During Monday's rehearsal, we refined and recovered some of our material for the earlier scenes of the play which had lost a lot of detail and clarity over the half term. This mainly consisted of Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3, Scene 4 and Scene 5. I think that this rehearsal was very useful as a lot of the us had forgotten the detail and it needed to be refined much more.
Overall, the general work ethic in the room was positive nevertheless I still observed that some groups drifted in and out of focus, perhaps because the idea of repeating work we had already done and improving it was more mundane as opposed to continuing through the play. However, I believe that this rehearsal was generally effective because it helped focus on the little details and I think that this attention to detail made everyone in the class to snap into a more focused and motivated mindset compared to our previous week. Without this rehearsal I think the quality of those scenes would have continued to deteriorate and therefore it was a rehearsal that was very needed but it was also helpful in trying to unify the group by us all having a motivated mindset, which helped contribute to the success of Thursday's rehearsal.
I thought that overall Thursday's rehearsal was a quite successful rehearsal because the energy in the room became so much more positive and it seemed that as a group the work that was created was highly valued by everyone and everyone offered something to the process of devising and developing the end of Scene 7 and Scene 8. Although I personally wasn't involved in the first half of the rehearsal, I became an observer, watching the devising of the safe house guards, maids and rest of the ensemble create a sequence which encapsulated the atmosphere of preparing for The Generallismo's arrival by dressing the Madames and following their commands. I noticed that a lot of people in this part were very energetic and there was a very alive atmosphere in the room because people were almost forced to commit to this exercise as it required a lot of physical commitment and attention to detail, like Monday's rehearsal. The numbers of performers on stage fluctuated, with certain performers such as the maids coming off stage at certain points and I think this also contributed to a more focused mood for everyone because it helped concentrate on less people, which improved the clarity of the piece. I think this would also have been helpful to the performers on stage with less people because it meant they didn't have to deal with anyone who wasn't focused and this made everyone feel more positive.
I personally felt like I developed my skill of being a constructive and positive group member while this went on because I tried not to have conversations with other people and rather be respectful by offering a positive and supporting energy to the performers on stage. I also used this hour to go over my lines and make sure I was secure on them, which helped support me more when I was doing my own scene with dialogue not long after. This sort of respectful and positive attitude I felt was embodied by everyone else off stage too, as well as the foley artists, which helped improve the atmosphere in the room.
When it came to my own scene, I think that this similar type of atmosphere was also continued. A big majority of the group was lying on the floor in positions which they seemed to keep throughout our scene as we ran lines and this was very respectful, helping us just run the scene and play and experiment more so. However, I did feel like because this particular scene involved a much smaller amount of people with the majority of soldiers or ensemble members on the floor, a lot of energy that was so abundant earlier was lost. This could have been partly due to the fact that a lot of the performers now on stage had been off stage for an hour, so they didn't have as much of the pre existing energy that the others had, nevertheless, it also reflected in the fact that some people were quite unsure of their lines. This delayed the flow of the lines and there was evidently gaps of silence throughout the whole scene which made the overall feeling and flow of the scene very monotonous. I think that this particular rehearsal could have been improved if more people on stage for this scene knew their lines. I personally feel like that I am quite confident on my lines apart from the cues and I think that when a large majority don't know their lines, it's harder for myself to hit cues and the whole group involved to make the lines flow and make the action flow because the audience would be able to instantly pick up when there is a gap in the scene and this would ruin the spontaneity.
This week we didn't get through as much of the play as we should have however I think it was important in establishing more focus throughout the group and also helping to clarify certain aspects. I think that the following things will make rehearsals next week more effective:
This week we didn't get through as much of the play as we should have however I think it was important in establishing more focus throughout the group and also helping to clarify certain aspects. I think that the following things will make rehearsals next week more effective:
- People knowing their lines and cues
- People coming to rehearsals ready to work with energy and motivation
- People making detailed notes on their scripts of blocking/movement sequences at the end of each rehearsal so that they have a copy of chorus blocking for certain scenes
- A continued focused attitude
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