Thursday 12th February 2015 - First Run Through Of Act 1 Of Our country's Good

Thursday 12th February 2015
First Run Through Of Act 1 Of Our Country's Good

In this lesson we looked at the transitions between scenes, this is because in previous rehearsals we hadn't focused on how we were going to change scenes, just the content of them. When doing this, in the scenes that I wasn't in I had to return to the back, this was to make a convict camp. In this there is a few people are laying down next to
each other, as if sleeping and the others are forming a circle, as if cooking something on a fire. We do this so that it creates a background for the scene and sets in inside the convict camp, this is called stylised pedestrian movement. We use this when we have to speak amongst ourselves about Ralf Clarke putting on a play, when the officers get closer to us we had to create a contrast from being exited about the play to being quite and introverted. This is to show that most of the convicts are afraid of the officers and act really nervous and unlike themselves when they are around. For other scenes like the rowing scene between Harry and Duckling we have to go and stand in a neutral position facing the back of the wall, this is because we are not having a big backstage area and therefore we are staying on stage throughout the majority of the performance. When standing like this it is important to stand still and silent, this is so that we wont distract any of the audiences attention off of the main scene.

After doing this we did a run through of the first act, this was helpful because in previous rehearsals we had only done scenes separate from each other. When doing this I found that it was easier to keep in character because we were not stopping and starting, however I am still struggling with my characterisation. I think that my posture in this rehearsal was better than before, now I stand more upright with my chin up more, I chose to do this because it creates a contrast between the authority that I have and the convicts, who usually walk around more slouched over. I need to improve my voice when speaking as my character, this is especially when saying the paragraph (The theatre is an expression of civilisation), at the moment I am talking in a way that is no very different from the way that I usually speak and I need to create a difference between my voice and my characters voice.