Week 40

 Monday 18th November 2024 

We started today off running over anything from Pinocchio that we weren't comfortable with or felt needed work. For me this was the interactions between the Marionettes and Stromboli, as currently I'm finding it quite difficult to navigate when to let the Marionettes drop or when to continue carrying them around the space. Its also about navigating and learning a routine like set of movements when controlling the Marionettes- which is also difficult because when it comes to plotting it out I find myself being unsure on whats the best action plan and what would work best. 

We then moved onto some Pleasure Island work, and evolving the characters that would be in that scene- just building them up to create an atmosphere that was right for pleasure island. We did this by creating little pockets of potential scenes- starting off with some slow motion developing activities, such as slow motion tag and what it would be like walking through water and mud. These activities were very imagination heavy and really go us into that headspace of how would I react or respond in these unusual circumstance- which was perfect for us when creating Pleasure Island. After these warm ups we then moved onto creating human rollercoaster to potentially add into the pleasure island scene. My group worked on a singular isolated cart of a rollercoaster, with just 6 passengers in it- focusing on the delayed movement of each separate section of the cart and how our movements would be effected depending on the journey off the rollercoaster.  

Tuesday 19th November 2024 

Today was our Dear Evan Hansen practical  assessment as part of our assignments. This is a side project that I've really been enjoying working on, and have personally found the collaborative process of just focus on an isolated duologue to be a very big eye opener to character connection and relation within a scene. I feel like our filmed duologue went well, as we'd been prepared for it for a while now and felt that the scene would actually be better if we didn't over rehearse it in the morning and instead just went over the lines. I'm glad we did this and feel that It brought out a better raw emotion when performing the duologue. We also got some more practise on acting for camera, which is something I'm quite focused on this year and want to get better at, only really getting a proper taste for it as the end of last year. 

Wednesday 20th November 2024 

We started off by just running over through toys, brining in the makeup artists as well to watch and just get a good grasp of what some of the ensemble characters are like, along with a better concept of what the show embodies. We the got a chance to sit down with the make up artist, and talk individually to the artists doing our characters make up. This was really helpful as we got a chance to talk to some new make up artists we might of not worked with before, whilst also giving us a good visual idea of what we might look like as these characters. I'm really happy that we've began the collaboration with the make up artists earlier on, because it allows them to be more open about their ideas with us, and it means that when it comes to the show weeks are communication and plan is a lot more solid.

We then moved onto beginning the satisfaction garuteeded blocking, bringing in elements from the work we did on Monday and adding it into the scene in pockets. For example the rollercoaster my group created on Monday was slotted into the background to add more layers to the scene, along with the concept of rotating tea cups being added in as well. I'm currently really enjoying all the bigger dance numbers that I'm part of within Pinocchio as for me that was a category that I felt I needed to work on and practise more so I'm really glad that Pinocchio is giving me that opportunity. 

Thursday 21st November 

Today we started running through the show from the beginning onwards, getting the opportunity to see how the show slots together especially within the beginning. We only got up to I got no strings, but It was really beneficial for me to see the scenes that lead up to my opening scene as Stromboli but most importantly block over the scene and present some of the work that me and the other actors playing Stromboli have done. This scene still needs a bit more work when it comes to the Marionettes and we actually worked on a little way of being able to prop them up whilst Stromboli interacts with other characters with the scene, which is something I'm going to rehearse a bit more as it was very helpful and I want to utilise it as much as possible. 

we also finished the blocking for satisfaction guaranteed, adding more dancing and ensemble work into it. Along with toys I really enjoy performing in this number, and find that the ensemble characters give me more chance to play around with acting choices and boldness.