Shout Auditions - National Theatre Connections

Before the script read through, I had a little skim and read through the script myself cause Kelly sent it early. Just from reading it I took a liking to the character Tristan because I clicked with him a lot because there were things in the script that really hit home for me and made me see myself in Tristan. The monologue where he opens up about being the only person in his family to go to Uni, I am now in that situation where I am now the first person to go University, I also resonated a lot with the way he spoke to Dana on the soft side like just being there for her because I have had the same connection with my older brother who was/is a selective mute. 

Wednesday 10th Januray

Today we did a script read through of shout, this was like the other read through's we have done as a group where the first person to stand up can do the scene. I stood up for Tristan and read the library scene where he is screaming, I got a bit nervous at first and Alan jumped in and screamed first which gave me the confidence to then do it myself. I would have liked to have worked up the confidence to do it myself but it is good to have a push as it really helped me come out of my shell to do it. 
We did some warm-ups as well that the national theatre had given to Abbey that fits the feel of the show and so that we can get into the head space of these characters. 

I know this script is going to push me as it tackles topics that are important and helps everyone open up by also putting them out there and out their comfort zone. 

Thursday 11th January

We started off with a warm-up to do with trust with one another but again also getting into the characters head space. We had been asked to bring in headphones for today and choose a song. We would close our eyes play our song and whatever vibe we felt we would go along with it. After we had done it the first time we then did it again with everyone listening to the same song. For the third time we did it, everyone was allowed to have their eyes open to see how everyone else vibes with their song but obviously no judging. 
We then got put into groups again and it was a lucky dip of what scene we get, I got the library scene again but this time I had time to figure it out and work on it properly with some direction from Scarlet and Laura. When I performed it this time in front of everyone I did the scream by myself this time already showing my confidence is growing, I also changed somethings about how I entered and the way I said the lines this time to get the right point across. 

Monday 15th January

We started off by splitting into groups of what characters we were going for and we had a talk about the character to one another like why are we going for this character and what we thinks is happening with the character with the start of the show to the end of the show. 
We then got into groups and tackled the first scene where its words flying around, Dana's head and there's a lot going on that can overwhelm Dana. I found this hard as it's not an easy scene to understand and wrap everyone's head around, it's also not easy to make everything chaotic when there is direction flying around from everywhere and us all switching ideas and trying out something new. 

Wednesday 16th January

Today was the day for shout auditions, I was doing the scene with Tristan and Dana where Dana first speaks because she sings. I partnered up with Jess as my Dana and we were using the song 'You oughta know' by Alanis Morisette. Jess went through and edited the song for us so that it would cut straight to the fast part for me so that way I could continue singing and trying to get it wrong. Jess also edited it so the timing of us starting it and me talking was timed perfectly to when we stop talking and I start singing again. 

When auditions started it was good to see all the different interpretations, than how I interpreted it. I felt when watching everyone else's there were changes I would have liked to have added to mine. When I did my audition instant nerves kicked in because we did it in front of everyone because it is a scene where two characters let loose and it pushes the actor out of their comfort zone. I think Peter Pan had prepared me a little bit for this, but maybe not as much as I had wished. I felt when communicating with Dana, I was on the right tracks with how I think I portrayed it, when the singing part came up my heart started racing more and it really through me off when I started singing. So when i'm supposed to get a certain part of the words wrong I ended up just getting more and more wrong but having to just continue and thrive through the audition. I portrayed Tristan as more nervous about opening up himself at this point but he does want to let loose because then it leads up to his big breakthrough in the library scene later in the show. 

I think the reason my scene was different to the other Tristan's when it came to singing was because I didn't want him to open up at that point. For feedback I got someone mentioned how they saw that I was maybe looking ahead in the script for like Tristan's character development because I was saving up for his big moment for the library scene. Which I think was around the right lines, but the way I saw that scene with Dana where she first speaks is that I wanted him to have his moment to show a different side to this character; but I didn't want him to go full out and have like a full moment there as I felt like just showing a different side to this character would slowly build up to his breakthrough later on. Some more feedback I got as well was that I was quite brave to stand up and do something like that as they could see it had fully pushed me out my comfort zone and that I showed commitment to just continuing singing even though I had continued to just mess up the lines.

Thursday 17th January

Today it was the rest of the auditions for people who hadn't done them. So I also had to audition again but this time with Lily but it was only in front of Abbey this time. I decided to do a bit more for Tristan this time when it came to singing by just not staying planted. Abbey had told me my audition was better this time and maybe because it was just in front of her. I explained it was because I was nervous and that yesterday was the first ever time that I had pushed myself out my comfort zone like that. Then after they had finished their auditions we tackled the messaging scene between Dana and Tristan as Kelly wanted us to give her ideas, so we did warm ups around our snapchat bitmoji as the thought was that maybe the characters snapchat bitmojis are who they want to be. 

Monday 22nd January

Today was recalls and I had gotten a recall for Tristan and had to learn the monologue of when he is in the library opening up to Dana before he starts screaming. When going into this recall I think it was obvious I was nervous and little under prepared as I rushed through the monologue and my diction was awful. I had gotten asked to do it again slow down and I got told it was so much better it was just nerves getting the better of me again. My nerves weren't as bad as last year so it shows that I am working and learning but I do need to start using my nerves in my auditions to show the best of my performances.