Rehearsal Week 3.

The beginning of the week we went back to blocking the four scenes and trying to find the places of comedy and playing about with scenes to see what works and what doesnt. Throughout the week we have spent a great deal of time on walming our bodies and voices up. I found the walm up's benifical for me because I felt my body and voice were connected. The body walm up was a perfect way to wake up me up in the early morning starts and was refreshing to do. The voice walm up really helped with my range. In the play I give my character Honey a high pitched voice and this is a great exercise to walm from vocal cords. Voice walms up range from tounge twisters to saying words in a deep or high pitched voice.

On Tuesday's rehearsal we did dress run with Richard watching our first run through. Richard had some constructive critazism about the run. He said that we could all hard to take risks with the characters have fun with them and not feel so restricted and to change the ending so that it didnt end has a cliff hanger. I feel those new ending fits our edited version of the play and feel like a more natural ending and answers how Maratha and George's relationship's ends up. I also feel that I am finding Honey's character the more that I rehearse. I also feel that when all of the cast are in costume that our characters come to life more. The only charactistic that am struggling with is still her giggley personality. This week we did a couple of runs with different speeds and quality's. One of them was where I had to be giggley, I stuggled to this because in the script there are a lot of things that Honey's character wouldnt laugh at (for example - Martha flirting with Nick).

Abbie also did exercises where we had to greet people which helped to make us use different emotions and body language and this game lead into playing the game where she would shout a body part that we had to lead with. These games really helped us think about our characters bod language and how walk and greet people. Which help to layer each of characters and by Friday when we did our first run with an audience, one of their comments was our detailed our characters were and how they could tell what kind of characters we were playing before we even spoke. There only critasim was the clarity in which deliver our lines. Some of the lines were not articualted enough and some of the jokes were missed because of that, but its hard to deliver clear lines because of the accents. I felt that personally the run went really well. I was a little nervous and that really helped with my characters giggley personality. There were things in there that me and James did that made the audience laugh which was shocking because our characters dont deliver the comedy lines.

Towards the end of week all of the cast and including myself were really run down and tired and we had no energy. Thursday rehearsal tired us all out and by Friday we were really tired. Thursday we did a full body and vocal walm up and then ran the play several time in lots of different ways such has fast,loud,flirty and cutting each other lines of. By doing this we were able to see what did and didnt work and made certain things funny and this brought a whole new comedy element to the play.

Overall it has been successful week and I think having outside opinions has really helped with play has whole. After what Richard said, about choosing and objective throughout the play and sticking to it I think I have decided to choose that Honey doesnt want to be there and cant wait to get home. I feel this week that I have really improved with my chracterisation work and over the weekend I need to work on our deliver my lines and the clarity in which I say them because the Robert Powell is big space to fill.

Katie.

Nearly show time!

So it's been a tiring week as we are performing next week!

We have played around with how our character acts and talks some of which i felt comfortable with others I didn't, such as trying to always get Nick to look at me. I found that rather hard partly because of the sofa we were using and because I couldn't think of much things that Martha would actually do because it's not in her nature to do so.

I found straight flirting much easier to do and felt comfortable doing it because I could adapt it to Martha's way of doing things rather than pushing not only myself but her out of her boundaries.....even though it seems Martha has none.

I also had to use a chinese accent and speak to others as though they were deaf. I know that it is supposed to help with my projection but I don't feel projection is that much of a problem because Martha is a loud character. The only parts I need to remember to project but still keep the intention is when i flirt and speak childish because I do lose it sometimes.

Richard came in to see us on two occasions this week and had us change the end. The original ending left the piece on a cliffhanger which I didn't particularly like as well as the unsolved mystery about the son, but that hasn't been changed as of yet even though I have voiced my concern about that. I do not have the overall say though.

Abbie changed the ending overnight so that we could block and rehearse it the next day. There was also a funny add on, suggested by James which we put it to finish it off.

I think that this ending is better and that the audience will be able to relate to it better than the previous one.

Eden Trials came to watch a rehearsal to give feedback and vise versa. We need to concentrate on diction and clarity of our voices because sometimes words are lost because of the accents which are ok. They're not great but I suppose they'll do.

Personally though I feel my character has lost her fun and has become to angry because of the direction I have been given. I would like to have more freedom of choice with how I play Martha because I don't see her as this angry character. Martha is fun and just wants to live life. She is a happy person who likes to have a laugh and doesn't take life seriously.

My aims are to have fun, continue the party and to get Nick's attention. I have started to lose my voice because of all the shouting, which isn't good.

The pace has picked up loads though because of some feedback from Richard, so that now instead of waiting until the other has finished we're cutting each others lines and talking at the same time making it look more realistic.

Flyers went out this week too!!!!

they look awesome....the only concern I have is that it states that our play will make you "laugh your god damn head off ".....i don't think that is true because it isn't that funny. It has elements of comedy but I wouldn't say that it is a comedy unless we do a 'piss-take' of it.

Well three more days until show day!

Stretching Out Further!

Hey Crew!

So the update on the last couple of days from my point of view are that I think it's all going rather well! No major concerns or problems that are getting in the way. We just need to really work on getting the delivery of each and every line spot on or else bits of the script are going to get lost and some of the jokes missed. So on the list is clarity and volume, as we are in the Robert Powell Theatre which isn't a small space...we need to fill it!

As we are double-billed with the 'Eden Trials', the idea was brought about that we show each others performances to each other. The feedback that the other group gave us was quite settling. They seemed to enjoy it but the main note was that some of the lines were lost. It feels like pressure has been lifted now that we have shown it to people and had some positive feedback, such as; character relationships being clear, and good characterisation work. However some humour is lost with tiny things like certain bits of blocking, or again, delivery of lines.

So over the weekend, jobs to be done; Work on clarity and delivery of lines.

Until we meet again! James

Directors Notes :) - Today's rehearsal

Hi all,

Though i'd give an update of how today's rehearsal went as we only have the one day of rehearsals left before our tech, its creeping up on us pretty fast but i'm confident we will put on a great show by the time Tuesday comes around!

Today we did a very energetic warm up, starting with the cast stretching, jogging around the room, leading with different parts of their bodies and creating characters that may walk in those ways - they came up with some pretty funny stuff. It was a fun energetic warm up ready to get the actors ready for the long day of rehearsing ahead of us. We then moved onto a vocal warm-up working on breath control and using their diaphragms properly, we also worked on diction using tongue twisters and different vocal warm up games which was also a lot of fun.

We then moved on to do a scene by scene run and I would give the actors a different way to play each scene, allowing them to be as over the top as they liked and to just play around with what i give them and see if it gives them any inspiration for the characterisation for the play. For the first scene I asked them to play it really fast, leaving no drops in energy between lines and to be very loud, imagining we were in the Powell space and the only audience members were sat on the back row. This worked well and showed a large improvement in Andy's projection and I think as a group we seem to agree that the first scene works well with a bit more pace as it shows the snappiness and wit of the two characters and their relationship.

We then did the second scene when the guests arrive and I asked Andy to change his physicalisation for George, telling him to hunch his shoulders and stick his stomach out, I asked James to play Nick with his shoulders touching his ears and to be extremely fidgety, I asked Kirsty to play martha always keeping her breasts stuck out in front of her, and I asked Katie to play Honey with a very straight back, keeping good posture and not bending her back at all really. This worked very well and we could see some great new physicalisation's emerging for each of the characters, playing the scene like this really helped the actors with their comedy, finding larger than life character and new ways of moving. I enjoyed James's performance of Nick very much and have asked him to keep up what he discovered in the physicalisation of nick but a more toned down version, as the fidgeting really worked for him. Also Andy's performance helped him with seeming like an older man even more than he had already been playing.

We then did the third scene and I asked Andy to play it loud and confidently and always cutting in on Nick's lines as Andy as the actor already knows what he is going to say so could easily just come in with his lines straight away not letting Nick finish. I asked James to play it nervously, and with a stutter. Asking the actors to play the scene like this really worked for them and we found a lot more comedy in the scene, this exercise helped Andy in his interrogation of Nick and gave him much more authority in the scene which worked very well for him. James having a stutter for Nick worked in showing the status between the two men characters, when playing the scene like this, there was an obvious contrast in their two characters which was really interesting to watch and we could see status and age difference in their performances today more than any other rehearsals. I have asked James to keep his stutter and fidgeting for Nick's character and see how this works for him during the run through's we will be doing in tomorrows rehearsal. During this run Andy also said one of his lines in a deeper huskier voice and I asked him to try and keep the voice up during the rest of the scene so that I can see how it worked and it had an immediate effect on his comedy timing for his character and worked well in showing his age and personality. I would also like Andy to continue using this voice in a run we do tomorrow and we will agree then whether to keep it or not.

We then did a run of the fourth and final scene and I asked Andy to play George with the same voice he had just found but with a murderous feel to him, I asked Kirsty to play it chinese and as though she is speaking to deaf people; i chose this because when Kirsty plays the chinese accent she becomes a much bigger character and I wanted her to work on that more with Martha and also this would help her volume even more as she is the loudest of all of the characters. I asked James to play Nick as a nervous woman, because I wanted him to lose having so much masculinity as Nick and I asked Katie to play the scene as though she was constantly being tickled as Katie still needs to work on Honey's giggly personality. This scene worked really well and there was a lot of energy to it, fun and comedy.

I think that doing these exercises have shown the actors that they can start to have more fun with their characters and explore more over the top personalities for them as we want to make the play a fun, energetic adaptation, and i think after today's rehearsal we are definitely getting there.

We then also did a speed run at x30 the speed that they usually deliver their lines, almost so we pretty much couldn't understand what they were saying as they would speak so fast. This worked well as again it gave more energy to their performances and also gave the actors a confidence boost at how well they knew their lines that they could get through the whole play with saying their lines extremely fast. They managed to perform the whole play like this in 15 minutes, which could have been less if there weren't so many giggly moments at how funny they all sounded.

Today has been a good rehearsal with plenty of energy, I do not think that we have over rehearsed our play but instead kept it fun and fresh to us still and I do not think that anyone has become bored of performing it or watching it as we are constantly coming up with new ideas and keeping energy and pace at a much better level now.

Tomorrow's rehearsal will be concentrating on polishing the performance, making sure actors know when to have drinks in their hands, when they need to have finished drinks by in order to pour themselves another one etc and hair and make-up will also be worked on. We will also be doing a few runs and I will be giving notes and then tightening up any lose sections, once that is done we will have another fun run of it where we can continue to see the characters build in energy, physicality and comedy.

Last rehearsal tomorrow guys! :)

x x x

Abbie

Even further on

Hi guys.

Over the last two days, we have progressed in many areas and the play seems to be fitting together.

For a more suitable conclusion, we have added a new scene that was rehearsed and fitted in with the remainder of the play. Personally, it seems to work and has potential to be extended if necessary to add more humour.

The rehearsals have been working on our speech, delivering it faster and faster. My speech is one thing I've tried to slow down, amazingly the faster I delivered it, my voice had more clarity, my words did not get mumbled up and my accent seemed to be a bit better. (Although I still ain’t sold on it) One thing I have to careful of is not shouting the lines, but projecting them to ensure our audience can hear every word, as the Robert Powell Stage is huge. Reflecting on this exercise, the play seemed to become more alive with the pace. Certain parts of it did not seem to benefit from the fast delivery, as the intention of awkwardness was lost. At some point we will have to identify the sections that do not require the pace, more silence or awkwardness, but we will have to be careful to ensure we do not lose the audience's attention.

In Thursday’s rehearsal, we had the chance to play more with our characters. My physicality aspect seems to be getting there, just need to maintain the consistency of it through the play with hunched shoulders and sticking my stomach out. My voice also became quite interesting as well, discovering a deeper tone, which is potential to work on.

Talking to the director and producer on Wednesday morning helped me a bit, I know the lines and blocking of each scene and now need to have fun with the role. By this I mean playing around with mannerisms that I could occupy myself with, whilst the cast play the scene. Also try to find objects that can distract George from his wife, continuously describing the Bette Davis film she can't remember.

We have time to make this show really work to the best of its ability.

Swifty

Further Still

Hey Crew!

So a week before our show and we decide to change the ending! It's great! Again not trying to give too much away but it's completely different to the original ending but as we all agreed, alot better. So this is now blocked and learnt to the same standard as the rest of the play. We also acted each scene in a kind of 'Fast Mode', super-speed, to see where more energy worked, it also helped us with our clarity and volume as we where talking so fast but still had to get every word across.

I had a few more ideas for my character too. Like perhaps he has a stutter as he is quite nervous or constantly itches somewhere like his neck when he feels pressured etc. Not sure if they work or not yet though but I'm going to keep on working on them and other ideas and see what works and what doesn't.

I'm also in charge of our lighting and sound, I forgot to mention in my last post. Lighting wise; as the play is set in a living room our lighting is going to be very simple, white wash, maybe slightly dimmed, and a couple of lamps on stage. Sound wise; the play is set in the 50's so we are thinking entering music perhaps Frank Sinatra, which will change once the play is ready to start to something that will play throughout the performance in the background, and then similar music to the entering music to be played for the audience to exit.

Until we meet again...James

Production Manager's Notes - Week 3 - Day 2

I added a slideshow of rehearsal pictures onto the blog yesterday so that they are more easily accessible and so that I am no longer cluttering my posts with multiple photographs from each day.

Today's rehearsal started with Andrew and James showing the rest of us what they had done when they worked independently on their scene yesterday. They had added some nice moments, such as Nick going to sit in George's chair, but they still need to be careful of the jokes as some of them are lost because of the delivery.

Abbie then got the cast to do a warm-up. They started by walking around the room, shouting lines from the script. They then moved on to the greeting game, where they walk around the room and when Abbie shouts stop, they have to greet each other in a certain way - such as, best friends, biggest fan, blind date, drunk, an animal, hate each other, in love and as their characters.
She then got them to stand opposite their partners, across the room from each other and say their lines to each other, starting quietly and getting louder. As they got louder, they moved closer to each other. This helped us to see how George and Martha can be around each other when they start arguing.

We then did a full run of the play for our supervisor (Richard Talbot). He gave us some notes after the run. His main notes were; what is our interpretation of the piece? He suggested that we should either find a section from the rest of the play or devise a section to end the play, rather than ending on a cliffhanger, as some members of the audience may feel like the play hasn't ended and may be left wondering what happens next. He also suggested that the actors try to talk with very exaggerated accents just to see how far we can push them until it gets ridiculous.
Abbie's notes on this run were to make the characters much bigger and to work on the parts where lines were dropped.

We discussed the ending of the play and Katie had a good idea of what we could do. She suggested that Nick and Honey should leave after George exits and that Martha should shout "GEORGE!" up the stairs. Abbie wasn't keen on leaving it there and added that maybe George and Martha should have a bit of an arguement and then start flirting, before the play ends with a kiss.
Abbie is going to work on the ending tonight and it will be rehearsed tomorrow in time for our supervisor to watch another section of our rehearsal.

We then ran from the guests entrance to Martha and Honey's exit with really big characters. This seemed to give the actors more energy than they had previously and made the scene more interesting to watch.

After talking about hair and makeup, we decided that we will test it all out on Friday and if we can't make Martha's hair reflect her character, we will go back to the idea of having a wig for her, which we will buy over the weekend.

Directors Notes :) - Another Update

Hey all,

Just an update of where we are in our rehearsal process at the moment.

Everything is going really well so far, we have got our blocking finished and the actors have got it stuck in their heads now and are doing extremely well with their characterisations. The characters have grown so much over the past two weeks and I am so pleased with how it is going so far, we still have plenty that we can work on in order to make a truly polished performance but we have plenty of time to do that in :)

We are now going to begin on having more fun with the script and allowing the actors to play and enjoy their characters, now that they know their characters well and know the play, we can start exploring new and exciting little character traits if we start rehearsing through the play and just enjoying the characters, I will allow the actors to have a bit more free reign to find funny moments for their characters and things that they could be doing whilst they are not speaking, e.g Martha flirting with Nick whilst Honey is speaking, this will be fun for Kirsty to play with and see how far she can go with her flirting.

We were given some comments about our play after showing a full run through to our supervisor, and now have to work on having even more energy in our play and allowing the actors to just enjoy what they are doing; enjoying the big, bold characters they are playing rather than being consumed by the thoughts of having to remember all of the lines and blocking which they know, now it is just time to let go of being critical about their performances and to just let go and see where that takes us in the energy and fun of the play.

We also have to work on changing the ending of the play to not leave it on such a cliffhanger as some audience members may feel as though they have seen a play which is unfinished, therefore, tonight I am going to be working on finding a strong ending for the play which will leave a good conclusion for all of the characters concerned rather than such an open for interpretation ending.

Tomorrow we will be looking at our change of ending and working on this. Also we will be doing another run with costumes and props and then picking some scenes apart and finding moments in them which can be worked on, and working on a line run which they actors feel they need as they all want to get their lines spot on, also we will be working on volume and energy; which should be fun!

We have plenty of time left so we shouldn't have anything to worry about, we're getting there and it's looking good!

Abbie x x

A Bit Further

Hey Crew!

Finally discovered how to do this! Simple really, Click of a button, but I missed the link! ha, But anyway...

I'm James and I'm playing the part of Nick. I won't give too much away about my character as you should come and see the play, but he is young and naive, and quite nervous and shy around the other characters which can result in him coming across as not as smart as other University lecturers generally are. However, can't resist a bit of a flirt! I think Nick and George have a good contrast within the play which I feel myself and Andrew (Swifty) are working together rather well to show these differences.

Rehearsals so far are going quite good, and the play is coming along rather well considering the time we have spent on it. The first week we had for rehearsals, before Easter, we spent character building where I feel Nick really formed. It was a good plan to dedicate some time to building a character for I think it has put me a step in the right direction. When it comes to the accent, this isn't my strongest point, I worked on a general American accent through the Easter holidays and I'm now being told it is getting alot better and not to worry about it.

Until further notice, James

So far

Well, rehearsals are going extremely well I am happy to say. The exercises in the first week were incredibly beneficial, enabling all of the group to feel comfortable with one another and enjoy themselves. The main exercises such as hot seating and improvisation, allowed us an insight into our characters and relationships to create a base and develop through rehearsals. I feel this work has certainly paid off, as the relationships between all the characters are evident and continue to develop whilst rehearsing.

The rehearsals are very well organised, resulting in the objects and more being completed and satisfactory. With the organisation and commitment, the one act has been blocked incredibly quickly in fine detail. Everyone is off script and remembering the blocking, resulting in run throughs progressing rapidly. The cast receive feedback from the director and producer after every run through, so we know what particular areas are good, need improvement and other elements that are felt as essential. Using the detailed feedback, the cast are fully aware of their requirements, which is allowing us to take on the next task of detailed characterisation.

Personally I feel this is the most demanding aspect we have to face in this process, in order to ensure our characters are believable. This includes every aspect in order to transform ourselves physically, vocally and mentally to make the play truthful. The next few rehearsals will be incorporating exercises that will help our own development for the characters. It is also one aspect I will be working on in my spare time, as my accent and physicality need a vast amount of improvement.

Andy

Week one & two

The first week really helped me to get into the character as Martha, through improvisation games, where I could experiment with different voices and physicality. The scenario's that I was given, really helped to me to understand how Martha's past might have played out.

I felt uncomfortable doing the eye contact work, because I personally cannot remain eye contact with someone throughout a whole conversation without feeling out of my comfort zone but I tried and sometimes I did good but I did find that quite hard.

I'm glad that I'm playing opposite Andy though because I feel we have a natural chemistry which helps when it comes to making the relationship look as natural as possible. I feel comfortable with him and can have a laugh which is great, but what i felt was the biggest help of all was really getting to know Andy as a person so that I could feel much closer to him and that happened when we had a heart-to-heart talk about ourselves.

I feel these exercises have really helped to build our relationship between Martha and George and it it is really starting to show which is always a good thing.

I am nervous about my accent at the moment because I struggle with them as it is but I am giving it my best shot, so far I need to concentrate on making myself sound older, by deepening my voice which I am working on and have an American twang. I have noticed that when i get excited or angry I go high pitch which is something I really need to look at.

Week two

This week we started basic blocking. yes! I now feel as though my character is coming to life, as the ingredients to Martha are being added one at a time, until I have her full character within my grasp. I want to look into my physicality but i feel the only way which will help is if I saw myself. Hayley recorded one of our rehearsals so this is now possible.

My accent is coming along ok, I still need to work on it but it is much better than what it used to be; I don't sound as young. Martha is a challenging role to play and requires a lot of work because she's all of the place. The range of dynamics within her emotions are tough. They need to be snappy and clear which is something I am now getting into and playing around with. I can go much further with her emotions, making them much bigger especially with her anger which I find the most difficult. I think my diction needs a little work to but my projection is great....i suppose I have no choice with that one seeing as Martha IS a drunk and loud woman! the only parts I do need to remember to project on but still keep the emotion is when i'm being flirty or childish because that is when my voice drops and it wouldn't be heard in the theatre if i did it at that level. Note taken.

Off scripts now too which is fantastic because we can really concentrate on small details and become our characters. I love the feedback I get at the end of each run through because I can then see what I need to change/improve, could play around with etc.

I watched Little Voice as a recommendation from Abbie for my character. The mum in that is hilarious and I can really see parts of Martha in her, the only thing is she is British so it doesn't help with the voice. I am watching clips of 'who's afraid of virginia woolf' on youtube to help me with certain words and stuff.

I think it is really coming together now and I am excited to perform. Costumes are nearly sorted too, jusy props to sort now. We have been using chairs and occasionally a sofa, when we can find one. The music department was nice enough to let us borrow theirs at one point. I have thoroughly enjoyed the rehearsal process so far and the pace of it has been fantastic, as I have not got bored of it because we haven't over-run things to the point where we are just going over and over it. I have a good group!

Directors Notes :) - Choice of play and Directing

Hi all,

Thought i'd talk a bit about my reasons for this choice of play and how our fabulous group came about for this one act play project.

This is my first real experience as a director, the only previous directing experience I have is from college and when I was part of a drama group when I was at school. However I felt very passionate about directing this play as I think it is a brilliant piece of writing and I knew it would be very fun yet challenging to direct.

I read the play 'Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?' a few years ago and fell in love with it straight away, thinking that the characters were very interesting and believable, I also felt it was a very clever comedy. When this one act play project came about, I jumped at the chance to direct the play and make it my own. I began by editing the play into a one act play, using just the first act of the original play and then editing that to make sense on its own as a play. I then went about to search for a cast who could be in the play and make it as good as I knew it could be. I first approached Andrew Swift and James Manford as I had them both in mind for the two male roles and thought that they would fit perfectly within their roles, also as I have worked closely with them both before I knew that they would be lovely to work with, also as they are both very good friends I knew that they would both enjoy working together. Thankfully they both said yes. I then searched for the female parts and found Katie Beresford who I had just worked with would be perfect for the part of Honey. I then had to search for a girl to fit the demanding role of Martha, who pretty much is the centre of the whole play with her big personality and intense relationship with her husband. I asked Kirsty Clarke to take the part, letting her know of the hard work she would have ahead with the part and she accepted. I then had my cast, my group was formed. I then had a producer in Hayely Sadler and publicity with Jose Nuno Lopes who have been a massive help to me in my efforts to make this play a success.

Currently the cast are working extremely hard for me and doing a brilliant job, the characters and accents are almost there! We have a fantastic group guys. Thank you all for allowing me to direct you in this play :)

Directing is a difficult job but I am enjoying every minute of it. I have worked hard on being extremely organised as I would hate to fall behind on anything and have been working on making rehearsal plans for every rehearsal so that I know exactly what I want to get done in every rehearsal. So far this is working very well as we are working at a fast pace and have the play fully blocked and now all that it needs is perfecting!

During my first week as a director, I worked on giving the actors an opportunity to enjoy themselves and relax into the play; not wanting to force it on them immediately. We played games and worked on characters before any work on the script began. Accent work soon became a priority for the actors, and at the beginning of this process was a bit of a worry with the whole group that we may of had to change the setting of the play to England, however, luckily the american accents have come on wonderfully.

Blocking the play has been a big task but also enjoyable, the main difficulty with this play being that it is all set in one location, a living room; where people usually sit. The play is very dialogue based and so it has been a challenge of mine to make the play look as interesting as possible and working hard on the play not becoming a static piece of theatre. I have included as much movement as possible, keeping it realistic but interesting and enjoyable, giving the actors motivation for doing things so there is no movement without reason behind it.

I still have a big task ahead of me in perfecting this play and ensuring that the play really manages to come alive in the bigger space that is the Robert Powell theatre.

I look forward to seeing the play as its finished product and I am very lucky to have such a great cast who have taken all of my direction on board and have obviously worked hard on whatever I have asked of them.

Abbie x x

Rehearsal Weeks 1 & 2

The first week of rehearsal we concertrated on trust and relationships between both couples. In the first week we did various improvisations about "what could of happened". We built events that happened before the night that the story takes place. For example when Nick asks Honey to marry him and she undemines him. All these events helped when it came to the second rehearsal week where we blocking each scene and by the Fridays rehearsal we were of scripts and running the play from start to finsh. We blocked and developed each scene and I feel that am engaging with Honey's character the more I rehearse. The relationship building from the first week I think as really helped me with Honey and Nick's relationship. I am happy with how my accent is coming along and how I have soften Honey's voice but I still think I can soften her voice even more. I also feel that I need to work on Honey's giggly personality because I feel that I havent quite got that characteristic yet. Finally I still need to learn the order that my lines go in because I forget sometimes the order them go in. Am going to spend the weekend looking over script and learning the order of lines.

Preview of Programme!!

First page of our programme created by Nuno. Good work!!

Abbie x x

The actors and their characters

Hi, my name is Andy Swift I’m playing the part of George. This year has been busy since ‘School for Clowns’ back in January. The remainder of the year was filled with many short films and counting with two in post production. All on youtube, fulfilling my ambition to reach the silver screen. I hope you enjoy ‘We’ve Got Guests!’. Thank you for your support.

George

Someone once told me life was full of exciting, new and fresh opportunities. When I was young, in my teens, life was great. I felt free, so free I could tackle anything head on with confidence and always win. I always loved a challenge, that one chance to prove yourself to everyone no matter how difficult, I would always win, never be defeated. Why, I don’t know, I opted for the original, bland lifestyle falling into a job, getting married and having children. That’s precisely what I did, I got married and wanted to start a family. I had a secure job as a university lecturer as a history professor that I have the chance to run the department soon. My wife was........... lovely, just lovely. We met when I was twenty, she was twenty six, always had a thing for older women. She had this air of mystery surrounding her, when we went out, we just laughed and laughed and laughed. She certainly knew how to have a good time, and on one of those nights out, I proposed to her. When she said yes, I felt life was full, things could only progress. We share a unique sense of humor, we seem to bounce off on another, we both know each other’s weaknesses and use them as tools for humor. Christ it certainly works! She is the one to springs things up on me out of the blue, she understands how to use the element of shock.

Just as things were going well, we were to add to our family. Martha got pregnant, I was so happy I could not describe it. We sorted out the nursery, we prepared ourselves with clothes and baby accessories. Unfortunately, at 6 months, Martha had a fall, at that precise moment I knew our child was lost. Even today I still fill up with tears, tears showing how I never got to hold or see even, my child, something I had longed for, for my life. For some reason, we continued as if we had our child, we called him Joe, he’ll be twenty one soon. Martha has plans for that I can assure you. But that day of loss changed me, I think I agreed to continue our child’s life to please Martha. We have never told anyone about it, god forbid, but it pleases Martha, although she does not show much emotion, unless being sarcastic!

I’m Kirsty Clarke and I play the part of Martha. I began Street Dance and Contemporary dance before going on to do a B-TEC National Diploma in Performing Arts at college where I took part in many variety shows. I want to act in film and TV when I graduate, after taking an interest in acting.

Martha 

Kirsty plays the part of Martha in the play, who is the wife of George. Martha is in her late forties and likes to live life to the full, by going to parties and having friends round for dinner. She likes having a drink which keeps her on top form, as she has incredible confidence about herself and her appearance. Martha likes to think that she looks good and still has her youth about her, which she plays upon a lot, especially when she has noticed some young eye candy. She has a huge personality, always wanting to talk, very loud and flirtatious. She has this love/hate relationship with her husband, George, getting him to do small chores for her, which she cannot be bothered to do herself but deep down she loves him, as he keeps her sane and she knows he loves her back. Martha can come across as quite mean, as she orders her husband around and has the occasional snap at him. She was very good looking in her youth and was a bit of a wild child which has continued into her adult life, making her almost child like.

I’m James Manford playing the part of Nick. In the past I’ve have acted in ‘The Tempest’, ‘Guys and Dolls’, ‘Jack The Ripper’ and have been an extra rider in the most recent ‘Robin Hood’ and War horse films and doubled in BBC’s ‘Merlin’

Nick 

Nick is a biology professor at a university, and has recently moved to the same university that George is a professor at. Being young, Nick is fairly new and naive to the job, but is also eager to impress and hopes in the future that he will become the head of his department. 

He is Married to Honey who, unlike Nick, wants children soon, whereas Nick would rather wait a while longer before discussing having children. This has brought on arguments in the past between Nick and Honey. Nick has quite good patience but it can wear thin when interrupted halfway through a sentence too often and this can happen frequently as people recognise his naivety and that he is a nice guy and wouldn’t fight back. Nick doesn’t drink very often, and is sensible enough not to mix his drinks. He isn’t much of a bragger, but does like a little flirtatiousness from others and also to flirt himself, and when noticing an attraction to him from others it brings out a slightly cocky side of Nick.

Hello I’m Katie Beresford, I’m playing the part of Honey I attended Stagecoach for 10 years. Performed in shows such has ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘Chicago’, ‘Grease’ and ‘Cabaret’. After graduating University I would like to go into acting in film and television.

Honey

Honey's is a childish 26 years old and is Nicks bland wife. She is terribly afraid to have children because she is exceptionally afraid of the pain involved in childbirth and this why she may of aborted her previous child. The audience never learns much about who she is and her life, they only see clips of her personality throughout the play. 

Honey and Nick are childhood sweethearts and they are only recently married couple. She often talks for Nick and she is more dominant in their relationship. She often brags about Nicks successful career but at the same time Nick will often treat her as one by trying to protect her from certain language, from sexual references, and by constantly overseeing her actions. As the play goes on Honey becomes more open to the idea of having children but we are uncertain if this decision sticks. 

Honey comes across has a innocent little girl. We see this through her clothes and her matching headband (like children would wear) and her childlikeness is further emphasized by her habit of giggling, being obtuse to the reality of the situation around her.

We've Got Guests!

''I'll talk about any goddamn thing I want to, George!''

''I don't mean to suggest that i'm hip happy...''

''Oh, it's so late...we should be getting home''

''I told you we shouldn't have come''

Directors Notes :) - Update

Hi all,

Thought i'd give an update of where we are at the moment in our rehearsal process, what we still have yet to do and what we are working on.

At the beginning of next week, Hayley and myself are going to be going down to look at props and set, hopefully we will find just what we're looking for without needing to spend much of our budget :) Here is a list of what we will be looking for:

Props:

Alcohol glasses, bottles, drinks that look like alcohol

Collection of books

Ice bucket and Ice

Gun

Newspaper - ? (needs to be old, possibly 50's/60's)

Cushions

Food - sandwiches

Set:

Sofa

2 armchairs

Rug

Coffee Table

Bar and Barstool

Door - ? (still a possibility)

Kitchen chair

Bookcase

Lamp and small table for lamp

Coat stand

Record Player

We've got our work cut out for us, but getting the set right is important in setting the scene for this play, we have to make a believable home setting for George and Martha.

Costume still left to get:

Honey's bag

Nick's overcoat

George's slippers

George's shoes

Martha's shoes

Martha's wig

Martha's Jewellery

What we will be working on over the course of next week:

The majority of our rehearsal time next week will be spent going over the play now that it is blocked, making sure lines are spot on, timing is right, actors volume and diction is good, accent work, characterisation e.g body language, posture, movement etc, line delivery needs to be spot on, creating comedy moments, work on line interruption, pace, working with props, timing when drinking and pouring drinks, looking at finding music, sound effects, work on creating a strong ending image, working on building relationships, work on effective pauses, keeping energy up, and working through any difficulties or problems that may arise.

So far this weeks work on blocking has gone better than expected and at the moment we are well on our way to putting on a fantastic show, so I have high hopes for next weeks rehearsals :) Big thanks to my cast, producer and publicity for making this an enjoyable experience; one which is sure to pay off.

The facebook event has now been created so lets get to work inviting as many guests as we can and we will be working on handing out flyers next week and making sure our show is heard about, after all we have been given the Powell Theatre and want to fill seats!!! Good news also, our programme has been made and it's looking good, big thanks to Nuno for his help in creating that :)

I am extremely pleased with our progress so far, so lets keep the good work up!!

Abbie x x

Directors Notes :) - Flyer time!

It's all very exciting, this week we've managed to get our flyer made and is currently at the printers ready for us to be handing out next week. We are having 300 copies printed!! Our flyer is joint with 'The Eden Trials' which will be advertised on the reverse of ours. Our two groups are working hard together to advertise our plays which are shown on the same evening as an evening of comedy. We hope to start the evening off well with our version of Edward Albee's famous play, giving our audience a good few laughs ready for The Eden Trials which follows our performance.

Abbie x x

xx

Directors Notes :)

Hi guys,

The rehearsals for our 'fresh' take on Edward Albee's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' is going very well.

During the first week of rehearsals I changed the name of our play to 'We've Got Guests!' as our play comprises of an edited first act of the original play centring on Martha and George arriving home from a university party and inviting some guests over to continue drinking into the night. Our one act play is all about the relationships between the characters, whether husband or wife, friends or colleagues etc. We invite the audience to view what starts off as an intimate evening between husband and wife which then spirals out of control as the night goes on. As Honey and Nick's discomfort grows, so does the tension between all of the relationships involved!

Our first week of rehearsals before Easter break focused on getting the actors familiar with their roles and who their characters are on a more personal level, looking at what type of upbringing they might have had, what their worst fears are, best holiday, pet hates, first love, hopes and dream etc all through games and exercises such as hot-seating and improvisation. These proved to be effective exercises and we could all see a development of the characters in the actors improvisations which would prove useful for when we started working from the script.

After Easter we have begun to work on blocking the play. Monday, we blocked the opening where Martha and Geroge arrive home from the party. Tuesday, we blocked the Guests arrival up to Honey and Martha's exit, Wednesday we blocked George and Nick's awkward conversation, Thursday, we blocked up to the end of the play and on Friday, we put all of these together and tweaked any major problems and worked on timing, comedy and line delivery.

The play is pulling together nicely and I have a very positive attitude to how it is going to go. We have another weeks worth of rehearsal where we will work more on timing, pace, comedy, delivery, volume, diction and further work on character building.

I am very happy with the speed at which lines have been learnt and accents have been worked on (it's sounding good!) and also at the brilliant memory all of the actors have in remembering all of the blocking they have been given.

I am very pleased to have the actors in costume now as it has had a huge impact on actors discovering their characters even more. Next week we will be bringing in props and look at finding suitable set for the play.

It's going well so far! :)

Abbie x x

Production Manager's Notes - Week 2 - Days 2-5

Hello!

Tuesday 10th May 2011

Today we blocked the next section of the script (from Honey and Nick arriving and George and Martha's to Martha dragging Honey away to show her the house).

We started by showing Katie and James what we had blocked yesterday so that they could see what we had done so far.

The blocking went fairly well and the American accents that the cast are using are starting to get better.

Wednesday 11th May 2011

I started today by attending a meeting for production managers. We discussed deadlines and publicity. We also metioned that we should all start thinking about what we want for front of house.

The rehearsal today was just for James and Andrew as we were blocking the section between Nick and George. This was started by them reading this section of the script and discussing their characters motivations and emotions at various points during the scene. We talked about the fact that George starts to open up and have more fun now that Martha is out of the way. Nick is still feeling quite awkward at the beginning of this scene, but he begins to relax when he is able to correct George when he talks about biology.

The main things that needed to be worked on during this scene were: remembering blocking, cutting in quicker when talking over eachother, awkward pauses, George's jokes, interrogating Nick about children.

Thursday 12th May 2011

Today we started by reading the final section of the script to discover motivation and emotions.

We showed Katie and Kirsty the Nick and George scene that we blocked yesterday so that they knew where we were with it.

The final section starts with Honey almost walking into George, which we quickly discovered had to be done more quickly in order for it to work.

The scene worked really well, although there are a few issues with spacing that we will need to figure out when we have a bigger rehearsal space.

Friday 13th May 2011

We decided that we will test hair and make up with the costumes next week to see how the cast look together.

We also sorted out what needed to go in the programme as the deadline for this was today.

The first thing that we did in the rehearsal was to go over the section of the script that we blocked yesterday to make sure that everyone remembered the blocking.

We then went through the play, stopping after each section for notes. Most of the notes were about making sure that the delivery of some of the lines was made clearer and, in some cases, bigger. Some character development still needs to be done, which is what we will be doing over the next week.

The final part of our rehearsal was a full run of the play to see what it all looks like together. It seems to work well, but we still need to tidy up some bits and work on keeping characters. The accents are getting much better and more believeable.

Volume seems to be one of the main issues, which we are hoping to address over the space of the next week. We will be able to work on this more when we are in the theatre for our dress rehearsals.

Production Manager's Notes - Week 2 - Day 1

Today we started by setting up a basic set in order to make blocking easier. This consisted of a sofa, two chairs, two tables, a bar (using a table for now) and chairs to signify where the hat stand and lamp will be.

Before starting any blocking, we read through the section that we would be working on and discussed the characters emotions and motivation. This gave the actors more of a sense of how to play the lines within the scene.

We then moved on to blocking the first section of the script. This was only fairly basic for the time being, but seemed to go rather well and gave a good sense of the scene.

The only issues we found during this time were the lines that needed to be cut off by the other actor coming in over them, as these needed to be quicker so that they don't sound as forced.

Fresh Festival

The Fresh Festival website is now online.

http://freshfestival.moonfruit.com/

Production Manager's Notes - Week 1

Hello!
The first week of our rehearsals for "We've Got Guests!" (adapted one-act version of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf") was mainly about getting to know the characters and getting the cast used to each other so that they are able to convey believeable relationships on stage.

Monday 11th April 2011
We jumped straight into some eye contact and trust exercises today so that we can see how they cast react to working together and keeping focussed. It was a good start, but there was still some work to be done to overcome the nervous giggling that kept occuring.
We then moved on to reading a section of the script in a variety of different ways - such as; happy, shy, angry, sad, suspicious, bored, drunk, excited, miserable. This helped the actors get a sense of the different ways that they could play the scene.
After this, we discussed how the cast felt about the characters in the play. Everybody seemed to agree on the main points of each character, such as Martha's loud and domineering nature and Honey and Nick's nervousness at being around someone so bold.
The actors were then given different situations to improvise in order to make them think about how their characters might act in different situations and also, in some cases, to form an idea of the characters' histories.

Tuesday 12th April 2011
We started today by doing some more fun improvisation games to get the cast warmed up and ready to work.
This was followed by some hot-seating in character so that we could see how well everybody knew their characters and how well they were able to think on their feet. They all seemed to do very well during this activity and even referred to things that other people had said during their turns in order to make their stories even more interesting.
We did a timed read-through of the script so that we have an idea of how long the play should hopefully run at.
After the read-through, we did some more character improvisations so that we could explore the characters and their relationships a little more. This was interesting as the cast brought up things from yesterday's improvisations and discussions, as well as things which were mentioned during the hot-seating activity.

Wednesday 13th April 2011
We started today by trying the eye contact activities again to see if the actors had improved at all. The difference in focus was very noticeable and they were able to last a lot longer than they had on Monday.
The actors then had a conversation in order to get to know each other better so that they would feel more comfortable with each other. They then did the eye contact exercise again and noticed that they were able to keep eye contact for much longer than they had before the conversation.
We then moved on to reading part of the script in different ways, but being as over the top as possible. This helped the actors to explore different ways of delivering the lines and also helped them to lose their inhibitions a little more.
After this, we did a few more improvisation activities to see if we could find out anything new about the characters.

Thursday 14th April 2011
We started today with a few quick improvisations to get the actors into their characters.
After this we got them to read a section of the script in different ways. They were much more open and over the top with the emotions/directions than they had been at the beginning of the week because they were getting more used to working with each other.
We then moved on to some more improvisations to see if we could find any more moments from the characters pasts.

Friday 15th April 2011
This rehearsal started with a few warm ups before reading a section of the script. Instead of constantly changing the ways in which they read it, each character was given a certain way to read and they were all told to be as over the top as possible. Martha was drunk, George was sarcastic, Honey was giggly, Nick was interested. They were also asked to attempt American accents. The emotions all started quite over the top, but gradually became more naturalistic as the scene went on.
We then did a few more improvisations, but with the girls and the boys, rather than couples. This was interesting as we were able to see how these characters would act when they were together. It also helped us to explore what Martha and Honey might be talking about when they go upstairs.
After this we discussed what needed to be done after Easter. We discussed what set and props we need to get hold of and also talked about when we could get costumes for the actors.
We decided that more work needs to be done on the relationship between Nick and Honey, as they feel like they haven't had chance to work on it enough. I will be doing this with them after Easter whilst other scenes are being worked on.
We then met with the group performing "The Eden Trials" to discuss publicity and set and technical details, as they are double-billed with us.


I feel that we have made a lot of progress in terms of the cast working together and getting to know the characters and I am looking forward to starting work on the script after Easter. Once we start blocking and getting set, props and costume together, everything should start to come together really nicely!