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.