16/01/23 - 19/01/23

 Week 16 of Milly's acting journey

On Monday 16th, we started the day by doing a few warm-ups and then went back into our Connection's discussions. This was the day where we began properly acting out the roles we had told Kelly that we would like to be considered for, in which I told her mine was Stefi. We were placed into groups depending on who we wanted to be, and due to being one of the last to be dished out, me and Jess went together and worked on our character's duologue between Amma and Stefi. I really enjoyed working with Jess as I never really have before unless it's been a group project and focusing on a small section meant we could perfect it and make the best we possibly could. Afterwards, we dispersed into bigger groups where it didn't matter who we were since it was more to look at transitioning of scenes and the staging of people. I played the role of News Reporter which allowed me to see how everyone else performs and stages their characters. As my character, I stood in front of the action happening as they froze and spoke my lines with a sense of urgency. Morgan had an idea of using the door archway as a way to connect through times, like those from the past enter through it to show it's different versions of the characters already on stage. I thought it was a great idea and so did Kelly, so we spend the lesson trying to fit it into the other scenes that need transitions. To me, I found the lesson useful in terms of the play itself, since we've just looked into the script and characters rather than acting it and getting it onto it's feet. 

On Tuesday 17th, we were with Kane and he introduced us to pronunciation and diction. I already knew about it's importance in terms of acting and when to use it, like in animation work and radio plays, but we delved deeper into exercises to help with your diction and the science behind it. We did tongue twisters and breathing exercises in the class which was fun and we all participated in doing them. Kane then set a project for us to complete in the last hour of our lesson, to in groups create a power point of our own all on pronunciation and diction to see if we had been listening well enough. Me, Millie, Adam and Emily H went into a group and started on our lesson straight away, we would be showing them to the class next week. We wanted it to grab our fellow peers attention, so we added cool animations and transitions and spaced out the text so that it wasn't plain and boring. We didn't finish it all but made sure to finish it before the lesson.

On Wednesday 18th, we were placed into more groups were every character had someone playing it, which included subs which I was. Me and Millie would swap in to play Stefi, and since she was first on the list she performed first. We went through scene 7, where Stefi introduces them to the podcast idea and how it well help them. This also included the younger groups, which allowed everyone to be included. Watching Millie perform it first gave me a good plan of where to stand and who to be closest to in terms of stance. I chose personally to avoid Ray as he feels the most judgemental about us all meeting back up, and he would be the most negative about the podcast. Being away from him and subtly keeping my distance also foreshadowed my separation from each character which happens at the end. I learnt so much by doing this scene as it meant I performed in a group as Stefi for the first time, and could see who I had more chemistry with on stage. The day finished with us watching Higher Education's Musical Showcase which was fantastic. I'm a huge musical fan so this was a lovely treat to end a productive day. 

On Thursday 19th, all Year 1's were needed to come in to spend the day with Zest Theatre. We had spent the day with them back in September when we had just newly joined college and were unsure about everything. They had came in to update us about the show we are putting on next year and we got to meet all the people from Zest that would be writing the music, choreographing the dances and writing the scripts. Toby, who met before, came back and started off by asking us for our name, pronoun, what you are an expert in and how you are feeling. I said my name is Milly, my pronouns are she/her, I'm and expert in 80's films and I said I was feeling excited. I loved doing this as I learnt something about my peers that I didn't know which was interesting. We did lots of games like the WA game which we now do regularly on a morning to get us warmed up, and we did the dream game where someone in the middle said what there dream was, and as group we had to make their dream come true. This game I loved so much as it allowed me to see everyone's main goals in life, which some I could relate to. The rest of the day was spent talking to Zest about how we felt going into Year 7 from Year 6. Our show with them is targeted towards Year 7's and their new adventure into the bigger world so giving them a view of how we all felt, hopefully with put them at ease that they aren't alone. We ended the day by making a huge timeline of all of our lives and we each placed 6 pieces of paper with writing and dates on the line. We were asked questions like our birth date, favourite moment in primary, future dream etc. For example, in 2028 I will have won an Oscar, which is my all time dream so manifesting it on a timeline felt really good.  Overall, the day was amazing and we all filled in a link that allowed us to join a whats app group chat for the future shows.