Week One: We was handed out our scripts and given our roles. I got the characters of Fezziwig and The Ghost of Christmas Present. We then started to do some research about Charles Dickens, the playwright, as well as the time the play was set, the characters we were playing, the venue we are playing at and the play itself. Researching about the era the play was set in was helpful as it helped us understand the play and how it was set. Researching about my characters helped me get a better understanding of them and how to get into character for them. We started rehearsing our lines, so we are ready for rehearsals and also because when you’re off script it makes it a lot easier to either characterize or stay in character when you’re not constantly looking at the script. As well as researching the play, characters, era and the playwright, I also researched what costume we would need for my characters so I would be prepared in time for dress rehearsals and runs of the play before the final performance.
Week Two: We started by walking around the room as our characters to start thinking about how to physicalize them, their posture and how they would walk. Their class had a lot to do with this, the way they would stand and present themselves. If they were stood tall with their heads raised, they had money, working class. They weren’t as rich as royalty but had enough to live comfortably and support their families. If they weren’t as lucky, the poor would walk with a hunched posture, head hung low. They wouldn’t walk as proud as the working class. As I have two characters I would switch between Fezziwig and The Ghost of Christmas Present. While Fezziwig was a member of the working class and would walk high and proud, The Ghost of Christmas present was beyond that. He is above everyone as he is a spirit. It’s almost as if he doesn’t acknowledge anyone around him other than Scrooge. Walking round as The Ghost also helped with ignoring people and them ignoring me as when the Ghost and Scrooge are in a scene with other characters, those characters can’t see us, so it helps with practicing for those scenes. Later on, in the dance portion of the lesson, we began to work on our opening scene just before the first scene starts. We made the overture with a mix of caroler’s, small children running through the street, homeless people begging for money, and a lot more to make it seem like a busy London Victorian Street. We started blocking a few of the scenes as well, such as Scene 1, Scrooge in his office, and Marley’s entrance. We used me and Hollie to become the door for Marley’s scene so we could create the effect that Marley was coming through the door. I would keep laughing so that is something I’ve got to work on so I don’t corpse in the show, and mess up the scene for me peers.
Week Three: This week we continued on with Marley’s entrance and worked on including the door into the scene instead of just awkwardly walking off stage. The door would turn into spirits and add to the sound scape we had created while Scrooge leaves his office to walk home. Sparsit, the cook and the charwoman would also join this the spirit scene after they had done their lines. After this we added a dance piece for Marley’s entrance where we are all ghosts that being Scrooge to Marley by surrounding him. I really enjoyed having a dance added into the play, i think it added tension to the scene around how Scrooge slowly thinks he is going crazy while he is surrounded by spirits. We also started to block out Fezziwig’s and The Ghost of Christmas Present scenes. I struggled a lot with memorizing my lines but I tried my best not to look at my script throughout the scene. I enjoyed working on my scene but I wasn’t projecting my voice enough to be heard so we kept doing it to work on getting my voice louder after each run of it. This week we also started to discuss costuming and props, we had to stick to the victorian era which was a little difficult at first but we managed to find costuming for each character that fit the era. We also talked about bringing a small christmas tree in to put on the fire place and some little presents that we wrapped in tissue paper to keep it tied to the victorian era.
Week 4: This week we continued blocking the few scenes that we hasn’t finished blocking yet, such as the ending. The ending was very chaotic and didn’t have much of a christmassy feel to it so we kept redoing it until we finally managed to create an ending that we were proud of. We also created finished off any set that we had created through the scene to make sure that everything was in place. We created a sign reading ‘Scrooge and Marley’s’ that we hung up over Scrooges desk to give it more of an office feel. This week consisted of lots of runs to prepare us for the show on Thursday. While we would run the show, we had an issue with noise backstage that we eventually managed to sort out after being told multiple times. We would communicate to get ready for scenes or look for props/costume but would often end up missing cues due to the noise We also had runs with full makeup and costume. For me, It was sometimes difficult to see because of the wig i was wearing so i felt as though i was going to trip, but after a few runs with it, i got used to it and i was able to see without having the wig in my eyes. I was still still struggling with my lines but I had the majority of it so any time i forgot a line i was able to keep it running smoothly for the audience and for my peers.
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