Updated Actors Process

1. Listen to others on stage - this helps you to live in the moment and not to think about what you need to do next
2. Be open to everything - this creates the freedom to take the play anywhere you want it to
3. Being aware of the other elements of the theatre; props, lighting, sound - this creates a sense of unity throughout
4. Being free with your character - helps you to experiment and learn new things about your character
5. Not repeating your lines in the same way - brings a freshness to the play
6. Know where you are supposed to be and when - helps you and the rest of your cast
7. Being aware of the others in the ensemble - helps your peers, takes care of everyone and brings a unity between you all
8. Learn lines: get off the script as soon as possible to make it as natural as I can
9. Understand the relationships with my character and everyone else in the play

Doing all of these really helped to make the show the best it could be. All of these points, to me, are what make the play as free and incredible as it can be.

Dress #2

This dress went a lot better for me. I felt like I was listening more to my peers and I was more open to change. I felt like we all kept up the energy throughout the whole performance and we kept the pressure cooker high. I was used to the other elements of the performance; lighting, props, sound, so I took them into account and was able to concentrate on the narrative rather than how it looks.

I felt a lot more confident and comfortable with my characters this time around. I was able to concentrate on the objectives of my characters and how they were achieving them a lot more. I felt able to experiment with my characters in this dress run.

This dress was fun to do and I think we all really enjoyed performing this, which made it go really well. It got me extremely excited to perform in front of an audience. 

Dress #1

This was not the best that we had performed 13. It took us a long time to warm into it, so the first couple of acts were not at a full energy. We did manage to pick up the pace by the end but we just needed to keep the pressure going throughout.

There were no huge mess ups but, personally, I felt like I was not using my characters to their full potential, and I found myself worrying more about the box movements than the play. I also felt like I was just repeating my lines and that I wasn’t listening to my peers on stage.

In this dress I was still getting used to how long I had for costume changes and where I needed to be for the ensemble scenes. I found that we all needed to be louder, especially when we are up in Downing Street.

Seeing everything visually come together was very intriguing and I feel like this dress was all about us getting comfortable with the space and the props, sound and lighting and getting our heads in the right place.

Tech Rehearsal

This was a hard tech. It was the first time we had practised with the box and it was heavier then we first imagined. We realised we needed more than two people on the box, so as we progressed through the play we added more people on. Seeing the lights and the set together was interesting as it visually looks very effective, and the way we have used the box within scenes, as well as to project images on is clever.

Acting in the theatre was odd as we had to project our voices a lot more than we were used to. We also had to get used to getting up to the scaffolding, as this is where Downing Street is. Being up that high we had to really project our voices, to be heard.

This tech was more about us getting used to everything rather than us not knowing why or what we are doing. This went well but was tough to get through.

Run Through

Doing this run through was very helpful as it helped us see where the play needed tweaking.

The entrance and exit for the Alpha Course scene is weak, as there isn’t a reason for us to be entering and leaving. We all need to think about where we are coming from, what have we been doing and where are we going after. My character, Terry, has just come back from the break that we had from the Alpha Course. He has been talking to some of the other members of the course. I change the box at the end of the scene. We changed the dynamics of this scene by having everyone sit in a circle, and then whoever is talking stands up. The first time around it felt very natural and this set up really clicked with us all and it felt right. It makes it feel more like a discussion rather than a scene.

This run has made me more confident about our play and I cannot wait to get it into the theatre, as I think that this is when it will all start to click together. 

Act 4 and 5

Today we ran through Acts 4 and 5 as these were the weakest acts. It went really well as it was the first thing we had done so we still had all of our energy present.

We found out that we need to space out the gaps when we filter on in Act 4, Scene 8, doing this will make it easier for us to keep energised throughout the scene and also it looks a lot better. We kept looking up hopefully throughout this scene but we put our heads down when Ruth says “She killed her daughter with a knife”. This emphasises the moment as our objective is to hide. We stop singing when John says “A lot of people are going to die tonight”. I think this works really well as it puts a lot more pressure on this line and also helps to add to the seriousness of it.

We also fixed Act 4, Scene 10, the riot scene. We made it more realistically by thinking about what we received on our phones at 5 o’clock. This helped us to make our reaction seem more realistic. This also gave us reasons for conflict. For example I found myself not believing the text message I received so I saved others from people who were getting angry. Something else that also helped the riot scene seem more realistic was to follow someone in the group; this meant we were always moving.

During Rob’s monologue we were given four gestures to repeat over and over. These gestures were:

1. Drag our right hand down our left arm
2. Push the right arm away with the left hand
3. Drag both hands down legs
4. Bring both hands in front clasped together

As the monologue progressed we developed these gestures to own characters. I found myself getting more frantic as it progressed and then by the end I was slowing down and holding the last gesture for a long amount of time.

I think it’s a really powerful ending and I feel as if we all understand the play a lot more.

Run Through and The Impossible Task

The first three Acts work really well. The transitions are smooth, the risks are high and the pressure gauge is increased. Act 4 and 5 are not as high quality as Acts 1, 2 and 3. I think it’s because we lose the energy as the play goes on, so the pressure gauge decreases. 

We meisnered the Sir Christopher scene. This was really useful as we hadn’t meisnered this scene before and we were all struggling with keeping the pressure up in this scene. The relationships that I have with the others in the scene were heightened through meisnering. The importance of the scene was also heightened and we all started to understand how much pressure is needed in this scene. Meisnering meant that we understood the importance of the lines and what was really being said in the scene. I started to understand what the Sir Christopher’s were actually proposing and I also understood the consequences of what was being talked about.

Something that helped us keep the pressure within the Sir Christopher scene was the idea of using the Impossible Task. This is when you choose something to try to achieve that is very hard to complete. This really helped to raise the pressure of the scene as we were all trying to achieve different impossible tasks.

Another scene that the Impossible Task idea helped with was the Alpha Course scene. This helped to bring out the different characters in the scene and also helped the non-speakers in the scene to find their characters. This also helped me to remember that my Terry character is a lesbian so that gave me another dimension to my character that hadn’t thought of before. I found myself trying to get the attention of Ollie throughout the scene. 

The impossible task is a really helpful tool when you know your character really well as it reminds you of ideas that you had forgotten about or hadn’t realised.