Week Two Diary

 

Monday 20^th of September

This was audition day for ‘The Witches’, I wasn’t as nervous as I have been in previous auditions and was instead quite excited. I believe this is because I have already been through a few auditions for Kelly and therefore knew what to do and what was expected from me. So, to prepare for this audition I researched some slap stick comedy scenes from differing TV programmes and other media. I learnt that the key to this type of comedy is timing and that’s what I needed to focus on to make sure my partner and I succeeded. I took this idea of timing and used it in conjunction with the stage directions provided in the script. I added notes; like every time I did an action, I would then know to say a line, which I think made it flow more. On the day I went through what I wanted to happen with my partner, and we proceeded to the audition. I wasn’t very happy with how the audition actually went it went, as my partner didn’t really know his lines and I didn’t really know how to respond to that. However, I understand why this could’ve happened as it was his first audition. I really understood how he could freeze up because I did the same thing in my first audition. I know that next time he’ll do better, and I’ll help him however I can.

Tuesday 21st September

 We started off our day with some warmup games. We played both ‘Splat’ and ‘Wink Murder’ and also a different television channels game. Once we were energised and had shaken off the last of our tiredness Kane sat the class down and provided us with some movie scenes we needed to listen to. We were not to watch them! We had to listen to the emotion in the actors’ voices to see how well they put it across and guess what they were feeling in that moment the movies were recorded. One of the movies being ‘Taken’ and another being ‘La La Land’. When we had to listen in detail to what the actors were saying and how they were saying it, I found it very interesting. The task really made me appreciate how important tone and how we say our lines are. The audience should be able to know what is happening just from this, we can’t just focus on our actions and facial expressions. Kane also provided the class with a radio drama task to work on. We had to look at a script and use our voices to show the emotion that we wanted to emanate to whoever was listening. At first, I found this task difficult. However, by the end of the task I had a greater understanding of how to use my own voice to highlight different emotions, it was just a matter of practice and finding out what worked for me in particular.

Wednesday 22^nd September

Today we got the casting sheet, and I got the part I wanted, the Head Chef. I am very happy and excited to play the role! So, for the rest of our day with Kelly, we went over the first scene of the play with the two different casts. The first scene always sets the tone for the rest of the play, and it was exhilarating to start off a brand-new performance. Last year, due to Covid-19, I was only able to perform one play in front of an audience. I hope this year will be very different, as nothing can compare to the real thing.

Thursday 23^rd September

We were all meant to work on our copycat scenes with our partners today. We had to decide firmly on what scene we wanted to perform, how we were going to perform the scene and where we could film within the college. The scene is meant to be set in the 1920s, so realism is quite difficult to find in such a modern college. Not that I would change that! We finally decided to film in the black room as that was the most suitable of the rooms available. We could add a background and the little details we need to the scene without it looking too far from the time, as would be difficult in another room.