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.