Auditions (27) - "Goodbye Charles" monologue

For the first half of this lesson we split into a pair and a three and were told to give each other help on our monologues. Ollie, James and I split the time we had up into three and allowed each person to perform their monologue twice with feedback in between. Once we had all helped each other, we had to perform our monologue to the class.

• First attempt to group:   I was told that my use of volume was good as I varied it throughout. However, I could have done more with my pace and pauses. I was told that I could take more time on my laugh before the line "I'm not crying". James then said that it was too naturalistic - although it was believable he said that I could be more hysterical. I should go on more of an emotional roller-coaster.
• Second attempt to group:   The boys told me that this was a lot better than my first attempt, but I could still afford to be more of a mess. On my first attempt, I had forgotten the whole tipsy idea. We discussed me having a glass of wine and being a little bit tipsy to make me more over-the-top on the sarcastic parts and just more vulnerable in general.
• Performance to class:   My feedback from the class was that it was believable and very promising. My group said that it was a lot better than I had rehearsed it, but they still think that I could contrast the emotions more, I was also told that I need to start working with the props to make it become more natural. What I need to do now, if I decide to do this monologue, is to work with props and to do so character development work (such as writing in role) to get into the mind-set of the character.

AAS (36) - CIDNT - Full scene & Vocals

In this lesson we finally completed our "Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" physical theatre scene. We polished what we thought we needed to after last lesson. Movement wise, what we needed to do was the very beginning of the scene:

• "I waited for five more minutes..." -- For the whole of this section we stand in a tight group with Ollie in the centre. We stand still so that the audience listens to the dialogue and is not distracted by watching movement. This also intrigues the audience as to what is going to happen thus creating a sense of tension. 
• On the "Left, right, left right" lines, we walk forwards as a group and then all split. When we split, Oliver and I walk out to opposite sides and then walk round in our own circles. This shows the different sides to London and how disorientating it can be for someone who hasn't been there before. Whilst Oliver and I split and circle, Kat and James split and walk backwards to their beginning positions. This forms a square around Ollie in the centre. The fact that James and Kat walk back is symbolic of how Christopher probably should have gone back, foreshadowing that it was a mistake to travel on his own. 

Also, in this lesson, we recorded all the dialogue properly. This took quite a long time as we wanted to create certain effects on the audience. As we are rapidly running out of time before our performance, and James' voice still isn't back to normal, and he keeps coughing, we asked him if he would be happy if we split his voice lines up and gave them to Oliver, Kat and I. We said that he could still be Ed - he was happy for this. By not having James in the Voice recording it meant that we didn't have to keep stopping due to him coughing. For the Voice section, Kat, Oliver and I said all the lines very close to each other and over-lapping at times to create the busy atmosphere of London. We also tried to make each one slightly different so it didn't just sound repetitive. The Ed and Christopher recording went well. They did a couple of practice runs just to get the emotion and characterisation right, so it sounded really good on the recording. For the Ed and Christopher section, and the Information and Christopher section as well, we had to leave moments of silence in the track as Ollie is going to be saying all of his lines live. Before we finalised each different section, Ollie spoke his lines to the recording to ensure that enough of a gap was left for him to fit his lines in. Now that the recording is all done, Ollie will be putting these all together on one track with appropriate music underneath.

Auditions (26) - "Look Back in Anger" & "Goodbye Charles"

In the first half of this lesson (02/12/16) I performed my "Look Back in Anger" monologue, but for the second half, I started work on a new monologue.

LBIA (1)
My positive feedback from this monologue was that it was very emotional and believable. However, I was told not to make it too defiant and rooted - although it was believable it doesn't completely work for the monologue. I performed this role in a similar way to how I performed Nora from "A Doll's House", but what I had to remember was that Nora does stand up for herself in the end and leaves, whereas Alison remains with her husband. Although I like this monologue and believe that if I continue my work it could be quite strong, it is still a bit too similar to my classical monologue, as both are very serious. Therefore I got out the "I ate the divorce papers" monologue from "Goodbye Charles".

GC (1)
I hadn't done any research on this monologue and had only read it a couple of times before, so I basically performed this monologue with no preparation. I was told that I could experiment more with this monologue - there are lots of opportunities to show contrasts, thus making the character seem more unpredictable and funnier. Although the monologue is supposed to be funny, I still can add a lot of emotion as the character is deeply hurt as she doesn't want to lose her husband. To show that she is hurt inside and to make it more comedic, I was recommended to try the monologue as if I were a little bit tipsy and smoking a cigarette.

GC (2)
This attempt was a lot more successful than the first. It was better in terms of emotion, as I began to explore the range of emotions that this character can go through. It definitely worked being a bit tipsy and smoking, however, I need to watch how I hold the cigarette - at times I was so focussed on getting the right sort of emotion for each line that I would've burned my fingers if it were a real cigarette I was holding! My next step to working on this monologue will be to annotate it on where I shall take a drag on my cigarette or take a sip of wine, for example. Another priority for me to improve my monologue is to make pauses and use them in certain place.

Business (18) - Task F - Microphones

We won't be requiring any handheld microphones in the wings, as our ensemble is large enough for the backing vocals to carry to the back of the auditorium. However we will definitely be requiring a lot of headset microphones. Below are the characters that will be requiring a headset microphone:

• Sandy (for the entire show) -- 1
• Danny (for the entire show) -- 2
• Rizzo (for the entire show) -- 3
• Kenicke (for the entire show) -- 4
• Marty (for Act One - for "Freddie My Love") -- 5
• Teen Angel (for Act Two - for "Beauty School Dropout) -- 5
• Doody (for Act One -- for "Those Magic Changes") -- 6
• Radio Voice (for Act Two -- for "It's Raining on Prom Night") -- 6
• Patty (for Act One -- for "Rydell Fight Song") --7
• Johnny Casino (for Act Two -- for "Born to Hand Jive") -- 7
• Roger (for Act One -- for "Mooning") -- 8

As some characters can share microphones (as shown above), and those with solo singing lines in songs can sing into someone else's microphone, we only need to have 8 microphones. However, we shall get 10 headset microphones so we have two spares.

I found discreet neckband headset microphones at £19.99 each. Although these are very cheap and would cost us £199.90 in total, the quality could be questionable, so we would be best off renting headset microphones. Thankfully, we don't need to worry about hiring speakers or a sound desk, as the cost of the hall hire covers this.

I did some research into the cost of hiring headset microphones and the best company I found was "Warehousesound". They charge £12 per day for the headset we would require or £48 per week. We would be requiring the microphones for 6 nights, which would cost us £72, so it would actually be a lot cheaper for us to use the microphones for an additional day, saving us £24 per microphone. To hire the ten microphones we require for a week would cost us a total of £480 (which is a saving of £240 due to not paying for six days at £720).

AAS (35) - CIDNT - Video of Rehearsal

This video shows our rehearsal from our lesson on the 1st December. This run-through was nowhere near polished as we had only just put James into the piece, where he had been off ill.

What went well?

• The first Voice section leading up to the lift was very smooth. The slow motion was effective here as well. I think the use of the Frantic Assembly technique of round-by-through worked well in creating a busy atmosphere. 
• Our transition into and use of a variety of different types of people was effective in showing what London is like.
• The lift where Ollie is on Oliver's shoulders and is then thrown off.
• Our use of different directions in the slow-mo section of the Ed and Christopher dialogue.
• Our moment of stillness before the "train coming" dialogue, shows unity but creates a slight sense of tension.
• I like our use of repetition with the "train coming" section being repeated again but slightly differently.

What needs changing / improving?

• The first lift. We really need to practise making this slick. Our timing was wrong in this attempt. We need to have more of a momentum for this lift and James needs to almost pick Ollie's legs up, rather than trying to catch them and re-adjust them. 
• We still need to record all of our dialogue and learn the lines that are spoken live. All of the Christopher lines will be live and not on the recording, so Ollie will not be miming to his own voice. 
• The section of dialogue with Ed and Christopher - the slow motion needs to have bigger movements for it to work. We can't be miming on our phones as you wouldn't get a signal in a tube station. Also, Ollie could be moving at normal speed to emphasise how isolated he is.
• When we record all of our dialogue, we will add music underneath and make it in to one long track to ensure we don't have the wrong section of dialogue played. 
• With the section that the two Ollie's have just got back on the platform, having caught the rat, we need to make sure that mine, Kat and James' slow motion of watching the train go past is clear.
• That we all go off on different tube stops at the end.

Business (17) - Task F - Venue & Rehearsal Room Fee

Rehearsal rooms:
We are using C5 as our rehearsal room. We have planned to do 15 rehearsals, all of two hours in length. The cost of this room is £15 an hour, and therefore £30 a rehearsal. The overall rehearsal period will cost us £450.

Hall Hire:
By speaking to the office staff at the school, I have found out that the hall is rented out at £30 an hour. The dress and tech run would be approximately 4 hours long each, thus costing £240 in total for the two nights. On a show day, we would be requiring the hall for 3.5 hours (due to the audience coming in and leaving) but we would round it up to 4 hours, due to packing away afterwards. Therefore to hire the hall for one show, we would be required to pay £120, so multiplying this by 4 (for the four shows) would cost us £480. Therefore, the cost of the hall for the four shows (£480) plus the hire fee for the two rehearsals (£240) would total £720.

Flats:

A quote I received for two flat panels (of 2.7m by 1.2m with two colour reversible covers) were £449 and a set brace at £94. This would therefore cost £1086. This quote was from Frameset UK, who are a London based company. Thankfully, the hall hire covers the cost of hiring the flats as well, and so we will not be requiring to buy new flats, thus saving us over £1000. Fortunately our hall hire also covers the use of steel decking too, so we do not need to pay out for this either.

Total:
The total price for the rehearsal room usage and the hall fees would be (450+720) £1170.

AAS (34) - CIDNT - All blocked minus the beginning

To begin this lesson, we put James in to what he had missed. After doing this and polishing as we went, we sorted the section where there is dialogue between Ed and Christopher. For this section, everyone goes in to slow motion while Ollie continues at normal speed. This is to suggest that everything has slowed down around him, almost as if time is about to stop for him, to enable him to have this conversation in his mind with his dad. For the slow motion section to work, we need to make our movements really big and obvious.

We continued straight on with this section into the part with Punk Girl and Man With Socks. We have now added in a little bit more movement here. As the tube train goes past, Kat, James and I watch it go in slow motion whilst looking relieved. This is to make the scene less naturalistic, as our scene in supposed to be physical theatre. Although we wanted to include naturalistic movements, we also wanted to show moments of unison.

The next part of script is Christopher repeating the "train coming, train stopped, doors open, train going, silence" part again. We are using the same movements as last time, however, we have slightly adapted it. Instead of us going backwards, only Ollie shall move backwards on the line "doors open", whilst the rest of us move forwards. This happens in a straight line. On the last two times this line is said, Oliver and I move our "doors open" movement inwards to form a square around Christopher. This is to emphasise his feeling of isolation and disorientation. It also resembles the closeness of being in a tube.

The next section after this is the final Voice section. This is where our scene will end. The lines in this section are supposed to be adverts in the tube. In this section, we are including another lift. James and Oliver will lift Ollie in a pencil lift, whilst Kat and I stand in front to mask this lift. Kat and I also mime holding on to a handle, as we sway side to side, to show that we are on a tube. Therefore, we are combining naturalistic movement with more abstract moves. The fact that Ollie is lifted is symbolic of how Christopher's emotions and feelings are heightened compared to everyone else on the tube. Oliver and James then put him down, and we all walk off in different directions on a certain location line at the end (e.g. "Maida Vale", "Queens Park", etc.). This is to represent us all getting off at different stops. The scene ends with Ollie on his own looking up on the line "Willesden Junction".

Next lesson, we shall sort the beginning of the piece as well as recording the dialogue.