28/11/22 - 1/12/22

 Week 12 of Milly's acting journey

On Monday 28th November, everyone had been told to bring in Victorian style outfits if they had access to something, or an outfit that deemed appropriate for that era. If not, Kelly had borrowed clothes from Preston Park which meant lots of people decided to look through both that and the costume cupboard. Luckily, Millie T and I both had an idea of dressing like young chimney sweepers and tie our hair back to look like boys. We had plain white shirts, black trousers, black flat shoes and most importantly a baker hat which meant we were sorted for the following days. The following day was our first performance at the Globe in Stockton for the Christmas Community Show where we would perform our Muppets Christmas Carol piece. Bringing our outfit's in and wearing them, showed both Kelly and Tom what we would look like, if it was suitable and most importantly was it Victorian. I got the yes from both of them, which allowed me to focus on practicing for the performance for the rest of the morning. Once everyone had been checked, we had a quick few run-through of our performance but kept it short as we knew our main priority as a course was our upcoming Wizard of Oz shows. We already knew to meet later that day at the Globe to run it on the stage and get a feel for how much space we can take it, allowing us to stretch our places out. Rehearsals for Wizard of Oz were swiftly underway as soon as Tom left and Cast 2 - the cast I'm apart of - went upstairs to have a run through from the beginning. I brought in my ruby slippers so that I could have a feel for how I'd walk and move in them, which I found to be okay. On a night, I would try and walk around in them which meant my feet adjusted to them, so that majorly helped our rehearsals since I wasn't faffing on with them constantly. The run through got to the Monkey scene which we were all confident to leave it to, since the Monkeys work together on their scenes anyway so knew they wouldn't have a problem with it. I was feeling quite confident about it, deep down definitely nervous with the approaching show dates but I knew that would soon turn to excitement. Our rehearsal at the Globe went amazing. Performing our snippet was surreal as I hadn't performed on that stage before and after watching others during our Ghost Light Tour do that, I hoped I would have an opportunity do so. We had the chance to perform with Musical Theatre and Higher Education when it came to our finale song of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. I think since I was unsure when we rehearsed it at college in the theatre, I was even more unsure performing it on the stage, but I made sure to ask people around me when to walk in and when I got home that night to look over lyrics of the song. 

Tuesday 29th November was a very busy day for all of us I felt. It was productive which I was glad about since with our show being the following week, it meant we didn't have long left to sort out little things. Cast 1 was Kelly's main priority as they hadn't been given a chance to show her how they've been getting on rehearsing. I took this chance to go over my lines and since I didn't know all of my last scene, I set out to make a goal for myself to have learnt it by the end of the day. Luckily, Laura who plays my Wicked Witch of The West wanted to practice our scene together, which I was over the moon about as we hadn't really practiced 1 on 1 together really, unless it was in front of Kelly and during our many run throughs. We practiced our last scene together, where I splash her with water, and she falls to the floor and melts. In this scene, Dorothy tries to act strong and put up a front, especially when her magic slippers are at risk and her Toto has been threatened. Due to this, I made sure to hold my head high, lift my chin and not cower to highlight that strength I hold, but at the same time look occasionally at Toto and the Lion to see if they are okay and mainly for help. It's clear in the script that when she first hears about the water, she's intrigued and slowly starts believing that the Witch is deathly afraid of water which turns out to be true. Because of this, I make sure that when after Toto is threatened, I take a pause of thought, look to the Lion and then spot the bucket of water beforehand, knowing what I intend to do with it. This is such an iconic scene in both the book and film, so really analyzing and figuring out how to make it clever to watch was important to me. I also found that since we rehearsed it over and over again, much like what happened with mine and Emie's scene, I found that I knew the lines perfectly. I loved finding this out about how I learn lines easier, since in the future I know how to tackle them next time. The day slowly was edging the late afternoon, which meant we would have to leave college and meet each other later on to perform at the Globe. We all arrived in full costume, excited to perform for the first time and there were lots of different groups filling the Globe up, waiting to perform like us. The night was amazing, wholesome and some groups got everyone on their feet which was magic. I felt that we did amazing, and our main actors, Jess, Jamie, Jack and Geoffrey were phenomenal! We were all so proud of them and we couldn't wait to perform the following night. 

On Wednesday 30th November, it was Cast 2 that were given the chance to perform in the theatre. We were all super happy about that since it gave us a chance before the end of the week, to perform in front of Kelly and get as much feedback of how to improve from her. We performed Act 2 since we hadn't performed that in the theatre, so didn't know how it would feel staging wise. All the monkeys were involved which was superb as it felt like a full cast and the energy, they gave us made the rest of the cast raring and excited. Our feedback given was to be a lot louder and clearer which I totally understood why as we forget that our audience at the back will want to hear us. I took this on board and made sure in any other rehearsal, I would keep this at the forefront of my mind. The day was spent going through lines like usual, and what followed was our last performance at the Globe performing Muppet's Christmas Carol. We all have committed time and effort on making sure our performance is perfect, especially Tom and Kelly which we couldn't thank enough for giving us this opportunity to do so. So, it did feel bittersweet when we walked off the stage at The Globe as we all had the songs stuck in our head over the weeks, and realized in a weird way we would miss not doing it. Our second performance was definitely a lot neater and tidier, and we were all comfortable performing since we knew what it felt like the night previous. The other groups were just sensational and watching them a second time round was even better. I made sure on my way out to thank both Tom and Kelly because if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be a part of such special experiences like this one. 

On Thursday 1st December, Cast 2 and 1 had been told to come in at normal time of 1 and Cast 3 had been told to come in earlier in order to rehearse longer without the disruptions of people around them. I found this fair as Cast 3 hadn't had a chance to rehearse with Kelly, so I made sure that at home I would read through lines in my script, so that I felt prepared upon entering in. I sat and watched Latoya as Dorothy for a while, to get an idea of how she performs it since she scene she was doing, we hadn't done as a cast yet. This certainly came in handy as Cast 2 spent the rest of the afternoon performing Act 2, which ended up exceeding over our lesson, but I didn't mind as I felt that the rehearsal was necessary. Me and Geoffrey had a great rehearsal when it came to our scene together, when the Lion is in chains and Dorothy is trying to console him and remind him that he's stronger than he thinks. Me and Geoffrey tried, during previous rehearsals, to do this scene with a lot of emotions which I think was such a good idea since it meant that on stage it is clear and conveyed. As our Act had finished, I had seen Kane and Tom bringing in fake grass which I recognized from the Globe during our tour there. Kelly had said to me and others how she was laying it down, to make it appear like real grass so that our set looked even more like Oz. I stayed to help as I wasn't in a rush to leave and I wanted to, since it was part of backstage role to help with set and lots of people were needed, or the grass would fold up and not stick down. I, Alan, Millie and Connor were there to help, and the set looked amazing by the time it was done. I had such a productive, yet exciting week and it made me so ready for Show Week!