Road: Week 8

SHOW WEEK is here!!!
This blog post is fairly brief but summarising the smaller things I did in order of preparation to the performances as well as feedback I was given and work upon.

Louise...What a great character she has been to play. She was my nomination of a character when we could suggest a preferable character. And I fully believe that I have really improved with her. Our first 'Road' blocking session started with me and Jake playing our two characters for the first time and it was so awkward and like I have said before now it would've been interesting to compare that session to our final performance of this scene as it has come a really long way. My entrance in Brenda and Carol's scene has always felt quite awkward for me, but then this suits Louise as a character because she makes quite an entrance, bursting into a scene with a really tense atmosphere in which is created by Hannah and Phoebe as Brenda and Carol. I had learnt my lines well, quite early on but I never had the chance to properly show this but that's just me and my confidence issue. Our ending scene has taken a lot of work on it, as we really worked on balancing the characters such as Carol's leading role, Eddie's swag, Brink's quiet but quite cheeky character and Louise just being Louise but also building her up to her monologue. Any awkwardness in this scene between me and Lewis (Eddie) was erased really early on in the blocking process and even when we were told this little sequence looked awful we managed to improve it. The dancing scene I found ridiculously hard when we first practised it but I felt that I managed to forget this and just go for it in the performance nights. I would like to think that I have moved Louise away from my first impressions of her which was that she was a fairly mundane character, a tag along to Carol and that was it. But over these past 8 weeks I have really seen a different Louise to what you just see on the surface when reading 'Road'. Despite the fact I asked for Louise I think that Deborah gave her to me knowing that it will gently push me out of myself and my confidence zone. Some drama teachers I have had really try to mix up my characters- whereas Deborah did this a lot more subtly which I must thank her for because for all I know she could've put me in the deep end and got me to play Brenda- a loud, fiery and boisterous character who lives in the desperate thought of wanting to be young again. Louise is a quiet character, but she's not at the same time; because when she gets to her monologue it is revealed to us all that she has so many things that she wants in life and it proves to everyone that she does have a voice, and a bit like what Cartwright did in his life; she will go onto be successful.
I think Louise was an extremely well suited character for me and I really did love playing her as I have managed to pull out a lot of extra information from her than what meets the eye- she is most definitely a lot more than this quiet, tag along character that I had first put to her.

And it began with receiving our feedback from Thursdays session:

• Be careful how you are sat, this will come to me as soon as I am in my full costume of a skirt and heels etc
• Loosen up with Eddie, so that the kiss isn't unexpected, as such. More touching, flirting etc
• Emphasise 'you' and not 'really' in my line: 'She likes YOU really'
• Create a bit of chatter when the boys are shifting the scene before the dancing
• Laugh but don't talk in the dancing scene
• Say the monologue out to the audience more, and really build up that one long sentence I say without a pause

I am pleased with my feedback and I know they are all things I have and will be working on. The positioning of me sat down will automatically change when I am in my costume due to being in a skirt and basically more girly clothes. Loosening up with Eddie will now be easy as we both have practised the kiss enough times to feel comfortable doing it; so when we did a run later on in the day I made the effort to interact with him more i.e. laughing, nudging, playfully slapping him etc. The emphasis on 'you' I can now see that I do, and it's a bit odd; so that's just something I need to remind myself when saying the line-perhaps even signal towards the 'toilet' where Carol has just left to help me to emphasise. Creating a bit more noise and chatter will add more to the scene both when the boys are moving the sofa and when we are dancing- I find it awkward if it's dead quiet in the dancing any ways so the laughing and giggling and slight mumbles of words works for me. I still need to work on the monologue; and I really need to practise in our full run which we didn't get round to doing today- Wednesday we are all hopefully doing a costume run so this will really boost my characterisation of Louise which will help me. 

After giving out the feedback we all presented our costumes to the class and our lecturers, I presented the outfit chosen in Blog post 7: the tartan skirt, black tshirt, denim jacket, fish net tights and red converses. I think the outfit was liked apart from the shoes, so I now need to wear heels or black heeled boots. Deborah also wants my hair up in a high ponytail and for me to wear big hooped earrings. This threw me a bit, as those who know me this is the complete opposite to my style...But no doubt this is why Deborah's requesting this of me. 

It was then time to spend our next couple of hours running various scenes- and I think it is a good sign that I wasn't asked to run my scenes :) To start I ran through my monologue lines, and then I moved onto making notes and actually sharing them in class which is something. 

All the feedback has been dished out, again, to those specified. My hand written notes feature in the images below; however I don't think it beneficial for me to explain them to you via here: [please see images below] 

Dor, Lane, Professor, Bisto and SkinLad feedback notes

Clare and Joey feedback notes:

SkinLad feedback notes

I was pleased with the feedback I gave out and I really do hope those it was sent to appreciate it also, as I know I would appreciate it if I were to receive it from my peers- but coincidentally I don't. Throughout this entire project I feel like I have helped out a lot of different characters with minor things, and I think that my confidence has improved now as I express my thoughts and give out feedback in class. Those I am giving the feedback too seem to appreciate it but I sometimes feel I am showing myself off a bit; which seems daft as that is the whole process of a lesson and being taught, and its also contributing in lesson- but we have a lot of 'different energies' in our class; so that consists of me and a few others dishing out feedback and making constructive notes or being productive when running others scenes, and then we have others who are just happy to watch the scenes and not put much into the lesson. So I find it hard to identify when it's best to put in my feedback knowing it will be fully appreciated and accepted by the whole class.

It was now time to set up our stage, and wow it looks amazing! I've never performed on a stage with so much set surrounding us! I sketched a really brief (and awful) drawing of our staging layout: 

The stage is really full and it fits with our interpretation of Road perfectly. So at the back wall we have a brick wall used by various characters such as Scullery, Brenda, Dor and Lane. We have 'our' (myself, Lewis, Milo and Phoebe) sofa in the far right of the stage. Opposite to us sits Scullery's tower and rubbish bin bags. Joey and Clare's bed is pushed back in the far left corner. In line with 'our' sofa sits a spare sofa which is purely there to fill the stage even more. We then placed our props on stage, such as the wine bottles and glasses that are scattered around our scene. Me, Phoebe and a handful of others screwed up the newspapers to fill the bin bags with, and I gave out the props I brought in: such as Joe's glasses and tape, Jerry's tie, Bisto's records (which I now think will have more a role in the play, if they were in our scene on top of the record player Eddie uses.) 

 

So after setting the stage up, with all the props ad ‘furniture’ such as the sofa’s etc we began a full run of the play. This was really just for us to get the feel of performing in the space.  As you, would hopefully now expect, this started with the pre-show which we were later told that needed a lot more ENERGY!! This flowed really nicely in our proper staging layout, however it did feel too long but this will hopefully change when we pick up the pacing and energy. This flowed straight into mine and Brother’s scene. I felt that this went really well. It was good to have the stage to rehearse in and also the props such as the mirror as I really needed to know where this would be placed. The other following scenes for me again went smoothly and all in all I felt that this entire beginning went well for me. Skipping to my end scenes; again these went well. However as a group we muddled and missed out a lot of lines, and it was definitely the worst we’ve ever done it. It felt really static and it involved me and Phoebe trying to improvise interactions when waiting for the next line. It wasn't the ‘end of the world’ because we did cover and recover from it but it still threw us all a bit. Secondly I can honestly say I was ashamed of my acting when I drop the wine glass. When it came to the line in which I drop it, I froze knowing full well that I had to drop the glass for the scene to continue running. To make do I just let it slip out of my hand. But it was horrendous. I am annoyed with myself because this was something I had been earlier told to work on; but I hadn’t got round to doing so which lead to the full run being awful.  I also think that we desperately need to practise this with liquids and proper props to allow us to really get the feel for the scene.

I felt that today was really successful despite the fact that I didn’t get round to doing much. I felt that it was still productive with the feedback that I gave out. The scenes that I did do were again successful and I feel like I have really progressed with ‘Road’ and the character, Louise.

So tonight when I got home I really explored my characters costume: As said in blog post 7, I have gone for the tartan skirt, fish net tights, red converses, a black top and a denim jacket. But today I was pushed towards wearing heels, hooped earrings and my hair up in a high pony tail. Anyone who knows me knows that this isn’t me at all but that’s probably why Deborah has done it! I dug out some pixie heeled boots that go really well with the outfit.
I also experimented with Louise's make-up and hair. I've gone for some frosted pink lipstick with some nice clashing blue eye liner drawn on the bottom lip of my eye. Then with purple eye shadow, with lashings mascara. The make-up looks bad but good for the 80's, it suits Louise so well and it adds some clashing colours into her outfit which was a thing back then. For my hair I have two options: no1 being half of it down and the rest of it in a spider clip. No2's option would be for my whole hair in a high ponytail with my fringe bat combed back. The second hair option is probably my favourite as it just really suits the costume and it also shows the hooped earrings more so than hair option 1. Another extra accessory to my costume is the big hooped silver earrings which are the perfect Madonna look I was originally going for in my very first costume design. This entire costume is very much out of my comfort zone with my hair up, heels, skirt etc which is why I know that I need to practise in the full costume as much as I can possibly can. 

Wednesday began with receiving some of our feedback from the run which we did on Monday. My feedback was just for the beginning of the play and it consisted of:

• Everyone's feedback was to pick up the energy in the pre-show! This still applies for me even though I have no lines or anything to react to- but the quicker we react to the professor comes over the more energy that will come into the scene.
• The pre show was also changed around a bit so it ends with Bisto going off last, so its like he is turning off the music to represent the ending of the pre show.
• To my surprise my accent was apparently really good and strong but I just need to be careful with my line "don't put the immersion on" as I said it too quickly so the accent was lost
• My last bit of feedback given to me this morning is to make a noise reaction when Brother wipes the oil on my face

My later feedback consisted of:

• Pub recall needs to be even more excitable
• Carol to knock my drink out of my hand
• Create more between me and Lewis
• Use our bags!
• More giggling and reactions in the dancing

I am really pleased with all the feedback given today and I see it as: because I am getting less and less notes that I am improving on the things they are giving me which overall is improving Louise and my acting in 'Road'. All the notes we have been given since Monday have been little things to add to our characters and acting so they are definitely a lot easier to improve on in the time we now have to improve on them. 

Today we had a good hour or so for individual rehearsing which came as much needed for me as I could refresh myself on all the little feedback notes I have been given throughout this assignment. So I spent this time going through all my feedback and this was really helpful for me as it really did refresh my memory of everything I knew I needed to include and improve on; as I am aiming high for my two performances tomorrow. 

This afternoon we did a run of lighting and lighting cues etc. This was annoyingly out of costume as I really wanted to have a chance before show day to practise in costumes and with the liquids needed for our ending scene- however we did have the coal for mine and brother's scene. Practising this for the first time was really successful. Jake had mastered when he needs to rub it on his hands, in the pre show, which meant that the scene ran just as it should and as smoothly as it should. I think today was one of the best we've ever done this scene and it felt really good to have practised with the coal as it also gave me some practise in having to wipe it off before I came back on stage for Carol and Brenda's scene (with thanks to Donna!)

Our final scene was a lot more successful than it was on Monday which I am very pleased about as I was apprehensive because we didn't get round to rehearsing this scene in our individual rehearsing time dedicated to us today- which I think we would've really benefited from but if one of us wants to do the scene and the others don't the majority wins. 

Thursday = SHOW DAY!

I am feeling really really ready for this show!

Today started as early as ever, with feedback from yesterdays run through:

• Keep Brother scene loud (projection) The louder I am, it will boost Jake's voice and vice versa
• More aggression when wiping the coal on my face Think 'this is vile!!!'
• Stand the other side of the mirror in B+C's scene Go to even look in the mirror? As I am still trying to get ready due to leaving home in such a rush
• Actually spill liquid Fill them up before hand! 
• Have spare rags to bring on just incase
• All four of us to be more spacially aware of drinks/bottles/glasses etc
• React to Lewis more- more between us two Nudge him and laugh with him more in reaction to Carol such as 'nooo slagheap'
• 'It were good though weren't it' EXCITED Try linking this to me and Phoebe when talking about the boys we like? 
• Keep reacting to Lewis More flirty, laughs, nudges, missed glances
• Keep the awkward and shocked look after the kiss- as it looked natural Basically be me after the kiss! 
• Me and Lewis to slow dance 
• Give it more in the dance! GO ALL OUT ISSIE! Just go for it! It will look 10 times better if I just go for it than look like an idiot and look awkward
• More emotion on 'magic and miracles' 
• More surprised and proud on 'I've never spoke such as speech' This is a bloomin' proud moment for her,
• Look at the entire audience in the monologue Address it as though doing a class presentation! Louise wants everyone to know 

The feedback given was done by both Deborah and Kirsty and a lot of it was just general things that as a four we needed to work on to help make the scene. The little adjustments to my character/acting were again small things I knew I could work on before this afternoons matinee. During our break I ran through all the feedback above and noted down how I could work on them. The writing in italics is what I did during my break so I had ways in improving on the things instructed to do so this morning. Excuse the casualness of the notes but these are literally what I've written in order to help me to improve. I find it easier linking it to real life happenings so I can steal that sense of emotion so on many past occasions me and Phoebe discuss boys etc so I took that sense of excitement and 'banter' from these conversations and included them into this scene. Me and Lewis are really close friends and have been for years now; so I know it won't be hard to play up the flirting more. 

I can't tell you how pleased I am with our first proper run  through today! I felt that it went so so well, the energy felt high throughout the entire thing. Our final scene felt a lot quicker and my first scene felt a lot more uncomfortable which is the aim. I can easily say it is the best I've/we have ever done it!!!
Our second round of feedback included voice notes Sarah made from yesterdays run, but I assume because I didn't receive any that mine was strong- I hope!

• They could hear our scene-YES
• Even MORE uncomfortable on the face rub Think how horrible this really is, it is not Jake. This is some really horrid brother being more than the typical brother! Think Sam or dad doing this to you....??? But not in a joking way?
• 'It was good, but I could still make more of it' Go all out your reactions Issie
• DRINKS- Actual liquids
• Slap Carol on 'I never' Banter with Phoebe but with Carol instead- easy when you think of it like that
• 'The kiss and the after reaction was so so good' Keep it natural as it made it much more realistic
• 'The sort of hesitation you did when you were being instructed to leave by Carol was good' 'I would much rather stay....'
• 'The slow dance was also good- just keep it going for longer' 

Again this was combined feedback from Kirsty and Deborah; and I had no accent notes so I presume this was good/strong which I am so pleased about because it was only a few Monday's back that I had been told that I was loosing it a bit but I made sure I worked just as hard on it again. The italics again are some extra notes I made to myself to really help me to improve on these things- hence the personal motivational talking. 

I was so so annoyed with how I felt I did in the matinee- its a personal thing but it really knocked my confidence- but at the same time it boosted me to do so much better for the evening show. The matinee is the first time we have ever had an audience so maybe that's what really blocked me doing my best- but I am not sure which frustrates me even more. But as I have said on here before, things that knock my confidence help me to come back even better, so I would like to say that this will massively help me to improve for the matinee.
The matinee feedback was:

• Overall we all needed more ENERGY! Starting from the pre show, walk off stage with confidence Issie
• Our end scene was slow Punch in each line and reaction I know I have
• It needed so much more energy ''
• Carol to enter with a lot more confidence/loudness and boldness to pick up this energy, to allow it to rub off on me 
• Be more giggly and girly Think back to conversations had with Phoebe-laughing, 'banter', playfulness 
• Slow dance for longer with Lewis
• Don't emphasise 'you' instead emphasise on 'really' 'Really' as though proving that she actually likes them just doesn't on 
• ... forget the audience easier said than done, but the quicker the scenes pace the less aware of the audience I will be

I felt that the evening show was back at the top level that we've ever done it! Linking it to the matinee's feedback I felt that the pre show's energy had picked up considerably and it felt less predictable for the audience. We got all our lines in the right order which I felt massively helped to pick up the final scenes energy. However I felt that just the one of my lines fell out of this quick pace which was "err nice place this really" as I knew I wanted to be said as though the atmosphere between the four of us had fallen awkward but it slowed down the scene. I felt that the atmosphere that Carol usually gives off wasn't as strong as we've had it previously but again much stronger than it was in the matinee. Lewis made sure he was in contact with me a lot more so I could react to this a lot better. The only thing that stands out to me that I messed up on was the line "she's gone off because she likes you really" just as I was saying I remembered that I needed to emphasise the word 'really' I know that I said the beginning part ok-ish, but then when it came to 'really' I dropped the accent completely and probably couldn't have said any more southern if I tried. This is only a really subtle part but it meant that my accent wasn't consistent or I certainly felt that it wasn't which annoyed me as I know I've worked a lot on it. And it also proves to me that I fell out of character for that mili-second as I was focussing on having to emphasise 'really' and not 'you' but still managed to say it wrong. Apart from that I honestly do feel that it was a really successful show [read more about our performances and its process in my evaluation.] 

A huge, huge thank you to our lecturers who did a fabulous job and put so much time and effort into the show- all credit to them in terms of creating such a great 'Road' and credit to all the other cast members for taking up the role of pulling off such as well directed play!! I have loved every last second of this play, and what a shame it is that its finishing with only having shown it professionally to two audiences when it would've been nice to have shown it off a few more times!!!