Week 36

 Monday 14th October 2024 

We spent the first half of the day doing some warm up activities that focused on different skills, such as improvisation and memorisation. One of these games that I personally really liked was the memorisation game were everyone had to repeat a question, and change it depending on the person they were asking. If someone asked the question with hesitation, or got the question wrong their name would change- slowly eliminating the out of the game. I found this effective because it forced us to very quickly have to forget what we previously were trying so hard to remember- mimicking what its like to get re-directed and quickly have to pick it up, remembering it and applying it to what your working on. 

We then had time to go over our ghost light tour scenes for the rest of the session, but because we're not currently in the space that we will be performing in its quite hard to stage things correctly and place every intricate section were it will actually be. This makes it quite hard to fully pin down the piece that's being worked on because it alters every time. Currently I just need to get my lines down 100%, so I can feel secure with what I'm rehearsing. 

Tuesday 15th October 2024

We started off today with some individual ghost light rehearsal, and then decided to started plotting it together as a tour- just taking a look around what everyone else has been doing individually. This was really helpful as we all got to see what the tour might look like as a whole and make notes on adjustments that needed to happen etc. It also allowed us to see what worked really well, such as the harsh eye contact and the interesting entrances of characters- meaning that we knew to add more of that in to make the tour scarier. 

After our initial session today, we then stayed back for a while and worked on one of the from Pinocchio that we are going to show tomorrow to Musical Theatre. This song is all about high energy acting, feeling the plot with big characters that command the space- so we did a bit of work on that and just making sure everything felt more fleshed out. We've also worked on the dialogue section that's in the song as well, just to show the acting within the piece and add to the story that's told through it. 

Wednesday 16th October 2024 

Wednesday went a little bit different to how it normally would, as we had a showcase with musical theatre and the level 2s on the work we've been working on at the moment. The showcase went well, and it was really nice to see all the talent the students over MT and acting had to share. We got the lucky and amazing opportunity to see heathers at the globe free of charge, as a result of our connection with the globe and Josh who works at the globe. I loved watching the show, and learning from the performers on stage- getting to see how they adapted to the characters arc and their development throughout the show. Also just the technical ability that they all had- especially vocally with some the songs that they have sing and the harmonies that came with them was really impressive. 

Thursday 17th October 2024

Thursday started off as usual with monologue work and sharing. Last week my tutor told me to go and find a contemporary comedy, because it would allow me to show more of my range compared to performing two monologues that explore similar emotions. So for this weeks session I performed my new contemporary comedy monologue I'd learned from the new adapted version of Vanya performed by Andrew Scott. The main note for the monologue was to add my own spin on it, instead of replicating the amazing performance that Andrew Scott gives- because although his performance is brilliant it show anything of me as an actor. This was a very helpful note and I then later on in the day after our session experimented with the individual characters and playing on the comedy more within the monologue and making it my own. 

We then moved onto a session on directing and how to get the best results as a director. Its also very helpful for us as actors to develop multiple skills that work well alongside acting as it makes us easier to work with in the industry- giving us a better understanding of the jobs of others are working with. The activity for this session was one were we got into groups of three, and had to create a date scene between two people, that was then directed by the other person. This was a very fun activity and it allowed me as an actor to understand further what is helpful for me to do or be like as an actor for the director. There was also an element of improvisation added to the task which was really helpful for testing things out and experimenting with decisions and choices between the actors and the director, which was further building on that skill of communication. 

Shots from continued Globe work