We've had a lot to deal with so far this term, such as fundraising, researching and fulfilling our job roles, but the most important thing is working on our piece and the characters inside it to showcase all of the hard work we've been putting in this term. We've been working hard to improve the show by adding new ways to get the children involved and make the show as interactive as possible, and experimenting with new techniques but also keeping the piece informative by throwing in some facts about the environment at certain points. We've done many rehearsals and runs of the show which I have documented below, but I hope now that we've run the show with both props, costume and almost all of the set, we can play around with different ideas that help to develop our characters, as I feel like I've worked on understanding a lot of my character on the page, but I would like a chance to present this research on the rehearsal room as well.
Run #1
For our first full of the show, I was very impressed with how fluid the piece was, especially the opening sequence. However, the end was very static because we hadn't worked on it much before and we need a bit more experimenting in this section. It would also be nice to add another scene or final moment after Hope meets her mum after her journey into the forest, as it seems like a very harsh ending to the piece, but I know we can discuss this at a later date when we've worked the scenes a bit more. These were the notes I were given for this run, I have plenty that I need to improve and I'm excited to make the piece stronger next week!
Need to command more of the space in the first scene - there isn't much movement when we first enter the forest so I want to work on showing how amazed Hope is by what she has walked into.
Command the piece - I feel like there isn't much storytelling going on so far and that's one of the most important elements of any story, we need to work a lot more on how the story develops and taking the kids through a journey of their own.
Don't rush! - This is one of our weaknesses as a company that I've noticed since starting the process, we're all so caught up in remembering the next monents or directions that we've been given, that we just need to slow it down and live in the moment!
Be more in awe of Petal - In the scene where we first meet Petal, I've realised that I need to be more amazed by her and how much bigger and bolder she is than all of the other flowers, I need to question her a lot more and be more excited by everything I come across in the forest.
More magic in the flower song - I can understand this since we've just created the song this week, but once we've got it in our bodies, we can start to make it more enchanting and interactive for the kids.
Be less brave in the earlier scenes - The whole point of the story is to see how much courage Hope picks up from the people she meets along her journey, I need to hide away from the problem more and show more fear and less confidence in the earlier scenes.
More fear in the voice in the later scenes - This relates to the bravery note, and I need to showcase this fear in both my physicality and voice when learning about the Wizard and what he's doing.
Add more facts about the environment - Since we've all been too worried about putting all the scenes together and making it more fluid between moments, we have ignored a lot of the educational side of things, and to keep teaching the audience throughout the show, we need to add more facts and exciting moments for the children to take away from the perfomance.
Run #2
Our second run still needed a lot of work, and I am glad this gave us the opportunity to go away and work on our individual scenes so we could develop them. We especially needed to work on the scenes where we meet Petal and revisit her later on, I think we need to script these so we can think about all the facts we want to give out and how we want it to flow before putting it in the floor, it's been a difficult scene to devise but I know by going away and working on it, we can bring it back to the floor polished and ready to be worked. I also noticed that similar to the last run, the pace on the piece dropped as we got to the last couple of scenes and I think this reflected how little we've worked them as we've been focusing on introducing the characters and working our way through the story, but this week gives us the chance to work on these further scenes and help to convey more of a message about what the Wizard is doing and why it's wrong. This run was stronger than the previous one but there were a lot of repeated notes and things we still need to improve on before we add another layer to the scenes.
Need to work more on the Petal scenes - we need to sit together and script what we want to say as it's coming through in a muddle at the moment, so we need to create more of a flow inside the scene and add some movement, as well as working on the song more.
Make the fairy calling scene lighter - at the moment it's become very harsh as we're trying to use the Kalimba's but failing and there is still too much confidence inside Hope during that scene, I need to portray more unsurety inside this scene before the spell is given.
Slow the footsteps going into the lair - The sound effect we are currently making is too fast, we could try stamping slowly to start off with and gradually build up to a faster and louder stomp that is much more noticeable.
Choose a different chant - we are currently using the word "change" to help convince the Wizard to change his mind, but the word change can be very harsh so we need to come up with something softer and that can reason with him.
More relief once the Wizard has changed - Once the Wizard has taken off his cape, we all need to make more of a sigh of relief as this is the start of a better planet and there currently isn't much of a difference, but I know we can work on this when we add another layer to this final scene.
Run #3
A lot of the notes for this next run were focused on character development and movement we need to clean and add into the piece. I've felt like we haven't done much character work so far to develop and establish who each character is, I have done quite a bit on the page but I would like the opportunity to bring this into the room and show off the character that I have spent the last few weeks creating and developing. As for the movement, a few of the scenes are quite static and there isn't much going on apart from the dialogue, especially in the scene where Petal is sprayed, I feel that we're just standing and talking about what's happened in the previous scenes, but maybe we can start showing the audience what Grogette has done to the flowers instead of just discussing it, and this may be another opportunity to get the audience involved and ask them what they've seen.
More spacing between myself and Matt - There is too much of a close relationship between us two, even though our characters have only just met. Especially in the first scene, we need to create more distance between us but gradually become closer by the end.
More childlike - this is something I need to develop within my character, I need to research more about how eight year old's would act and how a child would react to a scenario like this, I want to make Hope more playful but with a naivety.
Question why we use the Kalimbas - when calling the fairies, we already have them in our hands and I don't think Hope understands why we need to use them, so maybe I could ask what they are used for and why, as I know Hope has plenty of questions about the forest.
Be in awe of the fairies - I feel like I'm amazed at when I first see the forest but never any of the elements I meet along the way e.g. Petal and the Fairies. I need to wonder around it more and still have that amazement at the world I've walked into.
More explaination in the 'Wake Up' moment - Myself and Matt don't explain why we've come back to find the fairies and Petal and what has happened in the previous scene, so we need to understand that even though the audience know what has happened, the rest of the characters do not.
Run #4
There were a lot of positives to come out of our most recent run of the show, and I can see how much everyone has developed both the scenes and the characters inside them, and I think having written a structured script has helped everyone focus on hitting the right beats but become more playful inside the scene. There is so much more of a structure to the piece now and the transitions are more fluid, there is much more energy and magic within the musical and movement elements of the show and we are starting to include the audience in many more moments, but we still have to work on the final scene more to give more reasoning and try harder to convince the Wizard to change and see the good in nature. We still need to include lots of facts to make it educational throughout the journey, as there are many facts at the beginning but we need to spread them throughout the performance so that the children can come out of the show, having expanded their knowledge on many elements of nature.
Nice opening energy - The first scene had great energy and includes some lovely moments, I just need to keep that going throughout the rest of the show.
Open up more to include for the audience - Many of the scenes with dialogue are turned in, especially both scenes with Petal and the fairies. We need to open the scenes out so that the audience feel included and we can break the fourth wall, and we need to make sure we aren't blocking or turning our backs to the audience.
Arrange the screams in the show - When we go to the wizard, we need to sort out different levels that everyone will scream and shout so it's not on the same level, therefore it becomes a squeal which doesn't sound as nice, and all of the characters would react differently, we just need to learn which way our character would.
'Wake Up' song needs to have more pace - At the moment, the song needs to be sped up as everyone is waking up after about 5 choruses, but this needs to be double the speed its at currently so everyone wakes up a lot quicker and it doesn't get boring for the audience.
Do the kicks in the dance twice - to make sure we finish at the end of the chorus and make the ending of the dance less abrupt, doing the final sequence twice would be a great lead up to the bows.
Run #5
One of our final runs before sending our show out on tour and we still have plenty to work on individually and in our character groups, as I feel now the script we have written is stumping us and we need to try and keep to the script as best we can but have plenty of freedom to improvise inside of the structure, as long as we're hitting the beats we need to. There are also a lot of phrases we need to change to make it more friendly for the children, for example, saying "destroying the flowers" is very abrupt and these words need to be softer for our target age group, so saying "spoilt the flowers" instead makes it seem like these actions can be reversed and change can be made. We also have decided to choose our own individual reasons to what we want the wizard to stop doing and why, and my reason is to not cut down the trees because they provide food, water and shelter. This way we can teach the Wizard with facts and be kind and reason with him, instead of getting angry or aggressive. We have still got some things that need improving but I know we're in a good place to perform next week!
Petal scene needs more reasoning - at the moment, we're working hard to include movement and facts in our scenes, but we need to create more of a backstory of why the Wizard doesn't like humans and what the fairies could do to help, and we need to explain to the characters what has been happening in previous scenes so they'll be more open to helping.
"1, 2, 3" - We should say fairies after 3 (1, 2, 3) rather than 1 (3, 2 ,1) as the children at that age will understand more about counting upwards than backwards and it's something they can get involved in.
There needs to be more at stake - the entire forest is under pressure at the last scene and there isn't much stress at this point so we need to work on building up to that, we all need to remember that this is these characters homes and without change, the forestwill die. We all need to convey this more when going to the lair and to do everything in our power to change the Wizard's mind.
Tell Petal to keep growing the flowers - Hope thinks Petal's flowers are very beautiful and she spends many moments in the show looking at them and learning what they do, and Hope has been inspired by Petal and Grimble to plant her own flowers at home so I think it would be nice for her to tell Petal to keep growing the garden she loves very dearly.
Overall, all of our runs have given us plenty to go away and improve on, but bringing these scenes together has great a polished and fluid show but lots of pace and exciting characters inside it. We want to make this show as magical as possible and I know once we get an audience, the reactions of the children will make it much more exciting!
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