15/05/23 - 18/05/23

Week 31 of Milly's acting journey

On Monday, we carried on in the dance studio working through more scenes so that hopefully by the end of week, every cast would have reached the end of the script, if not all definitely one. At the end of last week, we had reached Scene 6 so we carried on from then. However, since Kelly wanted to work more with the girls and focus on their chemistry, we began with Scene 8, where Amy begs Jo to take her to see the show with Laurie. Marmee isn't in this scene which mean't I was practising my lines as Sallie with Emily Howard, as we are both Sallie so we took it in turns reading the other piece of dialogue. Doing this with someone is so helpful because even if it's not the actor who plays the character, you're still rehearsing with someone and not talking to yourself. We did this for a while until Marmee was needed in Scene 9, where she bursts into the room and separates Jo and Amy from fighting. This scene includes stage combat since Kadie, Emie and Millie all grab the Amy's hairs but don't really, they hold a fist on top of my's head as my holds a flat palm on top to mimic her really pulling tightly at their hair. It''s clever watching it happen, as since I only have a few lines it meant that I was able to help both of my casts out as they were in the same room too. We showed it to Kelly, and she really liked it and we did our Scene a few more times before lunch. Before lunch, all the Megs and Sallies went to rehearse scene 7 with Kelly as its their main scene together. This was my first time peforming as Sallie so I made sure to put myself in her shoes, and act really bitchy, snobby and just really horible. Sallie in the entire script, treats Meg like a doll that she can dress up and tell to go and do things and Meg will because she's so inncoent and kind. To me, it was important to show the real contrast in the two characters and how money has a huge impact in it all. The rehearsal as Sallie personally went very well and me and Sienna went over it a few times to get the lines really ingrained in our heads. After lunch, we continued powering through more scenes and all casts reached Scene 10, which was more practice for myself as Sallie. After rehearsals, I met Tamara and Alex to do more filming. The plan for the time we had was for me to run as though I was getting chased, which mean't I had to act really nervous as though I was running almost for my life. I stop at one point to catch my breath and it adds to that dramatic feel which both filmmakers really liked. 

On Tuesday, myself and a few other girls took pictures of the beginnings of set to post on the APTA account as part of marketing. Me and Millie helped Emie and Kadie with the doors to add some artificial flowers on them, as Kelly expressed how she really liked the floral theme to Little Women which all of us all agreed with. We spent the morning going through Scene 11 which is a huge scene for Marmee, as she finds out how her husband is wounded and Jo selflessly cuts off her hair to pay for Marmee to visit him. It's a nice piece of dialogue and it highlights the bond my character has with all of her daughters. All 3 casts had a go at this scene, which allowed me to see how A'layah took on the script and I thought she performed amazingly. It's chunky in terms of paragraphs so I made it my personal goal to learn Scene 11 for the next time we would go through it again as it means I can unlock my inner emotions and don't have to worry about a script in my hand. Afterwards, we got to the middle of Scene 12 and we chopped the scene into smaller sections, as so much happens in it but it's contained in one scene. We managed to reach father's return along with mine so I was grateful I could perform my little bit before the end of rehearsals to get an idea of blocking. I'm really enjoying rehearsing with my casts, as our family bond get's better the more and more we practise, On the afternoon, we were invited to watch Nell Gwynn in Middlesbrough, where the Higher Education performed one of their last shows. I couldn't believe the amount of talent and seeing them performing in the same period as us gave me a few ideas on how to stand and carry myself when on stage. 

On Wednesday, we spent the morning taking more pictures for marketing and even managed to film an etiquette guide to being a lady and a gentleman thanks to Alan and Gracie. I helped Gracie out with shots, what rules they should talk about next and even got to act in it myself. I had lots of fun doing this, and it made me feel a lot better knowing we had our first marketing video. It was a lot of fun, and everyone got involved so it was definitely a team effort. Afterwards, we began rehearsals swiftly and began with Scene 12 where all casts reached Scene 3, and I got to do Scene 4 with Cast 3 as Marmee due to A'layah not being in as well as the other Jo's being occupied. Scene 4 is a lovely scene between both Marmee and Jo so I was really glad I got to act it out with Millie especially. Scene 2 of Act 2 is all about Sallie bad mouthing Mrs Marches attitude to her girls, and how where Sallie views her as letting her girls 'hither, thither and yon like a pack of wild animals' she is really encouraging them to be themselves unapologetically. It was an early finish as Kelly needed to be somewhere, and so did I as I was filming a few scenes of 'Ode to Joy'. The scene we were filming had a lot of characters with chunks of dialogue like Latoya and Charley, so it was nice speaking lines with someone instead of acting without speaking. The emotions were very scared as Latoya's character reveals the truth about the drinks and to the character's it's nothing, but to Nina its shocking and confirms what she was thinking all along. I made sure to show this in the scene through my hand movements and facial expressions. 

On Thursday, I spent the morning contributing to my production role of marketing. I worked on the programme with Gracie and began the Last Resort one myself. We kept the floral theme throughout the Little Women programme as it stands out and is so lovely. For the Last Resort programme, we wanted to focus on the silliness of the play and add that when making it. In addition to this, I helped out Millie and Kelly with the poster. Millie was in the poster along with Henry, which meant I had to get the poster angle perfectly. Kelly kept checking to see if it was what she had envisioned and after many practises, we ended up having a handful of perfect shots and I sent them over to Kelly so that she could keep them. The poster has the Little Women book in the bottom and lots of flowers almost bordering the edges, it's soft and the way Millie and Henry are angled it's so sweet and romantic. Afterwards, we began on rehearsals from Scene 4 Act 2 to the very end and we managed to achieve that with Cast 1. The last scene includes everyone on at the end as we watch Jo and Professor Bauhr finally admit their love for one another, and it's bittersweet as we end the story we have just told. I was so proud of us all that we had finally reached the end since we didn't start that long ago. My personal aim for the weekend, was to learn all of lines both Marmee and Sallie and learn them with confidence and if needed be able to be prompted.  Before I left college, I was needed by Tamara and Alex to just record a few voiceovers that will go over the top of the scenes that have no dialogue.