Week 39

Monday 11th November 2024

We started the day off by focusing on the ensemble characters within Pinocchio- specifically the children that sing in Toys and throughout the school scenes. Ensemble scenes are always the ones that take the longest, because its important that everything flows and syncs in together so to not drag the attention for the wrong reasons. This is why we spent time focusing on who we are when playing those characters- giving them their own individual characteristics and connecting them to the plot line and the other characters within the play. Because the children that live in this town are later on found to be made instead of born, they have to resemble a slight sense of perfectionism that is made known to the audiences. This is something that took some work, because naturally when it comes to playing children you resort to misbehaving apposed to behaving, so it was just about finding that balance between "perfect child" whilst still making them relatable children. 

Tuesday 12th November 2024

We started Tuesday off in the LRC like usual, catching up on some of our work that needs finishing for the week. I decided to take this time to work on my production role for Pinocchio, which this year I decided to take on set- drawing some initial sketches for some fixed pieces of set for Geppettos toy shop. When thinking of larger pieces of set I was making sure that they were still movable on and off stage and around the space, because no matter how good the prop/set is, it becomes unusable if you can't utilise it or transport it easily. 

We then spent the session practising our duologues for next weeks assessment, just making sure that everything is still clean and ready to be marked.

Here are some photos from those rehearsals:

Wednesday 13th November 2024

Wednesday was a really productive day in terms of Pinocchio progression- re blocking and finishing one of the earlier numbers in the show, "toys". This number is very much Ensemble driven, which is why it's been so hard to perfect as each background section has to be as busy and eye catching as the last. Toys also includes a lot of singing solos- which definitely has made it more of a challenge because you then have to make sure that the timing on each persons individual solo matches up correctly, whilst following on nicely after the last. 

The character I play within toys Is one I personally enjoy playing so much, and it's definitely one of my favourite numbers to be in within the show. I find playing young children to be really freeing, because kids don't have intense worries or self awareness like adults do so embodying that with a character is just so fun. There's some really artistic and visually interesting sections to this number that I really enjoy but are quite difficult to execute well as a group. Especially the slow motion section, were we all have to act out our previous interactions in slow motion whilst Geppotto exists in normal time and sings around us. The key to making this really impact full is to completely over act every small facial expression so its made clear and obvious that Its in slow motion. This is a part of "toys" that I think as group we can polish up in rehearsals and really pull the family relationships out of it to create more of an impactful image on stage. 

Thursday 14th November 2024

We spent all of Thursday continuing our Pinocchio rehearsals, focusing the attention on some of the individual sections- one of which being the satisfaction guaranteed. Because I'm not in satisfaction guaranteed even in alternating casts, I took this time to rehearse the Stromboli song with one of the other Strombolis. This song Is a massive challenge, and something I'm currently battling with so am making sure to put aside time specifically for it. Last year I had the most musical numbers to sing in the show, but didn't find the songs as vocally challenging although they weren't by any means easy to sing I found more challenging things within the role of Peter Pan outside of the vocals. But when it coms to playing Stromboli the vocals are definitely the most difficult part of the role even though I technically only sing one song. After rehearsing the song we then did some blocking of the first scene were we meet Stromboli. The main difficulty of this scene is the marionettes and controlling them without controlling them look, but because the Marionettes are real people it's quite difficult to get used to that moment- along with their individual voices and making sure there consistent throughout. 

I also went down to Joinery as well today with my tutor to ask about Strombolis puppet handles, along with some other pieces of set. It's a good reminder of connections within the industry and how to interact with the people that we as actors rely on to make our shows amazing. 

Here are some photos of the props that were made: