13/11/12 - 16/11/12

 Week 41 of Milly's acting journey

On Monday, we found out the cast list and what roles everyone was given. I was really nervous as I left college on Thursday last week really stressed and didn't really know what to think, but I managed to forget about it during the weekend and focus on lots of other things, like uni work and my personal statement. Kelly was making final choices with the help of Elaine and Abi, in which we were playing lots of warm-up games, one of which was guess the lie. We all had gotten into groups of 5 or 6 and had to find 3 truths that we all shared and were correct, and one lie that we all agreed with as well. Our truths were: 

1.) We have never seen Gone With The Wind

2.) We all love potatoes

3.) We all have pets

and our lie was that we all have never been to Italy.

We then had to act this out like a scene, a show or even pantomine-esque and we chose to do it like we were watching the tv, and for example, Gone with the Wind would come on, and we'd all start saying Ooo I've never seen that before etc. I believe only 2 groups guessed correctly, so clearly, we fooled the majority. The rest of the day was spent doing acting games with each other whilst Kelly was taking people aside and letting them know who they will be in Peter Pan. I found out with a group of people nearer to the end of the day, where I found out I'm WENDY! I will be acting opposite Charlie, who's my Peter Pan and George who's my Hook. Working with two talented Year 1's will be such an amazing experience as I remember that's exactly what Emie went through in Wizard of Oz and I loved learning things from her all the time. I rang my parents, and they were so happy for me, as well as my friends which made me even more overjoyed. The rest of the day was spent in the Writer's group where we did our weekly 6-word story, and took part in a new activity, where as a group we came up with 3 characters, 3 places, 3 times and 3 days. In little groups, we then chose numbers that were allocated to those different subjects. I was in a group with Millie, Charlie, Alex, Emily and Evie where we got the person Abraham Lincoln, a barber shop, 7:43pm and a Monday. After lots of discussing, our story is where Abraham complains to his barber about going to see this show at a theatre, but he needs to go because he's an important figure. The guy at the barbershop has always wanted to go but due to little money, he hasn't been but Abraham and the barber shop worker decided to swap places. However, the day they decide to do this, is the day that Abraham gets assassinated. There are obviously gaps but we were pleased as a group with what we came up with. 

On Tuesday, we cracked straight on with Peter Pan work, starting with singing with Tom. We all came in early to crack on and we began looking at songs from the beginning to the end if we had time to get that far. The first song is We are the Darlings, which is a high song for Wendy but because I knew we would be going through the songs, I spent the night going over the songs I was a part of, so it wasn't completely new to me. When I wasn't included in the songs and needed, I spent my time wisely going over lines, highlighting and learning them so when we began acting, I would know some of the first ones. I made a note to go over the songs when I get home as well so that they stick in my head for next time. We had just finished singing Peter and Wendy's song "Why" when we had to stop as the higher education would be coming in to sing through a Beatles song for the Stockton Globe community show celebrating 60 years since the Beatles came to Stockton Globe. We have been asked to take part and I think it's amazing opportunity to be a part of. After lunch, we had filmed our Shakespeare monologues with Tom during our progression lesson. There was a little bit of drama concerning it as some people weren't prepared for it, but I kept looking over it during our time off, so I wasn't totally unprepared when the time came round to it. I felt it went well whilst I was performing it in front of Tom, but I had a major brain fart, where this one line just wasn't sticking in my head. It was annoying as before going in to film it, I was so prepared and had said the entire monologue over and over correctly. It's obviously a nerves thing and I am glad I gave it a shot anyway. With Kelly, she allowed us to spend an hour concentrating on our own personal things to do, so I concentrated on my personal statement and getting it polished even more, 

On Wednesday, we had our first movement class with Abi other than when we did it in the audition. We began with a fast-paced warm-up where I felt stretched and energized, ready to begin choreographing our first song. I volunteered to be Wendy in the song 'Wendy's song' and I sang along to it so I felt really real and in character. Abi was giving the lost boys in my group lots of movements and actions to do in character, as they are basically building a house around me, so it needs to look like they are. We went over it lots and lots and showed it to Kelly who really loved Abi's ideas. Charlie came and helped as well, and we share a lovely moment on the ground where Peter's showing Wendy all the building idea's he has, and Wendy's looking at it upside down. It perfectly shows our characters and our relationship which I love. Whilst other Wendy's and Peter's were taking part and practising, I was a stand in lost boy as I'm Brave Girl in all casts, but I got a chance anyway to be energetic and excitable, where I played ball with Emily Howard. The morning went by really quickly, and I think that was because I spent lots of time with Abi on the song. The night previous Kelly had asked all the darlings, Tink and peter's to stayed back for an hour or two to go through the first scene as it's chunky and long. My cast were all in the dance studio so naturally we went first, and received lots of feedback and notes from Kelly which was great as it's something we can use when rehearsing without her. My own personal note to myself was to react more to Charlie, but because they are moving around loads, I'm aware I could just look static in my facial expressions. I know though that'll all come when I've learnt my lines and am confident in moving around.

On Thursday, I came in a bit earlier with Charlie, Evie and Adam where we worked on the first scene that we did the afternoon previous with Kelly. We acted it out a few times, but read-through it more so that we could gradually learn the lines the more time we read-through it. I felt today was productive but bitty, in the sense that I was rehearsing lots of different scenes with different people, so it felt productive, but I was all over the place. Alongside that, trying to find a place to rehearse was a chore as all the rooms were full. We found the green screen however, and that had only Paige in so we used that as a space. I rehearsed lots with Charlie and Layla where did our Tink, Wnedy and Peter scenes which I enjoyed as they are very physical scenes and moving at the right point is important. We were joined later on by Will, George and Olly, where I helped do the music and spoke my opening lines to George and Charlie's Hook and Peter scene which is another physical scene with the swords. Giving my ideas and helping them was something I loved as I was helping them out, just like they had helped me and Charlie out in our scenes. I had drama ambassador duties after college, where I had the chance to tour around a girl who's possibly wanting to come on this course.