Final reflection

Research and development:

From the initial reading of the script, I began to form the world of the play in my imagination
and by communicating with my peers and compromising ideas we could quickly begin to
bring it to life. To gain a deeper understanding I made sure to re-read the script in my own
time, analysing the text and listening to the songs so that I could begin to have a feel for the
characters and how relationships would form between them. Upon doing this I could also
start to think about what this show means to me and what perspective I could take when
pursuing it. We were asked to create presentations on designated research topics, which
helped me a lot to gain further knowledge which could be put forward made good use of in
the rehearsal room such as mental health issues amongst teenagers and how that could play a
part in each of our character development.
Once we began creating movement and started blocking scenes I could see how all the
characters became involved in this world, Most things were down to open discussion which
was useful so that we could all voice our own opinions and ideas and create a play which felt
personal to us as a cast which made it much easier to bring to life. When we were casted I
spent some time looking at my scene and began to create some ideas for my character and
their backstory, I did this so when it came to individual rehearsal time with our director I
could stay efficient in the work space by already knowing my characters objectives and
relationship dynamics with other characters. Another thing I had to focus on was being in the
band, This was another layer on top of working on my character where it felt as though I was
multi-rolling as my character, “Baron Earlsfield” and becoming a band member. This meant
that I had to spend my own time learning songs on the bass guitar so that I could make good
use of my time whilst in the rehearsal space, so as not to slow the process down when
working on full cast numbers.

Rehearsal space:
Once intensive rehearsals had started I found it much easier to get into the swing of things,
being able to focus fully on the show made it much easier to concentrate on giving my full
attention to the show and allowed me to try my hardest each rehearsal. What was most useful
for me, each day, was the fact that we started out with either a game or a focus exercise which
helped me get back in touch with the rest of the cast which is important as there is a lot of
ensemble work in the show. As the weeks progressed I found it harder to stay focused
because of the work load, I was becoming more tired, but working such a happy and
comfortable environment it allowed me to work efficiently so I could get work done and take
necessary rest breaks where needs be. Something else I found challenging was working out
when and where I was needed as a band member because nearer the start of intensive
rehearsals whilst we were just blocking it didn’t occur to me as much btu when scenes and
songs started to get pieced together it was difficult to track when we had to be on and off
stage, to make sure we had time to be in scenes, be set up in time for songs and how to
navigate costume changes, which seemed quite overwhelming at first. But after the second
stagger through of the whole show it became apparent to our director that this needed to be
worked on, so we sat down with the full cast and wrote in our scripts all of our ques for when
we had to come on and off stage, whether that was with the band or not, and how much time
we needed to get prepped.
From all the time spent in the rehearsal room, running through scenes we weren’t necessarily
a part of, it allowed me to take a back seat and which from more of a directive point of view,
which I think proved useful because there was a few moments in which our director would
ask our creative view points, and has taken me up on a few of my suggestions which fuelled
my passion for directing, which has started to become more of a special interest of mine since
the beginning of this academic year.
A key moment for me during this rehearsal process was when I properly understood the
vision for my scene, going into it I had a few ideas but after having discussions with my
director and what she wanted for the scene, it clicked for me once I started to begin blocking.

Production week:
At the beginning of production week, we jumped straight into tech, which was a big change
from the usual rehearsal room which is a big empty space, we now had to take into account
the set, the lights, the wings, the audience which was not something we were used to,
however due to the nature of a tech run, things were very choppy, having to stop and start,
which allowed for some time to adapt and problem solve any issues we had before doing a
dress run. One problem I had encountered in my scene, was doing a quick change, on stage!
Although I think this was a great choreographed dress, it was proving quite difficult because
it wasn’t the easiest thing to slip into, as I had to already have on one underlayer, whilst
putting on another two, in a short period of time, it was doable, but quite tricky, so the next
day we spent some time working on that before moving into our first dress run.
Our first dress run went overall relatively well, there was minor bumps where the drummer
began to early for one of the songs, while the rest of the band was getting set up which threw
off the entrance of the rest of the cast but it was quickly resolved as we managed to catch up
with the drums. Afterwards we then checked with the drummer to make sure that we were all
ready before starting the song to prevent this from happening again. My scene went smoothly
up until the dress change where we managed to get on one layer without too much fuss but I
realised we were too near the end of the scene to try and get the second one on, so played it
off by snatching it out of the other characters hand with an annoyed expression to show that
the dress was the least of my worries in this characters point of time, which my director
ended up liking so we kept that in indefinitely. In the second dress rehearsal, The cast as a
whole felt a lot more confident, as we had ironed out all of the creases in the last dress run,
and overall felt as though there was a lot more energy, there little to no mistakes made, which
resulted in some great professional photos.
Opening night we started off strong, we had all of our adrenaline building up waiting for this
moment, which gave us that boost of energy we needed. It all went well, my transitions on
and off stage were smooth, and for my scene the pacing was good, as I have a tendency to
rush, but I flet as though I kept a good tempo and projected all of my lines. The change went
smoothly, I was worried because it took longer than expected to come on stage but I still
managed to get it on in time.
The last show we performed I feel as though as a company was better, but for myself I was
quite tired, however still very excited to perform, this time I didn’t have to think about or
stress as much because by this time it all came to me naturally. This time around it felt a lot
easier, although I wish I savoured it a little bit more, because looking back, this has been my
favourite and fondly memorable project to date.