Today we did a full run-through, including songs and some costumes. Not everyone has all their costumes or props yet, but we rehearsed with what we have so far. Below is a list of everything I personally need/have for the show:
Jenny Bennet: Sarah Bennet:
- White lacy socks (sorted) - Black jeans (sorted)
- White lacy blouse (sorted) - Christmas jumper (sorted)
- Grey school skirt (sorted) - Same socks & shoes (to save time)
- Black plimsolls (sorted)
- Black shorts to wear under skirt (sorted)
- Comb for Robert's hair (sorted)
- "Baby Jesus" doll (still needed)
- Blue dress (still needed, though back-up is sorted)
- White headdress (still needed)
The majority of the child section went really well today. The costumes made us connect to our characters more and we got into and staged in role better. There were only a few occasions where lines were forgotten, but at these moments we improvised to get back on track. Although we didn't use backing tracks today (as we didn't have the speaker and not all of them have been sorted) the songs went quite well. The first song ("O come all ye faithful") was the best we have ever done it today as we all remembered our lines, the timing was fine, and we kept up our childlike movements throughout the song. My duet with Rhiannon would have been fine if we both remembered our words, though we shall work on this in form time on monday. My duet with Robert went well today; all we have left to do is sort out our movements throughout the song. "Silent night" was a lot better today too as we remembered our movements and the timing was a lot better. Unfortunately, the adult section was rather weak today. This was because some people didn't remember their cues or the order of the conversations in the scene. We had to run this scene a couple of times, which took up a lot of time, so we didn't have time to do the final song.
What I would like to do next lesson is run the adult section through once, and then do another full run but on the stage this time. I am worried about the staging and am unsure on how we are going to stage the scenes set around/on the "apparatus".
13/12/15
Tonight, I watched the 2009 film "Nativity". The reason I watched this film was to see how the children moved/stood when they sang. I also took note on how they behaved when listening to a teacher and when the teacher told off another child in the class. When singing, the children all did different things. The majority of the children looked around them or down whilst tugging at their clothing. Although this was obviously convincing movements for children, I will not be using this for my character as Jenny Bennet has been coached by her mum and taught to "do it like proper acting that you see at The Empire or on television". The children never sat still during the film either; they were always fidgeting. Some children fiddled with their clothing or hair, one picked their nose and others interacted with their peers. I think my character would do the latter as she would check on what everyone was doing and that they were doing the right thing. When another child in the class was being told off, they seemed to freeze completely and stare at the action, like rabbits in the headlights.
