Week 18

 Monday 5th February 2024 

Warm ups 

We started today off by doing some warm ups that involved ensemble work, and the idea of trusting each other and letting go- giving one person the power to control a group movement while the rest of us followed, we also expanded this concept by placing the person in control of the movement somewhere random, meaning we had to collectively use each other as tiggers and sense the what the movements were and when they were changing. This collectively made us more aware of each others movements, meaning we were more focused on everything around us allowing us to work better as an ensemble. I find these ensemble exercises really productive, because they help us prepare for difficult ensemble scenes that we might come up against in show rehearsals- this is especially helpful at the moment as there's quite few of these scenes in our connection script "SHOUT".

We then did an activity were music was played and we had to just let our bodies move however we felt in the moment. Normally I really like these activities, but today I felt quite tired and run down, so began the activity quite reserved- finding it really difficult to fully put myself into the activity especially when a slow tempo melancholy song would play because it's naturally harder to dance to those kinds of songs. After a few songs had played I found myself enjoying it more- dancing with some of my friends and just fully letting myself go, instead of letting myself get to focused on how I felt instead of what I would benefit from it. I really like doing warm ups that force you to put yourself in a venerable position, because it makes you feel more ready and confident for the rest of the day- instead of going into your tasks with apprehension. 

Script feedback 

Because I'm one of the students that wrote a script for NT new views I spent a section of the day getting feedback on my first draft from a professional writer at NT. I found this conversation really helpful as I only had the first scene down when I sent my first draft in, and although I had a brief idea of the direction the play was going to go in I still felt unsure about a few things surrounding the plot and its general direction. She talked to me about my main character Clara and what defines her as a certain way to the audience, this is because her character becomes changed as the play goes on and as she's influenced by society's views on her- this is and effect of what the performance industry has done to her. Her note was to have something that Clara cares about or that is consistent to her and what we see her as at the start of the play, for example caring for her mam while she's sick- and then later deciding to put her into a care home because of other character influence etc. She also gave me other notes about one of my characters Ryan, mentioning that I could use him as a way to anker Clara in a negative way throughout the whole play not just the start- changing him from the casting director to the producer as they have more financial control, giving him a greater sense of power over the situation. Overall I found the notes really helpful and am really grateful for the guidance as I feel it has helped me have a clearer Idea on my play  structure. 

Tuesday 6th February 2024

Filming

I started Tuesday off by just doing a little bit more background work for our filming project "oblivious", I've completed filming all my main scenes so now am just helping out were I can- whether it be scenes we need to re shoot or scenes that need background actors. I feel its important to experience as much background work as possible, as a lot of job opportunities outside of collage will be background work, and background work requires a lot of patience and listening, so for me personally I find it helpful to get use to that environment. 

snowdrop rehearsals 

The rest of the day was then spent rehearsing through Alan's play snowdrop- I'm an ensemble actor in this project so am only in a couple of busy ensemble scenes at the start, but the scenes involve a lot of movement so we spent a good amount of time going over them making sure things were polished and that transitions etc matched up and flowed nicely. This is a really important project that raises awareness for the pain that Ukraine is currently feeling and has been feeling for years now, so it's really important that we put our all in and do it right- I'm very glad to be part of a project like this one.

Thursday 8th February 2024 

Rehearsals for snowdrop carried on into Thursday as we moved into arc to do a tech run and dress rehearsal, spending the first half of the day stopping and starting so the lighting and sound could be figured out, this is something I'm used to and was prepared for as this is the first thing that happened when we moved into the arc for Peter Pan. I always weirdly enjoy tech runs, because it's when you get to see the show really come together- although they can be tedious it's still good as an actor to see/understand how everything works so you can become more educated in your craft. I then sat and watched as they performed the rest of the play because the ensemble weren't needed- taking in and being able to appreciate just how beautiful the play is, plus the hard work and love that's been put into it.