Illness,saturday,monday and performance! and my EVALUATION

It has been a hettic week (crazily so)


i couldnt make monday or wednesday rehersals last week as i was struck down with as terrible cold, however i was well enough to make the saurday 3 hour reharsals, this was the final big 3 hour rehersal before the show on wednesday.


I started by warming up the kids and doing a focusing exercise |(known as select and delete which i gained from a frantic assembely workshop) we then got straight to work,working on finalising the transtions between the scerns and then running it to see if it fits the 30 minutes we were given, after a few people forgetting there lines (not filling me with the greatest confidence) and with the newly transitioned scenes the shw was running at 48 minutes which was 18 minutes over.

this left me and Miss the very difficult job of cutting certian lines to make sure we do not go over our time, after a lot of thought we removed several lines here and there and were ready to try and perform it all the way through AGAIN on monday.

outside of this, i had to finally prepare the music and send it off ready for the Georgian Theatre Royal's technical people to add it to the system. after converting the songs into MP3 (which seemed to take for ages) as well as making a pyschical copy for practicing on monday.


MONDAY

Monday rehersals went well,with me working on the music and finalising where it would go, we timed it again and with people still forgetting there lines (which made me fear for Wednesday even more!) it ran at 32 minutes and we couldnt do anymore.

WEDNESDAY

After having an early lunch and loading the various props into the bus we were off to the theatre, when we arrived me and Miss worked on seeing how the lighting came into play on the actual stage, and after quite a few tweaks we were runnign behind time, we then had a dress rehersal, and there were still a FEW forgotten lines but all in all it ran quite well, we gained an audience from a primary school performing for this rehersal,which meant the cast could get a feel for the laughs they would get.

because thechildren were young they didnt get as many laughs as they expected which left some of the cast dejected however at dinner i made sure everyone was aware that int he actual performance, the adults would get a lot more of the refrences, which reassured them.

THE PERFORMANCE

After months of  rehersals, and directing and music, and food and laughs as well as sweat and tears!
we finally arrived at the performance AND it went perfectly! all faults were dealt with (such as a hat falling off when it shouldnt) brilliently they even fused it into the show, and each laugh they got they worked harder on the next joke to get a bigger one.

All in all i am incredibly proud of all of them, and it has been an amazing journey co'directing.


EVALUATION
It has been a long, fun and at times arduous proces, which has tested skills i already had as much as teaching me new ones, i would firstly like to thank Miss Eastwood and everyone at The Royal Shakespeare company for all their help.without them it would not of been half as interesting as it was. I of course would secondly like to thank all the students who (although at times hyper)  showed me respect and took my ideas on board.

Sadly as you could of seen circumstances made it impossible for me to JUST do light and tech however, this process has helped me learn a lot more about them than i did when i first begun. for example i know have more in depth knowledge about the various fazers and well as technical programs used for preparing and Queing music for performances, and the timing and precise detail which is needed to get soudn effects and music spot on ina performance. I have also learnt a lot about set and how the use of exits and entrances can create dramatic effect and timing, not only for the audience but effective for helping the actors. without this skill i would still be lsot how shows can be so fluid and pacy.

My Directing skills where also tested, and i have learnt how to not only correctly warm up, teach and  control a large group of exited children but i have better understanding how the director has to work with every minor detial fromt he costume to where the props are set on stage as well as kept. Because of this my organisation skills whyere put tot he test as i had to keep a large amount of lists on me to check that all props were where they were meant to be. I also learnt how showing through movements rather than jsut "raise your arm more dramatically" can really clarify what you want from an actor.

I really think i gained the new skills of, learning how to properly direct a large group which as i have mentioned a few times before is chalanging but yet very rewarding. As you get see the full proccess of worried actors forgetting their lines to fully polished and brilliently entertaining actors! I also think the skills i have gained are how to make a comedic scene as well as how to direct the actors to build on certian moments to get more laughter out of the  audience. this is an incredibally useful skill as i get to see how scenes are developed and worked on, and how once you know a scene like the back fo your hand you have that wiggle room to improvise slightly and get more laughter out of your audience.

If i was to do it again, I would practice learning more director terminology as I had to have lots of conversations with many different,actors,light techs as well as those from the RSC and I think I could of better got over my overview to them if i know more specialised terminology and I wouldnt of been thrown in, in the deep end and had to quickly pick up quite a few terms. However this challenge i thought although difficult was all part of my journey.

so to SUMMARISE, an amazing production well done to all, and thanks for these new skills!



HERE ARE SOME PHOTOS ALSO!