PLOT/TECH/DRESS
The lighting plot took place on Monday 21st January. This was the lighting designer, chief electrician, director and DSM plotting each lighting state and change.
Later the same day the cast were able to work in the theatre on stage for the first time. The technical rehearsal was relatively straightforward with only a few sound cues and minimal lighting changes as the director and lighting designer had tried to achieve a fairly naturalistic lighting design used simply to communicate location, environment and time of day.
Though the focus was on technical elements the actor were able to get used to the set, moving up and down stairs and the actual dimensions of the playing area which were bigger than the rehearsal mark up had allowed.
Many of the actors were also trying out elements of costume for the first time, which in a period piece has a significant influence on the actors and the way they move.
THE DRESS REHEARSAL
The dress was again without incident with only minor adjustments made to some of the levels of lighting states and sound cues.
The actors again developed their performances allowing them to grow to the capacity and size of the space. Projection and volume was an issue for many of the actors and this was noted in the dress and was something that the actors were asked to concentrate on moving into the opening performance.
Monday 11 February 2013
Final Rehearsals
Work done in the later stages of rehearsal
RUNS/TRANSITIONS
In the two weeks before Christmas we have concentrated on adding layers of detail to every scene and running scenes together working on transitions between scenes.
Once we had run scenes together we worked on running the two acts of the play and then running the whole play.
Some of the runs would be 'work runs' where we would stop and work on particular moments as necessary. Other runs have been noted and then the actors asked to work on these at the next rehearsal.
STORY
We have tried to concentrate on the story, each actor knowing their own characters story and how it serves and fits into the story of the whole play.
This has been done by re-telling the story of the play line by line as a company.
TENSION
We have worked at ensuring the story is punctuated by the characters point of highest tension. In rehearsal actors have identified individual moments of high tension, (a moment of pressure/emotion). The actors have found these physically and then explored their journey to that moment and then past that moment. Actors attempt to find and remember what that moment feels like physically; what muscles are engaged, where is there tension in the body, in the face.
INTENTIONS/OBJECTIVES/ACTIONS/THOUGHTS
In running individual scenes and several scenes together actors were encouraged to interrogate their own process - did they know their own characters intentions/objectives/actions/thoughts. These things are not interchangeable and different directors and practitioners use different terminology with different processes but it is important that actors find a terminology and an approach that works for them. We explored variations of these.
Actors were grouped into scenes and asked to find the point of highest tension in the scene. The actors then improvised these scenes using not their lines of text but their thoughts - speaking their thinking (or if they preferred their intention/action/objective for each line) aloud. They then ran the scenes again this time speaking the actual lines. The aim of this was to consolidate action and thought as well as simply the lines that are spoken.
- Runs/Transitions
- Story
- Tension
- Intentions/objectives/actions/thoughts
RUNS/TRANSITIONS
In the two weeks before Christmas we have concentrated on adding layers of detail to every scene and running scenes together working on transitions between scenes.
Once we had run scenes together we worked on running the two acts of the play and then running the whole play.
Some of the runs would be 'work runs' where we would stop and work on particular moments as necessary. Other runs have been noted and then the actors asked to work on these at the next rehearsal.
STORY
We have tried to concentrate on the story, each actor knowing their own characters story and how it serves and fits into the story of the whole play.
This has been done by re-telling the story of the play line by line as a company.
TENSION
We have worked at ensuring the story is punctuated by the characters point of highest tension. In rehearsal actors have identified individual moments of high tension, (a moment of pressure/emotion). The actors have found these physically and then explored their journey to that moment and then past that moment. Actors attempt to find and remember what that moment feels like physically; what muscles are engaged, where is there tension in the body, in the face.
INTENTIONS/OBJECTIVES/ACTIONS/THOUGHTS
In running individual scenes and several scenes together actors were encouraged to interrogate their own process - did they know their own characters intentions/objectives/actions/thoughts. These things are not interchangeable and different directors and practitioners use different terminology with different processes but it is important that actors find a terminology and an approach that works for them. We explored variations of these.
Actors were grouped into scenes and asked to find the point of highest tension in the scene. The actors then improvised these scenes using not their lines of text but their thoughts - speaking their thinking (or if they preferred their intention/action/objective for each line) aloud. They then ran the scenes again this time speaking the actual lines. The aim of this was to consolidate action and thought as well as simply the lines that are spoken.
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