The Rehearsals

Monday 10:45 -5:30

Tuesday 10:45-5:50

Wednesday 9:00-1:00

Workshops throughout the rehearsal process.

When we learned about Meyerhold the practical part of the lesson was a workshop using is techniques exploring the way we can use our bodies. We started by walking around the room in neutral then exploring the way our bodies change when we only change one way we move. E.g.: the first change was walking on our heels, this made us more curious while walking around the room.

We also walked while leading different parts of our bodies like our elbows, nose, chest and thought about what type of character this would make, regarding back to creating a character from the inside out.

-video of a master all we used in the workshop.

Another workshop we had was using balloons; initially we used these exercises can an icebreaker to free up the body and disconnect the brain from the body. However, once we started to get the show up on its feet we've decided to use the balloons as symbolism to reflect the life that teenagers are trying to control.

We first started with the balloons sat in a circle and played around with the sounds like blowing up and releasing air. We then walked around the room balloons on our fingers, this is what we’re using for our opening. As we did this half of us sat down to observe while the others carried on and vice versa. This was when we started to see in our own heads relationship between us and the balloons. A Few particularly stood out like when Ellie Farrow was working the balloons more or less controlled where she went  (her facial expressions were particularly funny), whereas Max Blakely looked almost bored during the exercise he was in so much control.

During the first few weeks of rehearsals had visitors from Salford university who did two separate workshops with us, one was a voice-over call reading of scripts but also a variety of vibe warm-ups that we used before the show to work up, especially me as all my monologues are so “wordy”. The other the workshop was about focus and concentration, this started with breathing exercises. We had a lot of time walking in silence and using the ensemble to create something very simple yet engaging to watch. This was simply facing each other walking toward each other and walking back. Surprisingly this was more difficult than we thought and talk more than one try to get perfect. In our past, we are focused and dedicated but sometimes we are also quite giddy and childish sometimes and this can come out.

Another workshop we had near the being of the creating process was us all walking in a grid formation using characters we had randomly been given on a piece of paper. While walking in the grid two of our tutors came closer together pushing us all in a tighter grid. This was used to create part of the opening scene on the train station, then again to create the second train scene.

A problem we faced in the devising aspect of the rehearsal process was how we came about blocking part 3 of the script (chaos) where there are multiple overlapping dialogues and stage directions. We started off by writing on a piece of paper parts of the script and scattering them around the studio, then we choose them randomly until we were all in the space. This created a chaotic and engaging scene. We found that thinking to deeply about how we block the chaos scene the whole point of it would get lost. We each were given as part of the scene to work with and we found that enjoying ourselves in that scene would be the best way to create something beautiful which I believe we did. We used a wide range of techniques many of which we had learned in classes from past projects.

After the workshop sessions, we went about creating the piece scene by scene chronologically and finding the connections between each scene. As a cast, we spent a lot of time discussing the meaning of each scene and how all the characters relate to one another.

We also spent most morning sessions working independently on our individual scenes, I worked on all three on my monologues choosing the horizon words and experimenting with different ways of performing them. Eventually, I settled on the way, I performed in the show with the first monologue starting of casual and gradually getting more emotional shocking the audience with the ending of the monologue when they find out the woman jumped in front of a train. The second, of my monologues, I chose to act more scattered and anxious as I felt that she would have the panic of “history repeating” itself and the woman was going to be hit by the train again. One of the directors notes I got during this scene was to give it more of a hopeful ending because the woman doesn't die she was saved by myself, with the monologue ending “I hold her, the woman I hold her I just hold her”.

Once all the scenes where blocked we needed to know what the rest of the cast would be doing on stage as from the very beginning we knew that the price would be heavily ensemble based  but we also didn't want to be just left on stage watching the show playout but be involved throughout. We found that the transitions between scenes became just as important as scenes themselves. For e.g.: the transitions between the first train scene and butterfly (scene 2) was a game of piggy in the middle with the whole cast but instead of using ad-lib we chose a statement that we felt a teenager would feel and what we related to. A few statements used where “I think I’m pregnant” “I need a job” “do I go uni” and “I just got my period” This is used again but backward with people joining one by one instead of leaving one by one in the transition between the output and depression.

During one of the rehearsals, Jayne one of our tutors not working on this project watched one of our runs through once we had blocked the first 21 pages up until “kiss”. She wrote notes and gave us feedback which we then used to improve our work.

Jaynes Rehearsal Notes -chaos.

. The intensity of the performance good, need a more thought process in the face...

After getting this note we adding intentions each of our movements in the beginning but they were personal to each of us. When I’m walking around with the balloon I see my balloon as my future and as I try to balance it and focus on myself despite all the other chaos of the other balloons around me. The next section was Dan bouncing a ball as we all stop and watch him cross the stage, as we watch him we decided that it is jealousy the way we look at Dan. The jealousy is how Dan seems to have his life in order and none for the rest of us do, instead of just wondering why he has a ball and the rest of us don’t.

. Posture needs to be improved by all the performers- stillness is stronger when the body is pulled in and lifted off the hips.  This was something I think all we became more aware of while performing even in their rehearsal room and to be more aware of the fact that we are always on stage. However, this was perfect until we had a full audience in front of us. https://www.alexandertechnique.com/articles2/palmer3/ - This is an article written by Roy Palmer who explains the importance of posture and muscle control with

 in perforce. Thanks to the improvement of posture, we as performers learned the importance of stage presence and how having correcting leads to this plus active listening and increased stamina to maintain our performances.

.Use more jostling when following “hope”, more hopeful.  We fund that leading with our noses created a really intriguing look and seems more hopeful as we're looking towards Angelina and we also created a new shuffling system where we weaved more in between each other. This was also a lot safer as we went just pushing against one another.

.Find a rhythm for you butterfly-needs more thought do some research on how the butterfly moves. Great concert performances but needs more ……

.Take a breath before “crazy head” movement (electricity), consider adding sound. We did consider adding sound but decided against it because when you get that angry it is silent and dry but we did all make a silent scream towards the floor because as younger people our anger and feel are not heard by those around us.

.sympathy for the broken butterfly. Again adding intention behind our movement and what we’re doing took our performance to the next level this was difficult to maintain throughout every rehearsal but it definitely showed when that intention wasn't there as the atmosphere in the room just fell off.

.Playing around with the way I say the monologue as an actor i know that internalize a lot more than I need to  but I tried to get out of this by experimenting more with how I prefer my monologue but I  still wanted to maintain the emotional connection of the monologue. My goal of the monologue was (for me) to draw in the audience then as the monologue progresses make them feel what my character is feeling that show and trauma that she experiences. I think the monologue also sets the tone for the rest of the play the mix between the langue of teenagers, light hearted easy humor and the seriousness as well.

.Going over the movement for the first 21 pages as we rehearsal and keep blocking the show however much we experimented and we did have to make set decisions to actually have a show to perform. Every moment we had had to be precise as an ensemble.  But also how the rest of us react to the other scenes and the initiation of our characters throughout the show. We made the decision to play board in the girl’s scenes in betrayal because as young adults we hate this bitchy act that unfortunately, we all do. We also chose to follow the bouncing ball in all the scenes when it's involved this kept those of us not in the scenes still involved but also kept us engaged in the performance. It’s easy for us “zone out” as we know the show so well but being forced to still be involved in the scene were not in works really well. Another note we had for this is that some of the audience actually also stated to follow the ball with us as they catch themselves out shocked that they hadn't even realized they had started to do that which I found really interesting.

.Dramatic changes from scene to scene works really well, emphasis on the contrast. Three-quarters of the play are separate scenes but over the time they start to overlap and become more and more chaotic and this is a slow build up that we've strayed to create with such huge contrast form quite funny scenes to straight-up serious and emotional that you don't really notice has been building retention from the very beginning setting up that very chaotic part until about halfway through when this start to speed up. One moment of this was going from this twisted version of the Macarena that actually funny once the audience clock on that is the Macarena then going into “protest” which starts with me shooting “my body my choice” which is massive contrast to the dance. What could have been better with “protest while rehearsing was the intention behind the words was saying which was true for every scene to add that extra and to push the performance to what we wanted it to be.

.Angelina- excellent direction and delivery. Her monologue is powerful and well learned but some of the delivery is lost. This was improved by her slowing down and the line “I saw this thing on a bus” was changed to be said more like a statement rather than like the rest of the monologue.