TASK TWO: Production Blog- WOZ

 02/11/22 Today was our trip to Whitby to have the opportunity to be a part of a site-specific suspense film, which the Film and TV students had planned in advance; we were aiming to finish filming by the end of the night, however the extreme weather delayed filming until tomorrow, which has led to the filming of the scene which I am prevalent to be pushed back. For the most parts of today, I have been touring the surrounding areas nearby (in case I was requested for filming), in an attempt to truly immerse myself within the atmosphere of the environment, and make the most of my time in Whitby; it is where one of my favourite novels was written and based- Dracula by Bram Stoker. Hopefully, I get the opportunity to film tomorrow amongst all this beautiful Gothic scenery. 

03/11/22  Today was the final day I spent at Whitby, and I am unfortunately very disappointed with my filming experience within Whitby; I had been forgotten about by my directors, and was scarcely used for filming at all, with the exception of one unplanned scene so the director could incorporate me, Geoffrey and Bailey- two other actors which had also been unused up until this point. I am fully aware this was a learning curve for actors and filmmakers alike, yet I can't help but feel disheartened by the lack of communication between myself and the crew. Despite this, I am still grateful to have the opportunity to get to visit a historical site and see the process of how films are made; from the planned out shootings to the sporadic scenes. I cannot wait all of these films when they are released; whether my role is big or small, I am excited to see the hard workers of all the film and acting students pay off.

07/11/22 In today's session, we continued our 'A Christmas Carol' rehearsals with Tom. In this session, I was selected for the solo piece in which I  had been rehearsing; 'One More Sleep Til Christmas'. For today, however, the rehearsals was focused mainly on blocking the song; the other members of the cast volunteered to take part in, which is a ballroom dance sequence during the instrumentals breaks within the song, which helped to tie the piece together and make it more intriguing to view for an audience- which I got to experience while watching everyone else rehearse, as I am not in that segment of the song; I got to see a part of the performance how an audience would, yet while it was being crafted. In addition, today was the auditioning process for 'The Wizard Of Oz':

" For 'The Wizard of Oz', I have decided to go for 'The Wicked Witch of The West', as I believe this character would be a great way to push my boundaries as an actor, by going for a character which uses a lot of stage presence to utilise fully- which is a skill I have not had a full opportunity to explore yet, as no project has yet been set on a still stage. In order to prepare for this audition- we were given a segment from our script for our selected character to learn, so that we can perform it in front of Kelly and Kane. The segment given for the role which I am going for is quite lengthy, however I feel the selection of a segment from the script could not have been more perfect; the piece chosen shows a gradual shift of emotions, and really gives me a chance to demonstrate my emotional and vocal range. Despite my confidence in the chosen piece, I still couldn't help but feel extremely anxious about the audition itself, as it is still a very unfamiliar process which I have very little experience with in comparison to some of my competition. My actual audition turned out out much better than I expected- I was given a round of applause by both Kelly and Kane; I entered the audition within my character- which I showed by quoting an infamous line from the film version of the character; "Hello my pretties". I believe within this audition, I was highly successful in portraying the vocal attributes to my character, especially her signature cackle and her scream when she is murdered- which was the biggest aspect I was focused on with the character. As a result of this, however, I feel my physicality was lacking and broke the immersion of the performance ever so slightly. In spite of this, I believe I did utilise the space provided to give some movement to the scene. Overall, I feel this auditioning process went far more smoothly than my first audition for the 'Ghost Light Tour'; despite my anxiety prior to the audition, I didn't feel as though my fears affected my performance, unlike my very first audition, in which I took a while to begin my audition. however, if  I were given the opportunity to audition again, I would definitely bring an equal focus to both my vocal and physical performance, as it felt highly unbalanced. "

08/11/22 Today was the chemistry tests for 'The Wizard of Oz':

"  The following day, we were called in for chemistry tests, where we were provided with a different extract with a collection characters and seeing how we bounce off of each other. For my group's section, we were given a segment with the main four (Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman and Cowardly Lion), the Historian, and my own character. In this scene, The Wicked Witch of The West sets out to kill Dorothy and set back her and her friends' journey to Oz, with the Historian narrating many failed attempts; the main focus of this scene is when my character lays out a field poppies with a scent so strong that it can cause anyone who breathes it in to never stop sleeping (essentially dying). I found the chemistry process to be quite simplistic: my character doesn't directly interact with any characters other than the Historian. I personally believe me and Morgan (the actor portraying the Historian within that scene) have a strong natural chemistry, which made my only struggle is to focus on physicality once again. Unfortunately, with the extract we were given, there wasn't much room for me to use the entire space, as my character kept coming on and offstage constantly, which required me in very specific positioning so I could do the movements clearly and quickly. This, in turn, knocked my confidence, especially with watching my competition perform within their groups. "

09/11/22 Today, we were given the cast lists for 'The Wizard of Oz':

"  Despite this, when we given the roles the following day, I felt a wave of relief when it was announced that there was three casts- I only had two other competitors for the role in which I was going for, so this significantly increased my chances of me getting the role. I received 'The Wicked Witch of The West' in Cast One . Overall, I believe my auditioning process has progressed positively from my first audition in October, and I believe this landmarks an important segment in my acting journey; this was my first formal audition of many and I believe that I will be able to reflect on this auditioning process at the end of this year and see bounds of further progress. "

  In addition to this, we began to develop our munchkin characters in our casts- giving them names, ages and occupations, in order to give us a rough base for how our munchkins should act and react in our beginning scene- a child munchkin would not react the same way an older munchkin would, for example. We then used these characters to adapt entrances for our characters; I named my munchkin Zlinkybob, and made her a 7 year old schoolgirl with her twin brother, Chinny- portrayed by Jack. To show her age, I made her reactions much more care-free and naive- my munchkin is the first to enter stage, only to be dragged back off by another munchkin. In this session, I learnt that all characters I portray need the same level of thinking and depth as each other, even if one is a 'larger' role than the other- the ensemble characters are as integral as the main cast in that without either group, there wouldn't be a show.

10/11/22 For today's lesson, I worked on my backstage job: 

" We began by looking at the numerous backstage jobs we could take part in to help the production behind 'The Wizard of Oz'. We were told that as part of our grade, we are being assessed on our both our performance, but also our role within our backstage jobs. I was immediately intrigued by the 'Set Design' role, where we told that we would prepare props and set; including painting the yellow brick road. I believe I am quite a creative person, so I opted for that role, along with a large group of people, which I believe should make the process much more efficient with a small group of people working on each separate task. "

  Along with being given a list of backstage jobs to sign up for, we were also given a list what role we would be playing in each cast; our named role, a Munchkin or an Ozian, so that all munchkins in each cast could rehearse together. Once we had all found our group of munchkins, we began to block the first scene in Munchkin-land, which is the only appearance of the munchkins, with each cast; this so we could work on our reactions to the Good Witch of The North and really bring life to the scene. For our next session, I feel as though I need to work on making my reactions more large, so they can be clearly seen when actually on the stage- I feel that I need to go out of my comfort zone and go less naturalistic.

14/11/22 To begin today’s session, we began with our usual rehearsals of ‘The Muppet's: A Christmas Carol’ with Tom; we spent this session by running through the entirety of our performance (including dialogue from Jack and Geoffrey) without stopping, then being given general feedback to clean up the performance; repeating this process until the end of our morning session. I found this to be very effective as it allowed us as a company to become more formatted and polished in our performance, by forcing us to rely on memory for our rehearsal, rather than stopping every few seconds to be told what happens next. After this morning session, we continued to block the munchkins entrance within our first scene; we followed a similar structure of rehearsals shown in Tom's session, where we were reliant on our memory from last week's session to form the scene. This session has truly taught the importance of remembering certain sequences within the scenes- a scene cannot develop without the basics being nailed down.

15/11/22 For today's session, Kane made us take part in a workshop, in order to flesh out our Munchkin characters; we were put into smaller groups and told to introduce our munchkins to one another while in our characters. I played on the the cheekiness that a typical younger child would have and used it to create immediate tension between me and my twin brother, Chinny; I believe my character having a sibling made the characterisation of my munchkin all the more simpler, as I had immediate chemistry with another character to build my character's mannerisms around- not to mention having a companion to be accompanied by within the actual scripted scene. To further our characters, we were all put into a classroom setting where Kane was our "munchkin teacher", and made to play games such as "Duck Duck Goose" with the entire cast, which really built the dynamics our separate characters have with each other- again, making us more invested in out characters and, in turn, making our reactions to the beginning scene see all the more natural to us. Again, building off of the last activity, we then formed groups of people which we believed our munchkins would be interacting with on a daily basis- for example my twin brother- and put into a town sequence; the town sequence before the Wicked Witch of The East appears and is slaughtered by Dorothy's house. This not only helps to cement our character development, yet also lead in naturally to how our characters would feel about the Witches' appearing, and how each separate character would react to the Wicked Witch of The East's death. However, for our next session, I believe, in order to push my character to the next level, it would be helpful to bring a prop which reflects my character- such as a blue coloured plushie- to immediately tip to the audience that my munchkin is an innocent child.

16/11/22 For today's session, I worked on my backstage job:

" To aid with the process of building the set and making the stage as live-filled and 'Oz-like' as possible, me, Ash and Gracie started on painting the yellow brick road; we began by soaking kitchen sponges in yellow paint, then placing them in a brick style to simulate the traditional yellow brick road from the original source material. It took a while for me and Ash to figure out an effective system in which to quickly yet accurately finish the road, however after slight trial and error for the first three rows of bricks, we found a way which was much more efficient but also worked for both of us. With this nee system, there was still a few anomalous errors, however we were able to finish painting the elevated staging to emulate the yellow brick road. This experience has taught me a valuable lesson in communication and working as part of a smaller team, as well as a larger one; without the help of Ash and Gracie, the process would have taken so much longer than needed, and wouldn't have really benefited anyone. "

17/11/22 For today's session, we were introduced to the screen project of this half term- which is that the Film and TV students are making short Christmas films. We began by watching examples by past students with two different genres- one being more comical and another being more traditional and 'Hallmark'. After being shown these films, we were put into groups and discussed what our favourite Christmas films are, followed by what various Christmas traditions that each of us have; this was interesting as no two people had the same traditions- especially Alan, who celebrates Christmas on an entirely different day.

21/11/22  Today's session was entirely centrist on our short Globe segment from 'The Muppet's: A Christmas Carol'; we began the week with our typical rehearsals, polishing our two numbers with the feedback and assistance from Tom- then ending with a full run through in the Margaret Armstrong Theatre on-site, in front of two other APTA college courses (Musical theatre and Higher Education Acting).  Within the morning session, we adapted to last week's technique of rehearsals, which I believe has evidently become beneficial for the entire class, especially me, as it helps me cope with mistakes within the piece during the performance without breaking the immersion- for example, during one of the run-throughs, some of the dancers in the second number were slightly behind on the timing, meaning they left the stage while I was singing the beginning of the second verse- normally this would cause Tom to completely restart the dancing sequence, yet with this new method, I continued, which not only gave me a sense of what would would happen if that mistake happened during the actual show, yet it also granted me the opportunity to continue my rehearsal, giving me more time to rehearse the vocal segment of my solo with the actual soundtrack, blocking and cast. Later in that day, we were called into the theatre to rehearse our piece in front of an audience for the first time- this audience consisting of other students who are also performing during the Globe showcase; I was quite intimidated as Musical Theatre rehearsed before us and, despite me assuming they would be singing as part of their performance, their pieces were large choreography numbers, which made me feel as though I had quite big shoes to fill. In spite of these fears, I didn't let these queries affect my performance, and performed both numbers without stopping or breaking character- which I believe is a great contrast to myself from the start of this academic year, and truly shows how far I have come as an actor.

22/11/22 For today's session, myself and the entire cast of the "Winged Monkeys" worked together on order to work on the physicality of their characters; I was there as most of their scenes are with me- not only was I needed to read in lines, they also wanted to block their movements around where I am positioned within the scene. Coincidentally, the most challenging part about this session was keeping myself composed with the absurdity of the physicality the actors portraying the monkeys had to do; especially when Keira became very invested into her role, up until her point she forgot about her spacing and nearly knocked me over- I have not yet had to face such an comical set of characters up until recently, and this caught me off guard- though immature; this will have to be my target for the next few sessions, as these characters are some of the very few which my character directly interacts with, and it would be unfair on both myself and the other monkeys to ruin it by breaking immersion from the scenes.

23/11/22 For today's session, we continued on working on the physicality of the monkeys within their beginning scenes within the land of The West; specifically with the continuation of working on the start of Act Two; when the monkeys take both Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion prisoner under the guidance and tyrannical order of my character- the Wicked Witch of The West. Although, such as yesterday, I was not the focus of today's rehearsal, it was still a valuable use of my rehearsal time, as it allows me to adjust to the blocking within the scene and overall maximise the monkeys' performances. In spite of this, I still need to work on my composure when around the monkeys- especially Mark; their excessive reactions perfectly counter my serious and menacing aura onstage, it's just taking their reactions seriously offstage.

24/11/22 Today's session consists of bringing our monkey physicality based rehearsals to a finish; we began to expand onto other scenes which the monkeys are in, which they used the techniques which they have learnt over the past two sessions to create their own interpretations of their other scenes. I was far less involved than the past two sessions, as the next time the monkeys appear, my character is deceased- however, as they are still a part of my cast, I stayed to direct some of the scenes and give feedback to my fellow actors- which gave me the opportunity to view the production through a fresh lens.

28/11/22 For today's session, we began with our usual rehearsals within the college for our segment of 'The Muppet's: A Christmas Carol' with Tom; we used this time to polish any minor inconsistencies within the performance, such as the dancing segment during my solo song 'One More Sleep Til Christmas'. After these rehearsals within college, we then travelled to the Globe Theatre and began to run through our performance on the stage, which proved to be quite simple, as we have already rehearsed so much leading up to this point- with our only challenge being which order we enter and exit, which we soon organised quite quickly once actually on the stage. Despite this only being another rehearsal, I couldn't help but feel anxious; not necessarily because I was performing in this big of a venue (as I have technically done that before with the 'Ghost Light Tour'), but because this is the first time I have ever been given a professional stage mic to amplify my voice- it put a lot of pressure on me to perform perfectly as every note I sang was crystal clear and louder than everybody else's within the cast. In addition to this, the mic itself wasn't fitted correctly, essentially affecting how much I could exaggerate my emotions, especially in the first number, in fears that if I did go too far, my mic would fall and break. For tomorrow's performance, I am aware this problem will be resolved, as the technicians were quickly getting through all the acts, however I need to assure that the stage mic won't act as an obstacle to my acting; it would be useless to amplify my voice when there's no actions to support the emotions behind it.

29/11/22 In today's session, cast one were given an opportunity to go through the entirety of the play from start to finish, only stopping for Kelly's feedback. Although this is not my ideal method of rehearsal, I understand the necessity of this rehearsal, especially since it is so close to our cast's opening show; we haven't had an opportunity to properly have a single rehearsal with Kelly in a considerable amount of time. I believe, overall, this rehearsal was highly effective for the first half of the productions- however our progress was hindered when going into the second Act- I couldn't get into the more sadistic aspects of my character, and focused to more on being brash and shouting rather than being menacing and childish- especially within my final scene whilst I am canonically, alive which severely knocked my confidence. However, I was resilient and pushed through and by the end of the session I completed my scenes. As a consequence of my poor performance, however, we could not complete a full run through., which is something I will improve upon in my own time so that we can possibly complete a full run through in the near future. Later into today, we had our first of two performances for the Community Christmas project at the Globe, with our segment from 'The Muppets: A Christmas Carol'. Despite the overall quality of the performance being very high quality and enriching, the technological side of the performance hindered the quality- mu microphone was turned up far too high in the beginning song- meaning my voice overpowered everyone else's, which I believe was unfair on the other cast members who couldn't compete with my volume. In addition to this, it was also jarring to hear my own voice over everyone else at such a high altitude- which pulled me from my character and overall performance initially.

30/11/22 In today's session, Morgan proposed we- as a cast- go into a free space and attempt a full run through of our performance, after our progress towards finishing our run through yesterday was stunted; we began from the start of the play, yet instead of pausing and restarting, we went through the play in its entirety- we did this to learn the flow of the play and get a true taste of what the performance would emanate, a show from start to finish, without any pauses. This technique truly is the most effective, especially with our cast, as being stunted while performing takes many actors, including myself, out of the atmosphere of the scene- and overall, the character.  In spite of not completing the entirety of the play, we reached the point in which my character- the Wicked Witch of The West- is melted by Dorothy; although Act Two is when problems began to arise- for example, I would slip into a southern British accent, in order to articulate my words more clearly- however this was a result of  me still reading from my script for certain lengthier extracts within the second Act; this is a target which I will work towards fixing for my next session. Later into the day, we performed our final show at the Community Christmas Globe showcase, which followed a similar pattern to yesterday's performance; in that the only issue with my own performance was with fault to the stage microphone, with today my mic's sound output fluctuating throughout the entire performance, which led to some notes which I sang during my solo piece sounding starkly quieter than they should have been. In spite of this seemingly large problem, both Tom and Kelly within the audience could not tell this technical issue was even happening with my mic- it was only audible to those on stage, although I didn't know this while I was stressing about this error after finishing the final song. I believe if I were to do this piece again, I would definitely allow myself to relax before and after my performance, as my overthinking could have easily lessened my performance, and as a result, the overall performance.

1/12/22 In today's session, Cast One continued our full run-through rehearsal, where we were going over the latter half of Act Two. Despite my character being deceased by this portion of the play, I was still present as not only did they need substitutes to read in for smaller parts, such as the Munchkins and the Ozians nearing the end, I also believe it would be highly unprofessional on my part to not be present, since it wouldn't show teamwork if I were to leave them and not provide the help when needed- they are still a part of my cast, whether I am in the scenes we are rehearsing or now. I took this day as an opportunity to truly evaluate my casts performances- providing feedback when they were struggling and compliments when doing something noteworthy; today I truly did learn the importance that every actor has within a production, and I luckily got to see the beauty of the finished product of this play- I am more than excited to bring this to the stage and share it with a live audience.

5/12/22 Today marks our final rehearsal for 'The Wizard of Oz' before the beginning of the twelve show run; today's focus was to work on the technological side of the show. Using the second cast as the performing cast, our light technicians individually went through every scene to plan sound and lighting so that the experience will be as immersive as possible for the audiences which will start coming in from tomorrow. Much like my final day of rehearsals with the monkeys, I took a much more passive role; sitting and watching when each lighting and sound cue was played, not only since the technological side of theatre is an interest of mine, but also so I can learn my cues, not only for my 'main' character, but also for my ensemble roles, such as the Ozians and the Munchkins.