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Rehearsal

After weeks of rehearsal I have come to understand my character Helen  so well in fact I sometimes imitate her.  it is always an intense rehearsal for Andy And I as we always have to make sure that we avoid blocking each other.  Blocking is one of the many challenges we have faced so far in our scene rehearsals. A lot of movements  and switch in positions take place in this scene and a lack of focus to these smalls things can create very awkward moments on stage, for instance bumping into each other or having to decide which way to go. This is not something we want to happen on our final performance.  So our goal for this week was to try and get rid of any chances to blocking each other in the final performance. Things are presumably working out better than expected. A lot of effort and time is being invested into rehearsal and we feel ready to give a solid

Firstly, maintaining a smooth and close interaction with Andy was my focus, in order to make this scene work , we have to cooperate and make ourselves comfortable first.  There are points were things felt awkward  because we probably were not that much acquainted which each other therefore sharing ideas freely was a little a bit of a problem but after weeks of rehearsal we got a lot more familiar with one another and it worked out between us,  brainstorming our ideas is a lot more easier than it was.  Now we've accomplished that, there is a lot more interaction between the characters. It felt a little bit funny playing probably somewhere between a 14 and 15 year old, letting my guard down issues and playing a scene with Andy who is about 15 or 16 years old and having her be my senior in this scene. 

Another thing we worked on during our rehearsal was volume.  I am quiet by nature and that seemed to affect my performance during rehearsals in a lot of ways. I try to voice out my lines as loud and clear as possible but it's almost impossible to level out with Andy. She is very good with raising her voice loud and clear but cool. I thought I was ok until  the emotion, crazy and scary enough started to build around my chest, When we had to perform in front of Mr Newman. I was frightened that Andy's voice will overshadow mine and that nobody will hear what I was saying but  we both pulled it off even though my voice was still a little bit low, I needed to work on it. Luckily enough, Mr Newman helped us out by taking us outdoors to rehearse, we both stood on far ends  and we had to raise our voice up in order to hear each other to make sure we run the lines smoothly.

Lastly we focused on things like movements and positioning, this would allow for a better and smoother run of the scene and even an elaborated connection between the characters and audience. for instance Sarah goes into the kitchen to get a drink, Helen wonders about  the room figuring out that it would be  great idea to have the boys come over and have a drink with them in the posh and amazing dining room which kept her amazed the whole time. The moment Helen is alone in the dining room her sense of humor  reveals as she calls out to sarah and asks her whether the boys could come over.  Her excitement  over the fact that she Is hanging out with Sarah and that she being given the go ahead to have alcohol is overrated and this creates that hype she has we she is left alone in the room. 

                                                       Rehearsal

Getting into character Is really a challenging task for me. The  play is set in  a single dining room and Andy and I are playing a scene in it, which is the  Helen and Sarah scene. I am playing Helen and Andy is playing Sarah, who is a new friend of Helen, she is also new to Helen's school. However Helen's personality is opposite of Sarah's, they both have and live in different lifestyles . Helen is more of a calm and well-disciplined chick whereas Sarah is just the total opposite; perverse and lacks manner.  

However she is easily influenced by Sarah and she decides to have a drink with her friend although she has probably never drank alcohol before. Basically Helen is  taking a dip into Sarah's lifestyle just so she can be as cool as her. I really like my character a lot because I think her lifestyles reflects to mine as well for example our jittery behavior. Rehearsing with Andy the very first time was hilarious, I was confused about how I should act with this character. I read off of the book through the first week in drama class but as I read I was able to memorize some of the lines. This made it even easier for me to play Helen. I find it strange that this time I am not struggling to understand my character. This has been my first time partnering up with Andy, and to our advantage we were able to work on some of our blockings and challenge the objectives and super objectives of our characters distinctively.  Helen's objective is to experience drinking  alcohol for the first time and with Andy without getting caught by Andy's parents. Helen is influenced by Andy and hanging around with a senior is a big achievement for her therefore she makes it her priority and concern not to let Andy suspect or look at her as any uncool or young person of a sort. Throughout the scene Helen's concerns range from pleasing Andy and keeping up with the new lifestyle to making sure not to ruin their friendship. I believe this to be her super objective.

 Helen is somewhat humorous. She is very inexperienced in the whole badass, teenage, illegal lifestyle. Helen helps Sarah steal her parents liquor to drink undisturbed around the dining table. She practically is just a follower throughout the scene as well as  very vulnerable to accepting and saying yes to whatever Sarah asks her to do. I am really excited to play Helen and getting to know her a lot more is my goal before the final performance.

Rehearsals

At times it was difficult to find motivation to continually rehearse every period for almost an entire month, but it got easier as Tristan and I gradually discovered more about our characters. It definitely helped when Mr. Newman gave us input on what he would like to see because his opinion gave us a fresh look at our scene after running through it time after time. Having him present also gave us the chance to work out the kinks in our performance because he knew what he wanted to see and could tell us if we needed to make a change. Mr. Newman also gave us exercises throughout this process that helped Tristan and I become more connected and for that connection between our characters to be visible to the audience. One of these exercises was to never break eye contact with one another. Although a little awkward and unnatural at first, Tristan and I accomplished what we thought was complete eye contact during one of our runs, however Mr. Newman asked for more. We could not look away to think about our lines, not look away for dramatic effect, we simply had to maintain complete eye contact and not look away. Looking into the eyes of my stage father definitely allowed my character to see what he was feeling and react appropriately. I felt the strongest connection with Tristan's character Jim toward the end of the scene when Meg is begging her father to let her stay home for a while. I had to raise the tone in my voice to show that I was desperate, which seemed natural during rehearsal because we had built up the emotional intensity enough that it felt normal. During this rehearsal process I learned to completely forget about everything going on in my head - all of the mental and emotional stress - and completely embrace my character as if I was one with her.

As the performance neared it was much easier to focus on the rehearsals because it was more realistic practicing in the chapel than in a classroom. Adding the costumes, makeup and hearing the others do their scenes made it all the more real, and got me really excited. I think I speak on behalf of the entire class when I say that it was very easy to feed off of the energy our cast carried because everyone was very lively and keen to perform. The enthusiasm everyone showed made it easy to fine tune our performances, and the supportive atmosphere allowed us to make mistakes without feeling self conscious. I really enjoyed working with not only Tristan, but everyone in our Senior Drama Class, for this final drama performance.

Drama Journal #10

The drama class performed well-practiced scenes from The Dining Room at the CISDF drama festival and SJK's ArtsAroundUs.  I think both performances went really well, but all of my scenes were better the second time around, at ArtsAroundUs.  I personally felt more comfortable on stage during that second performance, and I felt I really only broke character for a second during the last scene I was in (Standish).  The audience laughed at a weird time that I wasn't expecting, and I couldn't help but smile too.  I tried to hide it by fitting it into the scene, but in this case it failed.  Paul and Margery was one of the main scenes that improved.  During CISDF, we had to improvise parts of our scene, because we weren't as familiar with the lines as we would like to have been.  However, during ArtsAroundUs my lines went a lot smoother and I think the overall dynamic of the scene was smoother.  My Agent and Client scene also went really well, and I found Tessa really easy to work with.  I think the energy and chemistry in the starting scene was a really great way to start off our performance, and we definitely warmed up the audience and gave them a few good laughs.

One thing that I wish I had looked at before the performance was in Standish, when my character says "YOU MEAN UNCLE HENRY'S A FRUIT!?"  Until I asked my mom after the performance, I thought that a fruit meant that his "bachelor attachments" were prostitutes, but it turns out that my character was referring to Uncle Henry being gay, and his bachelor attachments being men.  I think I might have played this more surprised, because at the time, this would have gotten a better reaction.

My favourite scene in the play to watch was the scene done by Tristan and Jessica.  They are both very good actors on stage, and I love the way Tristan gives speeches both with his performance as Midas in Metamorphoses and with his role in The Dining Room.  Jessica also did a great job in her role, and she played a very believable character.  The awkward pauses were very effective and drew me in as an audience member.

Overall, CISDF and our ArtsAroundUs performances were both great learning experiences for me, and I'm really glad that I had these opportunities.  I learned strategies on not breaking my character in front of audiences, and I also got a lot of good acting advice from the adjudicator at CISDF.  I hope we can repeat this trip before I graduate, and I can't wait to see what play we will be doing for ArtsAroundUs next year!

I really enjoyed starting to learn my two scenes. Firstly, the Michael and aggie scene I'm really enjoying because of the great amount of enthusiasm I get to show. Albeit it's not really me in real life, having this opportunity to go outside my comfort zone truly feels amazing. Overall, I currently feel fairly comfortable for the scene, but there are a few part which are a little more challenging.

The first part, is the introduction of the scene when Michael sneaks up on Aggie. It's not so difficult to scare someone, but It's hard to make it look like your trying to scare someone but at the same time make sure people see what's happening.

We've been practicing in rehearsals on acting our two separate roles. I had to constantly remind myself that I'm to act as a seven year old, and Bella had to remind her that she's an Irish maid. I found my self constantly trying to remember memories from my childhood, almost attempting to reenact the attitude I had when I myself was seven years old.

A difficult thing I've been running into while in rehearsals is this appliance I have greatly affecting my speech causing me to slur words. I've constantly had to remind myself to talk a lot slower so that whatever I say is at least somewhat audible.

Overall, even though there are a few difficulties, I do feel quite confortable for the scene over all.

The second scene I'm working on, Dick and Harvey, I find to be a very interesting one. Because of the way the scene is orientated, a lot of the acting for Harvey is coming through the delivery of words, while Dick's acting is coming mostly from his emotions that are shown throughout the scene.

To look the saddest possibly at certain sections of the scene, I kept noticing my self attempting to put myself in the exact situation, acting as if I was talking to my dad myself (it works!).

The most difficult part I've found in the scene is to act the parts where I show a little bit of "I do not want to be here" attitude. This especially is the case in the lines such as "Of course I will dad", etcetera.

Once again, mostly I feel confortable for the scene, I just need to keep practicing making myself show deep emotions, since that's where the majority of my acting is coming from.

The performance is finally done! I feel really proud of myself for getting through it, It being my very first performance, ignoring those silly French plays. To start, I feel really proud of both performances, but I still feel like I could have improved a lot more.

To start, I feel really happy about how the Michael and Aggie scene turned out. The beginning felt perfect, and laughs seem to appear everywhere they were supposed to. I feel really good about this scene, except for one part.

I felt that in the end I still did do a lot of slurring. Since I was so extremely nervous, I would keep attempting to sped the lines up to get out as quickly as possible, causing lines to feel as if they became almost impossible to understand. Because of the many laughs that occurred, I hope that this belief is wrong! Another section that bothered me slightly was the pronunciation of certain words, the prime suspect being hug. Every time I had that word come across, I'd say "houg" instead. I constantly felt so embarrassed, but I guess it fits the role of Michael.

My other scene of Dick and Harvey I felt overall the same about. There were a few points of little early blips coming out of me, but other than that I felt as if I talked much slower and louder in this scene than Michael and Aggie.

The prime example of this early blip occurred near the end. For about three or so seconds, Rory and I were jumping back slightly confused over who is supposed to talk (the fault being me in the end of course), but I felt like we quickly fixed that problem.

Other than that, I felt very comfortable about the scene. I talked what I felt like was very loud, without looking like I'm yelling, and didn't slur my words too much, or at all possibly.

There lacks sufficient material for me to essentially provide a half decent analysis of the performance, not because of how long it has taken me to finally get to this response, but because the performance itself didn't provoke much from me. I suppose in these past few weeks I have become somewhat desensitized to the nerves that seem to universally plague both amateur and experienced actors alike. Don't get me wrong, I still got nerves and a case of my notorious shakes, but they were downplayed, so downplayed that they seemed almost absent in relative comparison.  The performances surrounding the Poetry in Voice competition were most likely responsible for this. The intensity of these occasions and their plenteousness adapted me to the idea of being in that spotlight, of being watched and judged. However, I'm not exactly sure if this adaptation is advantageous when it actually comes to performing. Sure, a stronger peace of mind may allow me to focus more on my character and on the delivery of that character's lines, but at the same time, that terrible nervousness and the adrenaline rush that comes with it, it has a way of giving one an absurd amount of energy on stage. A sort of in the moment grace arises from that pressure, and often one can portray a complete moment of rapture if they can balance both training and skill with spontaneous in-the-moment energy. The problem for me is simply just achieving this. While I felt that I had sufficient energy during the performance, I didn't feel big, and I didn't feel deep. Perhaps that was due to the shallowness of the roles that I was playing, or perhaps it had more to do with the fact that I was just simply wasn't interested in investigating the father roles any further than I already had. This is most definitely a bad thing, considering that the whole purpose of the performance in the first place is to interest and entertain the audience. If the actors aren't even entertained, there really isn't much hope. It's not to say that I was never entertained with The Dining Room. It's a play that I've fallen in and out of love with. Portraying the intricacies, the interactions of everyday life in both their ugliness and beauty certainly came off to me as a swell idea when I first heard about it. Actually performing the piece though, that was a different story. Putting myself in the shoes of the archetype, forcing myself into this stone coffin of a character, and repeating it over and over and over again, only to be shown the creative potential of the other school groups. I must say it was particularly painful. And then again came interest. Looking more in depth into A.R Gurney's work, looking at all the scenes in their correct order and in their entirety, there emerges a strong ideological pattern, one that I think anyone can appreciate, audience and actor alike. It is the contrast and the consistent contrast of the comic and tragic together with one another, on the same set, with the same actors, that gives The Dining Room its own unique feeling, what gives it its entertainment value. In the end, the performance was an interesting one. I don't think I've ever been more at peace on stage or off stage. Whether this was because I didn't care or because I was simply comfortable I have no idea. All I can be sure of is that in terms of dealing with nerves, I felt the best I ever had. Who knows, maybe it had something to do with me facing backstage. Of course the usual criteria apply as well. The bottom line, the one thing that decided whether or not our performance was half decent, was lines. Always, always, always lines. Of course, I could be more specific, I could say that the efficiency of our rehearsal processes, our dedication, our commitment to our performance is what led to our level of memorization, but in the end, I think it comes down to the individual, to their life, and what they're capable of. I did give the performance my all, though that all may have been subdued by sickness, coffee binges, and a lack of sleep, and I don't feel as if I could have done any better considering the circumstances. Of course, if I were to do things again, lines would be the priority. But they always were and will continue to be in the future.

The performance is done! Since March break Jessica and I have been working on our scene from the dining room. At Artsaround(s)us we performed our scene and I'm pretty happy with the way it went.

            It started with a half hour wait backstage. For thirty minutes we waited while all the other scenes were happening. Then when it was finally time and I stepped out onto the stage. I got a laugh right away that I wasn't expecting and I had to try to not laugh with everyone. The only logical reason I could think of is because so many people know me, seeing me look like an older man is amusing. I couldn't think of what else they might be laughing at because all I was doing was looking around.

            Jessica soon came on and everything was good. Right after we sat down though, Jessica forgot her line. I could see subtle panic in her eyes, as she stared at me. I mouthed the words "you love this room" but she didn't appear to understand me. I didn't want to make a bigger movement but luckily she started speaking. She skipped right to where she told me about leaving her husband, which wasn't a bad place to skip to. She only missed one line and it wasn't terribly important. We continued on and the rest of the scene went fine, but the whole time I felt like I could see terror in Jessica's eyes.

            Anyway, after the beginning it flowed quite nicely in my mind. I'm having a hard time remembering details about the performance. After the initial panic everything was happening without me thinking and I let go and let it happen. It's kind of similar to my experience with the play. It's almost like I wasn't in control, I was on autopilot, and I could just relax and enjoy the ride. Overall it's a very strange and almost surreal experience and it's one of the reasons that I've taken a liking to drama this year.

            This performance was the final major aspect of drama this year so I find myself looking at the difference in myself. At the beginning of the year I had terrible stage fright and would not do anything that involved standing in front of people. But I remember wanting to take drama to make myself more comfortable with that. Between the classes and the play (and other stuff) I've come far this year and I really see the difference after this performance. A first big step is that I waited a long time before my scene and I didn't get myself worked up in nervousness. Second, when I performed I was good at it (I don't want to boast, it's just in comparison to my past self). And third, I relaxed while I was performing. I've come a far way and I'm proud of myself because of this performance. I not only improved to a point where I could perform it well, but I actually did perform it well. I overcame the challenges of playing my character and improved even more from this experience.

            The other thing that I wanted to mention was actually the challenges I found. I was playing an older man, which had a few aspects to it that tested me. The first thing about playing an old man was the actions. I had to move slower, which wasn't terribly difficult. In order to keep myself from moving like I do now, I acted like I was very tired. This slowed me down and gave the appearance of someone who has lived a long(ish) life. I also found that I used hand movements a lot. I made sure that they fit the character's age though. After the performance my parents commented on how I used my hands in a way that made me seem like an older man. The other thing that I did was changing my voice slightly. This was the hard part, not making the voice, but making it consistent. I found that I wasn't able to practice it very well and that I just had to go for it when I got on stage. This was a little tricky because for half an hour I waited without a word, and then I spoke with a deeper and rougher voice. In practice and in the actual performance, I would try my best on the first line and make subtle adjustments after to make it better, but stay consistent. The rough voice I used to sound older was probably the only thing that made me nervous. I wasn't very nervous but only a little bit over the voice. After the accent I had to do earlier in the year though, this wasn't that bad.

            Overall I feel like Jessica and I did a good job on our scene in spite of a few difficulties. We went out and performed our scene well. The whole experience was fun and I can't wait to see what future drama endeavors I get up to.

On April 28^th, 6 students from St.Johns Kilmarnock School went to perform at the Drama Festival at Country day school. We arrived at the drama festival on the 26^th and got acquainted with all the other schools and students that had also par-taken in the drama festival. We watched many great performances by a big array of different schools, they where all very different and all had unique styles of performing.

                  On the day of our performance, I felt like throwing up all day. I've never performed in front of such a large crowd before and the nerve was really getting to me. From running lines in the car, or in the Timmies line up, we where all determined to remember every single line. While the school before us was performing we went to get changed and warm up in a smaller drama room. We did Italian runs for every single scene, fixing each other's costumes and reassuring everyone that they where going to do great. The urge to puke really grew by this time, I was not afraid of not remembering my lines I was afraid I was going to puke. I know it might sound like silly butterflies in my tummy but I so nauseas. I didn't want to freak out Mr. Newman so I kept it too myself and just took deep breaths.

                  Once we started the opening scene was the agent and client, this was Tessa and Jacob. After this scene was the Father, this was a scene where I play Annie a maid. I was so nervous, afraid that I might miss a queue, or drop the tray of all the cups and bowls. Once the scene started I realized I couldn't see the audience because the lights where so bright. This defiantly helped me pretending they weren't there.

After this scene was Carolyn and Grace, this was a fast change for me, but I thankfully got into the robe quick enough. This was defiantly my favorite scene, there where no mistakes and it flowed very nicely. Lizzie did a great job portraying Grace, she was a very motherly figure and all her lines where said with great confidence. 

Helen and Sarah was the scene I feared the most, like a mouse fears a cat. I kept running the lines over and over again in my head, making sure there were no mistakes. Once the scene started everything was going smoothly, I messed up on one of my lines, which I was really disappointed about. Apart from that the scene went great, and got a few laughs.

                  Standish was the last scene in our play, this scene was directly after Helen and Sarah, should I had to change into my maid outfit super fast. While I was searching for my costume I realized that I had to be on the stage in a few seconds, while running around backstage looking for my costume, Lizzie was waiting for me on stage with a face of pure panic, Tessa decided to improvise with Jacob and it made the scene look less like something was wrong. Once I finally got my costume on I ran on stage so Lizzie could say her line. From that point on the scene ran really smoothly and nothing major went wrong.

Overall the entire play went great, the drama festival was great fun, I made so many new friends and watched some amazing performances. If I could I would defiantly go next year as well.  I'd like to say thanks to Mr. Newman for arranging this trip for us, I'm sure we are all very grateful you took up your personal time to take us.

It came down to this:

The drama festival was amazing. I could have not had a better first experience! I'm not just going to give you a run down of how our play went, but of how we got to experience the cool things that come along with being a drama student. There's a lot more than rehearsing and pizza with a few friends. It's more than living in someone else's shoes for half an hour, then finding out what could make it better and redoing it, but with more passion. It's more than just meeting new people and awkwardly saying 'hi' in the halls of the hotel. No, it's way more than that; it's all of that!

So, we get there, and we don't know anyone. We six people, and then there's the rest of everyone, but don't worry, that was soon rectified. A few short drama games the morning of the second day got us all warmed up and talking. We had had three plays the night before, and we knew that we were in the right place; lots of laughs, smiles, joy, overall good moods. The plays were all done really well as well, I had a really good time watching them, and I thought there were some outstanding actors.

Like I said, we had made some friends from the festival, and at first it was, well no, we were actually immediately good friends. The drama group from Appleby was hilarious and we fit right in. It was easy to get to know them, because we all liked the same TV shows, like Doctor Who, Community, Fringe, Supernatural... you get the picture. There was a pool party, hilarity ensued. We made sure we cheered at the end of their play extra hard.

And then there was one. We were the last play to go, and I think all of our late night practices were worth it. Besides the one mistake, which wasn't too big, Bertha, we were fine. If you want to know what happened, well, Bertha was the maid in this scene, and due to an unfortunate mishap, could not get on stage at the specific moment what she needed to, which was no fault of her own (wardrobe malfunction!). But there was some quick thinking by Claire (Tessa), and everything was running smoothly. I think that the Carolyn and Grace scene was one of our strongest. It was like I really was mad at Gabi, even though I wasn't, and it made it believable. Gabi acted like a daughter torn between two choices, which is good, because that's what the scene was about.

Overall, I think that this was one of the best choices of my life. I hope we can go back next year with another great play. I hope Mr. Newman is gonna cook up something that can rival the Dining Room, I know it will be hard, because a lot of work went in to making the dream a reality. I would like to thank Mr. Newman for planning this whole thing and giving us the opportunity to experience theater, as well as driving and the Timmy's runs! We'll see you next year CISDF!