24th January, 2006 First rehearsal! We started to decide which scenes we would perform, but then decided that we needed more help with that than we thought! We started on Act 1 Scene 1, as the beginning is the logical place to start. Me, Emma, Leoni and Robyn started to read through, and I found that learning lines was no-where near as hard as I thought: quite easy really: at least it was for me. I’m told that once you’ve learnt one play, it gets harder, because you have more lines in your head. Ah well, this is my first, so I should be okay… at least for this performance. We started to put the first scene together with actual acting, but Robyn couldn’t stay until the end of rehearsal, and when Mr Walker came back and saw what we’d done, he decided that he wanted to make a few changes… (as in the whole thing). We showed him the rest of Act 1 Scene 1, now with the new opening, and changed all of that too… la de da… 31st January, 2006 We’ve decided that we need more rehearsals, as 2 hours per week just isn’t going to be long enough. That means that we’re at school ‘till seven on Tuesdays, and working through every free lunch time, which I think is about 4. I think there’s going to be more work than I thought, but I think it should be ready by Easter. Robyn’s been off school since last Tuesday, and I’ve heard that she’s really ill, so we’ve decided to divide her lines between the rest of us, and try and carry it off with 3 people instead of 4. | "I’ve been diagnosed with stage-walk apparently… Ministry of Silly Walks… didn’t even realise I was doing it…" | |
Tonight we’re working on Jackie’s and Rosie’s scene, where Rosie finds out that she’s been adopted. I think we’ve started this scene well too, only we still don’t know our lines, even though we spent ages trying to learn them. For some reason I seem to be incapable of counting to 5 before I walk onstage, as I always seem to be walking in on 3. And to think I’m meant to be good at Maths. And I’ve been diagnosed with stage-walk apparently… Ministry of Silly Walks… didn’t even realise I was doing it… Emma’s practising her scene now: she’s doing the final scene, which is a big soliloquy, where she’s on stage alone. She’s really dramatic, and she makes it look so easy. Believe me it ain’t! 7th February, 2006 Rehearsals again! Just realised that I still haven’t learnt any of the lines that I didn’t learn last week! It’s 3rd lesson now… just wondering how many lines I can memorise by lunch… 30 minutes to learn an entire scene… HELP!!! Didn’t succeed in learning the lines… We’ve re-learnt the script, but I’m still struggling on a few lines. We’ve definitely improved from our first rehearsal though, and with a hell of a lot of work, I think that this play will be really quite good. So far I’m starting to work on my soliloquy, which is at the end of the Jackie and Rosie scene, but my really bad memory is really bad… However, we are learning the play much faster than I thought, and our speed and capability, and capacity for learning lines had increased with the amount of time that we spend on the play. Well, we well and truly messed that up then! Over the last week we haven’t given much time up to rehearsals, and it was more than obvious: we didn’t know our lines, we didn’t know our cues, and we weren’t in character. After a sharp reality check, we pulled ourselves together more, and had ‘stage-discipline’, which we had apparently been lacking before. Once we’d sorted it out, it actually went quite well: I had to scream! Never done that before… it actually hurt my throat… Ah well! Rehearsals again tomorrow lunch, still on Act 1 Scene 1, trying not to lose the quality of our performance again this week by letting it slip: not enough time for that! The more we practise the better we will get, and there is no room for complacency. We have to learn the play within the next few weeks, to make sure that we have time to change bits, and to make sure that our body-language and acting skills aren’t really bad, and that they are passable. Without time and effort we will produce something that isn’t worth the time and effort to watch it. Everyone has to work hard, especially me, because I’ve never acted before. 8th February, 2006 We had rehearsals again this lunch. We started off, or at least tried to start off with Act 1 Scene 1, so that we didn’t forget any of the work we’d done last night, but we were told not to, as we’d already got the part figured, and positioned for the stage, and by doing it again in the classroom, we would change back some of the adjustments we’d made, and would get used to them and practise them that way, instead of how they would be performed on stage. This actually makes a lot of sense to me, because there is no point in having two different versions of the same play: one for the classroom and one for the stage, especially when we will only be performing one of them, as we will forget the one for the stage, especially if we are just practising the version for the classroom. Having two different layouts and structures is confusing, as I find it hard to tell which goes in which version, and which parts go with others. Having two different plays causes corpsing, as you are always having to go from your character to yourself, trying to decide which version of the play you’re performing, whereas with just one version, you can remain in character throughout, which results in a more fluid and believable performance.
 | | Ummm, what's my line again? |
So after this we started on another scene in the wasteground: I think it’s Act 1 Scene 3 but I’m not sure. This scene is just Emma and Leoni, as Doris and Rosie the children, so I sat out and tried to give opinions where I could. Already this scene has been coined ‘the knickers scene’, and is the most comical out of the 5. Thank God I’m not in it, because I’m sure I would burst out laughing. I also filmed the majority of this scene, which should make for some good outtake TV, but I think I’ve deleted most of it. The recordings showed Emma and Leoni their mistakes, and how and where they could improve. It also aided us, as it showed one particular area where Leoni entered the stage, which she managed perfectly the first time but couldn’t reproduce (but it doesn’t really matter now anyway, because that part isn’t in it anymore). I’ve not actually attempted to learn anymore lines, however I did gloss over Act 3 Scene 1 (I think) with Leoni and Emma, and I think we might do some more work there, as so far we have the basic layout, but I think we all might have forgotten parts… Looks like another lunch of rehearsals today! Ah well… I’m not complaining: for the first time in my life I’m actually liking drama! Just shows you what a little teaching can do… 9th February, 2006 Lunch time rehearsals today! And we had an audience… First Emma and Leoni re-did their performance for Mr Walker, and changed a few areas again, and I think we’re all starting to learn our lines. Then we decided that we would run through Act 3 Scene 1. It went better, just slightly less than when we did it on stage, but I think it might have been due to the fact that we were doing it in the classroom and not on stage…now I’m just making excuses! We need to remember the stage ‘business’ more, or we’ll just collapse in a shambles. I think that with more practise, and due to the fact that my memory is getting better at drama-y stuff, that we will be able to do this performance ‘at a high level’. We then changed scenes again, and destroyed Mr Walker’s classroom in the process: we needed to be facing the other way. This was to enable us to do Act 1 Scene 1; the beginning again, to make sure that we didn’t forget everything we’d done the other night. It went quite well, and everyone clapped, so it couldn’t have been that bad. At this point the bell went, so everyone cleared out while we changed the room around again for yet another scene, which I think was the penultimate scene: when Rosie tells Jackie that their mother had died. We only performed the first page, but I think it went okay, we just need to keep familiar with the scenes and the stage directions, or else we will keep forgetting everything, and will have to keep re-starting learning it all over again. I think tomorrow we will go to the end of that last scene, which is completely new, and is where my (unlearned) soliloquy is. Fun… 14th February, 2006 Seems like lunchtime rehearsals have more-or-less been scrapped for the time being, to allow for us to do some work on other AS level stuff, like T S Eliot.
 | | Heartfelt emotion... |
Rehearsals tonight were cut short to about an hour, but we did manage to put together the first section of Act 2. Mr Walker says that we’re to be off the page by the end of half term. Given that we don’t even know how we were going to approach some scenes with the lack of a fourth person, it should be interesting… Anyways, our scene today was mainly me and Emma, where I, as Jackie, have to lead in Doris, although this probably won’t be going in the final performance. Emma is quite funny, as she has to act as my ‘quaint’ grandmother. I think I have to start schooling my face more however, as when I am on stage, I see myself as aware of being on stage, which I can’t seem to shake off in order to act properly. I also think that I need to be more aware of ‘stage business’, as I am not taking Drama, and have not has as much practise or teaching in that area. If I know more about where I should be without help from everyone else I think I would feel more useful, but at the moment I’m not sure. I have a feeling that once we’re off the page after half-term, Mr Walker is going to really focus on these areas, especially with me, as he hinted a few weeks ago that I wasn’t getting the same scrutiny as Emma and Leoni. Although I think that I grasp concepts quite quickly, I don’t tend to come up with them on my own. I can grow and develop other ideas, but I don’t, as a rule, realise them myself. To improve, I think I need to concentrate more, as I tend to forget ‘business’, and also not comprehend what I should be doing in the first place. I tend to day-dream… Ah well… can’t pay attention all the time! 17th February, 2006 Haven’t had a rehearsal since Tuesday, as we’ve been doing more work on the Tempest again. We’ve been set our lines to learn over half-term: I had no idea how difficult learning lines was! So far we’ve been learning lines through reading it between us, but Emma’s going away, and so am I, so I have no idea how I’m going to learn this lot! Ah well…can only try. 21st February, 2006 Having loads of fun in the snow, but I cannot learn lines! It’s impossible! How the hell do people do this?!? As soon as I read the lines I forget them! Aargh! 6th March, 2006 We don’t seem to have done much this last week: we’ve all been really busy with coursework from other subjects: why is it that teachers pile it on during the holidays? You always spend the following week making it up! Anyways, spent all lunch today learning lines, and Leoni and Emma showed us the knickers scene that they’d put work on over the weekend. Overall we’re doing 5 scenes, 3 of which I’m in. I learnt all my lines this lunch, bar my soliloquy, which is, like, 30 lines long!!! HELP!!! 7th March, 2006 We had rehearsals tonight until 7 again: going quite well; think I’ve more or less learnt my lines, just need to touch them up a bit! We seem to be getting better, or at least I think I am; Emma and Leoni were already pretty good. Anyways… 8th March, 2006 Rehearsals again, this time we were doing some Macbeth too; it’s quite interesting really, but no matter what I do, I keep forgetting all my lines. 15 days until the performance and Mr Walker has changed half the directions! Ah well… I messed up all of my lines today; hoping that I’ll start to remember them soon, I think I might start getting into trouble if I don’t… Better start learning them! 21st March, 2006 Oooops…think I’ve missed a week, or maybe two. Ah well… we started rehearsals on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings a while ago, so I don’t think I’ve actually had anytime to write! Last week I was horrendous… fluffed all of my lines, and got nothing, but Emma and Leoni have been working for longer. I pale in comparison… not my best work given, put it that way. Today we had a dress rehearsal, but since we only brought in half our costumes, it didn’t really work! Josh, one of our friends, has finally got into the lighting studio, and I think we’re going to do a technical rehearsal too. I think I’m starting to get nervous already, because I’m starting to forget my lines. Either that or I just haven’t quite got them yet… Anyhows… Mr Walker told us today that he wants us to introduce our beginnings with an explanation. God help us, that means we have to write it and learn whatever we’re saying by Thursday! We still have a fair amount of work to do. I’m just hoping that we’ll get there. 22nd March, 2006 Last rehearsal tonight! We’re in trouble… if only on my part. First I felt knackered, and could barely think, then I got a fit of giggles, then I got told off, then I became hyper again, and forgot all of my lines! We got our exam timetables today, and just looking at how much we have to do is actually quite scary. I’m hoping and praying that tomorrow night goes well. 23rd March, 2006 Okay then… I think that went well. It’s now 11:40, and I’ve just calmed down enough to write this. We won! Our performances went okay, but I fluffed some of my lines. So did we all I think: the nerves. I’m entirely shattered at the moment, and looking forward to the sleep that I’ll be getting before long. Everyone said congratulations, and I think we’ve done well. Can’t really think of anything else to say, just that I believe we’ve done ourselves and each other proud, and that all credits must go to our teacher: Mr Walker. Without sir, we wouldn’t have done any of this, so just to say thank you… MaddyX-X-X | 
