Performance Blogs- Little Women / The Last Resort

  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.

17/04/23 Today was the beginning of our new project entitled 'Little Women', based on the semi biographical novels by Louisa May Alcott, in which the females within the cast were given a brief overview of the expectations for the project, and given additional research for us to utilise later on. We were given a brief history on the novels, which we were taught were semi-autobiographical, mirroring Alcott's home life in most aspects- despite certain aspects were altered or diluted for the sake of narrative value and monetary value- Alcott believed her unfiltered life wouldn't have sold as well as the classical novel. Given the novel's status as an 19th century text, Kelly established the linguistics within the play would be much more difficult to master, in contradiction to our prior projects, which have all been highly contemporary- clearly laying a vast challenge upon us from the very beginning of the project, which I am willing to take head on within the coming months. 

18/04/23 Today continues the prologue into our central project this term, 'Little Women', when we were guided through the audition process- swiftly followed by an overview for the entirety of the term, the end of year feature films, and our second stage show, a comedic piece entitled 'The Last Resort'. Our audition process consists of  three aspects; a selected extract from the script, a monologue within the perspective of the character, and a chemistry read- resulting in our longest audition process in the span of my current acting journey, which already lays forth a daunting challenge by sheer length. In spite of this, I believe this audition process shan't be too difficult, since we as a group are familiar with both the first and final segment of the process due to past auditions; especially within our last project, with it being a heavily ensemble based piece. In addition to this, my overall confidence towards the generic process of applying for a role has gradually increased over the span of my first year- which, in turn, already demonstrates my progression from our first project up until now. 

19/04/23 For today's session, the entirety of the class was given a brief masterclass in the standard American accent, in order to give us a step closer to the Trans-Atlantic Boston accent, which Kelly envisions us having throughout the show. The session began with our designated room for the day being divided into three segments; a section for people who were incapable of the American accent, a section who is able to but not fully confident, and a section for those fully confident in the American accent (this being the segment in which I placed myself in)- this evenly rationed the room into segments which Kelly could give attention to, given in what segment the students placed themselves into. Receiving this information, we were then equally filtered into two larger groups, with each group containing people from all three categories prior, and made each group compete against one another in who could articulate tongue twisters better- in order to warm up our voices and tighten our diction; the group which I was in was victorious, although we were nearly forfeited as one student within our group mouthed the tongue twisters in the back of our group, rather than making an effort to participate. Following this, we then split off into smaller groups of our choosing, so that we could receive an important rule within American diction, in order to teach this lesson to the remainer of the class- our lesson was the 't' sound within the American accent, rather how its sound is transformed into a 'd' under certain conditions- which was given to us in a basic infographics card. If I was to complete this segment of the session again, I would attempt to add more of my input in order to make the session more appealing to my fellow classmates, because while it was informative, it felt boring and very linear. In spite of this, our endeavour seemed successful, as when we were registered into the first three categories of the session, nobody remained within the incapable category.

20/04/23 During today's session, we began to work through our first scenes of our comedic centred end of year project titled 'The Last Resort', in which we worked to portray both groups of animalistic characters within the show- the Donkeys and the Gulls. Despite both of these characters being very clear notations to animals typically found on the seaside, the Donkeys are given a highly personified interpretation within this script- being given the human reflection of a working class Yorkshire men who are fed up of their jobs; for mine, Elliott and Will's version of these characters, we incorporated the use of cigarettes as a clear distinction of the stress of these characters, while also to indicate the origin of the girth within their voices, for example. Although I am not intending on auditioning for either the Donkeys nor the Gulls, it was highly beneficial to experiment with a character within a piece I would not usually be considered for.

Once completing our scheduled lessons for the day, I auditioned for a Film and TV's end of year film project entitled 'The Weight Of The World'- a comedic yet heartfelt movie based around the ideologies of a fat camp, and the characters within it, when a fast food company threatens to steal the land the fat camp is on from directly beneath them. I had very minute preparation for this audition, as I had only discovered this piece's audition dates today, which I felt gave me a disadvantage, and a lesson to be more organized when preparing for future project auditions within the film sector. I auditioned for the role of 'Ralphie', the plus sized comedic relief sidekick- which is a massive contradiction to all my stage roles this year being highly solemn, however, my lack of preparation blundered my performance; I didn't utilise the comedic side of his character enough, and severely leaned into the more realistically heartfelt side of his persona, which I feel removed from the character (I don't feel my interpretation for the character fit within what the directors were looking for for that role, which has been a lesson in not overstretching myself whilst also being a lesson in preparation for every project I want to be a part of).

24/04/23 During today's session we were privileged enough to be one of the first groups around the country to read the second draft of Zest Theatre's latest script to promote and ease the transition from primary to secondary school 'Camp Phoenix'. Via zoom meeting, we met with the collaborators within the Zest Theatre group, Toby being the chief playwright and director, and Koko being the songwriter and musician behind the play, and were given a copy each amongst every first year student present. With this, people volunteered to read in for specific characters of their choosing; I was not one of those people, I felt as though observing such a fresh piece, in order to expel all of my energy into analysing the story, and was not yet prepared to give a full performance through a first read, which gave me practice for my analysis of my Little women characters pre-audition. In terms of the actual script, it certainly does a good job of appeasing a denser message down to a younger audiences, however it feels as if the script is tailored towards those at half the age of primary school children: they could go further within the ideologies behind the script and stop simplifying it.

25/04/23 Today marks both section one and two of my 'Little Women' auditions; "For Little Women, I have decided to be considered for both the roles of Jo March and Beth March- for varying reasons. For Beth March, I believe her character severely contradicts all other roles I have portrayed in the past, giving myself am opportunity to stretch and demonstrate my emotional range to its fullest; by choosing a more reclusive, introverted and, overall, quieter and kinder character, I can peel away from my harsher toned characters from roles prior, and show my progression from the beginning of my acting journey up until now- I have yet to play a fully non-abrasive character on stage, and I believe I could bring great depth to the character, while also giving myself a considerable challenge. Contrary to this, I also considered Jo March as a viable option for my final performance as I believe I could manifest a unique and liberated version of the much beloved character without withdrawing from her original purpose of being a voice for women suffrage and yearning to live equally amongst men and women alike; although she is not as opposite in comparison to my prior roles this year, I believe she would still give me a surplus challenge without straying too far from my comfort zone. In order to make preparations for both auditions, Kelly told us that the audition would be segmented into three compartments- a section within the given script adaptation, a monologue which we write within the perspective of the character, and extra chemistry reads with other actor who go for characters that our characters must have a deep connection with, mainly in a romantic sense. On the contrary to previous audition pieces, we were instructed to select our own segments from within the script; this is to show we can see a clear defining moment in our  audition character’s development- which really helped me pull myself into both Beth and Jo’s characters and journeys respectively. For my Beth March audition, I chose a short section from within her final moments being alive in the play- with an emotional monologue on her views on her life and her love for her family; this piece gives me an opportunity to show not only the obvious wrenching emotions within the scene, yet also show the mature side of an otherwise childishly naïve character, therefore demonstrating my emotional range by portraying the most complex part of Beth’s character arc. On the other hand, for my audition for Jo March, I have decided on rather a monologue, a duologue between the characters Jo and Laurie, when the character of Laurie professes his love for my audition character, meanwhile the same romantic feelings are not reciprocated. In addition to this, I believe this duologue demonstrates one of Jo’s most emotionally driven moments within the play, whilst keeping the scene focus primarily on Jo, and her feelings and motivations as a character- therefore giving me a lot of room to demonstrate my emotional range and understanding of the character, whilst giving me an opportunity to portray my chemistry with other actors, which was another actor going for the role of Laurie; a first year called Connor, somebody who I quite good friends with; this ironically made the chemistry much more awkward and less realistic- which I feel took away from my performance as Jo quite drastically in the audition room- which in turn made me realise that Jo was far too much of a stretch for me at this point within my acting career, and told Kelly so within my audition for Beth, in which she agreed. My competition for Jo was a lot greater as opposed to my competition for Beth, however both equally daunted me. In spite of this, I reacted to this pressure prior to the audition a lot healthier than in prior auditions, however, after the falter within my Jo audition, I let the pressure get to me whilst I auditioned for Beth later that day and forgot the first line to my selected monologue, causing me to get into my own head, and request to look at a script to prompt myself, which very much frustrated me, as I had the line learnt very far in advance, and I would’ve been able to recall them easily if I didn’t allow myself to get so anxious. In spite of this, this segment of the audition went far more successfully than that of my prior audition- I felt no barriers in being able to portray Beth’s character after my minor setback at the beginning of the audition, and I felt as though I was able to demonstrate Beth’s fragile but shockingly mature tone which she holes throughout the piece, excluding the final line where she breaks her composure to show a scared, sick child. Despite this, I felt my interpretation of Beth lacked uniqueness; my version of the character was not directly traced from the film adaptations, though the way I portrayed Beth’s emotions felt very recycled- I feel as though I could have easily adjusted my performance and attempted different ways to deliver the monologue prior to the audition. 

  For the next segment of the audition, we were to deliver a written monologue through the lens of the character which we auditioned for- in my case, my characters being Beth March and Jo March. For my written piece for Jo, I wrote a short monologue based earlier within the play where she attempts to direct her younger sister, Amy, through one of her own written plays: my intention was to show the much more whimsical and childish side of her character, which is very apparent- especially throughout Act One, however I feel I fell flat on actually executing the speech. I spent a considerable amount of time on attempting to perfect Beth’s monologue that I feel that this other monologue was under prepared and seemed to lack Jo’s voice: it truly felt as though you could tell I was writing as Jo, rather than writing as her. As a result, I felt as though my performance was severely severed- it’s not that I didn’t have the capability to portray the emotions I wanted through the monologue, it is just that it was highly obvious to me that it was me acting, rather than me being the character- which, again, came down to my mindset. On the contrary, I feel as though my written piece for Beth really spoke from within her character and truly required me to leave my mindset and transport myself into her way of thinking: death is a topic which is one that is far out of my normal mindset, especially the idea of dealing with my own mortality at such a youthful age. This barrier really pushed me out of my own perception of life and into hers, meaning I was much more enveloped within Beth’s world, or rather how she perceives it; “I don’t want to be alone anymore. I suppose I am a black key on a piano, yet what is the point of the harsh, gloomy sound it brings without the white keys to accompany them in a chord? It’s a dark time without my sisters to lift me- the dark sounds in my mind are beginning to cloud, and I don’t know how much longer I can keep strong. Yet, I suppose dying isn’t down to weakness- it’s the strength of letting go. I suppose that’s the part I fear- not death itself, yet the fear of letting go of this simple life- letting go of this family. Oh, Jo- if only I could hear your croaks- give me your words of approval, please. I cannot break you, Jo- I cannot pass until you give me the reassurance that you’ll carry on- for us all, for me, but- most direly- for yourself.”. Reflecting on this monologue, I feel as though I could’ve incorporated even more of Beth’s personality into the written segment- it gives a very generalised view on death with referencing to the piano, which- reading through my piece again- is a very one dimensional and substance lacking interpretation of Beth’s views on death and life before death. In spite of this, this almost childlike simple view of life and death strangely worked with my character and enhanced the performance whilst performing it in front of both Kelly and Kane- however, if I were to do this audition again, I would definitely experiment with different styles of writing to fully engulf the mindset of the character in my words."

26/04/23 Within today's session, we not only gave a lesson based on our research in 1860s etiquette for gentlemen and ladies alike, yet we also got the opportunity to partake in a traditional ballroom dance sequence, which will be incorporated into the play. In order to engage the rest of the group with our educated lesson on etiquette, we came to the unified decision to create a small narrated piece, followed by examples for both what was acceptable and unacceptable- such as addressing a man by his first name, rather than their surname, prefixes by 'Mister', which gave me an opportunity to work on my query from our American accent session, with our prior lesson being too bland. In spite of my successes within our first session, I found the next segment of the day to prove to be more challenging- the traditional ballroom dancing. I felt as though I couldn't keep up with the learning pace of everyone else, worse that that- I felt as though I was stunted my partner's progress, which caused me to stress myself into a rut, and lose composure when we ventured further into the dance, which served as a lesson for resilience within my performances; we all learn at different paces, and I shouldn't be ashamed nor frustrated by this fact.

27/04/23 Today's session consisted of our final segment within our auditions for 'Little Women'; "For the final segment of my audition, I was to do a chemistry read as Beth, to see if my chemistry was applicable between the three other sisters- Jo, Meg, and Amy, which were played by students Sophia, Rebecca and Phoebe respectively.  For our chemistry test, we were given a fairly lighthearted scene, which takes place during Scene Two of the show- which is an amateur performance of Jo’s latest written script, which is the most pivotal example of  their sisterly bond being wholesome and realistic, outside of their constant quarrelling which takes place through the majority of the script. This chemistry test, contrary to my Wizard of Oz chemistry read, highly involved every character within the scene to interact with one another to bring it to life- including my own character: despite Beth having a  more minute speaking role within this scene, her reactions complete the scene and helped boost the overall environment within the sequence. In addition to this, I am already quite well accustomed to all my fellow actresses within the scene, therefore I already had pre-established and natural chemistry between every single person within the play.". 

Whilst other chemistry groups performed their pieces, I was taken to partake in my 'The Last Resort' audition; "For 'The Last Resort', I decided to go for the character of Becky- a pregnant 14 year old, whose been raped and abandoned at the scenic fictional location of Ferryton-On-Sea, a seaside used to parallel and reference a typical British seaside. I have selected this character as I feel her role within the piece is very individual in comparison to every other character within the piece- that being the serious nature of her character; it feels as though all the serious topics within the show contrive onto this one character in the most blatant format, therefore it's a lot more challenging compared to other characters in my eyes since every other role has a basis of comedy. Although I have played numerous morbidly serious roles within the span of my journey thus far, I feel as though this role will still act as a challenge, since past roles have not been the only stand alone serious parts within their respective pieces. For this audition process, similarly to 'Little Women', we were instructed to select our own audition piece, to perform in front of both the director and co-director of the project; Geoffrey and Elliott, which once again forced us to think within the characters mindset to find a pivotal moment within the character's arc that can showcase not only our skill, yet also the character themselves- I selected Becky's first monologue of the show; I feel it shows not only her childlike naivety, yet also her underlying doubts and anxieties, whilst not being overly explicit. I felt as though my audition was convoluted- I felt as though I wasn't within the headspace of the character, and, for myself, the performance suffered as a result; despite the directors seeing incredible merit in my performance and saying so after finishing my segment, however, if I had the opportunity to go through this audition process once more, I would make much more of an effort to engrossed myself within Becky's world." 

02/05/23 Today marks the first day of a two day workshop provided by National Theatre actor David Kirkbride- where he designated a day to his teachings and tips towards acting for screen, whilst also giving us a taste of anthropomorphic work we will be expected to do at the next level of our acting career, where he made us act as if we were animals, at differing levels of intensity, spanning from one (fully humane) to ten (full animalistic). However, this wasn't merely a foundation; we had a similar workshop prior to this final activity with which body part an actor leads with, and how it affects their character: for example, a character who leads with their head can be seen as aggressive as opposed to a character who leads with their knees, who may be seen as an injured character instead. For our animal workshop, we not only incorporated our previous experimentation with leading with certain body parts, yet we also were taught how to effectively execute this within a piece; our anthropomorphic beasts were put into a nightclub  scenario- my flamingo, for example, led from its neck confidently as it entered the bar, however its neck was figuratively dragging on the floor from their fatigue and lack of sobriety by the time they exited. 

03/05/23 For our final day with David Kirkbride, we began to focus on the stage; with Kirkbride walking us through certain scenes with his vision for 'The Last Resort', completing his two day workshop with the completion of his lesson from the session prior- experimentation within rehearsals to create a more diverse cast of actors; for example, David used the donkey characters as a way to explain his point- he thought of every donkey to be the same character, different actor, and despite the donkeys being one pact, them being one entity derives from their individuality. David then made the actors think of their physicality, using their leading body parts to discern each individual donkey's personality, much like we were taught yesterday. I believe today was very useful in solidifying Kirkbride's views on acting- seeing his theories in practice shows the importance of the workings of past and present practitioners, and I am ecstatic to use these methods within my work when possible.

04/05/23 For today's session, we continued with our rehearsals for the traditional Elizabethan style ballroom dance for our production of 'Little Women'; using the dance in which we had learned previously. In addition to this rehearsal being used to not only refine our dancing skills, it also lead more into its crucial part within the play- with some members of the cast learning to dance on overexaggreated petticoats, while for the majority of people, it gave us an opportunity to show where our dancing segments would be placed in each cast's show; my main cast is when I dance with Phoebe (portraying Amy March) in a childish homely environment, astray from the other dancers at the ball, to show their lack of maturity for the ball, however I was placed as an ensemble dancer in Cast Two, which I put myself forward for, since I saw the dancing as a memorizing challenge before, I decided my next step to stretch myself is to reach out of my comfort zone and actively attempt to better myself within my weaker areas, such as dancing. 

09/05/23 During today's session, we finally began to block of production of 'Little Women' within the casts we have been designated; for myself, this was Cast Three. I must say that I struggled within these rehearsals; we were the first group to perform our adaptation, which meant the most audible adjustments from our tutor, as well as the pressure to set a high standard- especially with our first ever time bringing this scene together in this specific group. In spite of my initial fears, this first rehearsal was actually extremely beneficial for  myself and castmates alike; since we were first, we had more time to evaluate and steal ideas from other renditions we saw from other casts to incorporate into our own- and, unsurprisingly, we recieved the most verbal feedback, which- once again- gave more time to self reflect and for my peers to reflect on our performances as well. My most pressing note was how to convincingly react to the relationships between Beth and her sisters- she truly cherishes every moment with her family and would certainly portray this with a much gentler, sincere expression of joy- I felt my facial expressions were quote flat originally due to lack of direction on my own part.

10/05/23 For today's session, we continued with our rehearsals for 'Little Women'; moving forward into Scene Two, whilst also going over Scene One in it's entirety, in order to solidify our stage craft from yesterday, whilst also giving our tutor opportunity to see how our reflection of oir roles has already impacted our performance significantly- which it had. Though we were still the first the rehearse for both scenes today, I felt much less intimate and comfortable within my environment; it felt safe to make mistakes and try new things- just like Kirkbride's philosophies- and know that I can use and suggestions from my tutor to my advantage to make the piece as immersive as possible. Our second scene within the show us primarily self directed, which I feel is a challenge for me and the other three actors playing Beth's other three sisters, as it would be our first experience in fully directing something almost organically for ourselves- a comedic play purposefully made to look awful purposefully yet professionally will be a fine line to walk, however, I believe once all our lines have been learnt, we'll have more room for improvisation and stagecraft for the scene.

11/05/23 During today's session, we fully blocked up to the ballroom scene within 'Little Women', which is up until the point of Scene Six; this included adding the interlude and epilogue to the dancing scenes, with characters Jo, Laurie, Mr Brookes and Meg- which certainly fills the scene with much more sustenance that prior with just the dancing. To develop this idea of extra substance to the scene, myself, Marmee (portrayed by Alayah), and Amy improvised a mute adlib to explain what we do before and after the dance; I simply bring both of us downstairs since neither of us can sleep, we go to our creative hobbies, only to be prompted by Marmee to dance with my sibling. I feel this was very useful, not only to the scene, yet to my acting abilities- it gave me chance to polish my improvisation skills, especially within such a complex character such as Beth.

15/05/23 Within today's session, we completed blocking Scene Seven through to Scene Eleven within our production of 'Little Women'. Most of these scenes lacked an appearance from my character- some of the scenes were short interactions between Meg and Sallie Gardiner- however, I began to refine the minute stage time I had within the scenes in which I was present; I fully enveloped myself within the Match household and began to find small traits that Beth would pick up within the household- such as her inclination to her doll; I decided to give Joanna the same hairstyle in which I had in this session, just to show Beth's connection to her doll and her childhood. In addition to this, I began to make Beth's connections with her sisters and mother far more physically affectionate- within my interpretation, it's far more painful for Beth to be given a disease where she had to quarantine herself from her family if, prior to the incident, that was one of her most notable traits.

16/05/23 During today's session, we began to block out the closing scene of Act One in our production of 'Little Women', a highly complex scene involving many moving elements- including Beth's diagnosis of scarlet fever. At first, I struggled to find the balance of sounding ill, yet still projecting vocally- of which I started off prioritizing my volume; this, however, made my performance too melodramatic and too astray from the character of Beth. To combat this, I began to revert back to a more emotionally driven version of my performance as a foundation, then focused on keeping certain emotional moments audible to the audience, without shouting my lines. After this, we were privileged enough to be granted the opportunity to view Higher Educations final project; 'Nell Gywnn'- a periodic piece, which not to expanded my knowledge of the time period in which 'Little Women' takes place, yet also expanded my overall theatre knowledge.

17/05/23 For today's session, I was given the opportunity to film offsite at Eaglescliffe Town Hall in order to begin filming for 'Weight Of The World'; my role was to be an audience member witnessing an eating competition between the main character- Doug- and a tertiary competitive eating character, portrayed by one of the amazing directors- Kenz. After we had completed filming, I was requested to be a background character within another Film and TV student's final project of the year- a western styled film entitled 'Tumbles, Tweeds and Tractors'- where I was a supporting actor for a turnip competition, with minute adlibbed lines amongst the sorted dialogue between the three centric characters within the scene. Both of these experiences may seem trivial and minor in the short run, however, what I have learnt during todays session is the major effect of minor characters, on stage, or on screen.

18/05/23 Today marks my final day of filming on the Film and TV's students end of year project 'The Weight of The World', where we had the privilege of filming offsite at 'Hamptons', a five star Hilton hotel. For the final scene in which I am included, Doug (being played by Aiden) has just been told that his fat camp is being overtaken by a fast food chain, and in this scene, he is telling this news to his most favoured campmate- Ralphie, who is portrayed by Elliott; my role is to be one of the campmates conversating with Ralphie in the beginning shots, playing card games with him, creating a welcoming environment of a camp of that type. Filming from my standpoint was going accordingly- our only issue was the professionalism of the centric character; he was highly pretentious and obnoxious the entire process, leading to loss of time and focus- which, unfortunately, caused the filmmakers to rush the final few shots because of his incompetence.

22/05/23 To begin today's session, we began to choreograph an aggressive argument scene between Amy and Jo March within our production of 'Little Women'- when Amy destroys one of Jo's most prized stories. Within this scene, I play a highly passive role- as Beth attempts to break up the right- which led to Beth being drawn from focus, making it feel as though she was subservient to the scene, as Marmee later appears to break ul the fight successfully; it felt as though Beth was simply there to add to the soundscape of chaos- with her whines of desperation but overall, helplessness. If I was to improve any aspect of this, I felt as though I could've acted more physically in getting one of the two sisters off of each other- my physicality could've drastically improved. Later into the day, when I was disbanded from use, I decided to be proactive and begin rehearsals for my role within 'The Last Resort'- Becky. In spite of my productive intentions, my goal fell flat once realizibg the next move of progress which can be made for my character is figuring out the blocking when given the opportunity to rehearse within our theatres space, along with transitions between Becky and the other groups within the play; the only productive stride I can take for my character for the time being is beginning to learn lines for the piece whilst also preparing for 'Little Women'.

23/05/23 During today's session, the third cast (the cast in which I play Beth March) began a full cast run through of 'Little Women'. I believe this session was excruciatingly beneficial- though it wasn't a linear process from beginning to finish, it certainly helped both mine and my cast mates performances; we began the session by running from the prologue to the end of Scene One, with Kelly and Tom silently evaluating our performances, whilst leaving us to rehearse without interruption. After the completion of this scene, we were given highly generalised feedback (feedback which applied to everyone in some sensibility), one of the most notorious examples being volume. In order to combat this issue from the onsite, Tom made us select a phrase in which our character says within the play and project it in a controlled manner- my phrase being "Poor Jo!", a recurring statement Beth says, I felt it was important to tackle the clarity of that specific line. After this, we circulated back to the prologue, actually taking the time to pause when Tom saw an amenable fault, and he wouldn't move on until it was corrected; this method proved to be extremely effective as it allowed us to fully encapsulate ourselves within the environment and not just the characters- Tom made us focus on our stagecraft once we actually began to go through more complex scenes blocking wise, such as Scene One, when the March sisters are around a Christmas tree decorating. However, if I could improve further within this session, it would be to not let the constant harrowing feedback affect my performance, which I felt it did cause my performance to fluctuate with every scene.

24/05/23 For today's session, I partook in a 3 mile sponsored walk with my peers in order to raise funds for our costume and set of our production of 'Little Women', in order to collaborate with the marketing team and increase the overall budget of our show. Whilst myself and a small group of students partook in this charitable event, we took the opportunity to ferment lines into our head, so that the time doing the event didn't feel wasteful in the long run. In spite of this, I felt the change of environment skewed our attention, and caused us to derail from our intentions rather quickly; which unfortunately makes me feel as though I didn't utilise my time efficiently.

25/05/23 For today's session, I was pulled aside by Mark, a member of marketing, to be asked a question through the perspective of Beth in order to advertise our production of 'Little Women'; the interviewing process involved our input on not only the development of our character, yet also the play and the history of the story that is 'Little Women'. In spite of this thrilling idea, I was the only person whom plays Beth who was available, therefore there was less depth and length to my interview than that of any other character. One of the most notable questions I was asked was "What does Beth March bring to the show?", which took a lot more effort to answer than I expected; I always thought of Beth as me whilst I rehearsed as her- it was a curveball to think outside of the perspective of Beth and in the perspective of myself. However, to me, Beth brings the childhood sensibility from Act One through to Act Two, and I believe she is used as a symbol of eternal youth within the play.