prices alone, then the "Solo Press" website would be the best because it was cheapest. However, according to their website they didn't seem to make tickets so the quote I got was for business cards of a similar size to the tickets. This therefore didn't make the pricing completely accurate. I personally liked the "Orbital printing" company as they were very professional when emailing me, were very precise by asking me certain questions to ensure they got exactly what I wanted and they were fairly good value. However, although I particularly liked the "Orbital printing" company, I would use the "Solo press" company as it is over half the price of the second cheapest. I did like how you can add your own design to the "Solo press" website and it was simple to use.

AAS (32) - CIDNT - Dialogue & Movement

In this lesson we decided to do a rough recording of the lines we wanted to record. This was so we could start working on our movement, knowing how long we would have, without having to worry about reading our scripts at the same time. Although we were intending to do a rough recording, as we were planning on recording it properly in the recording studio at another point, we did quite a lot of work on voice this lesson too:

• Page 54 ~~ Christopher's lines:   Ollie was feeling anxious about his character voice for Christopher, therefore he asked us for our opinions and guidance. The advice we gave him was to really articulate every word - in Ollie's case, especially his "t's". Our other piece of advice was to slow down slightly. Ollie tends to rush his dialogue when there isn't any punctuation, therefore, Kat highlighted his script where she would take a pause, in an attempt to slow him down a bit.
• Page 54 - 56, 61 & 62 ~~ Voices:   With the "voice" lines, we wanted these to overlap slightly. This is to create a busy atmosphere. We also wanted to ensure that every line sounded a bit different - it's the typical thing in Musical Theatre where each time you repeat the same line, it has to have a slightly different intention so it isn't boring (e.g. "I love him, I love him, I love him" in "On My Own" from "Les Mis"). 

As a group, we really like Frantic Assembly and so will be including a lot of their techniques - this is also useful as they are the company that created the movement for "Curious Incident". We will come back to the beginning of our scene, but we wanted to start work on the first section of "Voice" dialogue. We wanted to have convincing characters based off of typical people you would find in London (I am a busy business woman walking around on my phone). We wanted to create a variety of movements that all merge together or overlap to form a frantic atmosphere. We also wanted to involve different dynamics and speeds to create an atmosphere that would disorientate Christopher. My first movement is an interaction with Ollie, where I walk over to him and push his shoulder, causing him to turn round 360 degrees as I continue walking round whilst pushing him. As soon as we finish this movement, Kat moves in for her movement with Ollie. We have included a back to back lean (where Ollie M is leaning on Ollie K's back as he lunges forward). This lean is done in slow motion - whilst this happens, the rest of us move about in slow motion too.

We have also worked on a lift. This lift involves Ollie M being lifted and me as the "rock". This lift was demonstrated in the Frantic Assembly video: "Learning to Fly". Ollie M has to put his hands on my shoulders and put his weight through his locked arms on to my shoulders and I take it through my skeleton. Meanwhile, Ollie K and Kat lift Ollie's core and hips, whilst James just lifts his legs. It took a while to get this lift right, but once we managed it static, we learned how to turn it. It was essential for me to lead the turn as a lot of Ollie's weight is going through me. To get out of this lift, Ollie lets go of me and is put down by the other three. Whilst being put down, I moved round to his back and bent my knees. He then was bending his knees by the time I got to the right place. Ollie and I ended up doing a support lean with our backs touching and knees bent to make it look like we were sitting on a bench.

AAS (31) - CIDNT - Dialogue

We began this lesson by casting our scene and then reading through the script. Ollie Marshall was given the part of Christopher, as he is the lightest and easiest person for all the lifts. The rest of our cast list is as follows:

• Lorna   -   Siobhan // Voice 2 // Punk Girl
• Ollie K   -   Voice 4 // Station Guard // Man with socks
• James   -   Voice 1 // Voice 3 // Ed
• Kat   -   Information // Voice 5 // Shopkeeper

We then read through our scene again and worked out what parts of the dialogue we wanted to be spoken live and what parts were going to be recorded. All of Christopher's lines will be spoken live as the focus should be on him. Although we are using physical theatre as our acting style, we still wanted to our dialogue to be effective and work well with the scene. The scene between Christopher, Punk Girl and Man with socks will also be live as this is a naturalistic scene which requires naturalistic movement. The scene between Christopher and the Shopkeeper will also be live. However, all of the Voice lines will be recorded as we can then focus on our movement and have effective sounding dialogue. Moreover, Ed, Siobhan and Information will be pre-recorded as these characters are not actually there with Christopher.

For our Voice dialogue we want the lines to all overlap slightly and be quite fast paced to create the busy atmosphere of London. It is this busy environment that makes Christopher extremely uncomfortable and break down.

Auditions (24) - Struggling to find a monologue

As Tom, Mr McKay and Miss Cordell were in this lesson, we were asked to perform our classical monologues. Unfortunately, where we didn't expect to be asked to do this, all of our monologues were a little rusty. Below was the feedback I received from my classical monologue:

• Movement   -   "Don't be afraid to move" // "T-Rex arms"   -   I was quite static during this performance (apart from the walk in). I barely moved from the spot I walked to and the only real movement I did was moving my arms and hands. I've been told not to be afraid to move. Before performing this again, I shall annotate my monologue and work out where I want to move in the monologue and where and how I shall move. 
• Address   -   "Don't direct the first line to anyone"   -   Tom suggested that I should say the first line as if I am saying it to myself. Although they liked the way I addressed them, I didn't have to address them for the entire time.
• Class   -   "Lost the teenager element" // "Be annoyingly upper class"   -   I was told that by lowering the pitch of my monologue I did lose the teenager element, but I could still afford to be a lot more upper class. 
• Energy   -   "More energy needed" // "Be more sharp"   -   The last time I performed this monologue I had the right level of energy as there was a "fire in [my] belly" and all of my words had a bite to them. However, the energy slipped a bit this time, thus making my character seem not as high-class as before. 
• Diction   -   "Diction on first line" // "Nice through teeth but be clear"   -   I have a tendency to speak quite quickly during this monologue as my character is angry, thus making all of the words merge together a little bit. I had the right intention, as I spoke my words through my teeth when I was really angry. However, I still need to watch my diction when doing this to ensure that every word is heard.

After performing our classical monologues we spoke about our contemporary monologues. I got too nervous to perform the comedic contemporary monologue I had chosen ("I ate the divorce papers") as I didn't think it would suit me. I asked if I had to do comedy or can it just be contrasting in terms of character, situation and emotion. I was told this was okay so decided to do some research in to contemporary monologues that would contrast with my "King Lear" monologue. I would have liked to have done the monologue I looked at before from "A Doll's House" but it is too similar to my classical monologue and might not even be considered as contemporary (as it was written in 1879). I was suggested a monologue from "Look Back in Anger" spoken by the character "Alison". Below is the research I have done on this monologue, and another monologue I am considering:

• ((John Osbourne -- Look Back In Anger -- Alison))
  
  • https://www.scribd.com/doc/149549335/Acting-for-Singers-Monologues
  • This monologue was recommended to me by my teacher, as she could tell I was getting stressed out not being able to find a good monologue for me. She knows that I like dramatic monologues with something I can really get my teeth into. 
  • In this monologue, the character Alison explains to her husband about her miscarriage.
• ((Claire Dowie -- Why is John Lennon Wearing a Skirt?))
  
  • https://alwaysworkingartists.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/why-is-john-lennon-wearing-a-skirt.pdf
  • This monologue is one that I picked but then discarded a long time ago before coming up with my "Assassins" monologue. Originally I thought it just had themes of anger, confusion and oppression, but having read it again, I can see there are a lot of opportunities to change my tone and possibly make it quite comical. I would have to do the latter, rather than taking the angry approach, to avoid it being similar to my classical monologue. If I do take the opportunities and make it a bit comical then it would be contrasting.
  • In this monologue, the character explains why she hates being a woman and would rather be a man.

I am hoping to try both monologues next lesson to see which one I prefer out of the two. I know a little bit of background information on both of the characters, but I am purposely not doing too much research into either of them yet so I can see what I can do with just the text alone before I add the extra dimension formed with context. I am quite annoyed at myself for not pushing and challenging myself to do the "I ate the divorce papers" monologue, so I might come back to this one another time.

Musical Theatre (22) - All songs so far

In today's lesson we sang through all of the songs we have done so far (apart from a couple due to running out of time) in order. Below, I have written down what has changed for some songs.

• "Tune Up #1"
• "Voice Mail #1"
• "Tune Up #2"
• "Rent"
• "One Song Glory"
  
  • Henri sang this today better than he ever has done. // He knew almost all of the words, only stumbling on what section.
• "Light My Candle"
  • Henri and Taylor have changed the blocking on this to make her character seem more flirtatious and also to make it clearer when Mimi takes her drugs back at the end of the song.
• "Today 4 U"
  
  • Owen walked really well in his heels and did more during the song. He could still interact a bit more with the others but he did well bearing in mind he didn't get to do it with them last lesson.
• "You'll See"
• "Tango: Maureen"
  
  • Cameron and I got the vocals right but are still finding it difficult to do the dance as well. Therefore we are going to simplify the dance. However, the bits that are not danced, and are "just acted," as it were, were a lot stronger as we really thought about our characters, their situation and their relationship.
• "Life Support"
• "Another Day"
• "Will I?"
  • Although we still didn't get the ending right, we have worked out that the first group sing the verse four times in total, holding the note of the final word on (the "mare" of "nightmare"). The second group would hold on the word "from" (from the line "From this nightmare") and the third group would hold the "row" of "tomorrow".
• "Santa Fe"
• "I'll Cover You"
• "We're Okay"
  
  • I worked out what I shall be doing in terms of props - i.e. what phone I need to use and when. I knew almost all of the lyrics but stumbled on some of the final lines as the timing is awkward and it is very wordy.
• "Over the Moon"
  
  • Alice sang along to a track of this song. This confused her as she sang it differently in places, but this didn't matter as the song is sung a Capella. I learned when I needed to do the backing vocals. What's left for this piece is for Alice and I to do this piece without the track.
• "La Vie Boheme"
• "Seasons of Love"
• "Take Me or Leave Me"
  
  • Apart from me struggling with the starting note of the final harmony, this was the best time we ever did this piece. This was because we really got in to our characters and thought about our relationship at this point. We did whatever movement came naturally and it seemed to really work. We need to keep this up every time we sing it now.

Musical Theatre (21) - Random Songs

Below is the list of songs we sang in this lesson and how they went:

• "Today 4 U"   -   Vocally, this piece was really good but was very static. Therefore we spent some time with Owen to give him ideas on what he could do. I also helped him walk in his heels and walk like a woman. The next thing we have to do with this number is do the blocking with Lewis, Cameron and Henri, so Owen can interact with them all.
• "I'll Cover You"   -   Harmonies still need to be worked on for this number but the staging is really starting to take shape and thus their character work and relationship is developing really well.
• "Will I?"   -   This piece looked good and sounded fine, apart from the ending. We still need to go over the ending of the song. We all discussed the ending and now know when we need to sing our final note, but we still need to actually do this.
• "Life Support"   -   This number went really well.
• "You'll See"   -   We spent a long time going over the vocals, first with the original track and then with the backing track. We also staged the number today. In terms of staging, all they have to do is stand in certain places and Benny move between them.
• "Another Day"   -   For this number, everyone in "Life Support" freezes, whilst Taylor walks out of the freeze frame and goes over to sing with Henri.

AAS (30) - Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

In this lesson we were split into different groups and given our second scenes for our Applying Acting Styles Showcase. I was put with both Ollie's, James and Kat, and we were given a small section of script from the play "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" and told that we were going to be doing a physical theatre piece.

Ollie Kelly and I recently saw the play in the West End, so we told the rest of the group what the play was about. We watched a couple of videos too - this was to show what the play was roughly about, what the main character is like and give a sense of the play.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVrOsXhG61Q   -   Official trailer
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYDFdY3IZBM   -   Tony Awards Performance
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4mXhW7TXQ8   -   Frantic Flying Lesson

I have seen the third video before but I really enjoyed it. We shall be experimenting with some of these lifts in a later lesson.

We spent the rest of the lesson discussing the main character and autism. The main character, Christopher, has a severe case of Asperger's Syndrome. We discussed how autism comes in a variety of different forms and strengths, and different people we know with Asperger's (family members, friends and colleagues).

Musical Theatre (20) - Act One Songs

In today's lesson we ran all of the songs that we have worked on from Act One:

• "Tune Up #1"   -   Staging is all okay. Vocals were fine apart from being a little out of time to begin with.
• "Voice Mail #1"   -   Alice sang this really well today. She knows this piece inside out and also where she has to stand. As she is very theatrical, she might have to tone her energy down a little bit or channel in in some other way, although it was very comical.
• "Tune Up #2"   -   Staging and vocals were also good in this number.
• "Rent"   -   Thankfully, we did this number quite well today. All vocals were accurate and the harmonies were balanced nicely. The only fault in this number today was that the choreography was a little bit out of time.
• "One Song Glory"   -   This song started off really well today, but unfortunately Henri got confused on his lyrics. All that is left for this number is for it to be blocked and for Henri to be confident with his lyrics.
• "Light My Candle"   -   This piece sounded really good but the pair lost focus a little bit due to the awkward section in the middle. This was completely understandable as it is awkward and they are not used to it yet. Moreover, Mr McKay would like to change the staging a little bit at the end to make Mimi seem more flirtatious and fiesty.
• "Today 4 U"   -   This piece sounded fine but it needs to be blocked.
• "Tango: Maureen"   -   Due to Mr McKay playing the original backing track for quickness, Cameron and I didn't do the dance today. However, on the whole our vocals were fine. The only parts that needs work in terms of vocals, are Cameron learning his lyrics for the sections he forgets and I need to get comfortable with the harmonies on the line "you pretend to believe her 'cause in the end you can't leave her".
• "Life Support"   -   This actually went really well today. Our staging was fine and the vocals were good on the whole but the harmonies could do with going over a little bit to ensure they are tight and accurate.
• "Another Day"   -   Today was the first time we sang this piece. We haven't staged it as we wanted to focus on the vocals first before adding blocking to it. We shall all learn this song off by heart and then we can start adding movement.
• "Will I?"   -   Our positions look really effective for this number and our vocals are fine on the whole. However, we need to work on our ending to this song as we are all supposed to end at the same time (wherever we are in our round) and hold our final note on to form a chord.
• "Santa Fe"   -   Vocally, this number was fine. However we decided to change the staging as it wasn't quite working. Instead of Warren, Tyler and I sitting DSR, we now sit on the L-Shaped steel decking. We stand up and have a bit of casual dancing / joyful movement on the line "we'll pack up all our stuff". This helps build the number in terms of atmosphere and energy and makes it more aesthetically pleasing.
• "I'll Cover You"   -   This number sounded good but it is yet to be staged.
• "We're Okay"   -   I know how this number goes, but as I haven't sung it for a long time, I had forgotten the lyrics so needed to use them today. I need to become confident with the lyrics and add some movement.
• "Over the Moon"   -   Alice sang this really well today. However, it needs to be blocked and we need to decide if we are going to use pre-recorded backing vocals or if Taylor and I are going to sing the backing vocals for her live.
• "La Vie Boheme A"   -   This number was fine but it still needs some more energy. Also Alice and I need to decide what we are going to do before "Hey Mister! She's my sister" and "We're close".

Auditions (23) - Finding a contemporary monologue

We are now moving on to contrasting contemporary monologues, but will return to our classical ones before our performance. For my contrasting contemporary monologue I am hoping to do a comical monologue. I say "hoping" as I am not 100% sure if I will yet, as I am much more confident with serious / dramatic monologues than comical ones. However, I want to try a comedy one to challenge myself. Below are the two monologues I was deciding between for tomorrow's lesson:

• It's Terrible Being Nice   -   Goodbye Charles   -   Gabriel Davis
  
  • http://www.monologuegenie.com/its-terrible-being-nice-monologue.html
• I Ate the Divorce Papers   -   Goodbye Charles   -   Gabriel Davis
  
  • http://www.monologuegenie.com/ate-divorce-papers-monologue.html

I decided that I will use the second monologue as it forms more of a contrast to my classical monologue. The first monologue starts with her being quite angry and she is very matter-of-fact and therefore too similar to the character Goneril. Therefore I will try the second monologue as it is more comical and the character is actually laughing throughout it as well.

Business (15) - Task F - Overview

For Task F we shall be researching a range of services that we will need to put on our school show of "Grease". Below are the details of the show:

• Show: "Grease"
• Venue: The Howard School main stage
• Rehearsal venue: The Hoard School drama room - C5
• Performances: Four shows in February
• Music: Live band
• Microphones: Head set radio microphones

I will be researching the following to help towards our production:

1. Venue and rehearsal room fees
2. Printing costs for tickets, programmes and posters
3. Cost for the band
4. Costume hire
5. Steel decking and flats
6. Equity costs
7. Lighting equipment and hire
8. Microphones and sound equipment
9. Tuck shop prices

Auditions (22) - King Lear

We spent the majority of this lesson in pairs, performing our monologues to each other and giving each other feedback. At the end of the lesson, we performed our monologues to the rest of the class. Below is the feedback I was given after every performance:

First performance to James:

• +ive:   Good facial expressions // Good tone of voice
• -ive:   Poor eye contact // Needs movement  // Pause more before "Idle old man"

Second performance to James:

• +ive:   Got attention from the start // Like the walking in // Change in thought
• -ive:   Eye contact could be stronger // Know the character's purpose in the entire play
• James advised me to focus on one person and pretend that they are the only servant I am talking to (Oswald, as this character is in the play), rather than imagining a group of servants. This would also prevent me from making the monologue more of a performance instead of a believable section of speech. 
• My character's purpose in the play is to be evil and manipulative and to cause trouble.

Third performance to James:

• This time, I performed the monologue in the same way but with all of James' notes in mind. He was impressed with the performance, but I wanted to work on my character's voice. I thought I played Goneril in a fairly vulnerable way, so I wanted to make her seem older and bolder. To do this I would lower my pitch and have a harsher tone with more depth to it.

Fourth performance to James:

• This was my favourite version of my monologue. I lowered my pitch and added a Lady Macbeth element, thus making my character seem older and more authoritative. James said that this was also his favourite version. He said that he knew he had to hate my character because I'm he knew that I was the baddie, as it were, and what I was planning, but he still really liked my character.

First performance to the class:

• This performance didn't go as well as I had planned. It was kind of a mix between the third and fourth version. As I had only done the deeper version once, I kept slipping into my older version. I explained this to the class and then performed it again the way I intended.

Second performance to the class:

• +ive:   Good eye contact // Tone was much better // "More fire in belly" // More upper-class and mature // This version really worked for my character
• -ive:   Work on movement. Know why I am moving if and when I am going to. Have a purpose to everything.

AAS (29) - PP&T - Style & Conventions

• Believable Costumes: See blog post number 27 from this unit. I am wearing costumes that suit my character and give the audience a clearer understanding of what she is like.
• Realistic setting: Set in the mental institute. We are not using representational props or placards, and are instead using actual props. For example we will use syringes, clipboards, bags etc. 
• Scenes: The audience are put in Emma's shoes as when there is a blackout, the set changes - Emma is confused but the rest of the cast are fine. 
• Conversational dialogue: Many lines overlap each other (e.g. Page 23, Emma: "yes, I know, I understand that, it's just"). There are also lots of fillers (e.g. "er" and "yeah").
• Contrasting lights:  We have a bright plain white wash throughout the entire scene apart from when we have black outs. (For example page 38)

AAS (28) - PP&T - Sixth Form Open Evening

Tonight was the Sixth Form Open Evening. The Year 12 and Year 13 performing Arts classes were asked to help out during this evening. Henri and Cameron from Year 12 performed their duet from "Rent", "What You Own". This song went really well (although they were unsure on their harmonies) and the Year 11's, visiting with their parents, who came in to watch were impressed.

Ollie Kelly and I performed our first scene from "People, Places and Things" several times throughout the evening. All the time I wasn't performing this scene, I walked around in character. As I was in costume, and not in PA uniform, I thought I should stay with another student in PA uniform to show that I wasn't a random person, and was in fact a student remaining in role. The person I stayed with all evening was Ollie - I thought this was a good idea as his character in "PP&T" has to look after my character anyway. This therefore forced Ollie to act as his character as he felt like he had to look after me.

I stayed in character all evening, regardless of who I was talking to. Therefore, I had to improvise constantly thus keeping in the mind set of my character - whilst altering my use of language and tone for different people I was speaking to (i.e. for families with younger children I would keep my language 100% clean and tone down my character a bit, as it were; whilst if it were just a year 11 and parent, then I would keep my characters tone). By having to improvise around different scenarios, I gained a better understanding of my character as I had to consider what she would do and how she would act in different circumstances.

I really enjoyed this evening as I managed to gain a better understanding of my character, get used to my character's body as it were (i.e. how she moves around) and make people laugh.

AAS (27) - PP&T - Dress run

In this lesson we ran our entire scene a few times in costume. Although we are not going to be performing these scenes for a while (and should hopefully have some more time on them after working on our other scenes that we are starting soon) we thought we should have a few runs in costume now, as the costume changes have to be done very quickly. Below is what I have chosen for each of my costumes and why:

Page 22 - 31:

• Skin-coloured lingerie body suit
• Hospital gown not visible underneath the actual costume
• Black jogging bottoms
• Grey zipped hoodie
• Nike Junior Air Huaraches  

The reason I am wearing a lingerie body suit is to ensure that I only take off the layers that I need when I get changed. I will wear the hospital gown (i.e. my Nan's nightie) underneath the hoodie and joggers to make the quick change even quicker, thus meaning our blackout doesn't have to last as long. It is also for this reason that I am wearing a zipped hoodie. If I wore a normal hoodie that I had to take off over my head, then there would be the risk of my hospital gown coming off as well. The jogging bottoms are really baggy to make me look scruffier. I chose to wear my Huaraches as I don't need to do the laces up on these - they can slip on and off allowing me to have a quicker change. Moreover, because the souls and bottom section of the trainers are white, they look scruffier than plain black trainers.

Page 32 - 42:

• Skin-coloured lingerie body suit
• Hospital gown

I am keeping the lingerie body suit on for the entire piece as I need it for the final scene. I am also wearing it as the nightie is almost see-through. The nightie looks like a hospital gown because it is white with pale blue spots on it. The fact that the hospital gown is such a contrast to my first costume shows that my character is so out of place and is feeling really lost.




Page 42 - 45:

• Skin-coloured lingerie body suit
• Purple joggers
• Men's black vest top

In this scene, I walk in in my previous costume and then get changed on stage during this scene into the costume stated above. As this change is visible to the audience, I decided to buy myself a lingerie body suit as I didn't want to show my belly and thought it would be more appropriate to be more covered up. The purple joggers are tighter fitting than my black joggers to show that my character has a changed mental state due to her starting her treatment and going cold turkey. The vest top is over-sized to suggest she feels out of her depth and lost. It also makes me look smaller and therefore more vulnerable.

Musical Theatre (19) - Random songs

We began with our normal vocal warm up and then did the following:

• "Seasons of Love":   The first time we did this was okay, but it was lacking energy thus making the vocals sound a little bit flat in places. It was also just a bit boring to watch as we didn't have enough enthusiasm. Therefore, we did it again and really increased our energy and thought about what we were singing thus altering our facial expressions and making the vocals sound brighter and therefore not flat.
• "Take Me or Leave Me":   Alice and I wanted to do this song today as we were both in the mood for it. I always get anxious about this number as I am not a natural belter. Moreover, I find my harmonies at the end on the final "take me baby" really challenging as I struggle to pitch it. However, this went surprisingly well today as I managed to get the harmonies right. Our next step for this song will be to stage it.
• "Tango Maureen":   Cameron and I did this today with out focus on the movement as we haven't done the dance in a little while. We are still struggling a little bit with singing this number and dancing at the same time - especially after realising how much we have to project this so people at the back of the audience would be able to hear. Therefore, if we don't get this by Wednesday, we shall simplify the dance.
• "Rent":   This number went really well today having worked on it a lot on Wednesday. We didn't need to do this for a second time today as we remembered all of our movement and the harmonies were all okay.
• "I'll Cover You":   Owen and Lewis sang through "I'll Cover You" today and added a bit of movement. They sang through it a couple of times to ensure that their harmonies were okay. The next step for this number is to really work on their relationship and add convincing movement to it.
• "I'll Cover You Reprise":    Lewis sang this through a couple of times today. I think he did really well at this, especially bearing in mind he is not a confident singer! He captured a lot of emotion for this piece too. Now that Lewis has sung through his parts, our next step is to add in all of the ensemble singing and then block it.
• "Santa Fe":   We are now feeling really comfortable with this number as we have done it several times.

Auditions (21) - King Lear Vocal Only

The first thing I did in this lesson was work on my opening line of my monologue. I was told previously that I should be less angry with the monologue and try being more frustrated instead. I was anxious about this opening line as I didn't know how I was going to say it in a way that I would capture the audience's attention instantly but not be too angry with it. Below is how my line changed over this workshop section:

1. Rather angry - how I had rehearsed it before just to get back in to the swing of this monologue
2. More frustrated - attempted to be more frustrated but still struggling with it
3. Walking in - said the line in a similar way as before but whist walking in to get the right sort of feeling
4. Emphasise "d" of "day" - same as number three but articulated the plosive sound of "d" to sound more frustrated
5. On the spot - exact same as number four but without walking in at the same time

After working on the first line I performed my entire monologue to Miss McSherry and Mr McKay. They both said that this was a lot better than I have done it before but I needed to consider where my character has a change of thought. This monologue should be like an emotional roller-coaster. I therefore went and annotated my monologue:

I performed this monologue again, and my feedback was that it was a lot better than before, but I need to watch my diction at times (especially on my "l's"). Next lesson I shall go over mainly the vocal side of the monologue again to engrave it in my mind, but I shall also begin including some movement.

Business (14) - Task D - Preparing for the audition performance

For the audition part of this unit, I shall sing "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again". Although GSA ask for two contrasting contemporary monologues, I have decided to do a classical monologue and a contemporary monologue. This is because many drama schools ask for classical monologues and I may have to do classical monologues for auditions in the future. I wanted to do a classical monologue for the audition part of this unit as I am not very confident with them and want to improve myself. I shall be doing the same "King Lear" monologue that I am doing for audition unit as I really like this monologue and think it suits me the best out of the ones I have looked at. I shall pick a contemporary monologue a little bit later when I start doing the research on contemporary monologues for the audition unit.

I am skipping Task E for now, as the monologues I shall be using for this section are the ones I am using in my "Auditions unit", and we have not finished these yet. Therefore I am going to jump to Criteria 3 Take F.

Musical Theatre (18) - On the Stage & Projection

We began this lesson by doing the "Tune Ups" and "Rent" on the stage. The purpose of this was to work on our staging and our projection. The staging went rather well. We are having an L-shaped bit of stage decking beginning down stage left, and round the corner of where the apron begins. We have a step in the wings to lead us up on to the decking. This decking is used for whenever we are supposed to be on the stage. Our blocking was fairly good in terms of knowing where the centre was and being positioned appropriately, but the projection was an issue.

Projecting:

For this show we shall not using headset microphones, so we really have to project to ensure that we are heard over the backing tracks. As a little experiment, we all had to stand on the stage from where we think our voices would be heard from singing - those who don't think they can project that well stood further downstage, whilst those he can stood upstage. Our teacher then adjusted us to what he thought. This will affect our blocking for songs to come - for example, songs like "Will I" and "Life Support" will be set further downstage, whilst others like "Take Me or Leave Me" and "Over the Moon" doesn't matter so much where they are set.

As Alice and I have had vocal training, we were asked to do "Take Me or Leave Me" on stage to the rest of the class to show them how to project. Projection requires a lot of support - this means you really have to engage your diaphragm, and not have any tension in the shoulders. Alice was told to project and I was told to sing as if I were in a small practice room. This was to show the difference between projecting and not projecting. After this, Cameron and I sang "Tango: Maureen" on the stage. This proved to him how much he had to sing up next to me. However, I thought this was unfair, and I shall not sing as loud in this number as higher voices naturally carry more than lower male voices. We shall also set our number downstage more as we are dancing at the same time, and so projecting will be harder.

"Life Support":

This number we set on front of the L-Shaped decking, the stage in front of it and the stage blocks leading up to the stage. We are all either sitting, kneeling or standing during this number. This creates a variety of levels suggesting that we are all at different stages with our AIDS. We wanted this number to be set in a small section of the stage to show that we are all a close group that stick together and support each other. During the final section of this song, we all hold hands together to portray unity and support. This was also the first time we sang this song properly together. Mr McKay split us in to groups as this song is done in a round. This song sounded quite good as it was our first time performing it, but we need to work on when the song finishes as we are all supposed to finish together but hold on whatever note we just sang - these last notes are supposed to form a chord if done correctly.

AAS (26) - PP&T - Progress

At the beginning of this lesson we discussed our set ideas. We realised that the drawings I drew in a previous blog (http://lornaclarkra.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/scenes-duologues-24-pp-set-and-props.html) may be inaccurate now as we might be using two tables during our piece now, and not involving the little chest of drawers. We shall make our final decisions on our set in a later lesson. However, what we have been working with is just one table and chair (which seems to be working really well as it is simplistic and therefore makes the scene changes quicker, so I personally think we should stick with just this).

The majority of the lesson was spent doing our piece in small sections over and over again. The purpose of this was for us to learn our lines and concrete our movement. Holding a script when performing really limits what you can do in terms of movement and also takes away from the emotion. Therefore we wanted to do as much as we could without scripts to enable us to really work on our characterisation in terms of body language. By the end of this lesson, we were all off script for the majority of our piece.

Auditions (20) - King Lear Monologue

In this lesson we had Tom in to watch our classical monologues. I was told that I really captured the essence of the monologue as I wasn't just saying it - I knew what my monologue was about. However, I was told to think more about my character's age and status, as I was coming across like a teenager rather than a powerful woman. It was then suggested to me that I should try being more frustrated rather than being angry on the first line. I have to keep quite measured and really work on my movement.

To enable myself to work more on my movement, I am trying to learn my monologue off by heart as soon as possible. However, when I say movement, this doesn't mean moving about the stage - what I am planning to do is use a lot of hand gestures but with a lot of tension.

Tom suggested that we watched some clips of Jeremy Iron as he performs Shakespeare really naturally. Below is the clip that I watched. I agree with what Tom was saying - that Iron performs Shakespeare as if it were a modern text.

Musical Theatre (17) - Blocking Act One

In this lesson we began blocking Act One. We staged "Tune Up 1", "Tune Up 2" and "Rent". Although the stereotypes of Musical Theatre are a lot of singing, dancing and acting, we won't be doing much dancing in this musical. This is because "Rent" is a very gritty musical rather than a glitzy show with huge ensemble dance numbers. The only numbers where we have or may have some sort of dance are "Tango: Maureen", "La Vie Boheme", "Rent", "Over the Moon" and "I'll Cover You".

When blocking the "Tune Ups", decisions had to be made on where everything would be 'positioned' in their room - e.g. where the answering machine is. We are having some L-shaped decking leading from the wings on stage left, forwards and along the apron on the left. This decking is used for whenever there is a phone call (i.e. Mark's Mum's voicemail, and Joanne's and Benny's phone calls in "Rent").

The "Tune Ups" were fairly easy to stage as it was like blocking an ordinary scene, however, "Rent" was a little more difficult due to the dance break and the fact that it is more of a song than the "Voicemails" and "Tune Ups" which are just spoken in tune.

AAS (25) - PP&T - Decisions & Details

We ran through our piece in its entirety a few times. We really focussed on our characters at first and then decided we would break it down into sections and work on movement. We knew that we wouldn't be able to do every scene in this lesson so we decided to just work on the first scene between Ollie and I. We worked out where I should get up and where I should sit. We also decided to work out where I should have my back to him and when we should change the distance between each other. All annotations are on my script, but below are the main points:

• Pg 26   -   "how about we check you in first and / then you can" (Foster)   -   We discussed whether Foster should move closer on this line or stay where he was. Although moving closer to her would show Foster's determination to get her to stay, it might frighten Emma and make her want to leave more, therefore we decided that he should stay where he was.
• Pg 29   -   "trying to fill your bingo card" (Emma)   -  We thought that at this point I should walk over to Ollie and lean on the desk as if I'm trying to read what he is saying. We knew we wanted me to come closer to him so on my line "I drove", I could then turn away and begin to walk back. We thought this would bring out the comedy element of the piece more as it shows that my character is being quite open now and not really caring what she is saying. The comedy aspect is in the fact that she doesn't see anything wrong with the fact that she just drove herself to the institution. 
• Pg 30   -   "I'm actually quite healthy. I know I'm not giving that impression" (Emma)   -   We thought that I could walk back to the chair and either collapse into the chair or trip up on the walk over to the chair, between the two lines. This would being the comedy aspect out a little bit more. There is only a little bit of comedy in this piece, but this comes from all of the characters being deadly serious and quite natural. However, we thought it would be good timing to fit a little bit of ironic movement in here. Comedy is very important in a depressing scene as it lightens the mood at times, thus preventing the whole thing being really depressing.

We don't feel like we really need to spend much time working on the movement for mine and Hope's scene as I remain sitting on the table for its entirety, whilst Hope will move around freely. The only movement we need to work on in this scene is with the nurses - they just need to know what they should be doing at certain moment - e.g. when do they need to take my blood pressure, etc.

Musical Theatre (16) - "Tango: Maureen" edit

Screenshot number one shows me highlighting the introduction ready to cut it. If we had a long introduction of silence, and we cued the music for after a certain line of dialogue, it then wouldn't come on when we wanted it to - therefore I deleted the introduction.

The second screenshot has the section of Mark's spoken dialogue explaining where he learned to tango. Unfortunately, although this was the best backing track I could find, you can hear the singers faintly. When Cameron and I are singing, this will not be a problem as we will be singing over them - however, if Cameron spoke his dialogue at a different speed or timing, then the vocal on the track would be heard. Therefore I silenced this part of the track.  The third screenshot shows the Audacity programme with the track silenced where I wanted it to be.

Prior to this fourth screenshot, I highlighted and then deleted the section of the dance break that we didn't want. However, I felt that we needed a bit longer before the chord before my lyric "he cheated". Therefore I highlighted a short section of silence in the track and then pasted it.

The sixth screenshot shows the end of the track and the silence that follows. I decided to leave the section of silence on at the end as this would give whoever shall play the music for us more time to pause the music. By having a long pause at the end, we can ensure that it will not run straight into the next track and can be stopped in plenty of time.

Business (13) - Task D - Preparing for GSA

ROUND 1:
"Perform one Musical Theatre song of no more than three minutes. Needs to be age appropriate. Bring sheet music and full piano accompaniment. Character and show needs to be researched in detail." - http://lornaclarkra.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/business-6-task-c-gsa-research.html

Musical Theatre songs for sopranos that I like: 

• "Think of Me" from "The Phantom of the Opera"
• "Summertime" from "Porgy and Bess"
• "Greenfinch and Linnet Bird" from "Sweeney Todd"
• "Wishing you were Somehow Here Again" from "The Phantom of the Opera"
• "No one mourns the Wicked" from "Wicked"
• "If I were a bell" from "Guys and Dolls"
• "Don't forget me" from "Smash"
• "Where Did The Rock Go?" from "School of Rock"

I have decided that I am going to sing "Wishing you were Somehow Here Again" from "The Phantom of the Opera". The character who sings this song, Christine, is about my age and sings this song to her dead father at his grave. I chose this song as it shows a good range vocally, as well as being very emotionally demanding, so would enable me to show that I can remain in character and be convincing whist maintaining my vocal technique. Whilst singing this I have to remember the context - the fact that the Phantom is watching her and he is kind of the father-figure in her life.


ROUND 2:
"Perform a one minute solo dance of any style. Bring music on a CD. Perform the same song from round one again, plus perform a song from the list given by GSA. Prepare two contrasting modern speeches (post 1950) at no more than two minutes each. One should be in your own accent." - http://lornaclarkra.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/business-6-task-c-gsa-research.html

Musical Theatre (15) - "Rent"

In yesterday's lesson we sang through "Rent" and then blocked it. We had sung this before but needed to go over the vocals to improve the harmonies and vocal energy throughout.

Vocal energy:
We knew that the vocal energy would improve when we added movement, but we needed to get this energy without the movement to ensure that we are using our diaphragms to avoid strains. If you do not put enough energy in to it then you are probably not using your diaphragm and instead are singing from your throat. However, this could also be from a lack of training from the majority of the class. Therefore, in the vocal warm-up I ensured that I did some breathing exercises to engage the diaphragm, inter-costal muscles and pelvic floor.

Harmonies and solos:

When singing along to the actual track, our vocals sounded fine, however, with the backing track some of our timings were off. Cameron struggled with knowing when to come in and I lost my timing in places on my solo part. However, after singing through the piece a couple of times with the backing track, we managed to improve our timing. As I am doing a version of "Rent" at the moment outside of school, I already knew and was confident with the harmonies for the ensemble verses of the song. Below is the first verse that everybody sings:

• "How do you leave the past behind when it keeps finding ways to get to your heart?"   -   this is sung in unison by the entire cast
• "It reaches way down deep and tears you inside out till you're torn apart, rent!"   -  boys continue with the melody. girls sing a harmony a third above. everyone shouts "rent" in unison.
• "How can you connect in an age where strangers, landlords, lovers, your own blood cells betray"   -   everyone in unison.
• "What binds the fabric together when the raging, shifting winds of change keep ripping away?"   -   boys on melody. Taylor and Alice sing the third above harmony. I sing the fifth above harmony.

The harmonies still need work as some people get distracted by the harmonies going on and so don't sing the melody. Therefore, on Tuesday we shall all stay behind after school to go through the harmonies together.

Movement:
We haven't completely staged the whole piece yet, but we wanted to keep it fairly naturalistic. It isn't a dance number, but is more of an angry piece with blocking. Therefore Cameron and Henri start centre and just do what comes naturally. Whenever anyone is supposed to be on the phone (i.e. me when I am on the phone to Joanne, and Benny when he is on the phone to Allison) we stand stage left on the L-shaped steel decking. We have movement for the dance-break though. Mr McKay (who did the production of "Rent" last year with me - he played Angel) decided that he would use similar choreography to last year. Instead of running sideways, Dan got Henri and Cameron to run forwards and back. However, Tyler, Warren and I run sideways behind them. We all do four runs and four hops on both legs, a circular lunge (Cameron and Henri go one way, and the rest of us go the other), two punches and a full turn jump. The running represents their anger and shows that their anger is too intense to control. The circular lunge creates a sense of unity between the ensemble as well as a sense of tension. The punches and jump also shows their frustration and anger.

Summary:
All we have left to do for this piece is to go through the harmonies and polish the movement.

Auditions (19) - King Lear Monologue

Today we all performed our monologues to the rest of the class. The feedback I got after performing mine was the following:

• "Really impressive"
• Clearly worked on it as I got the correct meaning across. 
• Slow down in places. As it is Shakespeare, I need to slow down so that each word is heard.
• Remember that I am an upper class lady, so perhaps compose myself at times.

I have now annotated my monologue with where I shall be really angry and where I shall compose myself slightly.

AAS (24) - PP&T - Set and Props

Above is our first draft of what we would like to be our set between each of my character's blackouts. It is crucial that our set is different each time to show that Emma has passed out and is disorientated. The design above is not necessarily how we will have our set for the performance, as when working more on this scene, we may have more ideas.

AAS (23) - PP&T - Additional Scene

In this lesson we ran our entire scene again a few times. We were trying to improve our characterisation and add more depth to our characters by applying the character decisions we made last lesson. We worked on the movement side of things as well and decided that we want to get off of script as soon as possible to enable ourselves to really commit to the movement and character. It would also enable us to use props - this is something we would like to start doing soon, as a lot of props are involved in this scene, and we need to be comfortable with what we are doing with them.

Another aspect of performance we worked on today was volume. At the beginning of this scene, Ollie and I are having a conversation about smoking, whilst Lewis's character is shouting frantically to anyone and everyone. What we had to work out was how we could make Ollie and I heard over Lewis's shouting. In the play we watched, both Foster and Emma were miked. However, we decided to bring mine and Ollie's conversation further down stage, and Lewis further upstage. Also, now that Lewis is using his diaphragm more now, his shouting is slightly lower in pitch, thus making it less piercing and over-powering. In addition, Ollie and I are projecting more. I found it quite challenging to present my character's confused and disorientated state whilst speaking louder, but after practising this a few times, I began to get the hang of it.

Moreover, we have added another two pages to the end of our scripts. In this scene, Foster settles Emma into her new room and tries to make her feel at ease. Ollie and I didn't get much time on this scene but we ran through it once to learn what happens, and once to do it with our desired blocking. We know how we shall stage this scene now, but shall also learn this scene off by heart, as soon as possible, to enable us to practise this scene without any restrictions.

What I shall do between now and next lesson is label my script with my character's intentions, objectives and feelings throughout the play, as well as trying to learn as much of it as I can off by heart. Next lesson, we shall work through the script in small sections to really perfect each little detail and moment (for example, where and when the Doctor refers to her clip board / notes; what she thinks when she reads the notes and thus what facial expressions she would pull whilst reading).

Auditions (18) - First Attempt of Classical Monologue & Research

To begin this lesson, we got into pairs to tell each other about our chosen monologues and to them perform them to each other. Ollie and I formed a pair and the feedback he gave me from my first attempt was that I used my pauses nicely, but I needed to do more research to find out the relationship between my character and the man she refers to as "him".

Between performing this monologue to Ollie, and performing it to the class, I managed to do a little bit research. Through this research, I learned that my character, Goneril, is one of three sisters, and is actually referring to her father in this monologue. I knew that I needed to do more research on this, but wanted to try out the monologue first before doing a lot of research into it. As I have decided that I like this monologue, I shall do a lot more research on it. My feedback from performing it to the class was as follows:

1. Doesn't have to be perfectly read. Think about how you would speak when you're actually angry - you might pause in strange places.
2. Be more ruthless! She is extremely angry and is at the end of her tether. She is livid.

Brief synopsis of the play:   (Notes taken and condensed from the following site - http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/kinglear/kinglearps.html)

•  Set in ancient Britain. Elderly King Lear is deciding to "give up his power and divide his realm amongst his three daughters (Goneril, Regan and Cordelia).
• He planned to give the largest piece of his kingdom to his daughter that "professes to love him the most" - certain his favourite, Cordelia, will win.
• Goneril and Regan play along (constantly being deceitful), whilst Cordelia refuses to participate. 
• Lear is angered and disowns Cordelia. Lear banishes Earl of Kent (his friend) for trying to speak on her behalf.
• Meanwhile, the King of France and Cordelia marry. Cordelia "reluctantly leaves Lear with her two cunning sisters". 
• Kent disguises himself and becomes Lear's servant to try to protect him from his deceitful daughters.
• Lear, a fool, some knights and the disguised Kent move in with Goneril. She treats Lear with no respect and like an old man.
• Lear sends Kent to Regan with a letter to say that he will stay with her. Regan puts Kent in stocks. Lear arrives and is horrified. Kent is let free. Lear tries to find out who did this, when Goneril arrives. He realises that Regan and Goneril are working together. 
• Regan and Goneril plot to kill Lear. Gloucester finds out and warns Kent to send Lear to Dover. They leave immediately but Edgar remains behind. Regan and Goneril find out. 
• Cornwall (Regan's husband) "gouges out Gloucester's eyes. A servant tries to help Gloucester and attacks Cornwall with a sword - a blow later to prove fatal."
• Cordelia sends French troops to Dover. Regan and Goneril send their own troops to fight the French in Dover. Gloucester also tries to go to Dover and finds his son, Edgar.
• Kent sets off with Lear to reunite him with Cordelia. Lear sleeps through the battle and awakes to be told Cordelia is defeated. He hopes to be imprisoned with her to avoid his evil daughters. However, Cordelia is sentenced to death, not imprisoned.
• Regan and Goneril are both in love with Edmund (Gloucester's "conniving" son who ordered Cordelia to be executed). Goneril poisons Regan. Edgar fatally wounds Edmund. Goneril finds out and commits suicide.
• Edmund repents before he dies and "the order to execute Cordelia is reversed". He is too late - Cordelia is hanged. Lear carries his the dead Cordelia. Lear goes mad with grief and dies. "Kent declares that he will follow his master into the afterlife". Edgar becomes the ruler of Britain.

Musical Theatre (14) - Specialise

In today's lesson we performed "La Vie Boheme", "Seasons of Love" and "Santa Fe", and sang through "Rent". "La Vie Boheme" is still lacking a bit of energy, so unless we all have the same high energy, we will have to have more set movement in this number to ensure that everyone is moving and doing something! "Seasons of Love" sounds a lot better now we have added more people on to the "oo's" underneath Taylor and Alice's solo parts. Originally it was only us girls and Owen on the "oo's" when we weren't singing, but now everyone sings them, making them more prominent (but not over-powering). Vocally, "Santa Fe" was a lot better than what it has been but it was a little bit static. Therefore, we have adapted it so that Lewis, Cameron, Owen and Henri move about and interact with each other more, as well as moving over to and interacting with Tyler, Warren and I. We haven't staged "Rent" yet, but this is on the list of things to do! However, vocally, the piece went quite well today - however, everyone needs to learn the lyrics and I need to teach the harmonies to the other girls for the chorus parts.

Having started this unit almost two months ago now, the stage we are at is quite worrying. We should have thought about things such as set, lighting, sound and costumes a long time ago. Although we have done some costume designs, we need to actually get / make these costumes and consider the different aspects to putting the show together as well. Taylor has decided that she would like to look in to costume and make-up design, whilst Will has decided that he would like to learn how to use the lighting desk, so he shall do some research and learn to do this. I have decided that I shall edit any backing tracks that need editing. As Cameron and I would like a backing track to "Tango: Maureen" without the long dance break, I thought that I could edit the track so we could have the best quality backing track without a dance break. Everyone is going to specialise in one (or maybe two) aspects of the production - therefore, I shall edit mine and Cameron's track and any other tracks that need editing as well.