Directing (5) - Scenes Seven, Eight and Nine

Today's lesson:   In today's lesson we decided that we would start from the end of the play and work backwards, so that we were doing our scenes in date order. Therefore we started with scene nine and worked backwards to scene seven. We did these scenes a couple of times each as we were workshopping them. We focussed on intentions and what each character knew at what point - so we kept referring back to the timeline we made.

Scene Nine:   In this scene, Jerry confesses his love for Emma. He is drunk and sitting in her bedroom waiting for her to come in so he can talk to her. We had done this scene before, but hadn't done the ending of it. The kissing section is supposed to be quite awkward, as it is not supposed to happen. Jerry is completely besotted with Emma and has built up enough confidence (through drinking) to try and kiss her. Emma does have feelings for Jerry and probably does want this to happen deep-down, but knows it must not because of her husband, so laughingly pushes Jerry away between his attempts. When Ollie comes in and Jerry tells him that he is way complementing Emma's looks, Ollie places his hand on my shoulder on the line "quite right" - as if to say that he agrees and he too loves his wife, but also to show that he is protective. We wanted to leave this scene in a way that the audience isn't sure if Robert spotted them together and suspected anything at this time or not.

Scene Eight:   In this scene, Emma and Jerry are in their flat and Emma reveals to him that she is pregnant, but says that it is with her husband's child. We hadn't done this scene before today so we discussed how they would both be feeling. We agreed that the affair started just three years prior to this (as in 1973 Emma confesses she's been having the affair for five years), so they may not have had the flat very long. We needed to see that they are very comfortable in each other's company and are clearly more than friends - the audience needs to see that they are really close - throughout the play we want the audience to be wanting them to last, though at times realising how wrong it is and hoping that they don't! We tried the beginning of the scene in a couple of ways to see how we would like to perform it. We saw two different meanings in Emma's line "I'm making this stew. It'll be hours". Our first thought was that she is implying that they have time to do whatever they like - therefore we tried the scene as quite flirtatious. However, with what happens at the end of the scene (Emma revealing that she is pregnant), we decided that we should perform the scene as if I am quite anxious throughout as I am working out how to tell Jerry. This worked better for the scene. On the second page of the scene I get quite panicky about the thought of Judith knowing about the affair, but Jerry is quite confident and a bit arrogant when saying that she doesn't and couldn't know. We brought out the comedy in Lewis's section about getting annoyed with the fact the Judith has an admirer and goes out for drinks with him. This is funny because it is so ironic and hypercritical - we got Lewis to be really irritated with this to make it funnier. I am a little flirtatious on the line "I have an admirer" as if I am attempting to calm Jerry down a bit. The other line we really focussed on was the line "I'm pregnant". We spent time on this line because we didn't want it to sound really cheesy so, for this reason, I didn't emphasise the word "pregnant", and instead jumped in with the part "it was when you were in America" - as I needed to quickly reassure Jerry that I was carrying my husband's child and not his.

Scene Seven:   Lewis and Ollie worked on the seventh scene. This scene is set in a restaurant in 1973, after Emma and Robert's trip to Venice, and after Emma has spoken to Jerry about her holiday. We worked on making Robert quite arrogant in this scene - we wanted him to come across as more cultured than Jerry (to appear more dominant and powerful), but also as arrogant and rude (so the audience almost worries for Jerry and wants him to be with Emma at this point). We presented Robert as rude by making him dismissive of the waiter and trying to get rid of him. When staging this scene, I reminded the boys that Robert knows about the affair at this point, but Jerry doesn't know that Robert knows. I wanted Ollie to really play about with Lewis's emotions during this scene - i.e. try and make him be on the edge of his seat, panicking, and also try to make him feel a bit guilty at times too. For example, when Ollie asks "how's Judith?", he really emphasises the "th" of this to emphasise that Jerry has a wife. Another section where Robert really toys with Jerry is the part where he talks about Emma and Jerry having a lot in common and also when he asks "don't you think it gives Emma a thrill?".

Workshop (14) - Pirelli entrance // Wait // Pirelli death

Pirelli Entrance:   To begin this lesson, we ran the scene where Dan appears as Pirelli for the first time. We are happy with this scene now as it is cemented and we know what we are doing with it. We wanted Dan's entrance to be very melodramatic to form a contrast to when he reveals himself as Daniel O'Higgins, for comic value.

"Wait":   As this is the next scene after Pirelli's entrance (that doesn't involve our extra cast members), we moved on to the song "Wait" and the short scenes either side of it. The first time we tried the song, it didn't feel right as Rob stayed in the chair the entire time. As the song involves me basically telling him to calm down, we are going to stage the song now with him moving about frantically and randomly, but stopping now and again when I tell him to calm down. We only ran the song once as I am still trying to develop my character fully. Since our first lesson on Sweeney Todd, I have been workshopping my characters characteristics to try to develop my own version fully. However, I have found this quite difficult - and it will affect how I perform my songs, but especially this one - therefore, I shall do some research into different ways the role has been played and then do a character profile. However, we also developed the scene with Tom that happens directly after this song. We workshopped where he would enter from - we knew he would have to run up the stairs, but we didn't know where he would enter from - therefore we tried a few ways. We got him to run in from the hall door and up the stairs. This worked well as the audience could see it happening and it was very sudden. We then tried him running from the back of the hall to the stairs, through the aisle in the audience. This worked better than the first time as it came as more of a shock to the audience and it suggested he was running through the marketplace (instead of through the pie shop).

Pirelli Death:   Pirelli's death is the first death that is shown in the play and (as far as we know) the first person that Sweeney has killed. We workshopped his death as we wanted it to be very dramatic as the scene leading up to Pirelli's death has been very tense and the death is the climatic part of the scene. Therefore, we wanted to workshop this death in three different ways and then pick our favourite, so it is the best we could possibly do:

1. Mocking:   Pirelli would sit in the barber's chair being very presumptuous calling him Benjamin Barker, and threatening to tell Beadle. Pirelli would be very overconfident by sitting there and not even turning round to bother looking at him. Sweeney, would then pick up his razor and slit his throat. This would be an understandable way for Sweeney to kill him, but difficult to look realistic with fake blood as the slitting would be done facing the audience.
2. Strangling:   We discussed a similar set up to the first idea, but instead of having his throat slit, we tried having him strangled (by the belt used to sharpen the razors). This definitely worked a lot better than the first way. Dan controls the supposed strangling by holding the belt too, with the backs of his hands against his neck and holding the belt out slightly. This means that the death scene looks realistic still but is perfectly safe.
3. Slashing:   We tried the idea of throat slitting again, but this time Dan would face Rob (and therefore have his back to the audience). Dan would then face the front (after Rob has made a slashing motion by his neck) and would hold his neck, squeezing a blood pack (that wouldn't be visible to the audience) by his neck to make it look like his throat had been split. We thought this could look really good if done right, but we felt that it could be risky as the audience might see the blood pack and it could get quite messy.

We decided that we would go with the second way we tried as it looked really realistic and was also the safest option too. 

Workshop (13) - Pg 28 // Pg 70 to 77 // Pg 124 to 130

Page 28:   We were intending on running the whole of what we did last lesson, but we were unable to as Dan wasn't in. However, we did do James' song and did the short section of dialogue on the page before. The dialogue is between Todd and Lovett, as they walk in to the marketplace to find Pirelli. Lovett spots Beadle and panics, but Todd reassures her (very definitely) that it'll be fine. We decided that we would enter from the hall door (stage right) and walk to the centre. Beadle would be positioned on the floor by front row of the audience (stage left) and I would spot him as we get to the centre. At this moment, I would then walk Sweeney up the aisle slightly, so he couldn't be seen by Beadle. As the music starts to the song, we walk up the isle so we are out of the way. However, as the song progresses, we walk down the aisle to investigate the elixir.

Pages 70 - 77:   This section involves Lovett finding out Todd has killed Pirelli, her looking after Tobias, and Turpin going to Todd for a shave. Initially, I said my first couple of lines to James in a way that the audience knew that I was anxious of the noises upstairs, but Toby wasn't aware of what was happening, and was quite satisfied sitting there waiting for Pirelli to return. However, I don't think it should be performed like this as my next couple of lines to Todd are completely calm and innocent (talking about my knees and asking when Pirelli will be back). Therefore, I think I should perform my dialogue with James as if I had spent a long time with him in the room, waiting for Todd to come down with Pirelli, so wondering what they are doing. This then also works with my dialogue with Todd. The first way we tried Rob's line of "he won't be back" was by him turning slowly to me (as I'm sitting down) and saying it in a low tone. This worked well as it was quite sinister. However, we tried it again, but this time with him not turning at all, and instead saying his line whilst cleaning his razor whilst looking out to the front. The fact that Rob didn't move at all during this line made it more sinister, and scene tenser. The next lines we workshopped a bit were my lines "Oh well, that's a different matter! What a relief, dear! For a moment I thought you'd lost your marbles". Initially I said this line as if I was completely relieved in his response, and I understand his reasoning. However, Ollie thought I should try it again, but as if I didn't agree with Todd's actions but didn't want to upset him, so instead pretended that I understood his reasoning. I personally preferred my first attempt, as I believe that this wouldn't really phase Mrs Lovett, as she is the one that comes up with the idea of putting people into pies in the end. I therefore think I should perform it how I did the first time. However, on my line "Him, too! Now surely one's enough for today, dear", I spoke with concern and slight fear in my voice, as I think Toby is easy to deal with, isn't that much of a threat, is sweet and can come in useful. On my line to Toby after this scene, I performed it as being overly nice to Toby so he didn't suspect anything and because I felt bad for him, but as simultaneously anxious about what is going to happen. Lewis and Rob worked on their song "pretty women".

Paged 124 - 130:   This scene is between Lovett and Toby. This section is mainly made up of the song "nothing's gonna harm you", with the rest of the scene made up of Toby being certain that Todd is responsible for Pirelli's disappearance, Lovett persuading Toby not to say anything about this, and Lovett taking Toby down the bake house and locking him in there. We only ran through the entirety of the scene and song once on our own once, but workshopped just the beginning section of dialogue and the song with the rest of the class. The first time we ran this scene, we paid attention to the stage directions and so set it in the living room, with my knitting a muffler. Therefore, the scene was quite static. We decided that we would try the first section of the scene again and the song in a different location. We decided that it seemed random for Lovett to have been knitting, so we changed the setting to the pie shop, and Lovett would be cleaning up. We changed the dialogue that said about her knitting a muffler for Toby to her saving a pie for him. During the song as he sings to me, I would be moving about, clearing up the shop. My character doesn't really want him to be singing all of this to me as I don't want him to know about Sweeney. I think that Lovett does really care for Toby and is flattered by all Toby says. However, she knows that he knows too much and so lures him into the bake house and locks him then. She really doesn't want to do this, as she now sees him as kind of her own, but knows she must to protect Sweeney. Although we didn't manage to do the rest of our scene, we are happy with how we stages the pie shop section.

Devising (11) - Being more abstract

To begin today's lesson, we ran what we had created last lesson. We liked the beginning of our piece, but felt that the shop section and the cash point section were a bit boring and also not long enough. We felt like we were being a bit to naturalistic with it, so decided that we needed to be more abstract. 

Necklace Section:   We decided that we would adapt our shop section so it was slightly longer but more interesting to watch. We wanted to make our movements very regimented and almost robotic to make it more abstract. Therefore, I repeated the movements of miming picking up an item on my right, scanning it centre and placing it on my left. Once I had repeated these movements a few times, I mimed tearing a receipt from the machine and giving it to the customer who would then be on my left. Whilst I did this, the customer (first Lewis and then Ollie) would mime taking an item out of a basket and passing it to me. All of our movements would be very clean and identical every time we repeated them - this was to make it as abstract as we could. Our transition from our opening positions to this scene is a fluid turn and walk to the back (for Ollie and Lewis, but I walk to the chair and sit behind the table). To begin this scene, Lewis and Ollie walked forwards in a straight line. They performed some regimented movements in unison to show them taking items off of the shelf. Lewis shall then walk over to me and be the first customer, whilst Ollie continues the shelf movements. Lewis will then walk to the side, as if he has left the shop, whilst Ollie becomes the next customer before bumping into Lewis outside.

Cashpoint Section:   For this section, we kept exactly what we already had, but we made it extremely abstract. We made this section similar to our shop one by making our movements very regimented, but we weren't as rigid at all times. We turned the table up on its side, so the top of the table was facing the audience - this formed our cashpoint. Ollie hid behind the table and put his hand over the top, as if he was giving Lewis money, after Lewis tapped the table. Originally, I stood to the side and watched him - I then mimed placing a gun to his head and taking his money then leaving. However, there were two things we didn't like about this scene - the fact that our backs were completely to the audience so they wouldn't be able to see much; the fact that my part was quite naturalistic. To solve our first problem, we turned our piece 90 degrees. We didn't think it would work that the audience could see Ollie, but we tried it this way and it actually worked quite well. Lewis' movements were repeated and organised, but less rigid that the shop section, as he added in a fluid arm movement to collect money from the cashpoint. Rather than me standing and watching Lewis, we changed it so I start facing the back, do a half turn to face the front, then do a head to the left (to look at Lew) then to the front, then a knee roll to turn me to face Lewis. I then did three walks towards him, but on my fourth step I turned so we were back to back. This made our piece really abstract, as I didn't just walk in naturalistically, and we did the robbery with our backs together. I put the gun up to his head by doing a half circle with my lower arm. Lewis then passed his money to me over our shoulders.

The Beheading Section:   For our beheading scene, we turned the table (that was on its side) upside down. We wanted this scene to be completely different to our first two sections, as Danny Cornelius was a witness to this event, unlike the other two where he was the victim. Therefore, we didn't have a section of movements that we kept repeating - we created a physical theatre scene of movements that all flowed into each other. We initially thought that we could use lighting to show the beheading - but as we needed this scene to be longer (for Rob to do a good amount of meaningful narration over it and because it was the event that tipped Danny over the edge) we created a piece made up of different methods of torture, rather than just the beheading. We used the upturned table as if I were trapped. We use a bit of puppetry to show the murderers manipulation and control. We decided against using lighting at this stage, as we wanted the suicide to be the main section of this entire scene, and also we didn't want to take away from the lighting we use in our motif. Instead of the lighting, Lewis and Ollie will have some red face paint on their hands (inspired by pictures of killers whose hands were covered in blood) that they will smear across my neck. Therefore we shall make this entire the scene the last scene in our piece, and only Rob and Ollie shall be in the final motif. So we could use more space and wasn't restricted by the table, at one point I break out of the table. We involved some floor work and moments of slightly more abstract stage combat. We vary our levels to show the victims struggle with survival, but end on the floor to show the inevitable death. 


Next Lesson:   Hopefully by next lesson, Rob should have finished writing all of his narration (but if not we shall help him). We shall film this scene in its entirety and hopefully continue with our domestic violence scene.

Directing (4) - Scene Four & Five

As Ollie missed a couple of lessons, due to his auditions, we decided we would do scenes that had him in the most.

SCENE FIVE:   We decided to do Scene Five as it is extremely significant in the play - as this is the scene where Robert suspects that his wife is having an affair and Emma admits it. Lewis set the scene so I sat on the bed reading, whilst Ollie sat on a chair with a coffee table next to it. We tried the scene out in a couple of ways. Below is how we approached our two different versions.

First attempt:

•  Tense and angry...
• We made the first section of the script, up until the silence before "By the way, I went into American Express..." really relaxed and chilled to create a large contrast to when the affair is revealed and spoken about.
• During the silence mentioned in the part above, we got Robert to debate how he was going to begin his story to Emma. He says it in such a way that Emma isn't suspicious (and is quite happily reading whilst listening to him), but the audience suspects that he knows something.
• Emma would get noticeably tense at the first mention of the letter. 
• Breaks the silence after Emma saying there wasn't any news by asking is she was looking forward to Torcello. Ollie did this in quite a bitter way - as if Robert was reminding her of how perfect her life was with him, so why would she want to swap it and get with Jerry.
• Ollie played him as quite sarcastic on the line "You're trembling. Are you cold?" as if he knows that she is panicking.
• Ollie would get progressively louder and slightly angrier throughout. However, he would be almost proud of himself and smiling on the line "Ah yes. I thought it might be something like that..." - as if he was proud he had got it right, but also trying to make Emma feel more uncomfortable.
• He would get really angry towards the end of the scene, and then be very bitter on the final line of the scene to make Emma feel terrible.

Second attempt: 

• Robert eerily calm...
• Robert very nonchalant with the line "By the way, I went into American Express". Similar to the first attempt, but in a way that Emma doesn't suspect anything from it. Very nonchalant throughout the scene really.
• Robert almost quite caring on the line "You're trembling. Are you cold?" as if to say that he has noticed she is uneasy and is questioning why - although her physical movement has practically confirmed his suspicions. 
• When Robert repeats "five years", he whispered it as if he couldn't quite believe it was this long so had to repeat it. The fact that Robert had been speaking at a fairly normal volume throughout, but then whispered this line, makes the audience feel a bit sorry for Robert, but simultaneously quite frightened for Emma (has Robert had been so calm, so this sudden change comes as a bit of a shock).
• He got slightly angry (though with an element of panic) on the lines "Ned is one year old. Did you hear what I said?". However, after being told that Ned is his child, he becomes more nonchalant again. This unsettles Emma and the audience slightly at how he is being so calm again.
• On the final line he is extremely calm and speaks as if nothing has happened, whilst Emma is almost in tears and very on-edge. This juxtaposition creates a high degree of tension.

We decided that we preferred the second way we did this scene, with Robert being eerily calm, as it shows that he is in control of the situation and makes the scene quite tense.

SCENE FOUR:   We decided to do Scene Four straight after doing Scene Five, as this is the next scene in date order that the three characters are together. Although there are two scenes between these two events, we decided to skip them for today as Robert and Emma aren't in them together - also lies are told in both scenes to Jerry (Emma says she didn't go to Torcello as the speedboats weren't working, whilst Robert tells Jerry that he went by speedboat but he didn't mention the argument). Below is how we went about this scene:

• Basic set for now (might change but this is what we did today): two chairs to form a sofa, one slightly away as a separate chair. Jerry on chair, Robert further end of the sofa. As I enter, Robert moves to the other end of the sofa so he is closer to Jerry, forcing me to sit on the further end of the sofa. This shows Robert as putting Emma in her place.
• Play on the constant use of adjacency pairs. Jerry starts the adjacency pairs, but then Robert takes over and it switches. There is a constant shift, kind of like them fighting for dominance - they both want to be in control. However, Robert breaks the adjacency pairs the most and uses face threatening acts, such as "I am prepared to do so" and "I was asking you a question", showing him as the more assertive and authoritative out of the pair. 
• Emma anxious as Robert is watching her every move and everything she says. She repeats "I've told you actually". She uses this face threatening act twice, making things awkward and distance between her and Jerry - although she does this reluctantly. The scene prior to this shows Jerry and Emma a year later in the flat, where they have agreed that they will sell the flat and call off the affair. I believe Emma doesn't really want to do this but sees she has no choice - I also think that she regrets this, so goes with Casey on the rebound and meets up with Jerry two years later. 
• When Emma innocently asks if she can watch them play squash, there is an awkward silence, then Robert questions "what?". After her then rephrasing her question, Robert has a large section of dialogue, making up excuses why they wouldn't want her there - really its because he doesn't trust her and doesn't want her anywhere near Jerry. When questioned, Jerry doesn't really want to get involved so states "I haven't played squash for years". Lewis experimented a little bit with how he would say this line, but decided we all decided he should say it as if he really doesn't know what to say. If we applied what we learned from our elements lesson (http://lornaclarkra.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/auditions-25-elements-look-back-in-anger.html), I would say that Robert is fire / earth, Emma is water and Jerry is water.
• When Emma shows interest in Jerry's trip to New York by asking questions, she then asks if he deserves the trip, as she can sense that Robert is getting annoyed at her for taking so much of an interest. This meant that Ollie could break in with "Judith going?" a bit more aggressively. We agreed that he should really articulate the "th" of Judith, as if he is almost speaking through his teeth. 
• We decided not to go with what the stage direction said at the end of this scene. The stage direction says the following: "Robert and Jerry leave. She remains still. Robert returns. He kisses her. She responds. She breaks away, puts her head on his shoulder, cried quietly. He holds her." As Pinter doesn't use stage directions often, we were apprehensive about going against this, as it must be significant. We like it in the fact that it shows Robert's complete control and power over her, but we thought that it was a bit too romantic and sweet. Instead Robert shall return, look at her in silence, shake his head as if he is disappointed at her and leave. I shall remain looking after him, nod my head as if I understand his disappointment, then walk off crying.

Workshop (12) - Pirelli, Page 29 to 45

Scene:    In today's lesson we workshopped and staged pages 29 to 45. Across these pages, Tobias (James) advertises Pirelli's "miracle elixir", to which Mrs Lovett and Sweeney say is fake. Pirelli overhears and demands to know who said this. Pirelli and Sweeney bet on who shave a face smoother and quicker. They have the competition, which Beadle Bamford judges and Sweeney wins. In this scene Pirelli realises who Sweeney is (due to his razors) but doesn't reveal who he is to anyone (as he realises he can use him later).

Entrances:   We had a long discussion on where everyone should enter. We discarded the idea of James entering from the side door to the hall and performing on the floor, because we felt it didn't grab people's attention enough - we want this song to be very catchy as its purpose is to advertise and persuade people to buy the elixir. For this reason, we wanted this number to be quite different, so we tried having James enter from under the stage. This would have been good because it was different, but we didn't think it was as eye-catching and attention-grabbing as the second idea we tried out. We tried and decided on having James come out on stage, coming out through the curtains. However, as we have the front of the stage open, James can't enter from the middle as he may fall down the stairs leading under the stage, so therefore he come out slightly to the left (when looking at the stage). The fact that a scene has just happened on the floor prior to this song, it works that James enters from the stage, as it is on a different level and therefore changes the audience's focus point. Rob and I shall be entering this song from the back of the audience, in the aisle, as this is where we walked to after our scene. For Dan's song, he shall enter also from the curtains (as Dan is who James works for), but instead of simply walking through the curtains, he shall burst through them, letting the curtain fly away from him. This worked really well when Dan tried it, as Pirelli is supposed to be very eccentric and over-the-top, so this entrance works well.


Using the audience:   James' number is about advertising and trying to sell "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir". We tried the number with James just singing it from the top of the stage, then walking down and singing it to the audience, while walking along the floor. Although he did it really well, we thought we could do more with this number. As we felt the first way would only really include the first row of the audience, we tried it again but with him using the whole audience - he would use the aisle and go up to various members of the audience with a couple of bottles of "elixir" (i.e. apple squash in our version, as it is supposed to look like "piss"). As Todd and Lovett are supposed to receive a bottle that is passed round, we needed to think about who we could give the bottle to, so we would end up with it. We considered having Lewis in the scene (but obviously not in costume as the Judge) and he could be sitting in the audience, be given the bottle by James and then pass it on to us. However, this idea wouldn't work as Lewis is in the scene before as the Judge. We then thought that we could involve more of the Year 12's in our piece. Although we are already using two of them (for the beggar woman and Johanna) we thought we could borrow more of them to help play other minor roles and parts of our production. We have decided that they can sit at the back of the audience (as they can then leave at the back of the audience easily if they are going to be used for minor parts too) and have the elixir passed to one of them, and they can then pass it along the line to Rob and I (who will be standing in the isle. We shall get the Year 12's to shout out things as well - for example, when Sweeney asks "who's for a free shave?" they can shout out. We shall use two of them for the competition to be (supposedly) shaved on stage.

Songs & Dialogue:   We have decided to use the movie versions of both of these songs in this scene. The reasons for this are to ensure our production isn't too long, as these songs involve a lot of chorus (and we don't have time to teach the Year 12's parts) and because the additional parts of the songs aren't really necessary to the story. We didn't feel the need to include any parts about tooth-pulling as this is not essential to the plot at all. We also cut out a lot of the chorus parts, but we did need to keep in one as it mentions the location of Todd's establishment, to which the Beadle then repeats later on. We couldn't do this dialogue in the lesson as we didn't have any Year 12's or Ollie, so we focussed on the songs and the section of dialogue between Todd, Lovett and Pirelli. We paid attention to intentions and objectives of the characters, as this determines how certain lines are spoken. The main example of this is when Pirelli says "instruments like zees once seen cannot soon be forgotten" - Dan says this line in a low tone and almost through his teeth, implying that he knows who Sweeney is, even if Sweeney doesn't recognise him. By getting Dan to say his line like this contrasts to how he says his next line as it is to the audience directly. This makes Dan's character more unpredictable, the scene tenser, and foreshadows what is to come later on (i.e. Pirelli and Sweeney's fight, resulting in Pirelli's death). We also workshopped how Dan performed the line "by God". Initially he sang it whilst doing a signing of the cross traditionally, but then we tried it again with him doing it across his "customer" with his razor in hand. The second way was more comical so we kept this.

Exits:   Rob, Ollie and I shall exit together out of the hall door on the floor after we have finished our dialogue section on the floor. However, prior to this, we workshopped how and where Dan and James would exit. We first tried them going back through the curtains, with Dan pushing James through the curtain. We thought this would be appropriate as Pirelli is angry with Tobias, but also as this is where they entered. However, we found the second way more comical. Dan and James walked down the steps from the stage on to the floor. Dan pushes and kicks James to get him to move faster down the steps below the stage, but in between each violent act, Dan blows kisses at the audience.

Directing (3) - Timeline

For my timeline I decided to include the dates that weren't in the script. On each date, we wrote down what scene happened, who was involved in the scenes and how old they were. We also wrote down a brief synopsis of each scene, and therefore worked out what happened in the years that weren't mentioned in the script. By making this timeline, we also could work out when the children were born (however, we couldn't work out Sam's age, as there is no mention f his age at any point).

We made the timeline in date order with all the dates involved to ensure we understood their lives, but we then re-arranged the pages so they are in order of the actual show. We shall refer back to this timeline during our entire directing and creating process to help us understand when what character knows what.