Monday 20th November Warm up
We started Monday off with a group vocal warm up, which has now become a vital necessity in the run up to peter pan, making sure we aren't putting strain on our voices or damaging them in any way when performing. Warming up not just vocally, but physically is also a really good habit to get into before rehearsing/performing in any circumstance not just for a musical- so because of this I've started remembering the vocal exercises that are lead by our singing tutor, and then practising them daily. Even though I wont be singing everyday, it's a really good way to improve on my singing ability- helping me maintain my voice so its ready for a large amount of singing, same goes for stretching- making sure I don't become stiff whilst allowing me to gain more flexibility in general.
general rehearsing
As well as running through scenes as peter, I also started running through some scenes as a lost boy in both cast 2 and 3. Currently its quite hard for me to catch up on the lost boy scenes, due to the fact that I'm putting a lot of focus into Peter as a character since he's the main character I play and requires more attention. To help me fully understand the lost boys scenes I decided to sit and watch one of the other casts that I wasn't in as a lost boy rehearse the scene, this then allowed me to understand my spacing more, being able to see it as the big picture. It also allowed me to what I thought worked well from the other actors and what I thought didn't, helping me understand what to apply and what not to- whilst giving me a better sense of what the lost boys are meant to be and represent, helping me further understand the character.
Stage fight choreography
After a bit of scene rehearsing we started to focus on some of the more intense combat sections between Captain Hook and Peter Pan. Personally the stage combat element of playing Peter is the part I find most challenging, and although it can be incredibly fun at times to do- it still requires a lot of energy, focus and skill to be executed correctly. One of the main things I've realised when learning stage combat is that everything is done through a count which yes is helpful, but at the same time leaves no room for mistake, as everything is set in an order- similar to a dance. Adding a whole new level of focus that is needed. The sword fighting parts of the choreography are the parts I love the most, even though at first I found them confusing I've now learned that its all about following the rhythm of the other actor and responding to were they begin to swing, pre learning the blocking/parrying and then just repeating it over and over again. The main thing that makes the sword sequences so effective is the characterisation that's added to it- creating the illusion of a real and more intense sword battle. The main part of the stage combat that I find more challenging is the two person tricks that are added in throughout the sequence, because they don't just only require an element of skill, but an element of trust within the other actor your doing the skill with, and no matter how much you trust the other actor you still always have that slight mental block that makes executing them more difficult.
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Tuesday 21st November
Because the day before we delved into some acrobatic skills, two of the other actors who are trained in judo showed us some techniques to use for safe falling when it comes to mimicking taking damage. This is something really important, because injuries occurring while doing stage combat can sometimes stop people from performing, which is obviously something we didn't want to happen. Techniques we learned included:
(*) hitting your hand against the floor when falling, making your hand take most of the impact (which it can take) instead of your back or other more fragile sections of your body.
(*) rolling into a fall section by section of your body (especially when falling straight onto your back) dropping down into your legs then onto your backside- from there rolling the spine, placing weight on your shoulders with your legs lifted of the floor.
Wednesday 22nd November
Wednesday was spent just going over certain scenes across certain casts that needed to be sorted out/ran through before polishing and connecting to other scenes, one of which being the scene between Wendy and Peter that leads into the song why- I also got to watch another cast go over the spacing before the song is sang, helping me understand what the audience sees and were the most effective staging is. The song itself has a lot of musical gaps in it, so going over it to figure out what we needed to slot in there was really effective. What I've realised is that levels between Wendy and peter whilst singing this song has a great dynamic effect to it- especially if Peter goes over to comfort her on floor level, but then Wendy then stands up and turns away; showing the drift between them both in such a simple way. I would say that harmonies are something that needs to be practised a lot more for this song, because the harmonies themselves are quite difficult not feeling as natural to sing as another harmony that could be used in the song, so that definitely something that needs polishing- but on as whole I think that scene is heading in the right direction and going well so far.
Thursday 23rd November
The main part of Thursday was working through the big final fight scene, which in my opinion is the best and most exciting fight scene in the production- not just because everyone's involved in it, but because the staging itself is just so eye catching. While they were figuring out the main bulk of it, I was actually in the green screen room rehearsing over the first section of the production- including the peter and Wendy begging scenes and the darlings scenes, just polishing up on the spacing between Wendy and Peter at the start, and how they interact with one another when first meeting. I would say the beginning section of the production up to act 2 is the one I'm most comfortable with at the moment, feeling as if I've fully learnt it; and now just needing to polish it up a bit more. After I had done some rehearsing over those beginning scenes we headed back to the main fight scene, were I learned parts of the fight between Hook and Peter, one of which being a trick were Peter jumps and rolls over Hooks back. When first seeing this trick I was slightly apprehensive as I usually am when it comes to learning new stunt tricks for fight scenes, but unlike the other ones I already had a brief idea of how to go into it- due to the fact that I'd tried it out with George (he plays my Captain Hook) before we were cast in a practise run of one of the fight scenes. I feel because of this I had more confidence which allowed me to go into it without as much hesitation as I usually do, and although I did fall a few times it helped me realise that I had to not angle myself when rolling over his back, preventing me from just rolling off the end of his back rather than the side of his back. After realising this I was able to perform the trick a lot better and more efficiently, and from learning and practising these tricks I've realised that I need to stop being so scared of making mistakes in rehearsals , because that's what there for and without making the mistakes you can't figure out how to improve.
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