Stuff Rehearsals / Mini Evaluation

Thursday 8th February

For stuff today after the cast list had came out, we all met up in the black box room and got our scripts handed to us so we could start working on going through lines. Today was just the read through, so I decided to read ahead as AJ doesn't come into it until after quite a few pages. I noted that when he does come into the show though he doesn't leave once and he has a lot of lines dotted around and a big duologue with Matt when they're having their moment. So I already saw the challenge as I wasn't going to have any time to go off stage and have a quick read over of a line of a script that is backstage I just need to be ready and know my queue lines so I don't end up going silent as it would make things awkward and then when I end up messing up one line I start to mess up the next few that follow after. 

So I was getting ahead to already familiarise myself with lines and how thinking of ways that I could do the opening, we managed to do a full script read through and Elliott (one of the directors) loved the cast chemistry. He also loved the chemistry dynamic between me and Jack as we left it awkward but showed we did care about one another in our own characters ways. After the read through I just went through the script again and made sure to highlight all my lines and direction that was in the script. 

Monday 12th February

Monday was our first rehearsal day, again since AJ doesn't come into the script for a while. I sat there and just went over lines with Hannah who is Tez, AJ's younger sibling, we were learning our entrance bit before going onto learning the part of the script where I put them in a headlock and start talking about their Harry Potter world trip. We only got up to the part of the script where AJ and Tez come into it as the directors were blocking and running scenes again so it gave me more time to prepare and learn my lines. I got told that I brought in good energy when I did my entrance, also that the little fist bump for Matt switching into acting very straight by putting my arm around Dani by being interested in her was an awkward funny moment which fit for that part. 

After rehearsals I spoke to Jack about running through AJ and Matt's moment as it is a big moment and is one of the main focus' of both our characters. We made it as natural as possible, we just need to work on keeping the connection there while making it awkward for Matt because I feel like sometimes we lose the connection as the awkwardness for Matt intensifies but then it dies down and that connection comes back. 

Thursday 15th February

So today Sophia was off and not a lot of us were in since other were needed for other things. So we decided to do AJ and Matt but recorded it for Sophia since she wanted to be in to be able to block it and go over it with us on how she envisions it. This by far is the hardest challenge for me in the entire script and one of the hardest roles I have had. I haven't had anything this natural before as well as him being a confused character with everything he has going on. I feel like troublesome parts im fine with and I understand that but when it comes to him opening up thats where the challenge gets even harder since it's a different side to AJ that I need to tackle but I am happy to take the challenge on and see where I can take it. 

Monday 26th February

We did a warmup in characters to see how each one would interact with one another if they had to play these games. The games we did were cat and mouse and I didn't think it would be AJ's game at first but he is also the very competitive type so after a while he eased into the game and started having fun and getting annoying. We then got asked what other games our characters would play I said bulldog since I think AJ likes the thought of having to tackle his friends (we played the tag version). I started off by targeting Matt (Jack) since that's what AJ would do. After the warm-ups I had to go somewhere so Sophia had them running through the first scene. 

Wednesday 28th February

Today we were in the theatre and we went over the cigarette and headlock scene, we had mapped out the floor so we know how much of the stage we have. We kept running over the headlock scene since we wanted to make sure that Hannah (playing Tez) was comfortable with the scene, since it's Tez who AJ puts into a headlock so we wanted to make it look good but also make sure we were being safe and not harming Hannah so we made a code word for them to shout if they ever wanted to stop. For the cigarette scene we worked on the dynamic between AJ and Dani and the sudden change of the feeling of the party after I arrive and end up arguing with someone right away. 

After we did both them scenes we moved on with the script up to Matt and AJ's moment again, so Sophia said everyone else was dismissed just so she could keep me and Jack to run over and block this scene. I thought this scene was slowly getting better and better each time we ran over it since we had been going over the lines aswell so it really helped when getting into character aswell since we didn't have our scripts holding us back. 

Thursday 29th February

For today we moved on after Matt and AJ to get through the rest of the script, so we started off from the end of that scene up to where Kate arrives asking for torches. After Kate leaves it ends up with Matt and AJ again and how they're becoming mates again and it ends with a wholesome little fist bump when Matt says the word "friends" to AJ. This links back to the start where Matt felt like he had to be forced into giving AJ the first bump but now this fist bump is started by Matt showing how comfortable he is around AJ again. This then gets interrupted by Dani running in after the incident outside with her parents so she immediately goes and starts downing the punch and AJ gets shocked by how much she can actually drink and how fast she's drinking it. 


Monday 4th March

Sophia and Elliott had us finish off the rest of the script today so that way we have ran through it all. We got to the very end of the script where we sing the song that Magda sang near the start of the show to end of and we sing it with the audience. We went over this part a couple of times just so that we could think of a tune to go with the song. When we start it off AJ and Matt grab the big cloth sheet that has the words on so the audience can sing it. Before that when Magda is singing it by herself for the first time me and Dani think it's stupid so we just look at each other and give a little laugh. AJ then commits to the song going all in and I even got asked at the end for me to go as high pitch as I can to also make it sound bad. 

Tuesday 5th March

Since no one else was in to start off with, me and Jack decided to go over both Matt and AJ scenes and see how well we can do it off script. Before we started though Sophia wanted us to start with a little improv scene to get our heads into the characters and to understand what actually was happening during these scenes since we needed to have a general idea of what was said before. When it comes to improv though I'm not really the best as I can get flustered and lost and I'm not good at just thinking right on the spot, but I feel like this time went differently for me and it generally went quite well and afterwards I felt like I had slowly improved with my improvisation skills. We then moved onto doing the big scenes without scripts but I still used mine as sort of comfort since I did know my lines and when I needed to reply I just got a bit lost but I made sure to only look at it a couple of times.

Thursday 6th & Monday 11th March

On Thursday they went from the start all the way up to scene 5 off script so since I wasn't in any of them scenes I had my script out and was annotating the little pointers and directions I had been given over the last couple of days. 
On Monday we started off from scene 5 and went all the way up to just before scene 9. We went and blocked through all the scenes and worked in the scene where Dani gets mad at AJ over the cigarettes and after we worked on that dynamic between them both again we incorporated Vinny stepping in and everyone else reacting to whats going on. I also worked on building how annoyed AJ is gradually getting about everything but also keeping it on the level of him being the troublesome one whose trying to have a laugh with people and do the right thing when it comes to Dani smoking. 

Tuesday 12th March

We kept continuing on blocking scenes and being off script as much as we could. Jack and I also managed to do Matt and AJ off script and with extra blocking aswell not taking up too much time. We then blocked when Kate comes into the middle of whats happening between them both, to which we both scramble up and away from one another and I go back to mixing the punch acting like nothing happened. 
We then thought it would be best if we went back some scenes after to block and work more on since there were a few we were struggling on, the headlock scene is a big one since im still scared of hurting Hannah and when I do get them into a headlock, I also end up losing my words when trying to do the scene since it's off such a high intensity. For the scene where Dani is traumatised I start sat down just listening to her, then move over towards Matt when I hear it start to get interesting.

Monday 22nd March

We had a bit of a break since our last rehearsal because we had another show going on at the same time, so when we did come back to it, we were still comfortable with where we had left off because we had been going over it in our own time. The scene we did today was when Stace comes back after she has gone to look for Dani but cant find her. So they all say they're going to help. We hadn't really blocked this scene or gone over it so it was a bit messy and most of us didn't really know our lines, so that was the homework we had got given to go over the script, keep running our lines and to also go over that scene till we feel comfortable. 

Stuff may have gotten cancelled and not ended the way we all wanted it to, but I learnt alot from this experience and this character in general. It was a dream to even just tackle this role as it was a challenge from day one and I put everything into it to make bring AJ to life. This was by far my hardest role to date being on this course because of how natural and funny the character is. So I needed to bring that level to the audience if we did perform it or ever get a second chance of bringing this show to life. The chemistry needed for Matt was somewhat of struggle as well but me and Jack were always working on it and always making sure we got our big scenes right as it was the hardest part of the script because AJ almost feels like a different character from the start of when he arrives up to when he has his big moment with Matt and you see a softer approach to him and what he's been struggling with because he's hid it all and kept his sexuality to himself for the most part.