29/01/23 - 02/02/24 Zest Show Week + Unit 9 Evaluation
This week was our final week with Zest and also our show week with performances on Thursday and Friday. We had two shows each day, with our morning shows being for children who are venturing into secondary school since the underlying theme of our show, is young kids taking that grown up leap into a new place, and Camp Phoenix is a version of secondary school. I really do think this whole experience has been amazing, and while I did have my apprehensions at first, I’m so glad I gave everything my all and have finished this week feeling like I’ve learnt a lot and knowing I’ve worked with another professional theatre company shows how many opportunities I am so lucky to get given. The evening shows were for the public and our friends and families, and we were able to have our Year 1 friends come along on Thursday evening to see what we had been doing for the last two weeks.
Monday to Wednesday were very long hours. Starting the day at 1 and ending at 9 meant full attention and energy to get through multiple run throughs and going over specific scenes over and over again, but as it got darker and we knew we had an hour or two left to go, we all collectively got tired and lacked the energy we had at 1 when we all arrived. However, the lovely team at Zest all felt the same too and could relate, so sometimes if the tech team needed to go over a specific moment in the show, we were all allowed to sit in the theatre and wait rather than stand in the wings for our cues. I honestly believe this experience would have been very different if we were working with a different group of people. Every single person at Zest was understanding and considerate and when necessary, there to give a little boost and word of encouragement, and I’m very grateful for their belief and support in all of us.
Monday was the tech run, which meant repeating of scenes to get the correct light on a specific character or understanding where a dance finished to know what sound to play next. As an ensemble member, for me I felt like I was waiting in the wings for my cue a lot and also stood on stage for long periods of time whilst the tech team were sorting things out. This taught me a lot about a background character as they make a scene lively and engaging, as well as how many scenes they are in to add those elements to a moment. I believe I only came off stage and into the theatre to sit down for one dance/scene and I was able to enjoy watching my friends perform. Tuesday was a costume run where the costume designer of Zest was able to see what we would all be wearing and I made sure to wear something bright to show the personality I had made for my character. I’ve decided my character is someone who is making the most of being at a Camp, and is feeling positive about the challenges she overcomes. I work closely with Emily Howard throughout this, and her character is very much counting down the days till she goes back home, so both of our characters contrast yet compliment each other, as by the end of our time at Camp Phoenix, she realises it wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be, and in fact she’s left with a really good friend and a different attitude to new things. I wore a bright pink jumper and light blue jeans to just maintain that bright demeanour I’m presenting in my acting. On Wednesday, we just spent our full day going through scenes over and over again until we felt really confident in them all. Below are the scenes I’m in and a summary of what they are and how I felt about them.
Jump Into Adulthood
Cabin Scene
This was my first acting scene and I spend it sat behind a cream sheet designed to look like a cabin. I walk on with Emily Howard and we go behind the cabin, untie the sheet and hook it up to seem like we've zipped the cabin up. We then sit down, and wait for our cue to turn the lamp on. With the lamp on, the stage dims and you can see our silhouettes appear on the sheet. Me and Emily decided to sit cross legged in front of each other and just talk because we didn't want to make any distractions to the actual scene happening in front of us. In our Thursday night show, we had a malfunction when hooking the sheet, as the very top bit had fallen down and I was left holding it up so that the illusion wouldn't be faltered. Me and Emily were both silently laughing behind the sheet since we weren't expecting that to happen and we had no idea what to do with a full audience sat in front watching us. However, we managed to loop it through and sit down ready for the lamp turn on cue. We straight away flagged it up to whoever was in charge of the set and the following day it was back to normal.
Cross It
Cross It for me was my hardest dance since it got so complex with the ropes and if you went wrong, much like the cabin scene, it would ruin the illusion that we we had created with the ropes. There's a point where we hold it up high at the back of the stage and then low at the front whilst going round in a steady circle, and that's to show the audience the criss-cross effect we had created by going over and under each other's ropes. The whole song is a symbol of anxiety and for Pheebs character 'Amelia', the ropes we are crossing into knots are like the knots forming in her stomach because she feels too much pressure in the challenge. There's a section in the scene where we move forward from crossing ropes to slowly cross them very close to her whilst she speaks in song about how she feels. It's a very cool scene as it's so complex and full on, and I don't come across another dance like that till the Cabaret scene.
Post Card Scene
The Post Card scene is the easiest scene for me, as I walk on, lay down with my postcard and pencil, and begin writing as if I'm writing a letter home. I talk to Emily about it as a character decision and we swap at one point our postcards so we can read each others. The whole scene is led by Sophia and Alan's characters alongside the character Zia, and is all about their experiences with people, and where they feel most at home. The ending is very dramatic however, as Will's character walks on all frazzled a he's lost his lucky coat which we all find out has been stolen by our rival camp team The Kestrels. Zia demands he goes to get it back, but with all the rules about not going into each other's cabins, we all leave a bit worried but prepare for the Cabaret.
Cabaret
The Cabaret is such a fun scene and dance to perform. I think because the beat is so good, it makes you want to dance, and with everyone giving it their all, it becomes this fun dance where we all cheer for each other. It begins as a normal scene but we've just found out Zia's attempt at retrieving the cloak has failed as he was spotted going into the Kestrels's cabin. Due to this, the Cabaret dance has been cancelled leaving us all down and upset that all of our practising has gone to waste. However, in a weird turn of events, Harvey's character Rico encourages us to start dancing despite all of the negatives and Adam's character Louis, who took charge on the Cabaret, gets everyone in place and the music begins. It's a lovely bit of choreography and I can imagine it's a lot of fun to watch as well as actually perform. My favourite part is when we all make a semi circle to include the audience, and we cheer people on who enter the circle to perform a dance move. It just felt like whenever we have a college show, and we do our small dance ritual cheering each other on to let go of any nerves we may have. It just came so natural to be supportable of each other hence why it was my favourite part of the dance. My second favourite part of the dance is right at the end. We had the choice to enter the stage with a handful of confetti, but if we chose to do so we would have to hide it, to not spoil the surprise of letting it go. With myself being on the back row, it meant I would end the dance at the very front and by throwing confetti in the air would definitely be a surprise and make for a lovely end to the dance. So that's what I tried to do in all shows, and every time the primary kids would point and cheer, and it just felt amazing. I loved the Cabaret scene a lot and it just felt so special. The scene sadly ends on a low, with Zia storming off as the Tannoy has just taken the ribbons from the Kestrels and threatened to do the same with our group for dancing without permission.
How To Be Human
Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger Hunt is a fun interactive scene with the audience where give them out red flags for them to cheer on the three boys leading the scene. It's very energetic and lively and the audience get to read out clues for the characters to answer before the clock runs out. It's very physical for the actors on the stage, and trying to keep the energy up in the audience was very important for us to achieve. I worked with Emily Howard in this section and we kept enthusiastic and energised to keep the excitement up.
The final two scenes were very calming and brought the show to a lovely reminiscing end from collecting stones and bringing audience members up on stage to give those inspiring stones to showing how many ribbons we had collected in our time at Camp Phoenix. There's a really beautiful part near to the end of the show, where you can hear inspirational words of advice from young children in years 5 and 6. It was really impactful in my opinion, to hear what they feel and how mature they really are at a young age. It was a nice touch to hear those words as we left the stage ready for the new Macaws.
Both days full of shows went really well and to the best of ourselves. We all felt that we had spent a long time rehearsing and getting it to the level of professionalism it is at, and we all wanted to do ourselves, Zest and the audience justice. Personally, as my character choice, I really liked that I made my character stay positive throughout the entire show as if I had a character development, it would have felt really unnatural when it just wasn't necessary for my character to have one. She stayed optimistic and grateful with being there and was just glad to have learnt new skills and have changed someone else's mindset whilst being there - Emily's character.
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