10/10/22 - 13/10/22

 Week 6 of Milly's acting journey:

On Monday 10th, we were joined by all of the Year 2's like usual on a Monday morning, as well as Tom from the HE course where we continued onward with our Muppet's Christmas Carol work for the Globe. He first asked us to go through it from the top, to make sure we remembered what we had previously learnt, which proved successful as we went onto add more blocking into the song. By the end of the session, we had finished Scrooge with some amazing blocking and I genuinely can't wait to perform it for real on the 29th November. Tom made a great point about actions such as walking, need to be driven with purpose so that more depth is given to every character within a scene or more specifically for us, a musical scene. For example, the section where we all disperse into two lines, one in front of the other, it's a bit awkward when waiting for the people before you to go first, so to make it look all in character and to show that we are all petrified of Scrooge and his frightening demeanour, for me I rushed forward into place to highlight that I didn't want to mess with him and just wanted to stay out of Scrooge's way being as far as I could be away from him. In my opinion, this made the entire blocking show the entire point of the song, that we all feared Scrooge. Afterwards, we had a good amount of time to sign through the two other songs included in the show, It Feels Like Christmas and One More Sleep 'til Christmas. Both songs have a nicer feel to them, meaning our expression when we come to blocking will be sweeter and more joyful unlike the Scrooge blocking which was grim and aggressive. 

On Tuesday 11th, as a full course we went through the second draft of the GhostLight Tour at Stockton Globe and read-through it to have an idea of the characters that can be played and how Kelly has included everyone's ideas, which is evident. The full read-through lasted half an hour, which is perfect as it means we can add 15 more minutes of acting if we want to since 45 minutes is the limit of how long each tour can last. After the read-through, we were advised by Kelly to have our own read and say the lines of the person we would like to be casted as, which was either the Nurse or Ivy Stone for me. I love both characters, as they are equally different yet challenging in their way. The Nurse is a great character since in my head I can imagine her as being loud and wanting help for her patient, on the other hand I also believe that she doesn't like the concerts that are put on at the Globe as when asked if the patient fainted, she replies with "no, not this time". To me, this highlights some depth to the Nurse that she's secretly fed up with caring for overexcited girls that faint at concerts. Ivy Stone is also a great character since she appears as this glamourous star, but deep down in the script, she seems quite shy and quiet. However, there is a moment where she stands up for herself and proves she's the bigger person in a conversation with Olive Thomas which I admire and think that is great to build on whoever plays her in the tour. It was a short morning that I felt went by in a flash, but at the same time, so much had happened and it proved for me to be a productive morning. 

On Wednesday 12th, the night previous we had been asked to go through the lines of the chosen character we wanted to play in the tour, so that Wednesday's lesson could be spent auditioning in front of Kelly. I really wanted to audition as the nurse, as it wasn't too challenging but I felt like I could add lots of depth to it, even though it only had 3 lines. I wasn't sure to audition for Ivy, as her character is more complex than I thought, and I felt more confident playing the Nurse. Bailey, who is in 1st Year with me, wanted to audition for Girl, who screams through pain as she wants to go see The Beatles again, which was perfect as they are both in the scene together, so we auditioned together in front of Kelly for our chosen parts. Kelly thought we both acted really well, and said we had the part, which I was so happy about.  Acting as the Nurse, I made sure to use my voice and use a higher volume to highlight the urgency of the situation, alongside also wiping my forehead to show how tired I am, due to being the only nurse carrying her through into the room. I believe we are performing  on the Monday - Halloween Night - which makes it even more spooky to perform on. As the session was coming to a close, I saw Millie needed an Ivy just to audition with, as Latoya had performed with Sienna, so Latoya was going to re-audition with Millie. I think my confidence spiked and I knew i'd regret not auditioning for Ivy, even if I didn't get the part, so I auditioned with Millie as Ivy. I forgot she was British, so had a minor slip-up at the start but overcame it and I felt the audition went fine as I hadn't rehearsed it all and did it the best I felt I could. For me, the auditions went well for myself and those around me, it was fun seeing other's audition and practising; it opened my eyes to other actor's practising techniques and how they use all of their abilities to the best they possibly can. 

On Thursday 13th, we fell into a dilemma in relation to the Copy Cat scene, where we didn't have a filmmaker anymore, we weren't sure our fight scene within our scene was something we could make look clean and precise and there was a lot of doubts and worries that we weren't going to have it finished in time for the deadline. Luckily, Tamara Mills from the film course knew of a fellow first year filmmaker, who might want to help us out called Hollie so we planned to talk to her and see if that was something she wanted to do. She's already a part of the film making team with another group and we did not want to add anymore stress and things for her to do, so understand if she couldn't. Fortunately, she said yes and has helped us out so much already, giving us costume ideas, set suggestion and the cast is all set. We as a group decided to change our scene, due to the complication we knew we were having with it, and after a discussion with Kelly, changed it to Mean Girls. I love the movie and know that with it being set prominently in a school, it was already going to be more appropriate for us as a group. Kelly has been amazing and given us an extension till after Whitby, which we understand to take full advantage of since it shouldn't have been given out to us in the first place. The lunch scene from Mean Girls, where they first meet Cady, played by Millie, is our chosen scene where Freya plays Regina and I play Karen Smith. I'm looking forward to the planning and shooting this scene! After our first lesson, we were joined with the 2nd Years where we had a readthrough of nearly Act 1 of The Wizard Of Oz, which we are performing in December. From first look, I'm looking to audition for Glinda The Good Witch, since I feel like it will stretch my abilities as a stage actor and I’ve always wanted to be play her since I loved her character in the original film. When I was younger, I went and saw The Wizard Of Oz in theatre with my mam and grandad, and thought her outfit was so glittery and fun and whenever she was on stage, she would immediately make me smile, which is what I would love to make an audience member feel if I had the fortunate chance of playing her.