Our final rehearsal.

Da-da-dum!

It went well - I am most pleased with the result of our labours. We ran the scene multiple times, and the got progressively better as they lacked a little energy at the start. Once we got into, though, it was fine - however it has made us schedule a quick practice just before performance on Wednesday night to 'get in the mood'.
One of Shannon's friend was nearby, so we asked her to come in and watch, to ensure that the scene was understandable - especially to a person unfamiliar with the scene or with Shakespearean language. She said that she liked it and that she did understand it. She did say that Shannon needed to speak a little louder to be heard over her shoes when she is moving, and that Lee needs to emphasise her breasts a little more as she didn't understand that she was actually a woman. But she did say that she understood that Cesario was sent from her master to declare his love for Olivia, and that Olivia fell in love with the messenger at the end. So at least the main plot is distinguishable.

After Shannon's friend left, I asked the girls to perform the scene with 4x diction and pronunciation, as I feel they were getting a little sloppy in places as they grew more comfortable with the scene. It was difficult for them to maintain it for the entire scene, as it runs so long, however the exercise did get them to think about dialogue more.

For the final run, we performed as if a dress rehearsal. I offered no advice, until afterwards, and I timed it. It runs for about 7 minutes. The energy levels need to be pushed up a little, but apart from that, I think it will be fine.

Today we focused on refining the movements that we rehearsed yesterday. Shannon brought her clothes, which were perfect, and both girls practiced in costume. We ran the scene once without me stopping them, I gave them feedback on it, and then we ran it slower, with me jumping in to coach when needed. We repeated this a few times, until I let them run it again with no interruptions. My main coaching was a result of them forgetting little things that we had practiced yesterday, however by the third run-through they had remembered them all.

We then ran through the girl's speeches: Lee's 'make me a willow cabin at your gates' and Shannon's 'I'll be sworn thou art'. They needed slight tweaking, mainly just moving a step, or a half step, to one side, etc. however were mostly better than yesterday.

I thought some moments needed a little more energy still, and they were both speaking a little too quietly in parts so I asked the girls to run the scene again, but at 4x the energy. I observed from near the back of the theatre, as I reasoned that I should be seeing from there what I would normally see from near the front at standard energy. They were a little cautious at first, especially Lee with her 'I am not that I play', where she emphasises her breasts, however they warmed into it as the run progressed. I felt that although some bits were definately over the top, the energy in some parts (for example their reactions) could remain in the actual production. I asked the girls to put extra energy into the scene, (not 4x though!) and it would probably come out at a happy medium. I think Shannon especially needs a little more energy in some parts, as she is hiding behind the desk for most of it. Lee's character is also easy to make big and energetic. The big performing space means more energy and slightly bigger movements are necessary as smaller movements are lost. The Beggar's Opera set definately helps to reduce the space.

We ended with one final run through, uninterrupted by me. I gave the girls feedback on the final run through (most of which was positive) and we parted ways, ready to meet on Monday for our final rehearsal!

Drawing close to rehearsal date now. Only tomorrow and Monday left! But that's four hours of practice, and with the current rate of progress, that's heaps of time!

So today, after a quick warmup, we invaded the main theatre for 40 minutes. (It was supposed to be 20, but the other group never came in. Odd.) I brought in a few costume ideas that I had - black scarves, boas, beads, etc. for Shannon and a flower for Lee. Lee brought in her costume, and it looks great! I had an idea last night for Shannon's costume: seeing as the main reason I wanted to set this in the 1920s was to play up on it being the first era where women could wear pants, it would make more sense for Olivia to sport this fashion. If she could wear black pants and a loose top, it would still suit the fashion, and she could look sort of manly (well, she'll be in pants...). Shannon said that she has a top that sounds right, and she'll bring it in tomorrow with black pants.

The girls then ran through the scene, using the blocking that we had practiced last rehearsal. I told them to keep going to the end, improvising what we had not discussed. The beginning was a little rough, as they had forgotten some of the movements, however I could see the potential and was happy with the movements we had chosen. We practiced the beginning again and the girls were much better, as they now remembered the movements.

We worked on a few blank spots, such as leaning in for a secret and Lee's exit, and then moved on to the big speeches which needed careful blocking.

I had specific ideas in mind for Lee's impassioned speech near the end of the scene, so we focused on that bit for awhile as it needed to be rehearsed in the theatre and the other group was due shortly. I described to Lee what I had in mind (jumping onto the rostrum to 'cry out Olivia'. then swinging through the frames.) The rostrum is too far back and I decided it would be too arkward for Lee to move back there. The crates from The Beggar's Opera were hovering around, so we trialled one of those, and decided we liked it. Lee took a few goes to get what I wanted with the swinging movement - I wanted her momentom to carry through from her jump off the crate, but once she got it, it looked fabulous. I wanted to use the barrel at the back of the stage, and asked Lee if she could try jumping up and sitting on it during the beginning of her speech. Shannon and I thought that looked great (although a little dangerous to Lee's bottom if she misses and lands on the rim...) so Lee ran the speech using the barrel, the crate and the frames. I was very happy with how it looked, so after we ran it a few more times for smoothness, we moved onto Shannon's last speech.

Shannon improvised most of the blocking for her speech, however I directed her to what I felt looked more natural. Such as, building the passion to give her reason to stand, stepping backwards to sit on the crate, and plonking in distraction onto the crate at the end. We ran it several times to refine her movements, and to practice and time and spacing of her spins and sitting, until I was happy with how it looked.

To end, the girls ran the entire scene, incorperating everything they had practiced. It looked really good, and I think all it needs now is a bit more practice to really hammer the movements, then we shall be ready!

We accomplished much on blocking today! That makes me very happy and confident that we will be ready in time. Although I don't think a piece can ever truly be ready...

The practice was a little shorter than anticipated as Lee was running late, however the stage became free just as she arrived, so it was all in all good timing.

We discussed costuming first as I wanted to discuss it at some point today anyway, and the setting is important to blocking as well. I've been tossing up with a setting since I first chose this scene. My first impression is to leave it in its original era. However, I would be doing that simply because I like historical things, and not particularly because it has any relevance to the audience. I also did not want to set it in modern day, as it seems the 'easy option'. I know its because it is relevant to audiences, however I want to do something a little different. A slightly older setting will also retain slight alienation, which will allow the audience to gain more from the performance if Brecht is to be believed, and also show that this scenario could happen anywhere - which adds to the humour and reality of this scene. As I was pondering, my sister suggested the 1920s, which I immediately latched onto: this was the first era when women's fashion started to imitate male attire. Pants for woman became acceptable, and short hair was the rage. It is the perfect setting for a woman pretending to be a man. Secondary reasons for this selection include the potential to incorporate a gangster element in Viola (like the messenger sent by the gang, the lackey), the fun and carefree yet rebellious attitude of this time that matches the attitudes of some of the characters in Twelfth Night, not to mention the potential for awesome costumes. Even though the set is not important as it is out of our control, the brick wall of the Beggar's Opera set also matches the 1920s: it has the atmosphere of a secret meeting in a dark alleyway - very gangstery.

Consequentially, the girls shall be dressed in 1920s clothing. I printed some images of the internet to represent the attire of this period for both men and women. After discussion we decided Shannon would wear a black dress, black gloves, a black short wig with a hat and veil on top, and carry a black bead purse. Lee will wear baggy brown or black pants with a white shirt, suspenders, a white gangster hat, and a flower in her lapel.

We then commenced further work on blocking. We worked slowly but in detail, stopping to refine movements a little before moving on. We blocked the first 2/3rd of the scene, then repeated it from the beginning to solidify the movements. I'm happy with the general look of it - I'm trying to find a good balance between static and forced. There are some great opportunities in this scene - such as Viola down on one knee to give the speech, Olivia telling her to leave - which create interesting moments. I'm trying to use the movements to emphasise the emotions, as they are so crucial to this scene. The acting also needs to be a little bigger, as the space is quite big for two actors. I'm using a very simple set - a single table and chair that will be in the theatre from the Beggar's Opera, and thus the actors do not have many items to move around, or to hide behind. The tension is therefore not emphasised by the furniture, and must be portrayed through the actors alone.

The rehearsal for tomorrow (Friday 16th Oct) has been cancelled as I am going to Sydney for a funeral, so we shall have to work a little harder to accomplish everything in the given time frame. From now I hope to focus on getting the actual scene right, and remain satisfied with what we have already accomplished for characterisation.

The main theatre is set now for Beggar's Opera, so we know what we have to work with. We did not get quite as much as I would have liked accomplished today, given that other groups were also practicing and thus we were fighting for spaces. We started off in the script library, as every other space was occupied, but with the promise of the main stage in half an hour (which by then was actually 20, after waiting for people to arrive, and discussing space allocation with other groups).

We commenced with a vocal and physical warm up, using the um-ah exercise (humming, then opening to an ah, or oo sound whilst walking around the room) and a few tongue twisters. I wanted to pursue an exercise that I had planned, but not had time to complete, last rehearsal. That is, getting the actors to perform the scene in their own words. Egil from NIDA did similar exercises with us on Tuesday in the workshop, showing us how to make the characters set and achieve their objective. Initially, Lee and Shannon were concentrating on making their words mirror the script too much, so they were not focusing on the intent, but rather on the words themselves. I changed tact a little and asked the girls instead to consider their objective. Lee's, as Viola, was to give her speech at all costs and to gain Olivia's love for her master. Shannon's was to get attention, first as a result of her grief, and finally as a result of her affection for Viola. I then asked the girls to perform the scene in their own words, but keeping their objective in mind. Again, they focused too much on matching the original script, and not only using the general ideas.

The time came for us to use the main theatre, so we migrated downstairs. I again prompted the exercises, but this time I used Egil's ideas of forgetting the scripted scene entirely and just placing the two characters together with nothing but their objectives. The girls found this easier, and now found that they still used the scripted ideas, but only to the degree that they aided their objectives. Lee was the stronger character in this exercise, as Shannon at times allowed herself to be swamped in Lee's objective. Admittedly, Lee could easily overpower Shannon by merely repeating her speech and not responding to Shannon's comments. She also effectively turned any answer she gave into an example of the Duke's love for Olivia. Shannon had a few good ideas for attention, such as fainting, and vomiting all over Viola's feet, however she needed to be bigger, and more dramatic, to drown out Lee's objective.

We then performed the scene using the scripted words. I let the girls improvise the scene with no guidance, to give them a feel of the scene, and also allow them to present their character how they saw fit. The blocking overall was very static, as could be expected from a first run through, and they concentrated more on the words than on the movement. Particularly as they were trying to remember the lines without scripts. I did feel this was a good exercise to do, and it immediately filled me with ideas. What action they did provide, I feel I can use as a solid base for creating further blocking. I plan to use next rehearsal I concentrate on movement.

I want to use the wooden frames on stage right for Viola's impassioned speech about making the air cry out "Olivia!". If she can move over to that side of the stage, she can use the frames and the rostrum to swing or jump off, to add to her impassioned state.

First rehearsal after the break.

After a slightly late start (due to unforeseen circumstances for one of the girls) the girls began by describing their chosen outfits for the day. They had come to rehearsal dressed as their character would dress today. Lee has chosen a baggy tracksuit jumper and baggy pants to represent Viola's attempt at cross-dressing. The loose fitting clothes would help hide her feminine figure. Shannon was dressed in a professional-looking black pinstripe dress and fashionable, yet simple, purple heels. She selected this outfit to represent Olivia's wealth, and professionalism afforded to her by her status.

Dialogue as the focus of today. We spent most of the rehearsal on vocal warm-ups and diction exercises to encourage the girls to consider clarity. We started by progressing from a hum to an open mouthed noise using Moo, Mah and backwards with Um, whilst moving slowly around the room. We then used an exercise I learnt from my director last year which focuses on consonant diction. The sound of each vowel is used in conjunction with every consonant. For example, for a: ba, ca, da, fa, ga, ha, etc. Then be, ce, de, fe, and so forth. I am not overly fond of this exercises as it is long and somewhat boring, however it is a good warm up and does the job. I think for future use I will use a shortened version, or find a different exercise for the same job. We then just repeated some sounds such as ta, da, bah and ma.

I had a list of tongue twisters sourced off the Internet, so we spent a few minutes repeating them. The point of this was not merely to warm up, but to get in the habit of clear diction. My favourite is a song excerpt from Gilbert and Sullivan's the Mikado:


To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!



I love the sound of this, and the imagery that it contains.

We then tried an exercise that I got off a website: performing a choral reading spoken in different ways. I used the poem that the website suggested, The Beautiful Snow by John Whittaker Watson.

Oh! the snow, the beautiful snow,
Filling the sky and the earth below!
Over the housetops, over the street,
Over the heads of the people you meet:
Dancing, flirting, skimming along.
Beautiful snow! It can do nothing wrong.

I read the poem line by line, and the girls repeated using the appropriate style. They repeated it flat, then as a teacher telling a student off, then as a new president giving his first speech, then as a 'proper' lady, then as a teenage boy, then as lovers. The last three were designed to mirror the characters from Twelfth Night, and therefore be directly useful for the girls.

We finished by repeating this exercise using segments from our script instead of the snow poem. I selected two segments of script (one for each actor) and gave them each two ways of saying it. Lee was asked to read it as if sharing a great secret, and then arrogantly. Shannon was asked to speak as though angry, and then vague.

This knowledge gained from today will be useful for the next rehearsals when we start the blocking. I think that working on the diction and meaning of the lines is important now, because then it will be subconsciously used correctly when we start to focus on the movement. The rehearsal was shorter today than intended, due to a late start and the need for an early finish today. We didn't get to improvise the scene using the actor's own words, however I will incorporate this into a future rehearsal as I feel it is a valuable exercise.

This was our last rehearsal before the non-teaching break.

The bulk of the rehearsal was various exercises based on team work and characterisation. I had prepared a list of exercises from ones that I was familiar with myself plus some new ones that I discovered on drama websites. The best site was Improv Encyclopedia which lists hundreds of exercises sorted by category. It's a great resource, and I will be keen to use it again.

The first exercise was Fuzzy Ducky.
The group has to count one at a time progressively around the circle, however and number that is a multiple of three of contains a three becomes 'fuzzy', and number that is a multiple of or contains 7 becomes 'ducky' and any number that is a multiple or contains both becomes 'fuzzy ducky'. It requires concentration as a group, and encourages actors to work together to achieve a goal. We repeated this exercise a 3 or 4 times, until we managed to count up to almost 50.

One Duck is a similar exercise using words and patterns around a circle. Instead of counting, players each offer one word of the prescribed pattern: One duck, two legs, quack. Two ducks, four legs, quack quack, and so forth. The players thus have to work together to keep the sentence going seamlessly around the circle. It requires concentration to keep track of the mathematical calculations (how many legs in total the group of ducks have) at the same time as focusing on the proceeding word. It helped the girls to work together, and achieve a goal as a team.

Alien, Tiger, Cow was the next exercise. A variation of 'paper, scissor, rock', the options are instead alien, tiger and cow, and each must be said with an appropriate action. Unlike PSR the object of ATC is to present the same creature as the other player. Lee and Shannon were fairly in sinc with each other (without cheating) and I felt this achieved the proposed goal of unity and synchronisation.

Yes Lets is an exercise based on accepting offers in improvisation. Although improvisation should not be needed in our scene to create dialogue, this again was aimed at improving team work and working on following ideas from another person. It operates by a player verbally offering an action ("Lets ...") then physically commencing the action. The other player must join in the action for awhile, then create their own offer, which the first player must accept. Shannon and Lee used actions such as shopping, jumping and sleeping. I think this exercise worked best on the day to make them more comfortable with performing different actions in our group setting.

Columbian Hypnosis was the final team work exercise used. The second player must maintain a constant distance from the hand of the first player at all times. The first player is therefore in control of the movement of the second, and can lead them and push them without touching them. Shannon and Lee demonstrated how well they work together through the success of this exercise. They both applied full concentration and tried to make the task challenging, but not impossible, for the other actor. They each had a turn at leading and following. The activity showed me the link that the two girls share and their willingness to both lead and follow the other's direction. It com firmed that they will work well together throughout this entire task. They indicated that they enjoyed the exercise, and that it was one of their favourites for the afternoon.

Nuclear Bomb Chicken was used as an introduction to characterisation. The actors are told that they are to act as chickens in a coop which is to be struck with a nuclear bomb in 30 seconds. The aim of the exercise is to increase awareness of the difference between what an actor knows and what a character knows; the chickens cannot have any idea that tragedy is about to strike because chickens have no concept of nuclear bombs. The actors know, but the characters do not. According to the Improv Encyclopedia the first time this exercise was used all actors bar one became frenzied chickens preparing for disaster. Both Lee and Shannon behaved as normal chickens for the 30 seconds, so they were impressed when I told them they were more clever than the initial actors. I told them to remember that the characters do not always know everything that the actors know - they do not know how the play will end. Therefore when they are performing this scene, they must not give any hint of proceeding actions.

I used Pauze to get the girls to consider dialogue, and the meaning of each sentence that they say in the scene. The two players must participate in improvised dialogue with each other, however they must pause for 3 seconds before verbalising their response. Shannon had the most difficulty out of the two with this exercise simply because she would forget and try to respond immediately. The first round through the girls improvised a fairly calm, normal conversation, so I asked them for a heated argument the second time to add variety. I gave the scenario that Lee was Shannon's younger sibling and had stolen Shannon's clothes from her room when she was out. This was harder then a calm conversation, as they wanted to respond quicker in a tense situation. They both said that it did make them think about what they were saying before they said it, and this made their statements more direct. All responses held more meaning, which is what I wanted.

Fast Food Stanislavski is designed to help create characters by giving actors a
subtext in addition to a location/scenario to improvise a scene. I gave Shannon the subtext of trying to seduce Lee whilst waiting for a bus. This was chosen as it parallels the action in our Twelfth Night Scene. Lee was then a pessimist in a doctor's office. I noticed that Shannon tends to dominate in a scene, predominately because Lee becomes a quiet character. This happened in a few scenes in different exercises, so I will need to watch that it doesn't happen in the actual scene. I think Lee will embrace the stronger character when she is given it, however it has alerted me that she might be easily dominanted on stage.

The final exercise was Coming Home. Both girls were to pick an anonymous person that they know and improvise them returning home at the end of the day. They both picked boys that they knew, which was evident in the rough manner of movement and behaviour. The exercise was repeated using the Twelfth Night characters. Shannon highlighted Olivia's lady-like behaviour and Lee highlighted Viola's tomboy tendencies.

Finally, we read through the script and discussed any words that were unclear, to ensure a complete understanding of the dialogue. More dialogue work will be carried out after the holidays.


I was pleased with the characterisation that the girls developed through the exercises in this rehearsal, despite their eagerness to move straight into the actual script and the blocking. Some of the exercises the girls found boring, however I think that the rehearsal as a whole achieved my aims. Perhaps I should next time intersperse exercises with blocking and script work, so that they feel we are making progress with the actual script. I understand this impatience as I feel it too, however I am forcing myself to examine other elements first as this was modelled in the study of professional directing methods in tutorials and lectures.

Rehearsal number two, but proper rehearsal number one.

I have finished a rehearsal schedule for every practice leading up to the performance, as that was due on Monday. It had forced me to be organised, which is very good. I do like being organised, I'm just not very good at it sometimes. I wrote up a more detailed rehearsal plan for today, but I don't think I will get time to do one for tomorrow. I know what I want to do though.

We started today by reading through the scene again. The girls had not looked at it since last week, which I expected, so the reminder was good. We also changed a few words as we went - con to learn, comptible to sensitive and cantons to songs. We all agreed that these words were difficult to understand, even in their context, and so it was better to change them. I do prefer to leave the script as close to original as possible, but I am making a big effort in this production to have a reason for all my choices - other than I like historical things. I am trying to ensure this scene demonstrates relevance to the audience so they can understand it. This is also why I am thinking, that although I would love to set it in Elizabethan times, I will not. I'm going to pick a setting that a modern audience can identify better with. I am still thinking something slightly older - the 20th century sometime, instead of modern day. To emphasise that it is set in the past, but it could happen any time.

I had prepared plot and character summaries off the Internet which I distributed and we discussed. They both enabled us to identify elements of the characters that the girls did not know. In order to increase their understanding of the characters, as well as their ownership of them, I had chosen three exercises for us to try.

Firstly, I asked the girls if they agreed with the given character analysis, and what hints they could find in the scene that confirmed it. I then asked them to pick five items to put into a box that would summarise the life of their character. Shannon, as Olivia, picked a mirror representing Olivia's beauty and elements of vanity, a family heirloom jewellery piece representing her love for her deceased family, a hairpiece to represent decoration, a glass flower nic nac to represent her delicacy and beauty, and a book to represent her intelligence. Lee, as Viola, chose a notebook that was a gift from Sebastian representing her love of her brother and grief over his supposed death, a man's hat representing the boy whom she impersonates, a pocket knife to represent her resourcefulness, her mother's brooch to represent both her ties to her family and her womanly beauty, and a painting of a bridge in her home town to represent where she came from and the bridges in her life that she crosses. I was pleased with the creativity showed by the girls in this activity.

To summarise what we had discovered about the characters by playing Speed Dating: each girl, as her character, had 1-2 minutes to present herself to me as her speed date. The girls seemed to forget the initial character elements that we had discussed from the summaries, but instead focused on previously unexplored elements. It led us to briefly consider the emotional state of the two women in the scene, however we did not go into depth as I wish to return to this later.

I have asked the girls to study people on the street over the holidays to spot any elements of their characters and study how people portray these characteristics, how they react to situations - whatever they can glean from observation. I asked them to consider how emotions written into 16th century characters still exist today, and how we can use these to relate to our audience. I have also asked them to come to our first rehearsal after the holidays dressed as their character would dress today. I learnt both of these exercises from John Bell's writings, and am keen to discover how well they increase characterisation.

Shannon and Lee are also planning to learn their lines during the holidays. I have requested that they know them by Thursday in week 11, as that is when I plan to start blocking.

After a few glitches and rearrangements our group was finally determined today. I met with my two girls, Lee and Shannon, for about 40 minutes tonight for the first time.

I brought two possible scripts to the meeting, intending to offer them a choice, and also to gauge which scene I felt the suited more. The two options were Twelfth Night Act 1 scene V and A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 3 scene II. Shannon didn't want to do A Midsummer Night's Dream as she had played Hermia in a full production of this play last year at college. Lee didn't really mind as she had not performed Shakespeare before, so we decided on Twelfth Night.

After selecting the scene, we used the first half of the meeting to get to know each other. Talking about uni, plans for after uni, school and previous drama experiences. It was good to understand where everyone was coming from and it was a positive start for us as a group. Lee and Shannon have made friends through drama and so will work together well. They also both indicated that in previous performances they have taken the lead in groups, organising and encouraging others to work. This indicates that they will be willing to put in the effort required to polish our scene, which pleases me. This could offer opportunities for them to rebel against instruction however I severely doubt that this will be a problem; they are both lovely girls and are happy to let someone else take control for a change.

Casting was achieved by reading through the scene twice, switching characters. I knew instantly how I wanted to cast it, but I asked the girls their opinion first. They didn't have a preference, however Lee stated that she thought Shannon read Olivia well. I agreed and cast Lee as Viola, and Shannon as Olivia. Lee gave enthusiasm and energy to Viola which suits her role as a messenger boy. Shannon read Olivia like the lady that she is supposed to be, yet demonstrated the changing emotions that Olivia feels throughout the scene. I am very happy with the casting and am feeling positive about the scene.

Finally, we compared diaries and chose rehearsal dates for the rest of semester. Shannon will be away during the holidays, however I feel that we had booked in enough hours during term time before the performance. Particularly with the enthusiasm and willingness that the girls have shown. I will work out a detailed rehearsal schedule this weekend, and develop some workshop exercises relevant to this scene that we can use.