'Yolo' Project

To start this project we, as the Year Two’s, had to choose a script we would like to work on. We had a few thoughts thrown in the ring one of them being ‘Dear Evan Hansen’. However, that was too expensive to buy the rights to. We then decided with help from Kelly that the National Theatre Connections piece ‘Yolo’ might be good. Kelly had done the piece before, it had gone very well and the story was amazing, it was very emotional and so we decided to go with that. 

Overall, this project has had a lot of up and downs, a lot of learning curves, but it was a great time. We had to learn to work together without the help of anyone, even Kelly. There were times that we argued, but in the end we all came together to make an amazing performance, that we couldn’t be prouder of. 

After our first task, to pick the piece. We then had to start picking the roles. For the main characters, we held auditions and Mark acquired the main role. The rest of the roles we handed out as they were all as big as each other, so we all had an equal opportunity to perform. The first couple of weeks we spent reading through the script trying to understand it and see what we wanted to do with it. Our first ideas went chronologically with the first scene, we had some great ideas about how we wanted loads of students reading their exam results, as the main character who was not expecting to get the grades he does, and all his friends are very happy for him.

The following week we spent looking at the main scene, with only two characters in it played by Mark and Rebecca, as his sister, talking about his brain tumour. These scenes are very emotional, and we needed to have a good grasp on them in order to make the story as good as it could be. The emotion needs to be able to come across to an audience and allow them to feel what our characters are going through.

Over the next couple of weeks, we focused on the big party scene, this scene had all the named characters and all of extras in it. It was very important to focus on this scene because with all the people on stage it was very hectic. We both had to make sure it looked like a party, yet not draw attention from the main cast. Our ideas for this scene were to make it extremely comedic, to draw as many laughs as possible from the audience. In order to do this, we had everyone going around in fancy dress, from spider man to ghost face and batman running about, while these teens are having a wild party. My character in particular ‘Luke’ had to propose to his girlfriend, and this was a big deal for my character, it would be for anyone. In my mind they had been dating for a while now and were the classic school romance, been together forever, known each other like the back of their hand’s kind of couple. I was very lucky as the girl playing ‘Lidia’ was my girlfriend in real life. The chemistry we needed was already there. As well as the fact we had played a couple already two times before this, so we felt comfortable on that front.

The time came for us to show Kelly what we had done so far and during this run we seemed to be little scattered. This was because this was the first time we had run through the project properly, scene to scene. We thought it went alright, but we knew we could do so much better. We had Kelly give us some feedback, which was great, and it gave us a different angle to work from. The insight she gave us based around what we could possibly clean up or change if we wanted too, as she has had much more experience than us when it comes to directing. It was invaluable to have her input. We took the notes that Kelly had given us and applied some of them, not all, but we really needed to stop letting the focus drift from the main cast and just focus a little more. We knew we could do this, as a group we are some of the most capable people, so we needed to really push to get this perfect.

Finally, show night came around and we felt ready and prepared. We had made the necessary changes to make everything better and to make it as emotional as possible. As a group we were proud and excited to show people this performance. The whole night went so well! Every scene was powerful, everyone’s performances were outstanding. I was watching through the curtains gripped, even though I had seen this over a hundred times, it was amazing to see everyone give 110%. It meant so much for everyone to make this play remarkable. My own scenes went very well too. Especially as a person who has never been drunk before or even had a drink, I had to spend some time getting the scene right to make sure I didn't overdo it. So, I thought that everything was going very well now. My girlfriend and I, Charley, were in fact going through a rough point in our relationship in real life and we had to act like we were becoming engaged and had this perfect relationship. This really highlighted to me that I’m in a point of my career now were I needed to be able to push all outside distractions aside to make or break my performance. No loose ends, no matter what is happening in my personal life. I think I was able to this well and felt that we both acted wonderfully, despite everything we have always worked so well together. We proved that no matter what, when it comes to executing the show, we always smash it. The final scene was the one we were probably the proudest of. We had spent nearly an entire day figuring it out as it was such an emotional moment. I couldn’t believe how well it had all gone, I felt quite sad not only due to the scene itself but, to end the project. We had all shared ideas and put bits and pieces together to make this play. To see it grow from a tiny room to a stage and then to the audience crying, was extremely special for us. We created this and produced these emotions and overall it was an amazing experience. The process of making a show was extremely difficult and I had no ideas how much work would need to go into it before we took on such a challenge.  However, it was exactly what we needed to do as it was the biggest challenge we have faced, and we were able to succeed by all working together and facing it together. We had many arguments and disagreements, but we also had times where we were overcome with joy about how something went, it truly was amazing and the final show showed that fully.