Radium Girls Rehearsal Process

 Thursday 25th April

This was day after cast list, so me and Will ended up swapping around doing the first scene. When one of us was doing Dr. Spivey for one flew over the other would do Dr. Vonshochoky for radium girls. At first I was holding back a little bit as I had never attempted the German accent before so I was a little scared to take on this challenge of the German accent. So in my own time I had asked Callum if he could quickly teach me a little bit of it just to get me started and teach me the changes on the scripts so I understood what letters were different to the English language. I then went through my script and changed it all to be more German changing words like 'and' to 'und' and words like 'thank you' to 'danke. Then I went and tackled the accent for my first scene and it wasn't too bad I was just a little fast cause I was trying to get it over with since it was my first time trying this accent. 

Monday 29th April

So on Monday I knew the first few bits of the first scene, I just end up finding it hard to maintain saying and knowing the lines cause I feel like my whole focus is on the accent. So then I end up backtracking and getting confused with it all. We also did the second scene of Dr. Vonshochoky just before he leaves and returns later on. We hadn't started blocking scenes as much yet so at first I was stationary but when I come back to this we end up moving around a lot more and it gets blocked so I don't just feel weird standing still and talking about something I was passionate about and created. In my own time aswell I kept trying to go over the German accent as I wanted to get it right and then not end up rushing everything. 

Wednesday 1st May

For this day I stepped in for Alan as Roeder as he wasn't in, I started off the morning doing one Flew Over for Dr. Spivey and then went onto Radium Girls in the afternoon. Even thought this wasn't my role I still put a lot of effort into it to help everyone else out and learnt the blocking for Alan so that when he comes back he can see Roeders journey. We powered through the whole of act one and Tom was giving me feedback so that I could then give that feedback to Alan to help him out since he missed quite a lot. 

Tuesday 7th May

Today we did the end scene for Dr. Vonshochoky this was my first time doing this scene so I didn't know what to expect going into it, before doing this scene though I was in the changing rooms going over my lines with Will and reading in for one another since we are both the same person. It was easier to learn it this way and everytime I lost the accent Will would tell me or I would tell him just so that we could support one another with this challenge. Then I went and did the scene at first it felt really slow on my behalf and I didn't fully understand what was being said but that comes with time and research.

Monday 13th May

Today Kelly wanted to see what progress we had made with the show, so we went from the top with my cast, I was off script for the first scene and the second part of the second scene. The accent was fine this time I was just losing some of the words trying to remember my lines but I went back and continue and powered through. We also blocked the second scene as we moved around the space more and used it to give that umph the scene needs when he's talking about his passion and what he created. I also got reminded to speak out to the audience and see them as factory workers too just so that my head is always up and visible to the audience and I don't look away or look down. 

Wednesday 22nd May

Today we went over all the Dr. Von Sochocky scenes and blocking to get me right back up to date with everything that I missed since I had to focus on One Flew Over for a while. I was still on script for some lines but I tried being off script for as much as I could for the first scenes that he is in. The only scene where I am not fully off script is the end scene since its only the second time I have fully done that scene and looked at it properly. 
Tom gave me some feedback to help me out and make sure I was always up to date with what's going on since I missed quite a lot. He told me to always focus ahead since I will be talking to the people in the audience like they are also factory workers. Another was to always use the full of my voice since when it comes to the end of some lines, I go all whispery and soft and lose a few of the last words, since he is a strong speaking character.