Production diaries, 25th-28th September

 Monday,

Today I learned a very valuable skill as an actor about improv, how to bounce back off one another. We would pick our partner and then speak nonsense to one another, doing this we had to bounce off one another with emotions, actions and give an understanding of one another. Once we finished this conversation we then have dissect our understanding about the “conversation” and see if we were both talking about the same thing. This added challenge at the end changes the whole game, no longer are we just talking nonsense but now we actually have to tune in and pay our full attention down to very small details and overall to what we are doing. After this we tried picking out a scene with a random partner and then using our newly developed listing skills to really bounce back off each other.

Tuesday,

Today was focused on our vocals again, warming them up and getting active to the practice more songs for Peter Pan. Not only does this help out singing and vocal skills but also what character we would like to audition as. We warmed up by jogging to get active and wake ourselves up as it is a full body work out, followed by stretching and face exercise to help blood flow to our face and mouth ready for singing. More vocal exercises were put in use like sirens to warm out vocal cords up. We sang through the main songs which would also each be the audition pieces for the main characters. Today was also about movement, so we carried on from our dance routine from last week to try iron out any imperfections and get it spot on. This again helps with method acting as through the whole routine you cannot break character and you must stay in character for the remainder. However, we had the freedom to develop our characters on our own which was a sense of independence and a learning curve as to how you should act as a team and bounce off each other.

Wednesday,

A very big nose dive today into performing today. Our main task of the day was to pick up the scene that we were preforming with our random partner last week. We chose to do an upsetting scene as characters with a conflicting narrative which we thought would test our acting abilities as it is a challenge to perform a convincing emotional scene. After we practiced our scene and made sure about the direction and understanding of our characters we performed it for the class to see our acting abilities out in the open. This was a test to see if we can handle the pressure of an audience but also a chance to improve on our skills as then the class were allowed to share their thoughts on what they enjoyed but also what we could improve on. Now that some thoughts had been shared about how I can better myself as an actor, I can apply myself better in the future. We also had an interesting opportunity presented to us today as members of the BFI academy came in to tell us a very interesting course that would show us a good look into filming, directing, acting and lots of production skills like lighting and casting.  

 

Thursday,

An interesting look into a future venue we will be performing at. We took to tour to the globe theatre in Stockton-on-Tees to map out our Halloween tour. This allowed us to come up with exiting new ideas and what tools and environment we have to work with to create a thrilling performance. As an actor it was very exiting to experience how roles are developed and what can be done to make them more interesting and believable to the viewer. I believe today was a very good opportunity to do that but to also prepare. I feel I am more prepared to make a convincing performance now that I have seen the venue and what we have to work with. Ideas were shared from all to ponder on and develop, like one big brainstorm which was very useful to everyone. It allowed creative to bread but to also keep expectations in perspective now we have a big idea of the Halloween performance.