Off Script Rehearsals
Monday 20th,
Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd April 2015
What was our goal
this week?
After a half term session, further
exploring our characters and learning script lines off hand, we now proceeded
into blocking the rest of the play and beginning rehearsals before the
production week. Our initial goal for
this week was to block and rehearse the pre-show montage to open ‘ROAD’. Then we would individually express what we’ve
learnt about our characters and how could we further analyse about them? Firstly we mastered the stage structure for
the pre-show.
What did we do to
present the pre-show?
Titled pre-show in Jim Cartwright’s
script, ‘ROAD’s’ prologue is an opportunity for directors of the play to
introduce key characters and embark the audience into what type of world this
play is set in. Originally written to
follow the characters ‘Barry’ and ‘Brenda’ and they decide whether or not to go
to a pub or walk round their road. This
brought the perfect segue into the first scene with ‘Scullery’. However with our interpretation of the play
we have removed the characters of ‘Barry’ and ‘Brenda’, but have taken this
opportunity to follow other lead characters and introduce the dark vision of
1980s Northern England.
The structure plan was to have every cast
member on stage, in a still image which summarised their character (for
example; my character ‘Jerry’ sits in his chair with his hands on his chin and
giving the expression of misery and boredom, the still image that, I believe,
summarises the character). Then the
pre-show would have audience members come into the theatre, observing these
characters frozen on stage but have ‘Scullery’ and ‘the Professor’ welcome the
audience and interact with the character as well. Our director gave us this movement plan for
the pre-show stage structure:
By having ‘Scullery’ and ‘the Professor’
move to these characters, in this order, allowed us the change to introduce our
characters at an early stage of the play.
Speaking a short sentence and moving in character I managed to show
‘Jerry’s’ aggression towards the youth generation (i.e. ‘Scullery’) and bring
forth a sense of age and aggression to the early introduction of the play.
How did I do in an
off-script rehearsal?
Now knowing the script and decent amount
of my character, it was now time to put my knowledge and rehearsals to the
test. When performing I did feel pleased
to finally express my development into this character, and show all of ‘Jerry’s’
characteristics and relevance to the story of ‘ROAD’. So when I received feedback I was pleased to
hear the good response as well as some action points for future rehearsal
sessions.
When it came to my vocal performance, my accent
needed some improvement. Particularly on
my pronunciation of the letters ‘h’ and ‘t’.
Because in the Northern Accent those particular letters are often absent. Therefore I set myself the goal to read
through my script more times and really analyse the words within the monologue
and nit-pick to find any point of strong accent pronunciation.
Performance technique wise I did receive good
feedback in showing my characters aggression and old age, but I did receive a question
concerning one line. This line read: “Sex. When I say the word now, and when I said it
then, it feels different in me. I know
it sounds, you know, but it does.” My
lecturer asked what is ‘Jerry’ thinking on that particular line? My response was that because of ‘Jerry’s’
mental trap thoughts of the past and old traditions, his view of sexual matters
lies only between a husband and wife.
But seen as the youth generation have become more sexually active, he
can’t help but feel a real disappointment towards this generation. Plus this is a sensitive matter to ‘Jerry’
and he would shrug in awkwardness about it.
Therefore I received directing feedback to how I should gesture physically
and verbally when speaking that particularly line.
All in all I found this week to be a
really energetic continuation of the assignment process, and a good
introduction to the rehearsal process. I
began to receive a clearer vision of the road, and I a managed to receive a
better character and performance analysis.
All feedback and methods that I hope to bring forth in future rehearsal
session and the main performance.
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