THE WITCHES- Task Two: Dairy Entry
20/09/21
Today was audition day for The Witches! I went for the role of The Grand High Witch because Ive never done theatre before and wanted to push myself and get out of my comfort zone by going for a lead role. I think the audition itself went okay but (like always) I came out thinking I could have done a better job by changing little parts and overall making the character even BIGGER. I am happy with the experience though and would love to do lots more auditioning to really improve in that area.
22/09/21
Wow, I loved today. We played some new improv games, which were very fun, then walked through a warm-up with the second years. Also today was the day that we found out the cast of The Witches! I was very shocked and pleasantly surprised to find I got the role of The Grand High Witch!! I am very happy with this role and am so excited to begin developing my character even more. To prepare for the role, I have watched the old movie, "Witches" and will watch the new version to get some inspiration. Ill further reread the script many times and learn my lines, diving deeper into her world and her point of view. I am very grateful I've been given this opportunity and will give it my all to hopefully bring this production to life...
27/09/21
Today was the first rehearsal of "The Witches" and I loved it! We worked on the opening scenes and the conference meeting scenes. Ive begun the memorising process of learning lines, character development and building relationships and connections with characters in each scene. I really love becoming the "Grand High Witch" because she is so fun to play with her having lots of layers to her evil, cruel, false, deceiving and selfish personality, buried so deep a slight fraction of paranoia and fear - making her that bit more harsh in order to hide her truths. I personally believe that every character is deeper to what the eye can see and that there is always something going on in their world. They have a past, we mustn't forget that...
28/09/21
Another Witches rehearsal done! Today we looked at techniques that can be used to learn lines. I personally love the "beat" technique. I like it because its what I would naturally do, breaking down the scenes into segments and learning it bit by bit, slowly coming off script more and more until its not needed. I also like to throw in actions on certain lines in order to help with linking the words and actions, helping me to memorize. A new technique, which is new to me that I learnt today, is the "recording" technique. It is to record the lines spoken before and there's a gap left for you to fill in your lines, it helps us actors recognize the lines before and helps us with our response. I like to remember that acting is to REACT, meaning responding in a natural/ spontaneously way, really giving life to a scene and making it more real- not just reading from a script. We focused more on act 1 today and made a really good start on the blocking of the scenes. I already am beginning to feel more comfortable as "The Grand High Witch".
29/09/21
Today we performed for some make-up students a section of the show that we are working on and I also began to develop my secondary character (a Witch)a lot more, asking some questions: My age, how long I've been attending meetings, some mannerisms, personality, motivation, possible connections with other witches and what I think of the Grand High Witch. This really helped me personally understand what to do as my character in the moment to fully bring her to life and live under these circumstances truthfully.
04/10/21
Today we rehearsed the Witches Act 2 for the first time and looked at the big restaurant scene. This is one of the bigger, if not the biggest, scene for all of the Witches. I want to appear terrifying to the audience as I convey pain, confusion and horror in my transition of becoming a mouse. We also looked at slowing down time and freezing in scenes. Overall, in my opinion, it was a really good start to Act 2.
05/10/21
Today we further went over rehearsing Act 2 and new ideas were being brought into the picture of the transformation process. Really focusing on the changes happening: growing a tail, developing fur, pain in every bone- as if they were all snapping, choking sensation. Then we went off into smaller groups to go over specific sections. I read through my lines from the beginning to end trying to memorize so I will hopefully be off script soon.
06/10/21
Today we went from beginning to the end of act 1 doing a full run through of the Witches and separately performed the restaurant scene. By doing a full run through I can really see what I personally need to improve on and as a group we can see the stronger parts and the weaker parts of the show, allowing us to go over and perfect the weaker parts also. We began talking about costumes and hair, makeup, bald caps etc and planned out some more of the staging. For The Grand High Witch, at the moment I am thing of wearing a black dress- mid length with puffy sleeves and boots, possibly with some accessories and a brown wig with a fringe, conveying that classic sleek witch look. I am actually so excited for the full look to come together to make me really feel in character and prepared for the role, I think it will make it easier with costume because Ill truly feel like Valentina in her truest form.
08/10/21
I am really starting to see this show come together now. In rehearsals we have been running large chunks of the show and drilling it, making sure we are all familiar with what comes next and what to do etc. Today we spent the afternoon with the film students too, as they are shooting a documentary on the behind the scenes of The Witches! I think this is such a cool idea and I loved having the cameras in rehearsals with us!! I feel like its really helping me personally get comfortable on camera, which is what I need, and the experience is overall amazing.
11/10/21
In class today we rehearsed the full show from start to finish with Cast 1. The energy was a bit flat today from everyone. Outside of classes Ive been reading The Witches book to get an insight to what Roald Dahl's actual image of The Witches originally was. Ive also watched the new movie version of The Witches with Anne Hathaway in to get the most ideas and inspirations as I possibly can to help with the creativity of my character development. Im loving it so far although the nerves and excitement are starting to kick in as show week approaches. Exciting times!
12/10/21
Cast 2's turn today. We did the same thing as yesterday but with cast 2 instead. The beginning of the day, the scenes were still flat, however, as the day went on and we practiced more and more, I could personally see the improvement in everything: my character, everyones reactions and performances and overall the energy got better as the day went on. After rehearsals, I was interviewed for the behind the scenes documentary, which was very fun and exciting. I love the idea of a documentary on The Witches... so cool.
Little costume run today. I got to try on my wig and it looked so cool. We spoke to an ex college student today, who is now doing shows every week featuring on the west end, about our upcoming show- The Witches. He was really kind and gave some really great pieces of advice. For example, he talked to us about how to prepare for the show and to enjoy every moment because it flies by. Also he told us his experiences with being on the west end and how he deals with having 7+ shows on every week. Afterwards, we put some of his advice to use in our rehearsals with a full run through of The Witches Cast 1. The energy was up today and so I thoroughly enjoyed today's rehearsals. Finally, to end the day, I went to see the musical theatre's show which was very good and has really hyped me up and got me even more excited for us to perform ours.
Today was a good run through of act 1 with cast 2. As the week goes on it strangely does seem to improve as everybody becomes all in. I love it when I look around the scene and I don't see the people I know, I see their characters, the Witches and their new personalities. I am becoming so so excited to perform in the show and to get our makeup done and our costume on and the tech working... arghh so exciting.
18/10/21
Tech run day! We had the theatre space today and will tomorrow as its our last rehearsals before the show. Today has been more focused on lighting, blocking and trial runs etc rather than drilling scenes in order to have that all sorted in time. After today, Im feeling better and after tomorrow I think I'll feel a lot more confident just with the spacing and everything sorted around me, even being in this space for a couple of rehearsals has been a good opportunity to get the feel of it. Some people got makeup and bald caps on today and they looked amazing. Excitement is growing now! Super excited for tomorrow and of course show days.
19/10/21
Last rehearsal day today. Well we have some time tomorrow but it will in the middle of getting ready with our Makeup and hair etc. We have been given time slots for makeup tomorrow for when we should be in by at times dotted around through the day. I'm so excited!!! Today we did full run throughs with lights, music, costume and we are currently patching up any untidied performances. We had the film crew in for a little, still recording for the documentary, and they were just catching the last parts of the behind the scenes clips. Soon they will be recording the actual show... well that's if they are recording the actual show. I think they are.
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