Having discussed what lines we would like to say at the same time, we read through the piece all saying the lines we had decided on. However, we quickly discovered a problem; with everyone saying the decided lines at once it became a bit messy and the words lost their meaning. Therefore, we tried to read it again but using a stage whisper for communal speaking instead of just saying the words. Although this was an improvement, it still wasn't what we intended. The words became slurred as we didn't speak at exactly the same time. Also, the meaning and emotion still wasn't there as it just sounded exactly the same as before but quieter. To attempt to solve this we split up the communal voice a bit - instead of everybody speaking at the same time, we are having one person or two people joining in for the words and phrases we decided (the words underlined in purple, in the picture above, are the words I am saying). This worked a lot better as we had less people to ensure we were in time with and you could hear the words clearer and could hear the emotion and intended emphasis.
After reading through the script, we decided to get the scene up on its feet. We also made a final decision with our staging. We want to have the audience sitting on one side of the room facing the performance area (as if it were proscenium arch staging) but we would like to separate our audience from each other. This would make them feel isolated and lonely (like how Kay and Gerda are separated as a result of the sprites mischief and the events that followed). We decided on this staging today as it would work for all of our scenes, but especially for this scene and what Charlie wanted to do with it. He has positioned us in between the audience in random places facing different directions - this alone would make the audience feel a little bit uneasy and a bit lost (like Gerda is in this scene). Moreover, when we would all say our lines at different times, the audience would be unsure of who was speaking and would have no clue who would be speaking next, thus increasing tension levels and making them feel even more uncomfortable. We also decided that when the "Lord's Prayer" is mentioned in the final paragraph that those who know the Lord's Prayer (Robert, Oliver and I) would whisper it whilst the remaining lines of the scene are being spoken. Although this scene is complete, it was a little bit flatter then it could have been as it was lacking a little bit of energy - it was more like narration as opposed to storytelling. Therefore, we decided to listen to "The Escapologist's Story" from Matilda. Although we are obviously not 10 year old girls, we were inspired by her vocal energy and enthusiasm and aim to include this energy in this scene when we speak.
