As the performance nears, we met the daunting prospect of our last rehearsal. Butterflies already doing their work in my stomach, I am from now terrified about the performances. The lesson on the Monday served as a tidy up of the notes we received on Saturday, (giving us the constant background activity of Melody putting her guard outfit on and off and sorting her infinite props for the full hour) meaning myself and Harriet practiced the two guard sequences as this was our weakest points (well, mine on the first scene and Harriet on the second scene). For the past few runthroughs I've been struggling with quite grasping the scene in which the guard reports about the body, for some reason I constantly felt uncomfortable with the way I said most of the lines and every solution didn't seem to work for me, so today I worked with Harriet who was pretty confident with this scene. The biggest line problem was "No. You'll do since you're here" as Chipp had loved the Harriet had said it on the Saturday which was a sort of "No! You'll do! Since you're ... Here!" Which I really struggled delivering without seeming too contrived and in effective, but I worked out it was in the way I gestured: I needed to point then with a new movement pronounce a point to the ground with an authoritative "here". Another thing I've been working on since Saturday is looking comfortable in the suit (which sadly still makes me look like a boy in his dad's clothes) rather then just standing with my arms by the side of the coat such as putting hand in pocket or side, neatebig it etc. Which really helps to feel comfortable on stage as one of my biggest downfalls as an actor is how uncomfortable feel with my hands and gestures, and I think it works to make the whole character more convincing (unless I awkwardly fumble putting my hand in my pocket as that doesn't really look confident or authoritative, hopefully that won't happen on the night).
In the afternoon, with free periods, I worked in the drama space with the mud. My main worry is the big section in the middle with Antigone as I haven't yet rehearsed that in the mud or even since last Wednesday missing it out in all the runthroughs on Saturday and again the evening later because it took too long to do in the time we had. It's concerning me a lot as I really wanted to perform to the rest of the cast at least once to get the nerves out of the way a bit. Anyway, I went through all the bits I have contact with soil and props in which weren't too difficult to adapt to the soil, but had to dig quite hard to get a handful of earth for the "if a handful of earth isn't thrown over his body" and then looking at the last monologues whilst eating grapes and drinking the wine, which turns out is easier than I thought it would be, though I'll probably not be eating as many grapes as Chipp wants me too or something like that. Working with Megan and Harriet I also had a look at the section which cropped up on Saturday, "Now just listen! Alright, I've got the villain's part and you've been cast as the heroine..." As I want quite getting the timing right, they do it differently in theirs but now I feel comfortable say "Now just listen as I storm up to Caitlin then slamming her down on "alright" the following part I've also worked on to make more threatening and intimidating, perhaps at the expense of looking old but he is called vigorous so...
In the afternoon, with free periods, I worked in the drama space with the mud. My main worry is the big section in the middle with Antigone as I haven't yet rehearsed that in the mud or even since last Wednesday missing it out in all the runthroughs on Saturday and again the evening later because it took too long to do in the time we had. It's concerning me a lot as I really wanted to perform to the rest of the cast at least once to get the nerves out of the way a bit. Anyway, I went through all the bits I have contact with soil and props in which weren't too difficult to adapt to the soil, but had to dig quite hard to get a handful of earth for the "if a handful of earth isn't thrown over his body" and then looking at the last monologues whilst eating grapes and drinking the wine, which turns out is easier than I thought it would be, though I'll probably not be eating as many grapes as Chipp wants me too or something like that. Working with Megan and Harriet I also had a look at the section which cropped up on Saturday, "Now just listen! Alright, I've got the villain's part and you've been cast as the heroine..." As I want quite getting the timing right, they do it differently in theirs but now I feel comfortable say "Now just listen as I storm up to Caitlin then slamming her down on "alright" the following part I've also worked on to make more threatening and intimidating, perhaps at the expense of looking old but he is called vigorous so...
Of course it was me that was able to stub their toe within ten minutes of the technical rehearsal and commence to bleed over the soil. Ooops! The lighting made the whole set look really effective, and dark (hehe... ironic) but in a moody way. And the technical rehearsal is long and a bit dull... but necessary.
So commenced the long night of three runs in succession till 9pm again without the massive scene which was again a little off-putting, but we agreed to rehearse these scenes the evening before the performance.
All the rehearsals went really well from my perspective, though I received these notes:
- I need to articulate my thought process more with my tone
- BE MORE AGGRESSIVE IN TUMBRIL (SWORD) SCENE
- Be more exhausted over Antigone whilst talking to Chorus about her death
The whole thing is feeling strong and I'm looking forward to tomorrow night.
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