My Production Journey - Production Diaries (Year 1, Term 4)

Candidate Declaration - I confirm that the attached portfolio is all my own work* and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself.

Tuesday 16th April

Today was the first day back for me as i wasn't able to come in the Monday, so i started the day with my auditions for the end of year show! I was nervous when i first came into college but i went over my monologue a few times and i felt confident enough for my audition. I feel like it went quite well and it is a piece i enjoy performing so i will definitely keep it for future references. After the auditions, i joined the rest of the class and we started doing a read through of the two plays! We all sat in a big circle and people stood up in the centre to read in for different characters. This was good because it gave everyone a chance to see the scripts and characters out loud and on its feet, therefore allowing people to get a better idea of the characters they are interested in. This was also helpful to Kelly, as she had to still cast these two plays and seeing people in the roles, she can see if she thinks the person suits that role or not and gives her a better idea of what she wants to do. We spent all day doing these two read throughs and they were very fun and informative. We started with the radium girls and i got up and read for Katherine and Irene, which i thought were very interesting characters that i enjoyed reading in for. I found that Katherine was very caring and longing for something within the first couple scenes, especially talking about the funerals whereas Irene was more fun and didn't really care about what she was doing and just enjoyed life. We then moved onto One Flew Over, which i read in for Nurse Rachet which was okay, it was fun and an interesting character, but i didn't think that the character was for me as she was very manipulative and nonchalant and i was struggling with balancing them two emotions between one another. I wouldn't have figured out that i liked and disliked these characters without the read throughs that we did today. It was such a fun, productive day and it allowed me to further understand the plays.

Wednesday 17th April

Today was the day that our final drafts of the script writing competition with the National Theatre were due. I spent an hour in the morning down in LRC going over my script, checking for any gramactical errors and ensuring it all made sense. Unfortunately, some of the scenes i spent time writing out at home didn't save, therefore i had to spend some time trying to amend it just to ensure my script made sense. It was quite frustrating but i managed to somewhat fix it. I wasn't as happy with this new version of the script because i know i had it better originally, however i didn't really stress much about it as it was an extra activity and i was still extremely proud of myself for being able to write a full script in the first place. Whilst i was doing this, upstairs they were doing a full run through of Shout, just to keep it fresh in our minds. We did this because we are performing it at York Theatre Royale next week. I got back to the class as the notes were being given and by the sounds of it everything was going well and we seemed very prepared for York next week. I am so excited for when we perform there as it will be an amazing experience performing at a new theatre.  After this, Kelly gave us a synopsis of the play. A synopsis is an overview of the play and the characters, explaining the storyline and point as well as who each of the characters are and what significance they give to the play. This was very useful as it allowed us to look into each character and play in more detail and have a better idea of what we would prefer. Then, she asked us if we had any characters specifically in mind and asked us to send her a message to explain why we deserve that role. This was a message explaining what you know about the character, why you think you deserve this character and what you think you could bring to it. We did this because Kelly was struggling a bit with the casting and it gave her a better idea of what everyone would prefer as it helps her out a bit, but also to show her what we have done research wise so far and information on the plays. My message was about Grace, as i think it is something new i haven't done before and id love to try something completely different. She is completely nieve at the start then becomes strong at the end and i think that is so amazing. This was also good for us, as it shows what we have done so far to commit to the plays.

Thursday 18th April

Today i was in early again for a run through of 'Hunt.' The start of this rehearsal didn't go very well, we struggled a lot with our ensemble scenes as blocking had been forgotten and same with lines. I thought i knew all my lines but i started struggling with them as i kept getting them in the wrong order which was frustrating, however i now know that this is what i need to improve on when it comes to this play. As we moved forward it improved, but we know that our ensemble scenes are what we need to work on as we have all the other duologue scenes almost fully sorted. I enjoy going over hunt and this rehearsal was helpful for me as it made me realise what i was struggling with and how to fix it. After this, we went to our normal lesson times and i started the day by leading a vocal warm up with Alan as it is my production role. We are still working on trying to create a plan of what to do on the morning and how to switch it up so we just stuck with Tom's warm up this time, however we are hoping to create new warm ups so that it isn't repetitive. We then all sat down and we got given our rehearsal schedule for the rest of the term, as we have a lot going on at the same time with two end of year shows, we needed a schedule to make sure everything fit in with each other and Kelly made it for us. It was helpful to see how it would all play out as it shows we have enough time to do it all, which took some stress away from me. After this, we got told by Kelly that she still is struggling with casting, therefore she gave us some more audition practice. After we sent her the synopsis yesterday, today she let us take the characters and work with another person in the class and show her what we can do. We had to pick our own point of the script which we think is important and perform that to her. I worked on Act 2, Scene 11 which is where Grace is standing up against Mr Markley. I picked this scene because it is a powerful moment in the script where she is finally standing up against what has happened to her and it is very interesting to do and empowering. I worked with Layla and Callum for this and the way i portrayed it was angry and upset. I worked on this for awhile but brought too much at first, so i shortened it and Kelly gave me the advice to slow down and be less breathy. I took this feedback and worked on this for the characters, as this feedback is good and can be used no matter what character i have, as i have a tendancy to rush sometimes and then i end up doing that. I appriciated this feedback and i thought today was a very efficient day as not only did it give us a chance to show and learn about our characters more, it also gave Kelly a better idea of what she wanted to do for casting.

Monday 22nd April

Today was a really fun and interesting day! The woman from the National Theatre who came to review our Connections project "Shout" has her own theatre company and works with young people and people from the North to get them their first professional credit. They are working on 2 different Shakespeare plays over the summer holidays - Julius Caesar and As You Like It - and today she came in with her team and did an acting workshop with us. It was really fun! I struggle a lot with Shakespeare, however i knew that this was a good opportunity to do anyway and see how the workshops would play out. We started with some games that they presented to us, such as moving from one side of the room to the other with keeping the ball in the air in groups and sending the pulse down the line to get a bottle. The point of these games was for them to see that we work well together as a team and to show our skills in working with others not just independently. We then moved on to doing a vocal warm up to get us ready to learn some new songs! This was really fun and we did this because these are some of the songs in the productions they are putting on, and it was just to see our vocal range and skills. After this it was time for individual monologues. I was worried about these as i had to have my paper with me as i struggle to learn Shakespeare and i only really wanted to participate in the workshop but i thought its another professional audition process that i will need in the future, so i did it anyways. It was quite scary but i managed to get through it, i didn't really mess up that much or look at my paper much but the thought of doing it before i went in was scary. However, the people were really nice and understanding of me and it helped me relax whilst i was in there. Whilst we were waiting to go in for our auditions, we got given a script of broken Shakespeare and had to be creative and act it out. Our group decided to do a gone wrong version of it, where everyone was stupid or didn't know what was going on. It was great and really funny, i was a robot who did everything correctly and Harvey and George were stupid and didn't know what was going on during it which made the narrator (Jack) mad. I really enjoyed this piece and it was so fun to create. Over all, this workshop was such a good experience and it gave me a better idea of what workshops for jobs will look like in the future. We had this day in general not only to hopefully get a professional job, but also to understand what it is companies and directors outside of college are looking for within a workshop environment and to feel more comfortable to be able to go to auditions that arent with people we already know such as our mentors (Abi, Kelly, Tom).

Tuesday 23rd April 

Today was our cast list day!!! I was so excited to recieve the cast list today as the end of year shows are important for our grades and it is the last show i will be doing in my first year of college. At the beginning of the day Kelly still wasn't sure of what she wanted to do so we took a long break and then played some warm up games. The main one we played was done by Aiden and it was called Wolves. Everyone had to sit in a circle and be asleep, there were 2 wolves which were murderers, a doctor which could save someone and the joker which had to make everyone think they were the murderer to win. The way it worked is we all slept whilst the murderer killed people and then we woke up and had to try figure out who the murderer was using intution and silent communication. It was such a fun game, we played this because it got us concentrated and connected with one another and it is a good game to get everyone into the right headspace as it is chill yet valuable. We played two rounds of this then found out our casts! I was casted in Radium Girls for both my characters which i was really happy about as that is what i wanted to focus on. I was casted as Irene Rudolph and Harriet Roeder which i was so happy about! I knew i could delve into the background of these characters the second i got casted as they are both so different and interesting! We spent some time congratulating each other as we are one big team after we found out but then quickly moved on to blocking the first scene of Radium Girls. We went into the other room with Tom and focused on the scene where the girls are messing with the paint. This was great as it was one of my scenes and it was so fun to get it on its feet with my cast.

Wednesday 24th April 

Today was the day that we did our performance of "Shout" at York Theatre Royal! This was such an incredible experience and such a good opportunity. We started the morning by moving all of our set into the van to take with us to the other location and get set up for the day. I was so excited to perform this again and we had a mini work shop with some of the people at the National. They taught us a new game called the Nun game, which was so fun and the point was to concentrate on not laughing, it was incredible and we are definitely going to use it back at our college. We then were ready to perform again! We had our tech reherseal which went really well and we managed to use the space we had and make do with it, as it was much smaller than our home theatre. We got the vibe of what we had to work with and we were prepared for our performance. Our performance went so well! It was one of the best times we had done it 100% and i don't think anything went wrong. I was so so happy and going home everyone was really proud with what they had done. Hopefully bring on the national theatre!!

Wednesday 1st May 

Today was such an incredible day! As part of the script writing competition, i got the opportunity to go down to London to watch "Standing at the Sky's Edge" at London west end! It was such an amazing opportunity, we got to spend the day down in London and walk through London. We saw the building where Peter Pan was written, which was so cute as it reminded everyone of the christmas performance. The play was absolutely incredible, it was full of emotions, happy, intense and sad and the storyline was so beautiful. It was about different generations living in this apartment and they all end up being interlinked or connected in some way. I enjoyed the day a lot! Amazingly, one of Kelly's ex students was one of the characters in the play, so we got to support him and see that we can get very far from the course and it gave me a lot of motivation!

Tuesday 7th May - got to end of act 2 blocking - finished play, went over act 1, improv singing, normal warm up

Today we got to the end of blocking act 2 and we finished the play! We managed to finally do the entire play of radium girls and we were now in a position where we could focus on detail and depth of our characters as we knew what we were doing in each scene. I was so happy with this as it meant i could focus more on who my characters were rather than what they were doing. After this, we moved on to going over all of Act 1 looking and focusing on that detail that we needed to add. We did this because little details are a key factor to a performance, they make the play what it is and the context behind it is essential to making sure the actors on the stage understand what it is they are talking about and how they would feel in that situation as that person. Today was also a day that i focused on my produciton role with Alan, we introduced everyone again to improvisation singing as well as a normal vocal warm up. This is essential at this point in the rehearsal process, as everyone needs to be in a position where their vocal health is looked after and everyone is ready to perform.

Wednesday 8th May

Today we started the day by learning in more detail about accents with Abi. For our upcoming shows we need to be able to do an American accent and Abi planned a lesson out to help us develop that. We started with a quick physical warm up just to get our bodies ready and a small vocal one but then we sat down and Abi asked what we already knew about the American accent. She then went into more detail about how different letters are pronounced in the American accent, which was helpful as it allowed me to gain more of an understanding of it. We then got into 3 groups with the accent coaches who helped us further develop it with tongue twisters that Abi provided us. This was a helpful morning. We did all of this because ensuring that our accents and diction are spot on are key in this performance, as it is different to our usual accent and twang we have from the north east. It is important that we get the details right as it is a real story we are telling and this lesson ensured that we actually understood what it is we needed to do to make our accents better. We then moved on to the next part of the day which we all got sat down and it was really serious. We were scared but then Kelly announced that WE WON! WE WILL BE PERFORMING AT THE NATIONAL THEATRE IN LONDON!! I was so excited when i got told this and i was so greatful for the opportunity given. Everyone was so so happy and i can't believe it! The afternoon we then focused on Act 1, Cast 1 movement with Abi to make the radium painting in the factories more interesting and with purpose so we didn't look bored. This was important and we did this ebcause the ensemble is such an important part to a performance as it what makes the background look interesting and helps move the story forward, without an ensemble parts of the story would not make sense and there is a chance the audience could lose focus or interest and not understand the context.

Monday 13th May 

Today i led the warm up with Alan again, and we focused on a lot of different things this lesson, we did articulation, volume and pace. This is essential as mentioned before for our shows, as these are all key aspects that bring a performance to life. We did this because we knew that it was one of the things people were struggling with specifically with their vocal performance, so we thought we needed to target these aspects for the show. For the lesson today we had Kelly for the first time looking into radium girls, so we focused on Act 1 with Kelly, showing her what we already had and getting any input from her. We mainly focused on scene 3, which is where they are talking about Amelia and syphilis. This scene is my favourite scene and i enjoyed going into it with more detail with Kelly. We did this because it was a fresh pair of eyes on the project that we had been working on and it meant that we would get fresh notes and ideas that we maybe did not see before as we have all been on the same page and Tom and Kelly would have different ideas to one another, which is great as it meant we could think in more detail about how certain parts would go - for example Irene before went and hovered at the front with her mouth bleeding but when Kelly looked she thought it would be better for her to stay at the table which added more depth to the character and the story, which i enjoyed a lot.

Tuesday 14th May 

Today we focused on Act 2 blocking, making sure that everything in the scenes we already had looked good and there was the right character motivation behind every scene. Why are they doing this in this scene? What about it is impactful to the character? etc. We then looked at the dream scene  in radium girls for the first time and this was so fun! Tom wanted it to be very over the top and dramatic and creepy, which meant a lot of random giggling and messing with the paints that killed us, interacting with each other and scaring Grace. I loved this as i thought it was such a drastic change to the play, as it was so serious but Irene and Katherine at this point are just manic which shows what is going on in Grace's head at this moment of time. I love this interpretation of it as it is so different from what i had originally envisioned from just reading the script. We did this because it shows the difference between reality and what the character thinks is happening, it shows the depth of how little anyone cares that she is dying and how the girls are just seen as nothing by being dead, as if they had no impact and their memory will forever live on within Grace.

Wednesday 15th May 

Today was a good day! We started the day by having time going over our power points, as we were presenting them the next day. I went down to the LRC with Alan and made sure we knew what we were doing and all the information on the slides was correct. I felt a lot better about the upcoming presentations after this, as it allowed me to be on the same page as Alan and understand what we wanted to talk about. In the afternoon i stayed back with Tom and we did a mixed cast rehearsal and focused on some new scenes! We looked at the dream scene again in radium girls and just making sure that we got it perfect, as we had only done it one other time before this. I enjoyed this as i got to work closely with Charlie in more detail, figuring out certain things to bring it up a level, such as sitting on the desks instead of standing at them and jumping down at the same time, etc. It really enhanced the scene. We also looked at the end scene, which involved the two girls joining Grace at their graves at the end. I think this is a beautiful way to end it as it shows that bitter sweet of the tragedy that happened, they won but at what cost? They all died, getting their justice. 

Thursday 16th May 

Today was the day that we presented the presentations we created for our production role to Kelly. We spent all day doing these presentations and i think mine and Alan's went really well. We knew what we were talking about and what we had done and wanted to do which made it a lot better as we didn't really need to use the power point to explain our ideas and research. Kelly gave us the advice for as we move forward to work with the people from the other production roles such as movement or accent coaches as they fit in nicely with our role, as it will target more what we need for the shows. We took this advice and went to speak to them to arrange something. After mine and Alan's power point was done, i was helping out on set design so i went down to the LRC to add to the power point and print it off ready for my second presentation with Emily. I think this also went well as i presented all my ideas to Abi and she liked them and understood what i was envisioning. After this presentation was done, i went to speak to Sophia on lighting to give her my ideas and see what worked with eachother, as lighting and set design work side by side and we needed to be on the same page. After figuring things out with Sophia, i put these ideas in a group chat for set design then went to finish coursework The whole point of all of these presentations was to show our production role and that we had an understanding of what was needed of us and what we needed to do to achieve this role, it is a part of our assignment and working in groups presenting it to Kelly meant she knew what we were doing and it was easier for it to be marked. As i was doing coursework, Hayley came and found me and i tried my costume on for Irene! I liked this costume and it fit me quite well, so i was happy that i was organised in that sense for the show and i felt way more prepared knowing my costume was already here for me and i didn't have to try find one to buy.

Tuesday 21st May- cat and mouse, number game, questionaire, cast 2 full run through, tried on costume, cast 1 full run through - learning transitions and joining as a radium girl. learning song

Wednesday 22nd May

Today we spent the morning focusing on scenes from Act 1 that we needed to work on based on Tom's notes from yesterday. He had some specific points for each of these scenes that we had to work on. We started with scene 3, where Von Sohchocky comes and announces him leaving. In this scene Tom said we needed to work on the blocking, so we spent time doing that where Von Sohchocky faces out and talks to the audience and walks around more. Whilst this is happening, i am in the background as Irene or a radium girl, listening to what he has to say as he walks around. We did this because blocking is important as it makes sure he knew where he was going and it felt more natural instead of being stuck in one place, as he was my character's manager for over 2 years.

Thursday 23rd May

Today i started the day with another Hunt rehearsal and it was very good. We managed to finish our first ensemble scene with all the correct blocking and little to no issues with lines, maybe 1 or 2 prompts here and there and it is a lot of progress from the last few times. This meant that we are able to focus on the last scene next week then do a full run through ready for the shows! I think that this is in a good place now, and i feel prepared i am still just a little bit paranoid about not having a peter still, as i struggle with the order of the duologues still because i dont have someone there for me. Other than this, i feel like im in the place for the show to go on. After this, we started the normal rehearsal for radium girls by going over our costumes. For Harriet, i am buying another dress for her but i tried on 2 or 3 different dresses for radium girl and Irene and i found two that work well. For Irene i'm wearing a blue dress with pokadots on and for a radium girl i'm wearing a burgandy longer dress i tried on before and now i feel more prepared for the show. This makes me feel very organised as it. After we sorted all the costumes out, we did a half costume rehearsal and everyone who had costumes wore their costumes for Act 1. We ran it all the way through and timed it to see how long the first half of the show is and it was 58 minutes, which is okay but Tom would like it to be 50 minutes which i think we can get at if we have everyone here as we were missing some of the main people we needed. I enjoyed doing this in costume as it made me feel more like my character and i felt more natural and in the correct time period, I could actually imagine myself in the radium plant. Tom then gave us notes on Act 1 and he said that Irene should wear a coat in the outdoor scene, so i need to add that to my costume. He also said that we should jump in and help with transitions if people forget and i think that is a good idea as everyone knows the transitions and it helps the show run smoothly. He also said that the radium girls need to look scared and match the mood of what is being said in the scene, which i will interpret in the other cast when i am a radium girl. We also need to have a bigger reaction to Grace shouting for Mrs Wiley, which i will do by focusing in more to what they are saying instead of my character talking to others. We then moved on to Act 2, taking in these notes and tried to add them the best we could. I filled in for people and helped with transitions and it went a lot better than the act before with this being done.

Tuesday 4th June 

Today was a very productive day and it made me feel so much more ready for the show. We started with a costume run for Act 1, Cast 1 and i think the costumes helped pull this all together. I filled in for Irene for this cast as we didn't have Layla today so i got to work with the other cast. This was good as i got to run my scenes more than once, however the other cast do things a little different than we do in my cast, therefore it was a bit difficult as i didn't feel it flowed as well as it did when im with my usual cast. In this run, i also had my Harriet bit and i added some giggling in to it before she gets shouted by her mother and during just to make her child like nature in this scene present more. I feel like this is useful as it helps with the contrast in the final scene, from her as a child to her as an adult. After this, we got given notes by Tom for the end of the first Act. He said that in the first scene we should be more joyful so that we have the moments of happiness within the play along side with all of the tradgety. This is great advice because that is what the play writer was going for, tragedy on side with humour and joy. He also said that Irene should bring on the baskets to the tables for the radium girls at work, which will have the pots, paintbrushes, etc. inside. I like this idea as it means more socialising and more moving around with the character. We then moved on to doing an Act 1, Cast 2 run through for the rest of the morning which i think went so well! I really enjoyed doing this with my cast, as i felt like it went better when i was performing with the people who i have blocked everything with. We made a few mistakes by missing a few lines out, however overall i felt like i incorporated my notes well into this. I also filled in for Harriet which was the same as before and it went well with my cast too. After lunch we started with a costume run for Act 2, Cast 2.