18/09/23 - 21/09/23

 Week 35 of Milly's acting journey

On Monday, we spent the day in the theatre like usual, where we began with some warm-up games to get us energised and awake. We played Cat and Mouse where I was partnered with Millie and we all managed to change partner and run around at least once which was good. The rest of the morning consisted of showing Kelly what we had got up to in Thursday's lesson. I went back into my group all about the Great Fire of London, and we all agreed to find a link to Stockton or near us in order to be able to talk about it. The closest we managed to find was the Great Fire of Newcastle, which involved a fire at a warehouse and more people died, including the warehouse manager Clive Bertram who we thought we would be a great main character in our globe production. I found a letter from the same period in time to someone called John Stockton, who was investigating the fire in Newcastle, however upon more looking, he had no connection to the town itself. Kelly had started making a timetable so we put forward both dates of both fires, along with a character list to generate some ideas for the script. The afternoon was spent doing our ILP's and doing more of our personal statement. I am feeling really good about my personal statement and I know that I need to emphasise all of the experience I have had, and the level of commitment I have in any job, group or company I am a part of. For example, I am a member of a choir and have been for nearly 10 years. I go every Tuesday at the same time and have been so fortunate to sing in esteemed and celebrated cathedrals, so it's important I speak about my involvement there as it says a lot about my character and loyalty.                        

On Tuesday, we all went in at 11 again to sing through the Peter Pan songs, which I am really looking forward to. Right now, I am thinking for going for Wendy as it'll stretch my confidence with singing in front of people and I'm also thinking of Tinkerbelle because it'll stretch and see how well I can portray an emotion and feeling without saying anything at all.  We went through lots of songs, one of which was Wendy's song. I found it quite high and being an alto, it'll prove even more of a challenge to me but if I like the script and her character journey, it's something I'll try and achieve. Our afternoons were spent with Tom and Kelly, where with Tom we focused a lot more on Shakespeare and were fortunate to have Carol who works with students on university preparation. She came in and really got rid of any worries or problems I had with my applications and much more, so I was really glad we spent the majority of Tom's lesson with her. The last 15 minutes was spent on Shakespeare where we figured out the importance of breaks and where to place the emphasis on certain words. I was really grateful for this as when I left and practiced at home, I was able to find a nice pattern when speaking fast or slow. In Kelly's lesson, we partnered up with the opposite gender so I was with Elliott. Me and Elliott haven't worked properly before and I've admired his acting so I was really looking to acting quite serious with him. We were given a scene from Dear Evan Hansen featuring Evan and his mother, where they are arguing about Evan's deep involvement with the family of someone whose passed away. In my opinion, she's upset and angry because she feels replaced in a sense and doesn't want to the lose the one thing that is the reason for all of her hard work. When I came to this conclusion, I made sure to get my objective across in our acting. The lesson was just to go through and read the script together before acting it properly, which we both found quite simple.  Our next lesson would be spent really dissecting the script to find out the answers to any questions we had on it.   

On Wednesday, we spent the morning in the dance studio playing some warm-up games. One of which was Cat and Mouse where I started off partners with Adam, and swapped many many times which doesn't normally happen as it's the same three boys that just like running around everyone that are on. I did enjoy it though, despite the warmness in the room, I felt awake and ready for the rest of the lesson. The morning was spent in groups of 5, where I was with Adam, Emily, Evie, Millie and Alan. The exercise was very much based off on Clue, which I really really liked, and amidst the group was one detective, one victim, one murderer and the rest were members. The detective left the room with no understanding of who was who, and we all discovered who was who. We found out Emily was the murderer and Adam was the victim. At the start of the game, we were also given two cards each, one with who we all were and one with an alibi. We were also given the same weapon which was a sack of potatoes, and the same location which was a truck-stop. We reached a conclusion that included all of our characters and it made sense why our characters were a t a truckstop. Once we knew what our reasonings were, we had to improvise a scene to show our detective Evie at the end to show her what really happened. It all went really really well, even though I had a little giggle at Emily's lines, and in the end, Evie guessed that I was the killer so that shows that my improv is improving, and I am able to be quick and responsive even if I don't know what I will be asked. I thoroughly enjoyed today's lesson as it meant I could really see how far my improv has gotten, and it allowed me to take part in a new genre of acting in murder mystery. 

On Thursday, everyone went into the dance studio where we began with some warm-ups as usual. We played one that we haven't done in ages which was called the Bus Stop Game, where every time you go onto the bus, the bus driver and everyone on the bus has to match your emotion. I went on all creepy so everyone had to match the level of creepiness I was giving. I enjoy this game as it allows me to leave any type of embarrassment at the door at the start of the day, and allow me to be more open as the day goes on. Today, we had the pleasure of having Josh from the Globe in, as he came to ask us about the ideas we have regarding the Halloween show we will be putting on. In this lesson, I went to help around everyone in their own separate groups and managed with the rest of the Great Fire of London group, writing down some good objects for a scavenger hunt idea at the morning show for the primary school kids. I also worked with Alan on the Mary Ann Cotton script and ideas regarding the husbands she mysteriously killed. For example, Mary Ann has a rhyme about her and we thought some creepy audience members could sing her song out of nowhere whilst the husband is being poisoned slowly. Millie Trodden helped out too and gave us some amazing ideas so we worked really well as a three. I was really glad I could help out with a different part of the history research as I very much felt that I had done everything I could in the Great Fire of London. I’m looking forward to seeing the characters come together on the script.