Epsom Downs Rehearsal: Blog 5

4/4/17:

Today was a session where we continued to block both physical theatre sequences. We had Adam in to help with process and it went quite well. I was helped with the quick developed of my character in this scene, who is now refereed to as "Smoking man ". I was asked to try out making my body more tight and to wrap my arm and leg around myself. I was also told how to hold the cigarette I'm using, now i'm holding it with my index finger and my thumb rather than my index finger and middle finger. These few small additions have actually changed this lineless side character quite drastically and now he seems to stand out more and probably even more when we pick a costume for him.

A great piece of advise was to treat the rehearsal period as a time for experimentation. As mentioned in my feedback from the group I'm often too critical of my own ideas. This fits in with what I was told about myself last week. Thankfully I seem to be taking this on board already to some capacity so it's pretty good so far.

A key point for today was working on the transitions of the racing sequence. I have to hold the pole and move with it, keeping it at my waist while everyone else moves differently. This took many tries to get right and looked a tad messy at the beginning.

This was a pretty relaxed yet still productive session. I feel that i was very focused throughout and was able to quickly understand and pull of most tasks required such as the shuffling with Georgia or moving through most transitions. I was pretty quick at doing what I was asked and me and everyone else were fairly professional with having to do certain moments many times. The only real issue with today was that at a few points I forgot my lines in the racing sequence and this affected the pace which was a shame since it would go from a really nice transition to absolute silence. So even though it's only three lines I have to refresh myself on the cues.



5/4/17:


Today was quite a productive day. We have more or less finished the physical theatre racing scenes but incorporated Becky into them properly now. They went very well when running through them and I didn't forget any of my lines at all, they just came naturally which is a very good thing. Also the transitions seem very smooth now, the one with me and Georgia shuffling across the stage with Logan to get a sense of speed being my personal favorite. You can see the amount of time we've poured into these scenes because we've ran through them a lot of times and I'm glad it's showing.

Me and Chloe got to rehearse our final scene. The part of that we rehearsed thoroughly was the moments where she hits me with the sign and the moments where we slap each other. It was decided that we would use no stage trickery or stage combat, we'd actually just hit each other. The part where I get hit with the sign was pretty difficult to do because I was anticipating the hit, meaning you could see me getting ready to get hit by her. This took a few tries but I got there and feel it looks pretty good since the hit wasn't as hard as I was expecting. It's just the first one we had to improve since the rest of the hits my character is obviously aware and I'm allowed to see coming when she goes to swing it.

Something I need to bring across in this scene is that regret I've done before. The point where he tells her that he's sold his train ticket is the moment where he confesses that he lost to his urges. This would be a great place to use a dramatic pause and let the moment just play out. If hesitation is shown then it'll be all the more impactful.

The moment after that where I stop her slapping me again we had to do a fair bit. Now I have to catch the hand and comfort her when she calms downs. There is an aspect of this moment I have to keep in mind, the fact that she's still angry and could hit me at any moment because I just stopped her from relapsing. I think I'm going to have a look of anticipation on my face and the trust in her to not hit me comes back gradually over the course over about 20 seconds. This whole scene is brilliant in the sense that she's been the one keeping me on track so now he has to help her in return. It's a nice way narratively to end their story arc. and keeping all this in mid should make for a really nice moment.

I'd say I was very well focused especially during the rehearsal of the last scene, both me and Chloe had to reset very quickly several times in order to get hit even more times and I think we both took it very well. We didn't mind being hit over and over again and I even got cut by the sign but wee both just kept going. I did help Chloe with figuring out how she should stop hitting me and throw the sign to the floor. I basically said and showed her that it needs to be a bit slower and to throw the sign as if she's just given up and that whatever they were trying to do is over.




Conclusion:

Today we had our first real run in the theatre and I'm playing up Mr Tillotson overall. Other than seeming a tad too quiet at points I feel that the tragedy of this man is coming through fairly well. Doing all the research I did on how his mind would work gave me several moments throughout the process where I just knew exactly how he would react to a situation. I feel the backstory I gave him really fleshed him out and gave me far more perspective on him as a person that it would have otherwise.

I feel the same way with Hugh and the Jockey as well. I'm glad I looked the union/labour related information to give Hugh a rather complex and understandable motivation. If I had not looked into the dispute I would've been very bland and nothing in terms of a aggression or frustration would've come across.

In terms of the performance style which is naturalism, epic theatre and physical theatre (well, this version anyway) and I think we've incorporated all these elements fairly well and they flow pretty smoothly. I think that during moments of naturalism (such as Mr Tillotson) and moments of epic theatre (Jockey) I made an effort to make them different from one-another, they both had different energy levels an different reactions from the audience. As I said, I may be a bit quieter when being naturalistic but that's something I can fix with in the next run.

So overall, there has been quite a few very useful developments throughout this rehearsal and I feel my time spent practicing and research has gone to good use, this is looking to be a great show and I can't wait to show off what we've all worked hard to achieve.