Poppy Wilcox. I will be posting pictures and videos of my lessons. It will show that I understand what we are doing as I say what we did, how we did it, and why we did it. Enjoy.
Meeting Me and Alex held a brief meeting to discuss how this rehearsal would go and to feedback to each other on the notes we had so we could discuss what to feedback to the cast. We decided that the way we worked last week was successful, we felt as thought we blocked a substantial amount and feel that if we could block the same amount we had last time we would be setting ourselves a good schedule. Our aim is to block the rest of scene one and then begin our blocking on scene five, finishing around Adam's monologue. Rehearsal We started the rehearsal with a game of their choice, and they chose the name game again saying that they felt more confident with it this week. Their enjoyment of this was a lot greater this week and it felt as if they had a more positive attitude towards the rehearsal. Alex took Sam to go over the Adam monologue to make sure he wasn't sat around and that he had a focus for the rehearsal. I then took over the rest of the group for a run through of the scene one blocking that we had created last week, this gave me a chance to give them the overall feed back that myself and Alex had discussed in our meeting (end of previous blog). By intersecting at the points in which individual feedback was required it gave me a chance to know that they were able to take on the feedback and deliver it how me and Alex desired. When we came up to where we had finished blocking last time, I explained how we were going to continue in the same way as last time. I also reminded them the seriousness of the situation as well as their annoyance with Brian and his inability to do what needs to be done. We skipped over Adam's monologue as we felt we needed to work with Sam more closely with the broken and disorientated tone. Here are some pictures of the cast during the rehearsal:
(From Left to Right) Jan, Rachel, Mark, Cathy, Brian, Phil & Lea By just revisiting scenes that we had been doing we were able to refine some details to save some time later as we knew we would just be able to refresh their memories the next time instead of directing it for the first time.
1|10|14 - Week 1 - introduction - quick fire workshop
8|10|14 - Week 2 - workshop - read through - look at script
15|10|14 - Week 3 - work on script sections
20|10|14 - Week 4 - work on script sections
5|11|14 - Week 5 - work on script - fully blocked
12|11|14 - Week 6 - script down - develop tone and body language
26|11|14 - Week 7 - script down - tidy
3|12|14 - Week 8 - full run through, no script, dress?
At this point, week 4, we feel like we are mostly on target. The only scenes we really need to work on are the end of scene 5, and any duologue scenes. We also found out that the date of the performance will be around the 14th, 15th, 16th of Jan. This means that we can make an edit to our rehearsal schedule, which is great as we can have a more refined and finished product, it also helps as some of the cast will be missing rehearsals due to exam revision, and we can have time to work with who we have. 1|10|14 - Week 1 - introduction - quick fire workshop
8|10|14 - Week 2 - workshop - read through - look at script
15|10|14 - Week 3 - work on script sections
20|10|14 - Week 4 - work on script sections
5|11|14 - Week 5 - work on script - fully blocked (group scenes)
12|11|14 - Week 6 - duologue blocking
26|11|14 - Week 7 - duologue blocking
3|12|14 - Week 8 - develop duologues, revisit group scenes
10|12|14 - Week 9 - script down - develop tone and body language
17|11|14 - Week 10 - script down - tidy
7|1|15 - Week 11 - full run through, no script, dress?
Meeting We went forward with the meeting with out the limitations of funding or context. This allowed us to have a productive meeting as more ideas could be put forward. We had the focus of setting although we would touch upon other aspects. First I proposed my own initially ideas to Chipp, these were:
- A raised stage at the back for the duologue scenes, so half set as a bench, half a street.
- On ground level an 'urban wood' set. This would be large to cope with the group scenes. Bringing in leaves, crates, cigarette packets and booze cans and bottles to show it to be a 'hang out' area. He then return doing a rough sketch explaining how we could develop it: (insert picture)
Chipp had the idea to use lighting to highlight which part of the set was being used, he also said how the raised level could be diminished with being able to use a fly tower to drop in a lamp post and a bench in order to create the duologue scenes without the raised level as the audience would be closer and more involved with those scenes. We would then use lighting to highlight which set was being used, blues for the bench in the field, dim greens for the woods, and it was also suggested that we make the lamppost work so that when it drops in, the light emanating from the lamp lights the scenes for Jan and Mark. We also talked about the idea of making into in a warehouse within a wood, as if it was an abandoned warehouse that had a tree breaking through the walls. We could have a wall of collapsing brick that the cast could sit on for levels, as well as a broken 'on it's side' battered fridge that could be used to sit on as well. Having these would show it is a regular place, somewhere very hidden and isolated but somewhere where they themselves feel safe. This brought us onto the idea of media, having a projection on the back wall that highlight aspects of whichever setting is happening
on stage e.g:
Woods – Wall graffiti
Field – Blue sky, moving trees
Street – Street sign wall, path
Then there is also the idea of
naturalistic sounds, birds chirping, wind, cars going by, dependent on the
scene these faint noises could make the scenes more realistic and therefore the
audience more involved with the action going on stage.
After discussing these ideas in depth, it came to a point where we felt the meeting had come to a close. What would then happen is the setting designer would go away and make a scale model and then bring this back. Here is where I would be able to correct any misunderstood ideas or change my mind as proportions may look different when presented in the scale model form. There would usually be several technical meetings throughout the rehearsal process with all the members of the stage production team. There would be conversations about set changes and lighting that needs to be shifted due to what happens on stage and how this might affect what is needed on stage that is managed by them.
My Set:
Adding back in context, I have to remember that my piece will follow on from a first half of the play directed by someone else, and will be performed within the school. This means I will have to factor in the aspect of reality and limitations that come with it. Having a complicated set that involves a lot of adaption will take a while to set up and place. As we do not have access to a fly tower, and we want to keep an aspect of realism, I will stick to the raised stage behind the woods setting and keep the idea of lighting the scene that is in action to create a sense of focus for the audience. I also really liked the idea of sound effects that can create a more naturalistic environment for the piece following a Stanislavsky's style. The idea of having a tree at the side of the stage is unrealistic but there is an opportunity to have a fridge at the side of the stage in order to create the more urban feel and add levels, as well as maybe a wall graffiti back drop to make it feel more inside a warehouse hidden in the woods.
Meeting Myself and Alex met up before rehearsal to discuss what we wanted to do in the next rehearsal. After deciding we would do a game, focus Sam on his Adam monologue whilst the rest of the cast work on Scene One which does not include him. Together, we sat through the script and developed ideas for staging that we would then develop when working with the cast. By writing these ideas on the script, I would be able to refer to them when blocking the scene during rehearsal, adding to them if there were issues as well as creating new aspects of stage direction. The first thing we discussed was the staging we had a discussion about using the crates to represent the groups 'wood' hang out. We also talked about the addition of cans and bottles to add to the suspicion that this is a group society would consider as a 'gang' and give implications of troublesome youths.
We want Lea and Phil to start on SL where there are two crates, we decided that the entrance and exit for their hang out should be USR and using this continuity will be able to change when Adam appears and he goes to his hide out USL instead.
To give a more dynamic flow we want to separate Cathy and Rachel when they come on stage, Cathy going DSR and Rachel going SC, this means that we can emphasise Cathy being in her own world and being detached from the situation.
We also liked the idea of Phil friended Brian and stop him from crying by offering him a sweet, and then recreating the fear in Brian by telling he must go into the police, this we want to try out with how they eat the food.
Rehearsal
We started the rehearsal with a game, as we planned to do. This one is 'The name game' which helped everyone to learn everyone in the groups name, this allows the group to focus and aware whilst being able to have a good time. We decided to make the game more challenging by using the casts character names instead of their real names so people could also get familiar with them as well. This was a lot of fun as even me and Alex participated in the first part.
I then sat the Cast down and went through the script sectioning it up so that when giving them sections to focus on they can relate easier than page numbers. We then did a read through of scene one to refresh what happens, this also gave Alex time to set Sam on his task so that we could start blocking the scene together. Here is the script as in progress with annotations of stage directions and notes that I put in throughout the rehearsal.
We directed Cathy to be 'in her own world' and by doing this we set her up to appear detached, it also creates a light hearted contrast to the more serious issue being handled on SL. Once Cathy asks the others and they don't respond, I didn't want her to sit idle and as she seems to be occupied until she is asked a question by, we thought we should incorporate her surroundings keeping her distracted so that when Lea talks to her the response is bigger. We tried out Cathy look at bottles and cans of alcohol in order to see if there was anything she could drink, she ends up, shuffling through a small pile near the crate, giving levels as the other three are stood up.
We wanted to show Rachel as being in control as she is the 'leader' of the group, which is why she makes the first aggressive move of leaning towards Lea on the line 'excuse me', we wanted Lea to then make an exaggerated mimic of Rachel's lean to show Lea's character progression of feeling more comfortable with the group she is helping. This part of the script where she talks about 'DNA evidence' we want India to play a bit show offy, so that we can see Rachel become annoyed at Lea, developing the depth of the script.
Having Cathy surrounded by both Rachel and Lea shows that Cathy did the wrong thing, it allows for some comedy when they both intensely stare at her and she says 'there were quite a few'. By having Cathy play the 'ditsy' character, we enable the frustration within Rachel and Lea to come through which is shown in the next fast paced part which makes sure the audience also knows what happening with the DNA situation and why Cathy disrupted it for the wrong reason. When Lea finally states they're fucked Cathy sinks back onto the floor to create a better aesthetic set of levels, as well as removing a chance of blocking Brian's dramatic entrance.
To make Brian's character more hysterical, we want him to repeat the first line of 'I'm not going in' from the moment he is dragged in by both Jan and Mark to being sat on the crate. The two will then stand either side behind him as if guarding him. The rests of the group reaction show that this is not a unusual way for Brian to act. At the side you can see a small sketch in which the stage looks like at this point. Lea retreats to Phil as the group gets bigger on stage due to the fact that that's whom she is closest too. We also arranged how the movement with Phil, offering Brian a sweet on 'But it is like this' and by the time that Brian takes the sweet and calms down, Phil says 'You're going in' causing Brian to drop the sweet and become hysterically for the next part. This is where we finished blocking.
But, me and Alex did make some plans in our meeting for stage directions to give to the cast, when blocking the rest of scene one. We want to be able to give feel and intimating sense of aggression when he does he next part, using the contrasting tone to the violence implied in his words can create a menacing hold, but we will try out a variety. Brian's reacts spur reactions within the rest of the group who are in shock of Phil's outburst.
Here is a video of the first half of scene one before Brian's entrance.
The Notes for improvements that I have for this scene are:
-understanding the lines more might help with the delivery of lines:
-Lea: "DN.. what are you talking about?" - needs to be confused, not so harsh on the "dn"
"DNA from a random.." the intonation should drop as if a trailing thought is interrupted by "Cathy?" where the intonation should raise up, whilst looking at Cathy disapprovingly.
-Rachel: "Excuse me...." should be said more sarcastically to support Lea's next line.
-fludity of lines from Brian to show that it is a running trail of thought in a moment of panic. assured this will improve with knowledge of lines.
-Sam's Adam monologue in the process of development, first part learnt and is progressing with 'broken' tone and discussed the meaning of the words in order to aid delivery of them.
-the biggest improvement required is pace, this will come once scripts are down, this will also make it easier to develop body language and facial expressions.
We new that we had certain aims for this weeks session and those were - develop characterisation on the theme of guilt - to dedicate parts to the cast - do a read through of the script As me and Alex had already discussed what we would do we just now had to successfully follow through on it.
We started off with the game 'zip zap boing' and this raised the energy levels with in the room creating a positive atmosphere. It was clear at the beginning that they seemed tired and had a lack of focus so we used this game as a way for them to connect with each other, having fun whilst developing their awareness and focus. It is from this experience that we have decided to do a game at the beginning of each session and this is something that we will let them also decide on so they can feel more included on the sessions and what happens in them. We then wanted to start our work shop on characterisation when dealing with the emotion of guilt. I took the cast outside whilst Alex set the room up to be more atmospheric, he also placed 9 chairs in a circle with a spot light in the centre. Whilst outside, I gave the cast a slip with their a name and personality traits of this character that my alter how they behave when dealing with guilt, I also wanted them to know that they were playing their own ages which is 15-18, this means they can also take on aspects of life that they are familiar with and use them in an advantage when placed in those shoes.
Alex then called them in, after giving them the instructions to lay down and think deeply of how this character would feel in numerous situations, whether they were happy or sad. To think about how they associated themselves with and how that affects their behaviour. By doing this I was slowly dropping in Stanlavski's "what if?" method, allowing the cast to consider 'what if' they were that person. Alex then told them that they had all been accused of a crime, one that they did commit, one that they refused to admit too and due to this, felt overwhelming guilt. They were also told to create the whole story in their head, so that if they were questioned they'd be able to answer anything. Me and Alex wanted to see how the casts view on how their characters felt when being interrogated, because it is these aspects of panic and guilt that are evident in many places throughout the script. I then asked them to each sit on a chair, myself was sat on one. I greeted them all as if we were at a support group, saying that they were all there for the same reason, I did this to let them know it was the safe place for them to be their character, and by starting in a group it would make it easier for the difficult situation when placed on their own with Alex in the next part of the workshop. I asked them that when they were ready, if they could discuss why they were here, to tell me what happened. But as reminded at the beginning, they all knew they weren't allowed to tell me, this is where the panic of guilt would show through their character. It was interesting to see, as I gave them all a character from the script, how they would play it, and it actually gave myself some more idea's. Such as Lea, at first I thought Lea should we a shy girl apart from when she's with Phil, slightly geeky due to her monologue where she admits she doesn't have any friends. But, India portrayed Lea as confident in a self assured way, and I think this might be a good way to show that Lea's character has developed as being part of the group.
We then isolated one chair, from this Alex asked one person to come up onto the chair and he interrogated them as shown in the image above. He had been watching the types of guilt that they put across and he created a counter emotion in order to stir their guilt and bring more of it through. It was interesting to see how the cast developed this guilt into the inability to discuss what they had done. It was helpful to see who could create and stretch the personalities that we had given them and we felt like they all suited the character we gave them. This workshop not only helped the cast get to grips with one of the major themes within the script, but gave me and Alex ideas for the variety of ways that different people deal with guilt. From this were able to Cast our group, something we felt we should do as soon as possible in order for them to start learning lines and come to grips with their character. The Cast Lea - India Allatt Phil - Felix James Jan - Daisy Veysey Mark - Jake Spence Cathy - Daisy Waugh Rachel - Freya Turton Brian - Zack Bland Adam - Sam Clugston From this we were able to move onto a read through, something we felt highly important to do so that our group knew what the play was about and knew what they would be working on for the next few weeks. It also meant that we knew everyone would have read the script before the next rehearsal and we could clarify any confusion with plot or lines, such as Rachel actually being named Richard in the script as well as taking up Lou and Danny's lines as there are very little and don't have people to play them. They were also able to define their character, what a person says can have implications on the character and I felt that the read through really helped them identify the type of person they were. This is an essential feeling that we want the cast to have in order for them to follow Stanislavsky's naturalistic methods. We wanted to give them a quick taste of how the rehearsal process would be, so we focused on blocking Scene Five, as this requires the whole cast. We went through giving them ways to adjust there tone, also showing how the proxemics relate to the script in certain places. As we only had around 10 minutes it was a vague outline, but I felt the cast did a lot during this session and due to the amount of characterisation work the were able to perform an extract from the scene five with the delivery of their character.
As I was unable to attend this week of N2C Alex took hold of the rehearsal covering one of our agreed necessities within the play's dynamics. We had a meeting the day after the rehearsal to discuss the process so far and plan the next rehearsal.
As we are following the style of practitioner Stanislavsky we want to create the realistic speak patterns that would occur and as the situation is very panicked, this will require the ability to say their line with little space between the two but without the pace of the spoken line being too quick to understand. It is this idea of 'quick sparking' responses in which Alex work shopped through a number of paired activities spotting good character balances for the characters of those of Mark and Jan who must have a strong ability to bounce of each other to fulfil our ideas for those characters. He also made the topic of conversation to do with their dealing with a tricky situation similar to the play which helped to see our casts initial reactions.
From this we talked about how we would want to schedule for the entire process to be. For this we decided to work backwards so we knew the aim and could decide where it should be before it gets the next stage. Here is the final aim for each week on a rough guide of having 8 weeks.
Week 1 - introduction - quick fire workshop
Week 2 - workshop - read through - look at script
Week 3 - work on script sections
Week 4 - work on script sections
Week 5 - work on script - fully blocked
Week 6 - script down - develop tone and body language
Week 7 - script down - tidy
Week 8 - full run through, no script, dress?
We then decided to plan into more detail the closer weeks so we had a better idea which we could then change or elaborate on when we start rehearsals. We also agreed that doing a group game or activity at the beginning of each rehearsal was essential for them to feel like a whole cast and make them work well together. Games such as 'zip zap boing' that awaken focus and being alert and ones we aim to play in order to contribute to the performance.
For week 2 we wanted to develop the feeling of guilt through characterisation, so we decided that if we created a workshop that allowed them to take on one of the characters we think they'd suit and then they could use Stanislavsky's 'what if?' method in order to adopt those features and how the character they would adapt when they have the feeling of guilt.
We plan make give them the slip of paper, enter the room to where they can lay down and become the character, we will then introduce the feeling of guilt and explain how they must keep the characters personality traits and show how they would deal with the feeling of guilt. We will then ask them to sit on a chair that is lit, and Alex will become a figure of accusation that spurs on the feelings of guilt. From this we can see if they suit the characters we gave them, although we must take into consideration we are giving them a very filtered version of their character, it also might show us more interesting ideas to do with character traits that may be usable for the play.
After this work shop we aim to do a read through of our half of the script, we will give them a five minute break where me and Alex can discuss if we think the characters still fit and then we can bring them back to read. If we then have time, we will aim to start blocking scene 5 which involves all of the cast members. Hopefully they will receive a copy of their script as we are following the script closely and want them to be able to start learning their lines as soon as possible.
We also figured out who was needed in each scene, that way when it came to deciding who we needed to work with we could see what everyone could do in order to create a fulfilling rehearsal.
