Rehearsal Notes

We have had many rehearsals for our production of Spring Awakening and every week I have seen the progression of the play and how it all links together. Over the rehearsal process there have been certain scenes which we have focused on more, due to their difficulty or delicate subject matters. These two scenes are the woodland scene with Lizzie, Humera and I and the beating scene with Josh and Devan. To start of with both these scenes were rather stiff and unnatural and I put this done to nerves or fear of letting go and allowing our characters to shine through. 

Tim did many exercises to help Lizzie, Humera and I in the woodland scene, but the most effective was when he got us to close our eyes and lie on the floor. He then played some music and we had to 'wake up', seeing the room as a sunny day in the forest. While exploring the woodland lying down and moving slowly we said our lines with no characterisation, just feeling the warmth from the sun and feeding off each other. The aim of this was to get us all out of our heads and feel the forest. The woodland is where the children go to escape the claustrophobic atmosphere of school and home so we had to bring this across. Melchior also refers to Wendla as being a 'wood nymph' and I wanted to get this natural quality across in this scene too. After we had completed our lines we carried on feeling the forest until Tim said to stop. After the exercise we all felt refreshed and I suddenly understood the scene. We needed to free it up and explore the space, keeping the pace going, both in our actions and our lines. We then did the scene again and I could feel the improvement already. All of us were just playing in the space and living as three friends in the forest catching up. It was a great exercise to do and one in which we could translate over into the New Theatre. Over the course of the rehearsal period, both Lizzie, Humera and I have worked on this scene outside of class in order to get that deep connection the three girls have. I think this scene has developed nicely over time and I know that when we get into the New Theatre with the set it will truly come to life. 

The other woodland scene where Melchior beats Wendla, and due to it's complicated events, Tim really focused on the importance of this scene. To start off with the scene was far to preempting, with Josh and I pausing too much as we were so focused on the beating right at the end. Once Tim told us that we should relax and exist as two characters who find each other attractive and want to be around each other, the lines eased up and the scene because more lucid and endearing. Josh and I worked with Devan concerning the passing of the switch and the fall near the end. we tried many different methods of the attack by Melchior at the end. The first being a slow motion hit, with Josh over me and I reacting. Devan and I would scream over the top of the hits as Josh then backed off. We tried working with this a few times but it always made the scene too stilted and uneasy. The hitting looked fake and over melodramatic. Even though I felt safe and comfortable, I could tell it wasn't working and if something were to go wrong in the performance both Josh and I could get seriously hurt. Tim then tried something new. During the hayloft scene where Melchior rapes Wendla, Josh stands a few center meters away from Devan and Devan feels the impact of Josh being there. Tim then transferred this style into the beating scene, so now after Josh had pushed me (and Devan safely landing me on the floor) he would step back a bit and then hit the air as I then felt the impact on the floor. This was extremely effective and felt more natural somehow. Having said this the hits were messy and the scream didn't quite fit. Jody who is the head of dance strand then came in to help Josh and I. She advised Devan on a cleaner way of laying me down, placing her hand on my shoulders and not under my arms and she choreographed the hits and reactions, having two in the stomach, two to the face and four near my chest, stomach and then gut.  She also said that the reason the scream wasn't working is because when you get punched in the stomach it knocks the air out of you so you literary can't breathe. She said it was more of a breathless grunt for the first few hits, then an agonizing scream for the rest. We tried this and I could feel the scene working so much better. As the end sequence had been sorted it eased my mind up and I could really get lost in the scene and be free. For me, the main reason why this scene was quite tricky to rehearse was because I didn't want the emotion of get too stale or comfortable, I wanted there to still be an element of surprise and horror when I performed it. I have learnt now though that rehearsals are used for this reason, they are there to experiment with different moods and choices. This scene has been a massive learning curve for me, as I have learned how to stage a fight and how to let go and just allow the scene to happen as if it is happening for the first time. 

As Devan and I share the role of Wendla, we have spent a lot of time together over the rehearsal process getting and comparing notes on the two different Wendla's. Whenever we did a character exercise we would always either be together or compare discoveries afterwards, and if our choices were different we would talk through them together. We decided that our character would be the colour yellow if she were to be a colour, the number seven if she were to be a number, the season of spring if she were to be a season and the a grape if she were to be a grape (Devan was a frozen grape though, representing the older and more experienced Wendla). It has been really liberating working on a character with another actor and I have really enjoyed finding Wendla with Devan. 

Overall I have really enjoyed these rehearsals because I have had another glimpse into what a professional one looks like, with the production team sitting in and having a read through and props checks and costume fittings. I have learned and gained so much from these rehearsals that will help me in the future as a hopeful professional actor. I noticed that some people were excellent at rehearsing, meaning they were always on their ques, always listening and awake in the space, on top of their lines and bringing their character choices into the space with them. Jackie is a good example of this. I have observed that she was always there and brought such strong and bold choices to the table that her character was set from the first day. Tim's direction has really helped me feel comfortable in choosing strong character impulses and safe throughout all the rehearsals. I've learned that you always have to bring a constant amount of energy to each rehearsal as then you will produce a very useful and effective scene. Getting on top of your lines quickly is also something I've noticed throughout my time at BRIT, but even more so now. Once you are off book it frees up your physicality and enables the director and your fellow actors something to play with. 

Personally, I think I have been very focused and awake during our rehearsals, being on top of ques and lines. Even though I wasn't always vocally strong and sometimes held back at the beginning, I quickly changed that and I hope I was good to direct and made my fellow cast members feel safe and comfortable on stage. As I said before, I have really enjoyed these rehearsals for common ground and found the independence of going off with Lizzie, Humera, Devan and Josh to rehearse very liberating which helped me develop my character with purpose. 

Below are some pictures taken during the Spring Awakening process:

Hot Seating

Today in rehearsal we looked at the acting game Hot Seating. This is a very good exercise for learning new things about your character, such as their life, history, personal interests and thoughts towards other characters. The contextual setting for the hot seating was that our character, so Wendla, had been invited to The BRIT School to be interviewed by the fellow students. All information would be classified. This would happen around the start of the play, therefore affecting out answers, responses and questions, so they wouldn't be affected by the action of the play. I was also very keen in discovering more about Wendla's past, as well as the other characters. 

Our group decided to set  a few questions that we would ask each character and then ask a few free questions leading on from their response. I decided to go first. Seth filmed my answers and I typed them up below:

• What's your favourite colour and why?Blue. Like the sky, because I always feel like the sky is really open and free and I like the feeling of being free. Oh and Blue really suits my eyes as they are blue too.
• What's your first memory? Going up to the apple orchid with my sister Ina and us picking apples and then making fresh apple juice in the afternoon. I don't know why I remember it. I think it was the first time I've ever been outside properly because we have a garden, a small garden, but we have a small forest by us but because I was only like five at the time I wasn't allowed to go in it by myself, and it was the first time I'd ever been in there. 
• What's your relationship like with your family?Um, I've got a very close relationship with my mother and my sister, um, not so much with my father because he left when I was just seven and then he died a year later. I don't know what he died of and I don't want to, don't feel the need to know, I'm fine not knowing really. 
• What's are your hobbies?I like reading, and um walking. I visit the poor which I really enjoy, that's a really fun hobby. I read historical things often there's a male in it and a female and they often fall in love and I like stories like that. Like romance although mother says I'm too young and aren't aware of it.
• What's your favourite item of clothing?Probably my ...see I would say my fairy dress, but it's not really my favourite. I think my favourite is this coat my mum got for me when I was about six. It's quite short and it's got lots of buttons and flowers over it and it just reminds me of being outside. It's blue and it's wool, so it's like a winter coat. That's why I liked it, it was like Spring in Winter
• What's your guilty pleasure?Chocolate. Mother only allows it on my birthday and Christmas.
• What's your favourite way to wear your hair?Loose and flowing down my back. Sometimes I like it when mother plates the front of my hair back and ties it with ribbon. 
• What causes you the most stress?Probably seeing mother upset because I know it's probably something that I've done and that doesn't make me feel comfortable. 
• Who was your first love?My Mother.
• What's your favourite song?It's, it's like this jazzy number by James Sherman and his Orchestra. It's really sort of...I don't know, it's not really suitable for my age I don't think but I always remember my parents putting it on and dancing around the sitting room to it. It always makes me feel something, even though I don't like dancing because I feel really exposed which I don;t mind but I'm not very good at it and I don't like doing things that I'm not good at and I don't like not understanding why I'm not good at things.
• What's your favourite subject at school? Probably Latin. Because it's so old and I love how its survived you know since like the Romans and it seems so romantic and it's like a lost language but we're still speaking it and I just think there's something really enchanting and magistic about that and I really like it. And I'm good at it as well.

Through hot seating I also discovered a fair amount about Wendla's past. For example her father isn't mentioned in the text, and Devan, Maya and I had discussed before that he had died, but it wasn't until hot seating that the story of him leaving mysteriously one day and then dying a year later only came up through hot seating. Afterwards I spoke to Devan and Maya about it and they said it sounded realistic. I found it interesting that her favourite lesson was Latin because she found it romantic and mysterious. Later on we did a whole cast improvisation where all the kids were in a Latin class, so that was extremely handy to see how Wendla would be in that circumstance. I found this process extremely useful and a great imagination exercise. I have always loved hot seating because I enjoy putting my own ''spin'' on a character and finding their past by myself. It is now more obvious to me who Wendla is and what she believes in. She has had a very cushioned and loving family life but has had enough and wants to explore her world for herself. 

When taking on the role of the interviewer, I was very interested in all the characters pasts and understanding their family and background. We started off using the questions as templates, but I soon found myself leading off them and asking more personal and specific questions for each character and spurring off their responses to the set questions we devised. For example, when interviewing the mysterious masked man we focused a lot on his past and how he came about doing the job he does. It turns out he does what he does due to personal experiences. He was beaten and abused as a child and came close to suicide himself before thinking that he could help others. He is younger than I expected and keeps his family close to his heart. This sparked questions such as 'Where is your mother now?' and 'How do you keep doing to job you are doing?' Besides these heavy questions we asked slightly lighter ones to try and figure out his personality. We got the impression that he was trying to do good in the world and stop young adults from doing something they might regret, as he almost did. It was also interesting to see his opinion on the suppressed society, as he spoke about how he thought this was the main reason for him having to do this job in the first place.

I found listening to everyone else as they were being hot seated very engaging as it brought out some answers that I didn't expect and lots of specific and thoughtful answers. I found out more about each character which helped my understanding of the play. It was interesting to see Ashleigh as the Headmistress without Jackie, as we could really question her about why she need oxygen and her background. It helped me as Wendla to understand her friends and teachers a little more. It was a lovely inclusive exercise as we were all watching each other delve deeper into our characters mind set and therefore develop the play character wise all together.

A still from Wendla's Hot Seating session.

Laban Effort

In rehearsals recently we have been looking and practicing Rudolph Von Laban and his 'Laban Efforts'. The Efforts are a system of describing and applying movement, observing the way in which an actor vocalizes and physicalises their character, thus unlocking the key identity of their character. 'All eight efforts are of equal value and together make up the complete human potential of ways in which we function.' Many theatre practitioners, such as Mike Alfred's, use the Laban technique when discussing a characters internal and external movement. 

The Efforts are made up of six elements according to how the movement is performed. These elements fit into three categories: Weight, Space and Time (speed/tempo). Weight doesn't have anything to do with personal bulkiness, as many ''heavy'' people can move with extreme lightness, it is more about the levels of intensity and gravitational pull when moving. Space concerns how one moves around it and how you relate to it directionally. Here are the elements:

Weight:

• Light- Operating with ease and without effort having no barriers to break through or resistance to overcome. There is a freedom from gravity with all your energy swaying upwards, like a cloud is lifting you up.
• Strong-There is some level of intensity constantly having a barrier to break through or a resistance to overcome, as if one is moving through mud or sand.

Space:

• Direct-A total level of focus and sense of purpose, you know what you want and you impose yourself on the world, initiating what it is you want. You lead with your aim and always know where you are going, in other words you make things happen.
• Flexible-This implies you have no focus or purpose but are completely available and vulnerable, being open to affection. You are moved by impulses, receiving and taking in, absorbing whatever comes your way. You allow things to happen to you. 

Time:

• Sustained-Implies a continuous unbroken movement and energy, flowing from one physical state to the other. Movement tends to be curved and soft, there is nothing abrupt and mobility tends to be slow.
• Broken-A constant renewed amount of angular and abrupt fast energy, the impulses being refreshed second by second. 

The Archetypal Efforts are the three-way pairing of these elements and as I said before, they can be applied to both movement and vocal qualities. The combination of the two can give a character depth and help you understand their physical and emotional sates, as well as their internal one.

Light/Flexible/Sustained=Floating

Light/Flexible/Broken=Flicking

Light/Direct/Sustained=Gliding 

Light/Direct/Broken=Dabbing

Strong/Flexible/Sustained=Wringing 

Strong/Flexible/Broken=Slashing

Strong/Direct/Sustained=Pressing

Strong/Direct/Broken=Thrusting/Punching 

If a character moved around in a Slashing manner, you might think they are angry, tense and harsh, with a thuggish personality. This immediately affects the status of the character and they way others react to them. Making a subtle change of making them move with more of a Thrusting focus, this could instantly uplift their performance and change their characteristics to being more forward and direct with a self confidence. A character can play around with two efforts at once, both internally and externally. For example a character could be Wringing on the inside with perhaps stresses and strains from life but on externally present themselves as Gliding. This shows that they are trying to cover up their troubles, instantly adding another level onto the character. 

We explored all the Efforts through movement which I found really interesting to see how one element can change and alter the overall intensity of the movement. A lot of commitment and self awareness is required when trying out these elements and I noticed when we tried out Dabbing and Thrusting/Punching, not everyone was as committed or as comfortable as we were when we tried Floating and Slashing. I think this was because Floating and Slashing had defiant and direct movements which we often explore in our everyday lives, whereas Dabbing and Thrusting/Punching required a more abstract movement. After we all had tried the Efforts, I felt more comfortable focusing on all of them and discovered that when you layer up different Efforts and apply them physically and emotionally, both external and internal, you have a rounded character with a deep and bold purpose. 

When exploring my character Wendla, I discovered that internally she was Wringing in her vocals and Slashing in her physicality. This contrasted with her external Pressing vocally and her external physicality of Gliding.  Vocally this represents her inquisitive nature and her desperate desire and need for knowledge and to find out new things. She won't stop until she finds out everything that she doesn't understand and Devan and I both agreed that Wendla is quite a stubborn and intelligent character, in other words always wanting to know more. The Wringing symbolizes the oppression she feels from her Mother and she can't understand why she isn't being told about reproduction. Physically this represents her youth and confidence but also how she is quite exposed. Wendla has a lot of self confidence but can snap slightly when things either don't go her way or when she doesn't understand something. After doing Laban I feel as if Wendla is now more rounded and I know how to move around the stage more.