This process has been very challenging but this whole week has been a reward for all the hard work we've been putting in, I've really enjoyed being put under pressure and making quick, impulsive decisions that you have to stick to throughout the performance, it's been a really hard week but each rehearsed reading has just got better and I've felt more confident after each show, it's really made me push myself and try out new choices and characters that I never thought I'd be right for, and I liked putting on my own spin on them, especially in this final play. This one was a lot more stressful as we only got the play on the morning and we didn't end up blocking until an hour before, however I didn't find this stressful because I knew this would be similar to 'Superglue' and wouldn't rely on much movement, these two were much more naturalistic and 'The IT' was more stylised. I thought it would be challenging multirolling quite a bit in this piece and travelling through different time periods with different characters, but I really enjoyed getting to work with two roles with very different personalities and working on how to transition from one to the other in a short period of time.
When I read the play for the first time, I thought it was hilarious and I really enjoy performing comedy so this would be the perfect opportunity for me to showcase my skills, and reading it on its feet for the first time meant we could play around with those lines and see how funny we could make them. All we've done recently is tragedies with some dark humour here and there but never anything on this scale so it was exciting to finally be in my comfort zone but push myself to try something new for this performance. I originally thought the groundhog day style would leave the audience bored but I think the different characters and the change of time period keeps it on its feet so none of the situations are exactly the same, and I like how the character groups are mixed up at some point so no two scenes are carbon copies of each other. I think this piece was also perfectly cast as it gave everyone a chance to shine outside of their typecast and I was really impressed with how well everyone performed doing comedy for the first time as a company and everyone accommodated to the different ages and genders of each character. I really enjoyed playing the contrasting roles of Chloe, a typical mean girl, and the Postman, just an average girl who doesn't know how she's involved in this altering universe. I also liked using different props for each of these characters to help make better character choices and keep them up throughout the performance, I wanted to do everything I possibly could to make it feel less like a rehearsed reading and more like a performance.
Overall, this week has been really successful for me and I enjoyed every moment under pressure, I've felt the whole process was very rewarding despite how much I've struggled, and I've definitely felt like I've come out of myself after these readings this week. I always find it very daunting doing an in-house performance because we're so familiar with the other actors and I know many of their skills quite well, but I thought this was the best opportunity to present how hard we've all been working this term and how much we've developed and matured as actors since joining the Level 4 company. I thought this week would be much more stressful than it ended up being, I could feel the tension in the atmosphere as we were bringing these pieces to life, but we all coped very well under the pressure and it was a great opportunity to present the hard work we've been putting in these past few weeks, especially on our instincts and impulsivity. All three of our plays were perfect for us as a company and I was very impressed with how well I performed this week, I didn't even know what a rehearsed reading was a few weeks ago and I've come such a long way since then, it's been so hard but so worth it!
There's been countless times where I've told myself I won't be the actor who I want to be, but I've come leaps and bounds since we started the course and I'm finally on the way to becoming the performer that I aspire to be, and I know our schools tour process will push me even further!
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