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
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