Going through the play from start to finish and establishing the basic blocking first rather than intensively developing each scene from the very beginning really allowed us to develop the scenes more freely as we didn't have restrictions from already in place detail. It gave us the basic frame work to work with - our entrances and exits - and then enabled us to fill in the scene by making logical decisions with blocking that we think our characters would make. As the scenes developed and we added more and more detail, I found myself being able to access my character and act more as my instincts already knew the blocking so I didn't have to put too much focus into it. The intensive attention to detail was only added once a scene had it's basic blocking down and all the lines learnt by the actors, this was extremely beneficial as it meant we could work to develop the scenes without the confinement of having scripts in our hands which had been holding us back previously.
One of the biggest challenges I personally found during the rehearsal period was developing my scenes without knowing the tune to Su-Lin's canto-pop. As it was undecided until quite late into the rehearsal period that I would find my own song to work from it meant that before then it was hard for me to feel like the scenes we were working were really being developed in great detail. However, when I did have to learn the song, I believe I learnt it relatively quickly and efficiently which meant I was able to insert it into the scenes without struggle. That being said, I would've definitely liked to have started work on the song a lot earlier than we did - perhaps from the very beginning - so I could be one hundred percent confident with it earlier on in rehearsals than I was. Another issue with learning the song so late was that it meant it was particularly hard to develop the ending in rehearsals as in the text, the canto-pop featured heavily as the play's ending. This meant there was a delay in rehearsals and the play always seemed unfinished when we did run throughs. However, I feel as we developed the ending into something different from the text, what we created is just as interesting and dynamic as the original.
However, though the canto-pop song dragged the musical aspect of the show down, I feel that the songs were a strong point for us during rehearsal. Though we had to work extensively on Lay Me Low to get it to work - working with Rob from Musical Theatre was definitely beneficial - once we were able to actually work with the table, it developed into one of the most powerful moments of the show. I was particularly surprised by Naomi and Will's commitment to the songs their characters had to sing, this definitely helped myself and I don't doubt the rest of the cast, to feel more comfortable with the singing aspect. As we dove right into the singing with Lay Me Low, Don't Be Unkind to A Duck...etc - it wasn't something to be worried about in future rehearsals as the songs had been present and worked on since the beginning of the show's development. All the actors playing the nuns who worked on their songs - Naomi, Leanne, Deja, Claudia, Alice and later Tia, again showed commitment in rehearsals to the songs, taking time to really work on getting them to sound good - this definitely helped improved everyone's positivity on the show and the music in general. It could've been expected for theatre students - not musical theatre - to shy away from the task of having such a musically driven show, but I think the fact we didn't avoid most of the songs in rehearsals really allowed us to get comfortable with the singing in order to develop them further more effectively.
Another major challenge for the rehearsal process was the inconsistency of people's attendance. Although I attended every rehearsal, it was extremely difficult to progress with scenes with people absent. This was evident in one of my own scenes in which Will wasn't present whilst we were developing the first 2013 lunch scene - Josh had to stand in for him to read the lines. This was irritating though not too dampening on the scene as a whole as we picked it back up when Will came back and helped him through the scene. Absents were particularly present in the scenes with a large amount of people - such as the commune scenes or the nuns, these scenes include a lot of dialogue which meant it was hard for them to develop properly without people present. I know that the final commune scene - "That's what she said is it..." - hadn't been rehearsed with every cast member present until the last rehearsal before the first show - this obviously caused some anxieties with other cast members in those scenes.
Overall I think we had a very successful rehearsal process as we were all in a confident position before the first show - though the were obviously some insecurities over particular moments - we all knew what we had to and how to do it successfully. It was a vast contrast to the rehearsal process for Children's Theatre and my anxieties and stress before those performances.
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