09/05/23 - 11/05/23

 Week 30 of Milly's acting journey

On Tuesday, we began our Little Women rehearsals starting with scene 1. In both Cast 1 and 2, I play Marmee, so I got in lots of useful time with the casts. Scene 1 is a nice opening scene that introduces the audience to the girls of the March family, including Hannah and Marmee. My first line is 'I'm so glad to see you merry my girls' which I feel tells you a lot about Marmee, and how loving and kind she is to her children. Throughout Scene 1, my main aim was in awkward spaces where I'm not saying anything, I should hug my girls and stroke their arms to portray the caring yet protective side to Marmee, like when Aunt March enters and is rude to them all. I had made sure to learn that first scene over the weekend for the days rehearsal, but still found myself forgetting words so had my script with me incase. After practising Scene 1 with all casts, each cast went off and practised when they weren't needed to carry on with Scene 2 with Kelly. I felt the rehearsal for scene 1 went strong and made us all raring to carry on with the rest of the script. Practise with two casts allowed me to see the differences they share, and how different each cast performs. I did scene 1 off script for the majority until the end paragraph when rehearsing in separate group so I was pleased about that. After lessons, I started my first filming day on set of Tamara and Alex's film 'Ode to Joy'. We were upstairs near the black box room, and it was a lot about reactions and expressions than speaking so it was nice and relaxed without thinking of lines. I made sure to wear the chosen outfit for my character 'Nina' which is girly and pink in contrast to the dark and drab setting of the film's theme. I had so much fun filming and saw the full thought process of the filmmakers ideas.

On Wednesday, we began the day with headshots for both Little Women and Last Resort. For Little Women, the idea is dark and neutral tops for a serious theme and for Last Resort, bright fun colours so that we show how silly the show is. Afterwards, we moved straight onto the next scenes. Kelly wanted the March sisters to go away and rehearse the play scene on their own with no help and advice from herself, to get that authentic feel when an audience member is watching and it contrasts to the tidy blocking in the rest of the scenes. We started with Scene 3, where I wasn't needed so instead went to work on my production role of Marketing. Myself and Gracie are working on the programs for both shows, as I had told Gracie how much I wanted to help out with that side of marketing as I love being creative with things like a programme. Our idea for Little Women is flowers and floral colours, to highlight the soft feminine, old timey theme of the play itself. For Last Resort, we have thought of a really bright and colourful programme with lots of beach images on it. Before I could get really stuck in, I was called back up and have been placed in scene 4 in the background as everyone agreed that it felt wrong for Marmee to not be in her house in random moments. During that scene, I enter and tidy the table, pour cups of tea and say goodnight to Beth and Amy and continue with busying myself. I give Meg a pair of lace gloves and exit as it transitions into the following scene which I'm not a part of. We recapped Scenes 1- 4 before moving on to such a big scene like 5 with everyone and it helped rejog people's memory and feel really secure with the blocking, lines and emotions. After lesson, I got ready in my outfit for the film and started filming in the cafe as part of the film. There was lots of extras in this scene so it was fun being able to see them all in the trance of the drink. I had lines in this scene and made sure to learn them the night prior, and I spoke them with the emotion they had wanted them to be said. Overall, I felt like I covered lots of areas in film and production to get to my final grade and I didn't feel like I was missing an area, production I really want to focus on so made that my main aim this day. 

On Thursday, we were needed in early to recap the scenes again and include the boys who played Laurie. We had gotten lots completed and felt comfortable but due to the amount of casts, we were going not as fast as we had thought on the schedule. Instead of going to Scene 6, we practised Scene 5 on the afternoon with the full ensemble that dance in the background. Since I am Marmee in Cast 1 and 2, I had a simple job of asking whoever my Beth was to go and dance with my Amy, at the same time that all the dancers at the ball do. It's a sweet scene as it shows the wholesomeness of the family and how much they look out for one another. We swapped in and out with all casts, meaning as Sallie Gardiner in Cast 3, I was needed to dance with Fred, who for me was Will. I got to be her and say some lines which was exciting and I made it my goal that weekend to practise them as I knew it would help me the next time I would need to be Sallie. I got to dance as well in character, and talk to Delroy who plays Brooke for this cast and I overall felt that we were moving through scenes comfortably with lots of helpful direction on how to perform them. Before all of this, we got back into production groups and discussed a plan for the week ahead and we made skits and videos our main goal. We were given a sponsorship sheet by Freya, in order to raise funds for the costumes we would love to have to make the show feel even more magical. I put it on my family group chats, and people were straight away being generous and helping us out.