07/03/13 Evaluation

We began with the usual warm ups to prepare them physically and linguistically.We then played a game where the cast told a story each saying one sentence, so that it created a whole narrative. They created a solid story and were very imaginative. I believe that this helped them create some of the material produced later in the rehearsal. We then played a game I conceived earlier where one person comes up with an idea for an entity and creates it in a physical, natural way. The next person then exaggerates it slightly, then the next person exaggerates it slightly until it is as big as it can be. I took this opportunity to help Eleanor develop exaggerated shapes and praised her when she did. I also learned Lewis has an odd preference for standing on tables and chairs.

I introduced music to the cast which I want to use in the production. For the first scene, I have used an unsettling synthesizer score which I think suits the plot and references the religious imagery. When we rehearsed this, I noticed that Lewis was narrating in a much more serious way, which is what I was aiming for. He had also learned a large number of his lines. I praised him for both of these things. We then practiced some more stage combat, with the help of Amy Legge. Amy showed my cast a few moves in stage combat and emphasised that the person who is being attacked is the one in control. They used some moves like headlocks and stomach punches to create the short section it's needed for in the script. I want to refine this in later rehearsals.

We then moved on to the next section with music. I chose a disturbing piano/xylophone duet as it created atmosphere and reflected the childish nature of the story. Eleanor came up with some good blocking ideas for which I praised her for and which I could see she was taking on board. I thinking I am beginning to overcome her confidence problem. Conor created some brilliant facial expressions when creating his loving/scary parent. I will try to get Eleanor and Chelsea to draw inspiration from this when they play the parents.+