We began the day with a dress/tech rehearsal in the CYT. After an energetic warmup, they rehearsed it while I helped William Hall with my lighting and sound cues. I decided to have no lighting changes during the piece as I thought it may become distracting. I went through the music and the sound effects until I was satisfied that they were at the right volumes. After the first runthrough, Amy Legge gave some feedback to my cast, saying that everyone needed to be more energetic, there needed to be better pacing and that Eleanor had to project, not rush her lines and make better use of physicality.
I then did another run-through, in which my cast did their best to take on board Amy's notes. Eleanor was still however very quiet and closed in. I noticed a few small specific bits that needed work and decided to take my cast to another room to rehearse some more. The first thing I wanted to improve was the beating scene. I thought that it looked a little slow and gentle, so I tried to coach them into making it appear more aggressive and as though the abusive foster parents were enjoying it more. I did my best to make Conor and Eleanor more confident that they wouldn't hurt Chelsea if they made it appear more aggressive. Eleanor was making it difficult though as she made it clear her reluctance to rehearse. There was one instance where she walked off of the area we had designated the stage saying: "I can't, I just can't". I tried to talk to her about what was wrong, but she refused to give a clear answer.
The next thing I wanted to improve was Chelsea's delivery of the line: "No, I don't want to be like Jesus. I fucking am Jesus!". I thought that it could be a lot bigger and could work with a small gap between the two sentences. I also helped her time her line, "Hello" when the foster parents return, to be between two of Lewis' sentences so they aren't distracted by Lewis or see Chelsea's line as a distraction.
A couple of hours later, they performed they play in front of an audience. In Scene 1, Lewis began well, speaking in an unsettling voice while keeping pace. Unfortunately Eleanor still appeared to be very inexpressive physically. The audience laughed at quite a few parts in this section, such as when Conor and Eleanor become the 'Abusive Foster Parents'. It was not long after this section that Lewis got one of his lines wrong and then proceeded to jump forwards and backwards in the story until he got back on track again. One of the things lost with this mistake was the improved beating scene. The two small bits I had practiced with Chelsea I noticed had improved greatly and got large laughs from the audience.
They soon went on to Scene 2. I had trouble hearing Eleanor's lines throughout the play as her voice had become very quiet and faint. Various people told me the same thing after the play had finished. I think that the other actor's performed very well in the rest of the scene and kept it a very watchable story.
When Scene 3 began, the responsibility to tell the story became mostly Conor's. I believe that he pulled this off exceptionally well because I could tell that the audience were hanging on to his every word. They laughed at certain points of his story and were then transfixed at more serious parts of his story. I received feedback from various people after the show saying how well he had performed the story. When the play was finished, there was a large round of applause for the entire cast.
Overall, apart from a few mistakes, I think the performance went very well. It entertained the audience and hopefully immersed them in the stories to some degree, which was what I was hoping to achieve with this play. One of the things that went really well was Over-the-top portrayals of characters such as Conor's abusive foster father and Lewis' little bot. One of the things that didn't go so well was Eleanor's lack of physical and vocal performance.
Thursday, 25 April 2013
Saturday, 20 April 2013
18-19/04/13 Individual rehearsals
Over the past two days, I have had individual rehearsals with all the actors with a monologue. I began with Lewis.
I've noticed that Lewis often paraphrases the lines and has trouble with words and phrases such as 'find neither hide nor hair of her'. I decided that I would go through the whole monologue with him, unlearning some of the lines he had learned incorrectly and replacing it with the proper wording. I did this in small sections and did other activities inbetween so it wouldn't become boring and tedious. These activities included asking him to tell me the story of 'The Little Jesus' in his own words and performing the monologue to ensure that he had taken on all he had learned. Another thing I did was help improve his timing on some sections, such as: "And so she was sent off by the state to live in the forest, with some...abusive foster parents...........Who hadn't informed the state that they were abusive, on the form." I felt that I needed to help him insert pauses in sections like that to improve its comic value. All these exercises were helpful as the next day, I noticed that he had almost completely relearned the script without any stuttering or hesitation.
The next day, I did exactly the same exercises with Conor as he too was paraphrasing. He is already very good at using pauses for dramatic and comedic effect, so I thought that time would be better used relearning the script. I will see in the next rehearsal if Conor has taken it all in.
Finally, I worked with Eleanor. I did the same exercises as I did with the others, but we were finished so quickly as she already knew the speech perfectly word for word. So I decided to go through the speech with her a few times, helping her slow it down instead of rush it, and help her find points where dialogue could be slowed down even more. We then practiced her physicality for 'The Little Jesus' to try and make it larger more obvious and more caricature. She has got a lot better at it in recent weeks, but I believe she can improve even more.
I've noticed that Lewis often paraphrases the lines and has trouble with words and phrases such as 'find neither hide nor hair of her'. I decided that I would go through the whole monologue with him, unlearning some of the lines he had learned incorrectly and replacing it with the proper wording. I did this in small sections and did other activities inbetween so it wouldn't become boring and tedious. These activities included asking him to tell me the story of 'The Little Jesus' in his own words and performing the monologue to ensure that he had taken on all he had learned. Another thing I did was help improve his timing on some sections, such as: "And so she was sent off by the state to live in the forest, with some...abusive foster parents...........Who hadn't informed the state that they were abusive, on the form." I felt that I needed to help him insert pauses in sections like that to improve its comic value. All these exercises were helpful as the next day, I noticed that he had almost completely relearned the script without any stuttering or hesitation.
The next day, I did exactly the same exercises with Conor as he too was paraphrasing. He is already very good at using pauses for dramatic and comedic effect, so I thought that time would be better used relearning the script. I will see in the next rehearsal if Conor has taken it all in.
Finally, I worked with Eleanor. I did the same exercises as I did with the others, but we were finished so quickly as she already knew the speech perfectly word for word. So I decided to go through the speech with her a few times, helping her slow it down instead of rush it, and help her find points where dialogue could be slowed down even more. We then practiced her physicality for 'The Little Jesus' to try and make it larger more obvious and more caricature. She has got a lot better at it in recent weeks, but I believe she can improve even more.
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
22/03/13 Evaluation
I began the rehearsal with an improvisation game where two characters find themselves with a mundane dilemma and must sort it out in the most exaggerated, dramatic way possible. I did this to try and help my cast be more caricature and deliberate in the first two scenes of my extract. I was quite pleased about how well this worked as my cast both enjoyed it, and I noticed a difference in how they performed the scenes.
I asked that they perform a timed runthrough of the play to ensure that it was within the time restrictions. I believe that the runthrough went exceptionally well with the notes given yesterday still being taken aboard. I timed it at about 18 and a half minutes which is perfectly acceptable. I started off with a general note to my cast that from now on, they should not be coming out of character if they make a mistake. Instead, they should do their best to carry on. For scene 1, I gave praise to Eleanor for her use of facial expressions, praise to Conor for his evil foster parent posture, praise to Lewis for his priest impression and praise to Chelsea for the funny way she delivered on of her lines on the cross. One thing I noted needed improving was the way the foster parents beat Chelsea. In that rehearsal, it seemed a little fake and slow and Eleanor appeared to be too gentle.
I had much to praise and very little to criticise about the second scene as it had been performed so well. One thing which I did bring up however was that the performers were sometimes not anticipating what came next and rushed to positions, slowing the pace of the scene and making it look unprofessional.
I also had very little to criticise about scene 3 either. The main issue was that Conor did not know the speech well enough and that he often made errors with wording, dynamics and inflection. Hopefully he will be more familiar with his lines after the Easter holidays. Another thing I want to improve is Eleanor's characterisation in this scene. Her character compulsively corrects Conor throughout the scene, but Eleanor appears to be playing her as bitchy, which slightly spoils the atmosphere of the scene. Instead, I want to guide her into being more passive aggressive.
Phil Green provided some feedback, almost entirely on scene 1. His main point was that it should be "be much bigger and more deliberate." I agree largely with this and intend to guide my actors into playing much larger and precise characters. He also noted that Lewis could be more 'unsettling' when narrating. Phil gave us a sheet on Melodramatic gestures which describe cliche ways of expressing emotions on stage. I encouraged my actors to act it all out to help them understand what I'm trying to achieve better.
Afterwards, we did another runthrough and I noticed a positive effect that mine and Phil's feedback as well as the exercise had had.
I asked that they perform a timed runthrough of the play to ensure that it was within the time restrictions. I believe that the runthrough went exceptionally well with the notes given yesterday still being taken aboard. I timed it at about 18 and a half minutes which is perfectly acceptable. I started off with a general note to my cast that from now on, they should not be coming out of character if they make a mistake. Instead, they should do their best to carry on. For scene 1, I gave praise to Eleanor for her use of facial expressions, praise to Conor for his evil foster parent posture, praise to Lewis for his priest impression and praise to Chelsea for the funny way she delivered on of her lines on the cross. One thing I noted needed improving was the way the foster parents beat Chelsea. In that rehearsal, it seemed a little fake and slow and Eleanor appeared to be too gentle.
I had much to praise and very little to criticise about the second scene as it had been performed so well. One thing which I did bring up however was that the performers were sometimes not anticipating what came next and rushed to positions, slowing the pace of the scene and making it look unprofessional.
I also had very little to criticise about scene 3 either. The main issue was that Conor did not know the speech well enough and that he often made errors with wording, dynamics and inflection. Hopefully he will be more familiar with his lines after the Easter holidays. Another thing I want to improve is Eleanor's characterisation in this scene. Her character compulsively corrects Conor throughout the scene, but Eleanor appears to be playing her as bitchy, which slightly spoils the atmosphere of the scene. Instead, I want to guide her into being more passive aggressive.
Phil Green provided some feedback, almost entirely on scene 1. His main point was that it should be "be much bigger and more deliberate." I agree largely with this and intend to guide my actors into playing much larger and precise characters. He also noted that Lewis could be more 'unsettling' when narrating. Phil gave us a sheet on Melodramatic gestures which describe cliche ways of expressing emotions on stage. I encouraged my actors to act it all out to help them understand what I'm trying to achieve better.
Afterwards, we did another runthrough and I noticed a positive effect that mine and Phil's feedback as well as the exercise had had.
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