02/05/23 - 04/05/23 Workshop With David Kirkbride!

 Week 29 of Milly's acting journey

We started the week on Tuesday as Monday was a PD day, however due to the longer weekend, it meant Kelly had more time to think over the cast list, in which she did and released it on the Monday we all had off. I was given the role of Marmee which I'm so happy about, since it's a character that I feel is so different to any other I've ever played before, and I always like to challenge myself which I feel like this will. I will play Marmee in Cast 1 + 2, and I'm so thankful it's with a few Year 2's as it's a nice story to tell with them before they leave us all. The energy and excitement from everyone talking about the cast list flowed through into the next two days where one of Kelly's past students David Kirkbride would be leading an acting workshop for us. David has starred in multiple films and tv shows, and performed on stage in numerous venues so had seen the true ins and outs of the acting world we all want to venture in. He began telling us his story, how he got his 'break', how he met his agent, where he's been throughout his career and the negative and positive experiences he's been through. I learnt so much from this, as I knew how much work and time goes into gaining a professional career in acting, but David made it so importantly clear that the most vital thing you need to have is passion. Without passion for acting, you'll lose motivation so easily and give up, but with it you'll take setbacks as learning curves and use them to challenge you in your next venture. Afterwards, David told us about set, and the amount of jobs there is involved in just one scene. There are numerous lightning roles, multiple camera people and so many pieces of equipment are used when it comes to filming, and the actors are the least important people in the room. If the scene isn't shot in the right angle, with a certain prop in a certain place etc, then the acting won't have it's impact that it should have. The rest of the day consisted of lots of character work to set us up for character work on our play Last Resort. One activity we did was being animals for a long period of time, and David would increase or decrease the similarity to that animal as we would be walking around. For example, I was a rabbit, and David shouted the number 3 which meant that I would be obviously walking like myself, but I would occasionally scrunch my nose and scratch my head to draw the connection to the becoming of the rabbit. I found this exercise super interesting, since it helped with knowing how to be subtle in characterization yet also very extravagant with it too. The entire day was productive and jam-packed and I couldn't wait to carry on with it the next day.

On Wednesday 3rd, we began our final day workshopping with David. We dived straight into an energetic warm-up that was full of exercises that definitely got us all warmed up. I had worn a jumper that day which was a bad idea. However, it was new and we normally play a game, so a change was good for us all I feel. Afterwards, we worked on collaboration which is a main objective in our final assignment of the year. Working with one another as a team, and helping those whether that's helping with lines, sharing costumes and doing scenes together in groups. It all amounts to something and shows the level of teamwork we all give to each other. The activity was making two groups and moving in sync without a leader or someone to start the movement, we all have to feel when the time is right and move either forward or to the side. Everyone had a chance at being in the front and the back as everytime we shifted direction, the people who happened to be at the front would now be somewhere different. We did it in silent, and after a few attempts, David asked us to pretend it's a scene and what our stimulus would be. As a collective, we all began marching, almost like soldiers going off to fight and get in place for the battle. This was visible as our moves were swift and clear and there was no messy moments. In addition, we also slowed and sped up our walking to highlight perhaps treading carefully on uncharted territory, or quickly trying to get away from the enemy. We all kept the idea in our head to decide how we would move and continue with the excercise. That took up the whole morning, so the afternoon was left to work on The Last Resort guidance. We split into our groups, which for me was the Seagulls with Sienna, Adam and Latoya. Straight away we came up with more idea, like Sienna would now be a french seagull, like she's travelled from far away and landed here. We made sure all of our seagulls were different so that there was a clear contrast and we weren't all the same squaking animals. David picked up on this when it came to presenting our performance to him and the rest of the course, and focused more on physicality. He suggested we squat and walk, much like Seagulls do, for the entire scene to allow for more flexibility instead of sitting on the floor with our arms up. When it came to arm movement, he suggested that we always keep them up and flap them occassionally, perhaps in each others faces to highlight the carelessness of seagulls and how their only aim is that moment is to take the food. Everyone seemed to really enjoy our seagull scene and I was proud of how much David really liked it and contributed to it to make it even better. The last two days have been so helpful in growing my knowledge of the industry I so hope to be a part of in the future, and it actually encouraged me to put myself out there more and to not be scared of disappointment and denial, channel it to push myself and my dream forward. 

On Thursday, we began our first proper rehearsal day of Little Women. The evening prior, Kelly had asked that all of the girls come in early in the morning to work through script sorting through so I made sure to be at college for when I was needed. The morning was spent putting new scenes from other scripts into the existing script, as Kelly felt that the script lacked some of that magic we all felt as a viewer watching the film and reading book. I'm glad we have added more as it makes the story longer and means the audience can connect to the March family's story. On the afternoon, we got into our production role groups in which I am a part of marketing. I really wanted this job during Wizard of Oz but saw how many people had volunteered first so I went with set instead. I made sure to get in quickly as I find creating programmes, videos of our days and promo is so important if we as a course want people to come and watch our amazing show. We jotted down all of our ideas and aims as a group and when we would want to get it done by. This meant we had a goal and knew how much time we had till the end point. After our discussion, we dived into our ball scenes where we would dance with each other. Kadie one again was great at guiding and helping those out that struggled, and I got to dance with Jack who I hadn't done so with yet. I made sure to jot down the number I would enter on the stage, and any odd minute I would have, go through the dance so that it was there in my mind. I was also asked two things that day which I was so happy about. One of which was to be in a film that was directed by both Tamara and Alex, and to be Sallie Gardiner in cast 3. Having myself occupied makes me feel productive so I was more than happy to help out with both the film and stage work.