Notes from runs before Christmas

From the runs we have done so far I have written down all of the notes given to us by the director, which I will use as a working document and keep referring to to ensure I am rectifying the notes as the rehearsal process comes to a close.

Session 13 - Term 2 Week 5

Today we did a staggered run through of the first half of the play, which was helpful at this stage in the rehearsal process. It went well and we managed to get through it in good time. After we had finished the first half, our director gave us notes about what to improve.

General notes from the run through;

• We are being too tentative in the space

- I took this to mean that we all need to own the space more and commit fully to our actions.

• Characterisation must be improved

- Our director suggested that in the rehearsals we take time to prepare before we go on stage, as some people were standing up, launching into their scenes and sitting back down. This applies to me as I enter in Act 1 Scene 6 and stay on the stage until the end of the first half of the play so have a long time to prepare and get into character before I come on. However, I think I could do more in rehearsals to make sure I am ready for when I need to go onstage. I am doing individual work on my characterisation of Sarah documented on the 'Character Analysis' page of this blog.

• Relationships need to become clearer

- As Sarah is such an integral part of the family, she has a lot of relationships with other characters, and I think something I am quite weak on at the moment is portraying the relationships truthfully. One scene in particular is Act 2 Scene 3 with Mother Superior. I find this a challenging relationship to portray because she is someone who is higher status than me and who is a mother figure to the nuns, but equally they are sisters in the convent and have a caring relationship. To resolve this, I will meet up with Alice, who is playing Mother Superior and experiment with the ways that we can show platonic and maternal love and care.

• Blocking was an issue

- I was playing as if the stage is a proscenium arch, but it is actually in a thrust configuration, so audience are on three sides. I am always cautious of having my back to the audience, but in this configuration it is okay to face the back for a while, making it more naturalistic.

• Be methodical about actions and apply logic to them

- There are several places where I carry out actions, such as laying the table or scrubbing the blood off the wall and floor. This note meant that I should really invest in what I am doing and be methodical - if I am cleaning the blood I should really imagine the blood so it is more believable to an audience.

• Be quicker getting on and offstage

- I need to be very confident with my cue lines and the endings of the scenes before I come on to ensure that I am ready for my next scene.

• The play should be a human voices soundscape

- I need to be more confident when singing and addlibbing lines, there should never be a moment of silence

• Repeated lines are important - ensure to say them in different ways

• Whole thing lacked detail

Individual notes from the run through;

• Nuns song needs to be improved; we don't know it yet
• Need to work on Swahili with Hope, outlining the exact pronunciations of the words
• Wrap the table up a  lot - green blanket, grey blanket and rope altogther
• Need to show a warm relationship with Mother Superior - it came across that they were business associates rather than friends or sisters. Also stand up when speaking to her.
• Move quickly when doing activities
• ENERGY- drive through lines, never a moment of silence, cues need to be snappier 
• With the family scene in Part 1 Scene 6, energy tends to drop and it is difficult for the audience to hear if faces are down - keep heads up
• Work on Part 2 Scene 7 - there needs to be  more sexual chemistry between Sarah and Jack Holman
• Bring on a table leg from upstage right in Part 3 Scene 9 and attach it when singing the reprise of 'Lay Me Low'

Dry Tech Run

We are focusing on mainly running the play at this point and we were given the opportunity to do a dry tech run in the theatre. The purpose of the dry tech run was primarily for the tech team to get a feel of the piece as a whole in the theatre and also for the actors to understand how we can use the space and solidify where we enter and exit from. I found this extremely helpful as there were limitations from the room we have been practicing and it was the first time we had been in the theatre with most of the real props. I tried to bear in mind the notes given to me from the staggered run through and as a result, I felt the run went moderately well, but we were given more notes from the director that we need to improve on:

• Fill the space more - resist the urge to be drawn to the table and pieces of furniture

Unfortunately this was similar to the feedback from the staggered run through but is more obvious when we transferred to the theatre because the stage is much bigger than our rehearsal room, so we all need to move out away from centre stage and use the thrust staging configuration to our advantage by not facing the front all the time.

• Don't overcompensate with acting at moments of significance

Simon said we had the tendency to overact parts of the story that are particularly significant. I think I did this in Part 2 Scene 2 where Sarah gets told that Margaret has left. To sort this out I will return to the text and try and find the truth in the discovery so will put more time into this scene with Will, who is playing Albert. 

• Don't scrape the chairs on the floor

This is a practical note and is because the floor will be coated in a type of fabric that will rip if we scrape the chairs when getting up and sitting down and moving the chairs around. This was difficult to know because the actual floor wasn't there in the dry tech run but is something we will have to be cautious of in the dress run when it will be there.

• Practice wrapping the table - the spider scene needs work

This was the same note as from the staggered run but this was the first time we had all of the blankets and rope to wrap the table up, hence why it was difficult and a sticky moment of the piece. hopefully from now on though we will have the sheets and rope so we can find time to practice the wrapping before the next run.

• Don't scrub - Part 2 Scene 4

This is an individual note for Part 2 Scene 4. I am not actually in the scene but am meant to be onstage scrubbing the floor from the death of the leopard whilst the scene cuts forward to London 2013 before I continue with my scene in Tanganyika 1950. With the prop of the scrubbing brush, I didn't want to actually scrub the floor with it because it made a loud noise and would distract from the speech going on, but knew I had to carry out the movement written in the script so tried to do it quietly but this looked pointless. Therefore, I was given a different piece of direction to instead of scrub, just go and sit on the steps at the back and observe the scene that goes on in Part 2 Scene 4. I am much happier with sitting on the step and it will avoid the awkward action.

• In Part 3 Scene 9 the ancestors should tidy the room and put the furniture back to its original position

This is a note for all the ancestors who come on holding the table legs which get put back on to the table. Throughout the flipping of the table onto its back the chairs around the table are moved but in the dry tech run they did not get put back, leaving the stage very untidy. To combat this, we have each taken a chair that we re individually responsible for which will hopefully make the scene run a lot smoother and end up with the stage back to its original setting.