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Week Twelve

Posted on May 20th, 2007 by tilly26.
Categories: Theatre Journals for 100.

Mood: Isaac from Heros

So Tash told me a pretty lame joke earlier on this week that I thought worthy of being my weekly lame joke:
A man and his wife had six children. The man was very proud of his wife’s achievement so he always referred to her as “Mother of Six”. She really didn’t appreciate this pet name but he continued to use it. One eventful night at a party the wife felt uncomfortable and wished to leave. The man was enjoying himself and wanted to stay, so he begged her: “Come on, please! We’ll just stay for a few more hours, Mother of Six!” To which the now very pised off wife replied: “No, we’ll leave now, Father of Four!”

Thank you for the contribution Tash =]

After Dinner
Omg they read our blogs. When they said they had done so and it was obvious they thought we had too we all just looked at each other and went, well shit, aren’t we unprepared. Haha so I came home and read their blogs and what not. It was really interesting to read the blogs of people who have done the same stage crafts, I came away thinking how much work I have to do in the next 3 or 4 days or whatever it is. It was great to talk to them and realise that they fight all the time like us. Don’t get me wrong, I love our whole theatre class, everyone in it is freaky deaky weird but really awesome at the same time. We’re like a very dysfuntional family, lots of love but lots of fighting and clashing and what not. After Dinner is just so different to 100 that it’s really hard to compare them. On one hand you have masturbation jokes, and on the other you have people hanging themselves. But I really enjoyed it, it was a bit slow starting (though that’s due to the script, not the actors) but by about 20 inutes into it, I was infrequently wetting myself. After the show Scotty gave the people who hadn’t left yet (as they were waiting on my mother) a tour around the joint. To say the least, Mt Scopus is a trifle more … “up market” than our humble little farm school =p Looking at their program too, Erika and Burak really should’ve been there cos I don’t think they’ve even started on our program yet. Haha and I love that they know who Burak is, with his “dramatic” blog. But yeah, a bunch of really nice kids and it was heaps helpful to watch theirs and have the Q&A with them afterwards.

Acting
Omg we had this one rehearsal this week when we all did so shit (excuse the language but its really necessary). All the actors were working way bellow standard. I was talking to Gems about it and she felt the same and it’s just so frustrating. I can’t describe how pissed I was at myself during that rehearsal. I just couldn’t get it together and everything was comming out so robotic and sounding like I was reading lines someone else had written. I did all this work to internalise everything and then I was just so bellow standard it was ridic. I came out hating myself and hating eveyone else cos we were all crap and I was terrified that we would be like that on the night and hating the Guide for being such a had stupid character and hating myself for not being consistant and hating theatre studies for making me do this stupid play and hating 100 for being so stupid and hating myself cos I just couldn’t do it and I felt like the crappest actor in the world…. did I mention that I was hating myself? Awesome, just checking. But then we had a really good one after school … or maybe it was on Saturday … I have no concept of time. My life seems to run 20 mins behind everyone else’s so I don’t bother taking in time settings as they are irrelavent to me. But yeah that rehearsal was really good, we ran it through for the 1st time ever, leaving it a bit late, I know. But it came out pretty good, I really ant to make the Guide bigger but I’m not sure how appropriate that would be, I’ve decided to drop the accent cos it’s just so inconsistant. Coops made a comment during notes that the Guide is alway switching between angry and happy, seeminly randomly. That was all part of my thing as she has no clue who she is, how she behaves etc so she is like all different people she has met int he Void at different times. Plus she’s been doing this for a very very long time so she’s a bit over the nice-eties and easily irritable. But the thing is I don’t know if Coops meant it as a good thing or a bad thing or just an observation of what. And when I was doing my big “BECAUSE IT ALL DECAYS! … everything you are, everything you think you are… it fades until there’s nothing left, just a vague smudge of what you were” speel, Tash and Josh we whispering and laughing, which has made me paraniod. Now i’m stressing that I’m doing a crappy job at the Guide and I don’t know how to make it better and I don’t have long to fix it. Coops, I desperately need to work one on one with you at some point to go trough each of my long bits and work on how they should be delieverd and characterisation and what not. I’m now paraniod that I’ve taken the Guide completely off track of who she was supposed to be. Yep, so parandoid that I’m scrwing up such a good (but very complicated) role, cos it’s so open to interpretation…. and my interpretations are never right.
*Note to self: buy white undies*

Direction
ATTENTION ALL ACTORS!

Ok this week each of you actors need to do the folloing:

–> Come and see me at some point during our time at the theatre (during lunch breaks, or tech stuff etc, whenever your not needed) or at school to have a one on one chat about your acting and characterisaton, and that means EVERYONE.

–> Make a back stroy for your characters if you haven’t done one yet and publish it on vineblogs so me and Coops can read it. (Erika you’ll need to do one for every character, for the minor characters you play like the Elder, just write a few lines, but for the Wife and the Mother make it more detailed). Some of you may have to talk to ech other about these for them to work (eg Sophie and her mother, Nia and Alex, Ketud and his wife etc).

–> Learn all your lines! This may be a bigger job for some than others.

–> Read over the script and remind yourself of all of your entrances and exits, what you’re doing in each part of each memory, what order the scenes go in, when you need to move boxes etc. On monday Jordy and I will go through with everyone and say which boxes need to be moved when and by whom, so you all need to have your scripts to note that stuff down and remember it.

–> Take some time out each day from now until opening night to run over your lines and get into character, so you’re all good for geting into (and staying in!!!) character for opening night.

Please do these things, they are of the utmost importance.

So until I see you all at bump in tomorrow at whatever un-godly hour we have to be there, stay classy Santiago!

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Week Eleven

Posted on May 4th, 2007 by tilly26.
Categories: Theatre Journals for 100.

What do you call a fly with no wings? A walk!

Anyhoo…

Acting
I’m still stuffing up lines which is so fristrating, especailly going into that bit with Gemma and myself arguing, I forgot my very first yelled line and screwed up the flow of it completely. I don’t know if I’ll be able to put all the emotion needed for those little look inside the Guide’s mind bits when she does her little sililoquy parts off to the side until we get a full run through done, which I’m quite eager to do. Maybe next Tuesday during our double we can try for a full run through, no stops , that way e can go into lunch then use period five for lunch and a chat abou things that need to be fixed. Just a thought, I’ll ask Coops tomorrow. That way all of us actors can get the flow of things and see the parts that need the most attention.

Directing
So I had a talk to Jarrod today about audio and boxes. I like getting things done, ticking them off the ol’ list. Good fun. So that stuff is getting sorted out now. One less thing to stress over. Our rehearsal on (Monday? or it might have been Tuesday) when Coops was away was very sucessful. I think everyone walked out feeling very confident about it all. I think having just the actors there helped us focus as there was nobody else to provide distractions, and I know it gets boring for all the people who aren’t acting sitting there watching all the time, so with them gone we were more on track. Plus we had Mr Aiapan (sp?) there, and I think we all wanted to give our best and impress him. We ran from Sophie’s last memory through to the end. Now I don’t mean to get all negative, but from that run it’s clear that there is a lot more work to be done on many of the scenes and we still aren’t working to our full potential. This play is kick arse, and our actors and production team are kick arse, but thus far we haven’t had a single rehearsal that has been kick arse (do excuse all the language). The one when Coops was away was the closest we’ve been but we really have to get our arses into gear (there I go again =p). This show is on in 2 weeks, I’m not sure everyone realises the gravity of that. If people don’t know what they’re doing in each scene it’s not just going to come together on opening night. And don’t forget next week is pretty much out for rehearsals. So we need as many lunch times and after schools as possible for fixing crap. I realise how pedantic I was being about the tube today but little things like that are being done wrong every single time, even though I tell you to fix them. It’s in one ear and out the other with a lot of things. So please start putting 100% into everything that is done. It’s the only way we’re going to be able to make this show and our class live up to their potential.

 So to summarise: get your arses into gear and start taking this seriously and prioritising it.

 Peace.

(by the way thank you to the few who are giving it their best consistantly).

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Week Ten

Posted on April 28th, 2007 by tilly26.
Categories: Theatre Journals for 100.

What do you get when you cross a kangaroo with a sheep? A wooly jumper!

Acting
This week we only had one class, which was the double on Tuesday. The first half was a production meeting, so no acting there. Then the second half was watching the Fame dvd and doing Sophie’s memory, which I’m not involved in as the Guide. But I have still been learning lines.

Directing
I’m starting to like the direction Sophie’s memories are going in. Originally I was going for the whole symbolism and ritual thing Scotty did with us in year 10 (I think…), but now Coops has put some surrealism stuff into it whihc is lookign really good. I was a bit hesitant at using that kind of jazzz at first, as the main stream audience who will be watching it might be like “…ah…what the hell is this?” but Coops’ idea of doing the spins to go from one scene to the next (instead of gettin back on the tube over and over again) makes that connection, like its implyied that all that travel and time has passed between the scenes. Also it cuts out a lot of the really boring crap on the tube. By the way people you really need to be more tube like. More movement and noise is needed, next time we do that memory I’m going to have to kick your arses into shape for that, no matter how much you hate doing the tube. If you do it half arsed, the audience is going to hate it too. Just a warning, next time we do that scene you’re going to get it right.
After seeing Coopers version of the “We tried exercise … hot milky drinks” part with the other insomniacs, I think that bits of that worked and bits didn’t. I really love what Josh was doing with his mime and wanted to keep it, but I also like the pausing. I think having Sophie staying in her room and making it look like she was looking out of her window and seeing others doing the same who are just like her worked to convey her dream that everyone in London couldn’t sleep. When she gets up and walks around itlooks like she’s crazy and these people are in her room and she’s imagining them (which she is but not like that). But at the same time I think what Cooper did makes it look more interesting and gives it more of that element of non-natuaralism. So I’ma a bit in two minds about it. I’m a little undecided on Sophie’s first emory with her mother and the mirror as well, whether to have the miror comming to life or mimicing her mother or just being a mirror. I think I need to arrange a meeting with Coops to talk all of these things over really soon…. like before Fame (which I know is going to cause you lots of stress Coops so please don’t hurt me). But I think these things need to be decided on for sure before we do any of our full run throughs.

Peace.

1 comment.

Week Nine

Posted on April 25th, 2007 by tilly26.
Categories: Theatre Journals for 100.

First week of term 2. *Sigh* So busy already. Let’s see, we had MacBeth, Top Acts, and more 100.

Before I get to the joke, I would just like to congratulate Gemma on her intense performance in class on our only rehearsal this week… Okay now we can get into it =p

What do John the Baptist & Winnie the Pooh have in common? Their middle name!

I know what your thinking, lollerskates.

Anyhooo……

Acting
Even though I was only in class once this week due to MacBeth and immunisations, and for that one class I was fairly unfocused, I have done a lot of character development on my own time. Firstly I’ve decided on the style of speech the guide should have and will now keep that constant throughout the whole play rather than chopping and changing accents every scene. Also, I’ve given her a particular walk and some mannerisms. I’ve also made far clearer distinctions between her different moods. It says in the description of the guide that she is like a charmeleon, changing her voice and physicality often and with ease. So I have now gone through the first scene and decided points where the sudden changes happen. In some cases it’s her snapping from happy to crazy psyco when she snaps at Alex, and then snapping right back to pleasant again. In there are also times when she switches from serious to playful, from bored to intense and so forth. If we have the box that sits back stage centre for the opening Void scene, which I think we should, if we are having home positions for the boxes in the Voids, then when she goes to the back of the stage to point at the camera, she can jump up onto the box. This will again show that young side to her, her authority, and how used to this environment she is. It will also create multiple levels which I know Coops wants more of.

Directing
I must say I love Cooper’s idea about taxing the opening of MacBeth for 100. It fits so well and will be a great first impression on the audience (I know I was blown away when they did it in MacBeth) but it may be a tricky one for audio and lighting to co-ordinate on our tech day. Still the effect of it would be awesome and well worth it. I’m wondering though about costuming for that. Just a thought, but if Nia, Alex, Ketu and Sophie are going to be in it, how will Sophie and Ketu change in time for opening the next scene? I think it would be a bit crappy if the did that flashing dying bit in their Void clothes, as those clothes are supposed to be unique to the Void and as we show them go throughout their lives, they wouldn’t be wearing their Void clothes. Perhaps they might just have a jacket or dress on something slipped on overtop that can be taken off in a few seconds. Because I imagine towards the end of the flashes they would have one flash of everyone alive then blackout then the next of everyone dead then a blackout then the next of an empty stage then a blackout then the lights would fade back up (to show that they move on after they die) and I guess these last two blackouts and the first flash would give them 20 seconds maybe to take off whatever costume they have on over top of their Void clothes. Anyway just a thought.

2 comments.

Week Eight

Posted on April 4th, 2007 by tilly26.
Categories: Theatre Journals for 100.

Attenetion all peoples and associates of peoples:

Greatest artist ever (bar The Beatles, NOFX, The Format, and Tom Waits) = Charlotte Martin.

Heard her for the first time the other day and she is flippin’ awesome. Just thought I should share.

Now down to buisness;

Why don’t anteaters get sick? Because they’re full of anty-bodies!

Say it with me now; “Lol”.

Directing
Nothing much on the directing front again, since we mainly did set construction and a little bit of Void based acting. I’ve gone through the script and found all the places we need bamboo sticks for the memories and made a list of how big each one needs to be so Jordy can have a bit of an idea of what we’re looking for.

* 4 X Short, fat sticks (to be used as handle bars on 4 bikes)
* 5 X Long, fat sticks (to be used as trees, ores, spears, walls of a house, sides of a sand pit, rails on the tube, and scythes)
* 1 X Short stick of medium fatness (to be used as a blowpipe)
* 2 X Long sticks of medium fatness (to be used as the ropes on a swing)
* 2 X Medium length, fat stick (to be used as a walking stick for the elder on page 51-53, and as branches comming off the main tree that Ketu hangs himself on)

When I say “medium fatness”, I mean fatter than our drama room bamboo sticks, but not as fat as the ones in the picture bellow. The ones in the picture bellow are how fat I want the “fat” ones to be. And for the walking stick / branches, the should be about Jordy’s waist height which will be just about naval height for Tash, which is perfect while still being short enough to be the branches.

So, yeah, most of them need to be about the fatness of those above.

Acting
I’m suprising myself at how well Im learning my lines, I nearly have them all down. Everyone on who’s comming to musical camp who’s doing acting, bring your scripts, nothing more fun then rehearsing between rehearsals… am I right, or am I right? For all the poor kids who haven’t been on musical camp before, you’re in for a shock. The amount of work you do is crazy, and the sleep you get is minimal. It’s pretty full on. But, yeah, Acting is comming along well. Oh and my mother just informed me that her next work function will be at our play. Yep, my mother and about 10 of her work colleagues will be comming to watch us. Terrifying. Yeah not much to report on this week, so I’ll wrap it up here.

Au revoir mes ami.

0 comments.

Weeek Seven

Posted on March 25th, 2007 by tilly26.
Categories: Theatre Journals for 100.

Seven. Already. This is ridic. How is time going by so quickly? I hate dead lines. (haha dead lines… get it?) I feel like I just finished writing my last vineblog yesterday.
What did the digital watch say to his mom? “Look mom no hands.”
I got the shock of my life yesterday, I was reading up on Monash Uni and the head of one of the halls’ name was Sam Worrall! So I read this thing written by this mysterious Sam Worrall and it was quite witty and full of random references so I was like … Did Miss Worrall go to Monash? And is she working there now as a head of Drama or something? Then I saw a photo and this Sam Worrall was a 25 year old male, so I’m under the assumption it’s not her. Haha. But for a moment there I was severely tripped out.

ANYHOOO ….

Acting
Finally got my script down this week. I only know the first void scene though. I think I’ll be able to learn the last scene pretty quickly too. I find a lot easier to remember line when they’re for things that I really go all out for, like in the first scene with the sarcasm and the personal stuff and the yelling and all the rest of it. And in the last scene it’ll be easy to remember as it’s just josh and I talking so I don’t have to remember who my lines come after or anything like that plus it’s a big acting scene that I go all out with and there’s a real sense of urgency to it for the Guide. I don’t know it’s just how my brain works. Whereas in the other scenes where I just say things like “go on”, “yes”, “what do you mean?”, “really?” etc it’s hard to remember where they come or to get motivated to learn them or to remember what the blocking is on each of them. I’ll get there.
It was great to have the lights se up this week, I loved it. It really increased the focus and intensity of all of the cast. Loved it. I hope we can start having lighting and audio in every lesson now, that would make a huge difference to how the rehearsals go. Burak said to me the other day as I was leaving class that Jarrod told him all of us actors need to choose some theme music for our character, so I’ve been thinking about what theme music the Guide should have and I reckon she shouldn’t have any at all. I mean there’s no real place in the whole script where she’s alone on stage at all, I think it would spoil the atmosphere if the was audio involved in her big intro at the start. Plus, on a more character based note, the Guide has no past, no memories, she is a blank to herself, so her experience in the Void would not be accompanied by any music, because she has no idea who she is.

Directing
Now that I’ve finished blocking all the Voids and Cooper and I have collectively finished blocking the whole play, all that needs to happen is tidy-ups. And now that we all have an idea of exactly how the show shapes up, and have a better understanding of the style and of all of the characters, we may change some things. But I guess other than that the main bulk of my job as assistant director is over. Which is good as it lowers my work load but its also sort of bad because I really enjoyed doing what I did and I’ll probably never get the opportunity to have such a major role in creating something like this again. And it was a fantastic opportunity and 100 is something that I just know I’ll be proud to have my name associated with when it goes to production. I think we all will. Directing is the shizz. I’ve wanted to tear my hair out at times, but I love it. I’m so glad I got to do acting and directing, thank you so much for that Coops.

So yeah, I guess that’s it for now. Toodles all.

0 comments.

Week Six

Posted on March 17th, 2007 by tilly26.
Categories: Theatre Journals for 100.

Why did the elephant paint his toenails different colours? So he could hide in the M&M dish! Have you ever seen an elephant in an M&M dish? See it works!

Dare I say it…. “Lol”

AND HAPPY 37TH BIRTHDAY COOPER! Hope you had the best day… on Wednesday and Friday. Sneaky bastard.

Acting
I really want to hurry up and learn my lines so I can get my script down and so my movement isn’t so restricted. Also it’ll mean I can focus more on being in character and less on what to say and when. I thin I’ll be doing a lot of line learning over the holidays and during musical camp. Although last time I pulled homework out at musical camp I copped an earful of what a nerd I was. Kids can be so cruel. I’ve nearly got my lines for the whole first scene down which doesn’t sound like much but the Guide says a hell of a lot in the first void scene. I’m still really working on how to do the bit where she talks about not deciding on a memory being worse than anything you could possibly imagine. This is not only a huge part for the character, having her so exposed and for once not being full of herself and sarcastic as per usual, but it is also the first clue the audience get to her fate and the soon to be fate of Alex. In fact I think there are only two other clues about it in the script before we find out, and they all come from the Guide, but they are far more subtle. (eg. “Who are you?” “That… is a very good question”). So this is a huge part to see the Guide bare and not putting on a front or a mask for once, and to let the audience in on the plot to an extent. When they find out at the end, I want them to all go “Oh! Now I get it! That’s why the Guide was saying that before!” So it has to be memorable but subtle … if that makes sense. Any way the point is that I’m still working on it and I’m kinda stuck, but I’ll find a way to do it eventually … hopefully some time before opening night.

Directing
Just one memory left to block =] So he next step is making sure that everyone has remembered what they do for each memory and tidying up some of them. Right now the tube is looking a little ridic. so I’ll have to fix that up. Sophie’s last memory is just frustrating me in general. We’ll get there. The final issue after that is boxes. Myself, Cooper, Jarrod, Tasha and Jordy need to get together at some point sort out exactly what each box will be used for each scene and exactly how they will be used, because I think we may have some conflicting ideas. As well as being the right size and shape for the memories, they also need to be practical for the Void scenes and able to be moved easily and quietly by the actors on stage. So we can’t have too many massive boxes that block the actors or minimise the space. Because we have such a small stage to begin with, we need to maximise all the space we can.

That’s all from me for this week. You stay classy Santiago.

*this site so needs a spell check on it.

1 comment.

Week Five

Posted on March 9th, 2007 by tilly26.
Categories: Theatre Journals for 100.

What do you call a parrot wearing a raincoat? Polly Unsaturated!
Yep, they just keep getting better and better.

Directing
First of al I just want to say again how much I’m loving the actors doing all of the noises from on stage, I find it really effective. Well I have officially reached the end of my blocking. I’m usually about 2 or 3 scenes ahead in my blocking, but on Friday while Mr Cooper was away we managed to block two more memories (Sophie’s last two memories) and now I have blocked all of the scenes in class that I have blocked in my script, so I’ll need to do a lot more blocking this weekend. I really want to do a run through start to finish as we are about 3/4 of the way through now and i think many scenes will need tidying up and people will need to be reminded of things that they haven’t written in their scripts (eg the coregraphy on Alex’s first memory). I would like to do that for the double on Tuesday, because that way we could do a full run through period four, then do tidy ups at lunch and continue blocking period five. I just want to say thank you to the actors for putting in so much effort, I know it gets tedious and hard to focus at times, but please stick with it and try not to get distracted because it looks really great when you all give your all. With the memory scenes they can either look very effective and transport the audience to where they are set, or they can die in the arse. All of this rests on the actors and how they create it. Eg. If you all are comitted to it, it will look like a jungle. If you do a half-arsed job, it will look like a bunch of actors on stage holding sticks and making bird noises. If you’re all focused and believe what you’re doing I know this is going to be the one piece of theatre from our school days that stands out, and that we are all really proud to have been part of.

Acting
Not much to report on the acting front this week. I’ve almost learnt all mine lines for the first void, which doesn’t sound like much but I say a heck of a lot in that one scene. And that’s pretty much it for now. Haha, I told you there wasn’t muh to report.

Until next week, au revoir mes ami

0 comments.

Week Four

Posted on March 3rd, 2007 by tilly26.
Categories: Theatre Journals for 100.

So I’ve decided to start each blog with a joke, just because I can. Expect them to increase in lameness each week.

Two peanuts were walking down a spooky road at night… One was assaulted.

Haha, I apologise if anyone just fell off their chairs laughing, being hilarious is a dangerous business =p Ok I’ll get into it now…

Acting
This week due to the swimming carnival and leadership training day I was only at two of our four lessons. The first one was our first production meeting which didn’t really involve me as an actor, and I’ll talk about it more when i get to direction. Though it was good to get an idea of what I would be wearing and what kind of a space I would be acting in, but no ideas were really decided on, everyone was just sent away with more work to do before we decide on anything. On Friday’s lesson we blocked the next Void and Ketu’s Memory #1. As the Guide, I’m not involved in the memories and that particular void scene was quite a small one for the Guide. I was pretty pleased that I almost had the lines down for that scene, and I’m quite eager to get rid of my script so I don’t get used to having it my hands and I get to do stuff with my hands, which would add another level of physicality to the Guide. In this scene Nia and Sophie both ask who the Guide is, which I think would really hit a nerve for her, as she doesn’t know who she is. This will be one of those moments where she isn’t her usual arrogant out there sarcastic self and shows a bit of vulnerability. Something that I found works well for me as an actor when I was doing a course at VCA this summer was this “inner monologue” thing. It’s when you think about what the character is thinking, like just a sentence or a few words that you think motivate the character for their opening line or for their whole scene or whatever. So if I was playing Lady MacBeth (shut up Coops) and I was going into the scene where she confront her husband about cowering out of killing Duncan I would have my inner monologue going “I’m gonna kill him. I’m gonna kill him. I’m gonna kill him” before I walk on stage, or as I’m pacing silently on stage or something then launch into it “Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself?” This would help me get into her frame of mind and set the tone for the scene and make it so I don’t spend half the scene warming into the character. I think I need an inner monologue for the bits when the Guide is exposed like that, because it’s just so different to her usual persona. She gets asked those questions that sort of hit home a few times so I want to start thinking about how I can change her inner monologue for those bits, as well as what sort of inner monologue to give her for when she first comes on, since that has to have a huge impact. So now that I’ve given her a background that’s the next thing I’ll be working on. Oh and I’m loving that “dead line” line, can’t wait to do that one again.

Directing
I love. Like I really, really love it, it’s great. I was a bit iffy about it all at first cos I didn’t have too much time to block scenes before we did them in class and then the blocking would have to be re-done and chopped and changed and people would forget things so it was all a bit blah and I didn’t feel that anything I was doing was making the production any better. And the hardest bit is to have to direct my peers and tell them what to do, and always stay focused and keep everyone else focused which is hard in a class like ours. But yeah, it’s a bit daunting having to enforce my ideas and creative stuff upon others, having it open for criticism (which by the way please feel free to give me constructive criticism of what you like and what you don’t and what you feel works and doesn’t and all that jazz). But I think I’m over coming all that now and I’m loving it. Especially with Ketu’s first memory, I came really prepared for that one and rearing to get into it. It uses a lot of transformation of space, objects and characters, which is very physical theatre (Scotty would be proud). I really want to get into it and finish blocking it now, like the part when the council of elders turns into Ketu’s house and family, I have a really good idea for that. And then, if I remember correctly, the next memory is when Alex and Nia first meet, which I have blocked in my script already, too. That one will be fun. I love how the actors really have to create the space they are in and endower the space with the qualities of where they are. For instance in Ketu’s memories they are in Africa doing chores, so they would be hot and sweaty and there would be a lot of glare and the ground would be rough etc. and the whole illusion relies solely on the actors imagination and belief in what they are doing and conviction. I love where it’s all going with the actors providing sound effects and the scene changes back to the void so it seems like the characters haven’t moved at all and defines them from the various characters they play in the memories.

That’s about it from me again this week. And don’t forget Erkia, Burak, Gemma, Joshy, and Tash the lunch time rehearsal this Tuesday. They will only really work if everybody comes to each rehearsal, I know its asking a lot to take time out of lunch but I think it’s necessary and I would really appreciate your efforts.

Toodles y’all.

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Week Three

Posted on February 25th, 2007 by tilly26.
Categories: Theatre Journals for 100.

Howdy collective doodies. This week I haven’t really thought in depth about any of the stage craft areas outside of my own as I have been quite preoccupied with these ones. Shall we start with acting?
Acting
…Is the hardest profession in the world. Haha, when musical rehearsals and homework start to blur together, you know its getting sad. This week I’ve been struggling a bit with the acting. The Guide is such a good character and I really want to do a good job of her and live up to the potential of this character. This week I haven’t been playing the guide consistently, one second she’s a bitch then she’s nice then she’s just Lisa running around yelling at people. There are two main reasons for this.
1) I’m no the most literate person in the world, so even though I go over the lines before hand and think about what emotion to put into them, each time I read the lines its like I’m reading them for the first time. So until I learn my lines, I will have to be reading them and stumbling over them and they will be foreign to me so I won’t be doing them convincingly. It’s like every rehearsal is a cold read, which is why the Guide seems a little two dimensional at the moment. But of course this will correct itself as soon as I learn my lines off by heart.
2) I haven’t been getting into character before each rehearsal. I now have a back-story for my character and I know her motivations for everything, but I never seem to have time to get into character when we’re warming up. This might be because we play Zap as a warm up and while it gets us energised, it doesn’t allow time to focus, and warm up our voices and bodies. I really found it so much more useful when myself, Tash, Josh and Erika (and I think Burak? I can’t remember, haha sorry Burak!), did our little warm up in the private side bit of the room where the bolsters are. This helped a lot but I think it may have been a bit rushed.
Anyway those are my excuses for sucking right now. But what is more important is why I rule. Haha. I made up the background story for The Guide which I think fits with everything she does and explains everything.

The Guide
So here are some little things about the Guide:
*Her name was Seana
*She was 24 when she died
*She was born and raised in Castle Hill NSW
*She moved to Sydney when she finished school and did a business course for 3 years
*She was engaged to a man named Mark who was born in Australia but spent most of his life in France.
*She travelled with Mark to France often but never bothered to learn the language
*She was a secretary at a big company
*She wasn’t one for reflection; she was more of a “live for the moment and never look back” person
*Mark owned a motor bike and drove her to work each day on the back of it
*She was a bit of a wild child but always acted professionally at work
*She had an excellent and polite phone manner
*She had a very short temper and often had fights with Mark; she’d crack it with him over the smallest things
*She didn’t have much contact with her family, simply out of laziness, though she claimed it was because she was a free spirit
*On her and Mark’s 3 year anniversary when she was walking across the road to get coffee for her boss. A car came screaming down the street and hit her, she died before the ambulance arrived
*When she reached the void she was in denial and didn’t believe she was dead at first
*She had never reflected at all in her life and couldn’t think of just one moment to sum her up and to live for again and again for all eternity.
*She watched everyone else in her group choose their memories almost instantly which made her even more frustrated that she couldn’t think of anything. She vented this frustration by fighting with and yelling at her guide and was so busy being angry she didn’t stop and think about what a nice, polite person she mostly was.
*She has been stuck in the Void for 13 years and has aged that much, though it seems to her like forever
*She gets bored of doing the same spiel over and over again so tries to make each group a little different
*She is so tormented by being stuck in this loop of being the Guide forever and not knowing anything about who she really is
*Her good side does shine through though, as she doesn’t want people to have to suffer the same torment as her
*But she has her own selfish motives too, hoping that each person may prompt a memory of who she is, and some have come close, but no one ever really gives a memory that she can use to remind her of who she was and stop this hell, which just makes her more frustrated
*She grows almost angry at the people she is trying to help after some time, as they aren’t doing anything to help her and they seem to pass on so easily, which makes her a bit jealous
*After a while this spite turns to arrogance because she realises that she is the only way out for these people, that she is almost God-like to them and that they are entirely dependant on her

I came up with these things because it explains her spontaneous “chameleon like” behaviour. It also explains why she seems to direct most of her speech at Alex and is interested in his and Nia’s memories. He feels familiar to her as he is so much like Mark. The motor bike memory especially captures her attention. At the end she says:
“I listened to your stories as I’ve listened to thousands of others…hoping in some way they would remind me. That some faint image of my life would return… something to cling to. A second chance to decide. From the moment I saw you there was something familiar about you. I had a feeling your memory could be the one.”
This prompted most of my thoughts on her and helped to develop her well.

Directing
I started blocking this week, and sort of got thrown in the deep end, having to block a scene because someone was away, so we had to jump straight to the first Void, which I hadn’t prepared for. So a bit of spontaneous blocking was needed. But then I called a lunch time rehearsal to tidy it up and choreograph the bikes and it looked really, really good. No one had their scripts so the new direction wasn’t written down by the cast, so next time we run that scene in class I’m just going to make sure everybody knows where to jostle and when, and make sure the cannon effect is achieved on the corners with both the bodies and the voices. I had a completely different idea in mind from what Mr Cooper suggested and ended up blocking for Sophie’s memory, but his way seems to work well too. I’d still like to see my way as well and compare the two just to make sure we’re doing it best, we may end up putting in elements from bot of our ideas.
I’ve also been doing some dramaturgy on near death experiences and found some interesting stuff that I’ll put onto a word doc at some point in time so as I can post it up here. I think it will be especially helpful for Sophie as she supposedly has had a near death experience before.

Well that’s all folks, till next time

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