6/02/23 - 9/02/23

 Week 19 of Milly's acting journey

On Monday 6th February, we were told about the secret project that Kelly had mentioned on Thursday but it was needed to be kept secret hence why we found out today. Stockton Globe had invited us to perform in a flash mob in Wellington Square to celebrate the opening of Pretty Woman The Musical that takes its opening night in December this year. This was such an honour to be asked to do it, and Pretty Woman is one of my favourite films so I couldn't wait to pay tribute to it. Upon the news, we went straight into Tom's room next door and started practising for our flash mob since we are doing it with the Higher Education course also. We began singing the song and going into groups depending on how high you wanted to sing. We went over some ideas for choreography and I was already starting to feel really 80's. Tom told us to remember the lyrics to the song ready for next Tuesday. After our break, we began cracking straight on with Connections, skipping scene 1 so that myself and Callum can work through it separately, and started with scene 2. It felt really nice and easy when we went through it first time, but due to us still using scripts there was a slight barrier stopping us to get to our full potential. I may sure to learn it by Wednesday, which is when we next see Kelly, as she had advised us to do. I totally understand how much better it is act when you have your hands free and can be more expressive with your emotions and thoughts. With lots of things to think about, the lesson ended with us knowing of a busy day following. 

On Tuesday 7th, we spent the morning with Tom again going over our Pretty Woman flash mob for a little bit where afterwards, we spent the lesson with Kane. Groups were taken out to film the Modern Family scenes we had started the following week, and if you were sat around waiting, you were allowed to go through your Connection's scripts. Me and some other people from the main cast sat in a circle and read through Scene 2 + 3 which was great since the majority of us were reading off script, with them in front in case it was necessary. Unfortunately, our group didn't get round to filming but we all knew our lines for the mini scene so when the time came to it, we would be prepared.

On Wednesday 8th, we continued with our Connection's auditions. Before hand however, we had some people from LAMDA come in to do a workshop with us. It was super interesting and we got out of our own heads whilst performing in front of each other which was great.  We soon finished up and got stuck into Connections. I'm so proud of the work we accomplished on this day, as we all were concentrated and stayed back to get through more scenes and go over ones we had already done. Kelly told us to start from scene 2 again, and we just go on until our break and when the lesson ends which I was grateful for as I feel when you get in the role, all you want to do is new scenes and keep going. We reached scene 7 which gave time to both the younger and older versions a chance at rehearsing. I tend to find that the older versions have to constantly be acting in character as they observe all of the flashbacks, and when they aren't they are talking to one another which gives us time to do our lines. This means the youngers aren't needed so it's nice seeing their scenes come together with ours. Once Kelly had called the end of the lesson, she asked if any of the main cast wanted to stay back later on to go over the scenes we had already done to make sure it's clean and in our heads. Some couldn't understandably, but myself and some others stayed back and we got a considerable way with the help of Kelly before we all decided to leave it there. 

On Thursday 9th, we spent the afternoon either doing nothing at all or being fully involved. Due to filming commitments, both Kelly and Morgan weren't teaching us which meant she had left a few people in charge to lead the class that she could trust to make sure everyone would do what they should be doing. For some reason, the understudy cast had the main priority which meant the main cast had to substitute in for any missing people, but this isn't how it should have been in my opinion. I luckily stood in for Stefi, since Charley wasn't in meaning I could perform the role I was given, but I was the only one alongside Jess and Adam involved meaning the majority of the main cast couldn't rehearse as every time they did, it meant the understudy cast were missing people, which unfortunately resulted in hearty arguments. The same scene was being repeated further adding to the main cast not being involved, which at times we all found frustrating. I was outside in the LRC with Millie and Will a lot doing blog work, which was nice to just catch-up on, but we just really wanted to be up on our feet doing some practical work. However, it was nice to see how the understudy cast worked as a team and how they did scenes compared to how the main cast performs. I found that there was also some similarities to how characters were performed and the movement of everyone. I made sure to make use of the time I wasn't needed which fortunately meant I was learning lots of my lines which definitely has it's long term effects.