06/11/23 - 9/11/23 Audition Week for Peter Pan

 Week 40 on Milly's acting journey

On Monday, we had our first auditions for Peter Pan. In the week we had off, I was originally going for Tinker Bell, but I was only going for that role because there was no singing. With my singing, I really cared more about other people's opinions which is wrong, and I really thought I would be croaky and shaking with my nerves. However, after talking to my mam and dad, I saw how I should forget about that and not care about other people's opinions. Instead, I chose to go for Wendy and told Kelly that too. My audition time was at 11:20, and it ran slightly later so I waited in the foyer until it was my time to be called in. I was nervous beforehand, which happens most times before auditions, but I went over my audition piece multiple times with Adam, who was going for Peter Pan, so we really helped each other out. Our audition process was a lot different to that of Wizard of Oz since it not only depended on your acting, but it was also your singing and movement/dance.  I felt my acting audition on the Monday went really well. I walked in with confidence and hoped to portray that I was ready to go, and with it being a different audition, there was a student panel who had a checklist full of things that you received a 1 to 5 on, with 5 being the highest to score. I knew I wanted to give a good impression, and Charlie was there reading out Peter Pan's lines, so I had someone to bounce off of who was in character and animated. I felt that my acting was Wendy like and I tried to find the right balance between a child who is also mature for her age. Once I had finished, I felt really positive and that I did everything I could have done, and there wasn't anything that I felt I would have changed. There was two moments where my mind blanked and I forgot the next line, but I made it seem like I was in character and pondering on what Pan had just said, and I know that it was nerves as I wanted to make no mistakes. The audition went really fast as well, so by the time I knew it, it was over, and I could focus on my singing and movement which would be happening next. I didn't get any major feedback after I had finished my audition, which I understand as it needs to be the same for every person who walks into their audition, but everyone seemed pleased, and Kelly was smiling and thanked me before I left. After my audition, I worked on my blogger for this week and made sure not to fall behind on it. 

On Tuesday, we were meant to have our singing auditions, but due to Tom's absence we did our callback auditions instead for those going for main roles. The Peter's, Hooks and Wendy's came into college earlier to focus on those auditions and were put into random groups to act out a scene that showed your take on the character, and to see if the groups you were placed into work well. I was put into a group with Charlie whose going for Peter, and Millie whose going for Hook, so I was very pleased to be with them two as I know they are ambitious and are putting their everything into these auditions so I knew we wouldn't be distracted or off topic. As well, they are always full of great ideas in terms of staging and how to act a certain way, so I was very confident in our scene. We originally tried to find a scene where Wendy, Hook and Peter were all in it and said a good number of lines to showcase our acting but there wasn't one that we felt did that, so me and Charlie did the audition scene from yesterday as we knew the lines and could perform it really well. Millie and Charlie did a Hook and Peter scene where I acted as Smee fill in. Millie gave us lots of good ideas, and together me and Charlie came up with some too, and we made sure to be constantly moving around to keep the scene not boring and enjoyable. We practiced and practiced until we came to performing in front of Kelly and the class. We were one of the last to perform but that only made us more excited to do so and watching everyone else's reminded me to pick up the sewing equipment and not grab it out of thin air, which I was grateful to have remembered. In our callback, I made a little mistake of waking up too early in our scene, but I made sure to save that by saying "I'm going back to bed" where people laughed so I made sure not to worry too much about it. Mine and Charlies scene was before theirs and Millies', and I honestly felt like it went amazingly. There were no huge mistakes, just things we perhaps forgot to do, like Charlie's cartwheel and I forgot to move away from Charlie when they were talking to me when I was trying to sleep, I sort of just opened my eyes and looked annoyed. However, despite that everyone was clapping afterwards and two people came up to me and said I did really well, so that is always a nice thing to hear after an audition. After all the callback auditions and lunch, the Year 2's returned back with Kelly, and we just had a conversation about universities we all wanted to go to and it was great to hear my classmates choices and opinions of uni's. Before this, we also went into the ensemble groups we would like to be a part of so I put myself down as a brave girl. I listened to the girls that were going for Bravest Girl and Tigerlily, as we all decided we would do the scene where they both speak to highlight our bond as brave girls. Everyone had amazing ideas and we decided to have it set around a campfire so that you would have clear levels and see how the Brave Girls interact with one another without lines. We only had a small chance to focus on this so we made a point to return to it with characterization ideas. 

On Wednesday morning, we had our movement audition with Abi. We were all reminded to wear suitable clothes, so I wore leggings and an oversized t-shirt as I knew I would be comfortable and fine in moving around. We had a nice warm-up and stretch, and then went into groups of 3 to begin our audition to 'We're Going Home' from the Peter Pan the British Musical. I went with Keira and Emily as they were the closest to me, and we watched Abi do the steps, copied her and we did the routine with the music multiple times in order for it to stick and we get it right. To me, I found the routine hard at first to get to grips with due to the footwork being complicated and knowing what to do with your arms in certain parts but doing it over and over allowed me to understand it and I understood it afterwards. Once we all felt confident, Abi put our small groups into big groups to perform to Kelly. It wasn't to see who the best at dancing was, it was to see who was having a good go and being in the character they went for. Myself, Keira and Emily were in group 1 meaning we were going first, so we all made sure to be in character and expressive and not flat. With Wendy, I aspired to be light and happy when interacting with Keira and Emily to highlight the warmth and innocence and that radiates from Wendy. At the end of the dance, Abi said to us to come up with a five second interaction that shows off your characters, so we all agreed that with Wendy being a mother to the lost boys, I would lipsync the final lines to Keira and touch her hair out of care, and I would turn to Tigerlily who Emily was going for, and I'd high-five her to signify the 'girl power', and then holding hands we walk backwards smiling. Kelly wanted to see it multiple times so we performed it three times in total, giving us time to fix any mistakes that we made happen in our previous tries. Funnily enough, our last one we made the most mistakes, but it looked like character choices as we were laughing with each other when they happened. I felt really happy with my progress in the movement audition and there wasn't a moment where I was like I hate this, because I really didn't. After a short break, we had our singing auditions which I was slightly nervous for. I kept telling myself that I've been practicing and rehearsing with my parents, family and friends so if I can do it in front of them, I can definitely do it in front of Tom and Kelly. Personally, I thought my singing audition went okay. I was shaky at points and went out of time at the start so that rattled my nerves, but I composed myself and kept going so I'm proud of myself for not letting it affect me. I know it could have been better but I'm just happy I went in and did it. 

Thursday came around quickly, and we spent the day on our ensemble work. I've put myself down as a brave girl as I love the sassiness of them and the character work you can do with them is perfect to what I want to challenge myself with. We went into the black box room and went over the scene we did on Tuesday during the free time we all had. We had so many great ideas and Kelly came to us about outfit ideas, which was different bright colored camos, crimped hair and glitter painted stripes on our faces. It's to highlight that we are all 'badass' yet we care to look after ourselves and look pretty, which I think is a brilliant idea. We had a chance to show our scene to Kelly too, and she loved what we had done, it was just time to start tweaking parts and making our characters stand out. The day came to an end, where the college week also came to an end, and we would be finding out the cast list on Monday. I was really pleased with the work I had made in my auditions and couldn't wait to hear the roles everyone had been given.