Project 2: A Christmas Carol Reflection And Rehearsal Pictures

Week 1 Reflection:

We are doing a stage performance of A Christmas Carol. A Christmas Carol is a book written by Charles dickens that can be performed on stage. It is about a man named scrooge who is visited by three spirits the ghost of Christmas past, present and future and they show him the past, present and future Christmases in hope to change his negative view towards Christmas and his attitude towards others.

Monday, we had to choose a monologue that we had we had to learn for Wednesday where we did an audition to see who we wanted to play. I chose to audition for the role of Bob Cratchit or Mrs. Cratchit.

To help me memorize my monologue i read it again and again and recorded myself and replayed it back.

My audition time slot.

Wednesday, Today was the day audition, it went absolutely terrible, my nerves and anxiety got a hold of me and i started cry. However, it has benefited me as i got experience what it is like to do an audition.

Week 2 reflection;

Today we received our scripts for a Christmas carol and i found out that despite my audition going really bad i got the role of Mrs. Cratchit, i couldn’t be more thrilled. In order to improve my knowledge i did research into the Charles dickens the Victorian era.

To help me remember my lines i highlighted them.

This week we made a start on the show. We started in the opening scene of acc, it is like a choreographed movement piece of people moving in and out of each other to create the idea of a happy village on christmas.

Today we got into groups and discussed things such as sound, costume and props.

Our ideas for props.

These were our ideas of sound in the script.

Then in groups we then discussed lighting, management and front of house.

A diagram of lighting.

Our ideas for front of house.

We rehearsed the scene were Jacob Marley scene we focused on sound and making sound effects .

On Friday we focused on the set and the props, we went through the prop cupboard and looked through different props we could use. By the end of our session, we had an idea of how everything was going to look, whilst everyone was thinking and putting set together me and Rose painted a headboard which will be used as scrooges’ bed.

Scrooges headboard

The past week we have been working on blocking scenes in a christmas carol. We have also worked on a dance that transitions into the scene where scrooge visits the first ghost. My role is to basically run around in circles around scrooge. I felt stress and anxious at the beginning because I’m not a good dancer and it took me a while to get a hang of the dance, but i think that once i understood it, it was okay.

Today we worked on blocking the ghost of christmas present scene, which is my first scene. In the scene i put my kids to bed and have a disagreement with Bob. I think that it looked good in the end because at the beginning i was a bit confused and i was stumbling over my lines, but it worked out well although it could have been better. Also, there was a scene where two couples dance at Fezziwig’s i was supposed to do a dance with somebody else, but we weren’t getting a hang of the dance, it was funny because we didn’t know how to dance so instead, we are just going to mime drinking and talking.

22nd November 2022- Today we had a group meeting on props and set. We talked about what props we needed and who was going to get them, we also talked about what set we need and who is going to help set that up. I volunteered to paint set.

List of props and who is gonna bring them in.

On Friday we spent the morning making props and painting set. I worked on painting an umbrella black which will be used for one of the wheels of the couch. And started painting a fire place which will be used in the Cratchits and scrooges house.

The painting of the wheels and the car, for the coach man scene
Painting the fireplace

This week we put set together, scrooges bedroom and office and the Cratchit’s house. We finished painting set, the fireplace and the head of the bed and made little props to ‘sell’ in the opening scene. This has benefited my creative skills and i can help to paint a set when one is needed.

Scrooges bedroom window.

On Tuesday we got our hair and makeup done, to make us look like our characters. I got mine done as my character Mrs. Cratchit. This has benefited me as i have experienced getting my makeup and hair done by a media makeup artist to perform on stage. It has also made me feel more like my character and the more we do it the more she comes to life.

My hair for Mrs. Cratchit.
My makeup.

This week we have been doing run throughs of the play, with lighting and us in costume and hair and makeup. I think that it is going well the more we practice and rehearse, but i feel like we can improve on our focus and consecration and work on being quiet when we are not on stage.

Today we set up chairs and finished off set to make it was ready for the performance.

8th December 2022- Today was the day of the performance and i think that it went well, i made sure to work on my projection and i think that i was louder than i was before. We all worked together as a team and i think it was affective at good. Over all it was fun experience and we got to experience what its like to perform in front of a proper audience.