04/12/23 - 07/12/23

 Week 44 of Milly's acting journey

Monday we were back into Bobby Dazzlers where we continued straight on with Cast 3's run through and we only stopped it to do the 'We're Going Home' dance. Tom was with us thankfully, and quickly choreographed a simple dance that fitted with what Abi had already came up with when we had our dance audition. The full run through Cast 3 showed me lots, like with Brave Girls where to stand and when to exit and enter the stage, and with Wendy, it showed me to perhaps interact physically with the Lost Boys and my siblings, as I felt Erin didn't do that and there were times where I felt it could have been added so I made sure to add that small touch of motherly love into my Wendy. It also showed me to be confident with my lines, as a lot of the cast had their scripts when they didn't need them at all and it's important to test your knowledge on them first and have someone there prompting them to you instead. With a script in your head, you're constantly held back from being physically apart of a scene, so I made sure to take that with me. After Kelly gave her notes, Tom went through 'We're Going Home' with the other casts and I was a bit off put by it all, as in our script, Wendy only sings certain sections which I learnt so I didn't know the other lines as it only says for the Lost Boys to sing. I learnt though that I do need to learn them, so I made sure to spend the night learning them for the following days run through of the same song since Tom was testing to see if we did know it. The rest of my day was spent doing more Brave Girl work and where I had space to do so, me and Charlie went through Why and our first scene with Layla if she was free. 

On Tuesday, it was time for Cast 2 to do their full run through where I was able to see how they worked with one another. My favourite thing about watching the other casts perform was obviously to make notes so that I'm able to remember what I need to do for Wendy, but it was also seeing all their rehearsals and time spent learning lines come together and seeing what little moments they added to help connect each character together. Whilst they were doing scene 1, I was asked by makeup if they could use me to practice potential makeup for Wendy. I obviously said yes, and I was there for a while which I didn't mind as I was looking forward to seeing the makeup's end result. Once I had had it done, Olivia who did it showed Nina and she loved it so much. With it being stage makeup, it was strong and a lot but under the lights you can't really see the makeup and it tends to appear natural funnily enough. My hair for Wendy they have planned is half up, half up down curled which I had pictured because of the animated version where she has the exact same. I joined everyone back in the dance room and watched the rest of cast 2's run through and made notes where I wanted to on my script. They had gotten to just before the final scene before we stopped for the day.

Wednesday was time for Cast 1 (my cast) to do a full run through. I had prepared the night before by going over anywhere were I felt could do with another look over and did the same thing on the morning, so I was extra prepared. Before we did our run through, there was a few things we did. Kelly had brought the Wendy dress in so all the Wendy's had tried the dress on, and I loved it so so much. Again, it reminds me of the animated version which made me feel like Wendy even more. Some of the main cast members and I worked with Abi and Tom for a bit going over songs that we felt could do with some more work. For example, we went over the vocals for Why as the majority of the Peter's and Wendy's felt like it was a song that could be perfected a bit more. We also did the 'We're Going Home' before our run through a few times with the Lost Boys which cemented it further for us all. We started our run through and got to just before Wendy is brought in with the Pirates as the majority of the Lost Boys and Pirates were getting makeup or practicing upstairs. Personally, I felt the run through went really well. I didn't need a prompt on any lines which made me feel abit more confident with my lines but there were points in songs where I felt it definitely needed a quick look at. Despite that however, there was a lot of energy in everyone and there certainly was no major moments where I was panicking. I felt my song 'Peter' started quite wobbly but I'm putting that to nerves as I slowly eased into it and ended up enjoying singing it. The whole reason I originally didn't go for Wendy was due to my singing and what I thought of other people's opinions, and singing in front of my peers was really fulfilling for me as I was singing it for me and no one else. Overall, I made a list on my phone of what to look at the following day whilst we still had a large space available to us. 

Thursday was our last day at Bobby Dazzlers, and we made the most of it all. Kelly worked with certain groups and trusted that we all went to do our own thing which I made sure to do. Me and Charlie went over Why multiple times as we felt like the staging of it all was bland and a bit boring, so instead there were times where we went over to one another and pleaded and there were times where we stood in the middle singing the lines to one another without looking away. We went over it loads until we had a reached a point where we felt we had done it many times and felt pleased with our work. Afterwards, myself, Adam, Evie, Will, Jess and Charlie did the end scene multiple times upstairs as we never got to finish it the previous day when doing our run through it. We all knew our lines we it was more for knowing where to stand and how to interact with one another. 

On Friday, myself, Keira, Charlie and Gracie went into college to do some blog work and me and Gracie worked on the programme for the shows. It took a while putting the headshots onto it and figuring out who were lost boys for cast 1 etc. as some people had swapped themselves around. I found it fun designing it however and with it being my production role, I made sure to give my ideas forward to Gracie for it.