Lesson notes

1 ) What important discoveries were made during the rehearsal?

The aim of today's lesson was to develop the bedroom (depression) scene. Originally this scene had been performed with Amy as Hero however due to the context of the piece 'you were selfish to jump' made more sense as having the death hero, therefore I shadowed Amy to learn her part.

As this scene takes place in the bedroom, we decided to keep the same layout (as the bedroom dance) where the audience view the performance through the 'window' of the white pod- watching through the separated doors. During the bedroom scene, most of the performance happens upstage and central on the bed, therefore, we decided to experiment with different levels- using downstage as well as the other space.
Through this exploration of space we discovered that it was effective to have Claudio downstage (leaning against a door panel) whilst hero reacts to his speech further behind- as though the bedroom is inside his head and we're looking in through a window to his mind, seeing Hero as he sees her.

Taking the idea of using the panels, we tried mirroring each other e.g Claudio would put one hand against the panel, leaning towards it, whilst hero mirrors him exactly the other side. This clearly shows their separation yet reflects how close they were- intensifies the loss and pain. We devised a short piece of movement based around this idea of mirroring, using lines from Claudio's monologue as the cues.

2 ) What led to those discoveries?

As the performers, we couldn't tell what looked good from the audience perspective due to the layout (doors) therefore we had to rely on the direction of the rest of the company. Me and George would try different things that felt natural or that we thought could look good, and then received feedback on whether this worked or not.

3 ) Towards where do those discoveries lead?

In order for this scene to work, I have to rely in certain cues from George's monologue (especially the mirroring section- as it wouldn't look right out of sync). Therefore it is important that I also learn the monologue. Not only would this help with my accuracy of cues (making sure we are exactly in time) but would also help with my responses to the monologue- I can prepare how to react, the emotions/feelings Hero may have, what this leads to etc.