Last week (16th - 20th January 2012) was showtime!
Tuesday was just a run off the mill rehearsal lesson. Me and Maria got movements and all lines ironed out, we polished out the rough bits and it was a kind of preliminary dress rehearsal which seemed to go fine. Oh yeah Ms. Steinson (the principle) came in and had to help me out with tying a tie, then she sat down and filmed us for a bit (for the promotional video). All in all it was a pretty successful lesson.
Wednesday was a biggie. Two hours of drama during school, then another 3 after school! We started by getting changed into our costumes and what not. Me and Maria watched through Spencer and Georgia's piece just to see how it was going which seemed like it was finally going somewhere. Maria and I were about to start but then Mr. Fearnehough came in and instead of rehearsing our piece we did some hard and some easier activities. Firstly, we stood diagonally from each other so we couldn't see each others faces (Maria and I naturally stood on the stage) and so we were told just to say our lines out, no actions, no turning to partner, no movement and no help just say it out to the 'audience'. This was easy since we have done a similar thing at Panto and this really was just a go through of lines primarily. Next we all stood in a line and were told to take the thing that when our characters are stripped down to the bare minimum drive them. For me (Torvald) it was his complete lust for money, so I completely exaggerated this by smelling the money, rubbing it against my cheek and by counting it millions. Maria's was very child like, Georgia's was more seductive and Rank's was......well.....Rank. We then had to go through our script as this over exaggerated self of the character, it was going well for me and Maria....Then we went off script and so it seemed like we ended up going shopping in the end.
We then watched Spencer and Georgia's exaggerated scene, it was...creepy.
After this we tried and may I say heroically failed and going through our script backwards. I just couldn't do it at all. It ended up going backwards and forwards. Kinda like the reversal of that saying 1 step backwards 3 steps forward. This didn't go so well, enough said really. We got one good dress rehearsal in which went, well, GOOD! But the final thing was major fun and was a great way to end the lesson. Maria and I were given traits and characteristics that had to added onto our characters. Maria (as Nora) was given an Italian Accent and a head that kept dropping, I (Torvald) was given the trait of being very camp and having an itchy BACKSIDE!!!! (watch Panto and you'll get that joke). It was just some light hearted fun that ended the lesson greatly.
Friday morning was Showtime!!!!!! Everything seemed to go smoothly, one second we were onstage then BOOM! It was over. Question time was slightly awkward since no one was asking questions but it went fine still. Our Friday lesson was a debrief of what had happened, we talked about how over the course of doing A Doll's House our characters objectives have changed whilst playing our characters. Then there was the moment that made the week seriously.
Mr. Fearnehough on the sofa, with stockings around Spencer's neck (as if he was Nora seducing him) and just as he pulled Spencer in close up and said "nothing for being so...Naughty" who has to walk in but none other than Tess. We were killing ourselves.
This week has been such a fun week. We've learnt new rehearsal techniques, we've learnt that how as playing our characters has slightly changed our objectives and how fun theatre can be (but also draining). It's been a week of drama for Me! A Doll's House and the beginning 3 shows of Panto (which have gone swimmingly!)
Richard #1
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