Week six- The week that was

Hello dearest readers, I know you're there..yes, I do

So, week six is over- which means it's closer to week seven, which means it's closer to week eight, which means this course is nearly over, but not yet I say! Not yet!

What a week it has been!

We finally had six weeks work culminate in our showings performances on Thursday!

The morning started with our Scenes showings. The nerves were in the air. I arrived early to warm up and Aaron and I went over our scene one more time.

It's really interesting what we put ourselves through on the day of performances, us actors. Some sit in silent, going over lines, other do every possible voice warm up we've ever done, others need to talk and have fun and not think about it too much. I am somewhere in the middle. I like doing last final line runs or a quick walk through but don't like analysing the text again or going over too much detail. I fear any detail that close to performing is too hard for my brain and I can't take it in anyway, and by that time, you're body and voice is so used to what you have rehearsed, it won't probably happen anyway.

But, then it was time.

It's interesting, that though the same people and same teachers were watching that watched us three weeks ago perform our sonnets, the feeling in the air was very different, and the outcome was very different too.

This time, naturally, we all know each other a lot better. Secondly, for this work, we have been working on it the whole 6 weeks, whereas Sonnets was a much shorter time, I guess it seemed there was a far greater feeling of confidence in the room.

And the results did show! I was so proud of watching all of my fellow classmates and realising, hey, actually everyone in this course has a strength as a performer, and well, everyone was interesting to watch in one way or another. Everyone had something to offer, and it was so fun seeing everybody's hard work.

I was personally very happy with my work for the day and was glad how my scene and monologue went. Our scene was probably the best it's ever been, and we even found some new moments with it right then and there. Aaron had a little surprise for me at the end of the scene, something we hadn't rehearsed, but was suitable and he has checked with our director. It's a long story, but basically, Harry Percy leaves the scene, and that's what we had rehearsed and so I thought it was the end of the scene, he walks away and is gone. But then, suddenly, Aaron, has Harry, came back and picked me up! Ah! I didn't know what was going on and so genuinely in the moment, I was completely startled he had come back for me. And so, it just happened! And that's the best ting about acting, dealing with thigns as they coming and over coming it in teh action. And of course, it was this moment that most people remembered when the scene was over and commented on. What a lovely surprise and treat for me...thanks Aaron! Haha (I know you're reading this...)

And so was the theme of the day, to be in the moment,  when we went on to perform our “Last Scenes”. My group performed the last scene from “Alls well that ends well” while the other group did the last scene from “The Winter's tale”. Oh my! Let's just say, everyone was in tears. That's how big it was! The combination of the experience we were having from performing all together in the room, to knowing each other so much more, to knowing the text so much more, to really being in the moment and having the joy and experience of wonderment, the feeling in the air was electric! That's why we do this! I didn't even have lines, but that proved the point of the exercise, that just if you have no lines or very little, it does not mean we can switch off and enjoy the ride, we have to be there every moment as well.

After this, the afternoon ended with Monologues and feedback. Monologues again, went very well. Most people had tried to choose something which had a bit more variation than to their scenes. One guy in my class, Garrett, who is very talented, did the Romeo speech, where he is looking up at Juliet at her balcony. I have heard and seen this speech done countless times before, but I pick him out only because he did it in a way I've never seen the speech before. That stuck out for me. Sometimes people think you shouldn't do well known monologues, because they're so well known and over used,yes, even if Shakespeare, which in some ways I understand, especially if you're auditioning for drama school and you don't want to bore the panel who have seen 50 Romeo's that morning. But when I saw Garrett do it, it felt like a monologue I had never seen before. So that just proved me wrong, that picking a well known monologue need not be against you. Also, in the end it's Shakespeare, so it's always good hehe

I felt I achieved what I wanted with my Goneril speech. To make the most of the words and to be in the moment, to push the speech along from the words themselves. I think I have been stronger before, but I still felt in a good place when I did it.

Feedback was back to reality of what we are trying to implement here while in this course, and was personal opinions of teachers and technical feedback. I was happy with my feedback about scenes and my monologue, though I did get some of the same technical feedback as the sonnets. It seems the stress of what I'm doing, and probably extra heightened when I do emotional work,is the tension rises in my shoulders and my neck can tend to stick out. No matter how conscious of this I think I am, I am doing these things still. No where to the extent I think I would have been doing them before, but its just part of who I am and what my body is and how my body deals with the stress. So, it's not bad but something I just need to be conscious of. The best thing I can do, is to continue and practice learning lines in Semi Supine position (says my voice teacher Adrienne) for this will allow my back to lengthen the breath to lower and the back to be wide. It will also mean, with a book under my head, my neck will be going up and forward, while my chin is lowering,and in the end giving a cleaer airway for the sound to come right out..as Alexander found out all those many years ago. Activley doing this, hopefully, transfers somewhat to when I stand up and actually deliver the lines. If I've learnt lines this way, on voice, hopefully something of that should transfer on.

And so the week ended with us starting out first read through of Love's Labour's Lost. I'm excited to do this play because I am playing such a fun character ( Nathaniel, the local curate who is friends with Holofernes, a local school master) and that I get to investigate a play I don't know very well. We have to have lines down by Wednesday and as I write this, it is Monday night and I am happy to say I have mine almost down. Although, you think this and then when you get up to do it they they all start dissapearing on you haha, so I just have to keep rattling away at them. And I don't have the most either! Phew! But I am sure everyone will rise to the challenge.

One of the other ladies in the course said to me, this was the fist moment she has actually thought she doesn't think she can do it- that is, learn lines this quickly and seamlessly put on a 1.5 hr Shakespeare in a week. She has not acted much before this course, and she really thought for a moment that it's just not possible. I told her all I know, which is that it seems that way, but really anything is possible, it is possible to do this much Shakespeare in a short amount of time- but it's not easy, the only way to do it is with large concentration and energy. If we don't have that, we're over, and I know that no one is going to let that happen!

And on that note, I better go learn lines!

Thanks for reading!

xxClaire