Directing (12) - Scenes 8, 9 and 2

Scene 8:   We went over the beginning that we did last lesson and the first two pages and then continued through the rest of it. We worked on our movement - we didn't want it to be too static during this scene, so Lewis is quite fluid and calm with his movements to show how relaxed he is. Contrastingly, I am a little bit rigid with my movements to show that I am uncomfortable, as this is the scene when I tell Jerry that I am pregnant. We also looked at how Lewis would say the line "I'm very happy for you" - we didn't want him to sound disappointed, but we wanted the audience to almost feel sorry for him.

Scene 9:   We had spent a lot of time on this scene previously, so we were already confident on a lot of it, but we worked on the ending today. We decided that I wouldn't sit down at all during this scene as my character feels really awkward. At the end when Lewis is sitting on the bed and I have walked over to him, he shall hold my hand in both of his, and then he would stand up before we hug. We worked on the moment when Ollie walked in so it looked convincing.

Scene 2:   I directed the boys on their character's intentions and the meanings of certain lines. They have done this scene before but we spoke about certain lines and movement. Robert says to Jerry that they "never played squash though" - we discussed what he could mean by this (assuming that there is definitely a meaning to this as otherwise it is a bit random and strange that it is brought up a lot throughout the play). We wondered is it anything to do with the fact that squash is quite a violent sport - the fact that Robert has always been calm with Jerry but has wanted to arrange a game of squash, also ironic that he now speaks of playing squash with Casey. We then thought that it could be something to do with playing games, but couldn't think of how this would link in. We then realised that it could mean because Jerry has been meeting with Emma so often, he doesn't have time to play squash with Robert - this would make sense why Robert says that he can't play squash with Casey. We then looked at how Robert winds up Jerry - we found that the two main points Robert says to get a reaction from Jerry are that he says how he hits Emma and when he speaks about Casey. I said that I didn't want Lewis to get up when he is told about Robert hitting Emma, as I want the audience to feel the tension between them, rather than see it - the audience would want Jerry to hit Robert at this point, but the fact that he doesn't makes the situation more powerful and hard-hitting.