29/04/24 - 2/05/24

 Week 56 of Milly's acting journey

On Monday, we spent the morning going straight into 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest rehearsals'. Cast 1, which is the cast I'll be playing Nurse Ratched in, went first and we rehearsed till break. Since I wasn't in on Thursday, we performed scene 1 all the way to page 24, which allowed me to really delve deep into the character of Nurse Ratched. Rehearsing that first scene again allowed me to focus on the lines and try and get them into my head, as well as build my relationships with the characters around me to set the scene for the rest of the play. The few pages we did after that were really fun and interesting to rehearse for the first time, and I got to interact with all the characters which I really enjoyed. After lunch, Kelly spent her time with the Radium Girls casts, so we all met Abbie in Room 224 where we wrote up our progressive forms about our course. I remember doing it last year, and all we write about is how we are finding our course in general. Once we completed it, we had to research facts about psychiatric hospitals in the 1960's which is the time period in which 'One Flew Over..' is set in. I found out quite a bit about psychiatric hospitals during that time like how the beds in a hospital kept decreasing every year, showing how many patients they received every year, that before they knew it there would no space at all. With all the facts I found, I wrote them down and kept them ready to write up for the research section in Unit 12.

On Tuesday, we did more rehearsals of 'One Flew Over'. Both casts came up with a nice little routine, where one cast would rehearse and block a scene, and then the other cast would go over it and rehearse, so that by the time we reach the end of the script, both casts have done all scenes and spent the same amount of time having a chance to rehearse. It makes the whole process fair and enjoyable, and means we aren't wasting time figuring out who goes first, we only have to figure out what scene we are doing. During break, me, Millie, Adam and Emily were asked to be a part of promotional videos for the college. We did some in the LRC, some in the cafe, and some outside of the college. I'm looking forward to seeing what they look like and what they are used for as we didn't have to speak in it or say anything, so I'm wondering if they would perhaps add text or a voice over to it. It's another great opportunity, so I'm glad I was able to do it. After we had done that, we carried on with more rehearsals for 'One Flew Over..' and reached the end of Act 1 with Cast 2 completing it. The entire writing group goes to London tomorrow including myself, so it's nice to know we have reached a solid point, and that we now as a cast look forward to completing Act 2.

On Wednesday, myself and the writing group got the chance to go to London for the day and go see a National Theatre performance. We were fortunate to see an ex student of Acting for Stage and Screen, Sam, who is in 'Standing at the Sky's Edge' and I found the entire show magnificent. Even walking around London was magnificent. I don't get to go up there a lot, since as a family we don't have time to, but I know soon I'll be spending the weekend in London with my family, seeing MJ the Musical and Foo Fighters in concert. I'm so glad I took part in the writing group to be able to have an opportunity like this, and to say I've seen a National Theatre performance in London is a bucket list dream. 

Thursday was spent showing what we had rehearsed during the start of the week to the Radium Girls cast, who would also be showing us what they had rehearsed so far. On Tuesday afternoon, I had to leave a little bit earlier due to an appointment, so I didn't get a chance to see what the very end of Act 1 looked like. Because of that, Cast 2 performed it again just before we would present it back to the rest of the group, so that I could have a chance to give it a go. It felt quite all over the place to begin with, but I know once I do it multiple times, it'll stay in my head and feel natural soon enough. Watching the Radium Girls little scene was amazing, and I can't wait to see their full performance on Show Week.