22.5. Run at Pelham

[VIDEO ADDED WHEN ITS ONLINE]

Today we were at Pelham to run some of our existing scenes so that we get to try them out on the stage, but also to get some feedback from Siou on our scenes. We were also introduced to Robin, who will be taking over couple of the roles, since we lost one of our actors. He will be taking the roles of Goodwill, Prosecutor and be part of some of the ensemble parts. Here are some of the notes Siou gave us after the run, but also things that I noticed while watching the scenes:

• Prologue
• we need a song for when we come on the stage. We have earlier discussed, that the drum bit in our actual song we use for the prologue could be on a loop and then continue to fit our dance. The changes Sophie helped us all to make earlier worked a lot better, now we just need to keep running to get them right and so that everyone is doing them at the same time.
• When the characters are introduced they need to have clear Gest when they enter and exit. This should be noted throughout the play, so that every time a scene starts the audience will know what characters are in the scene. We also need to be sharing with the audience more
• When Ui's are revealed they can be standing further back to be separated from the rest pf the ensemble. The chorus also needs to be more spread out .
• Ui's introduction isn't working with the awkward waving, but we need to define exactly what we are doing. Max suggested doing Gests in a echoe way where we do the Gests ina wave. I want it to show what Ui is the beginning or the progression of his character, starting out timid and then gaining power and the Gests to forward.
• Scene 3
• We need to use more imagination show the bookie's office. We could do this by adding some moments when the characters can be listening to a radio telling about the winning horses. Ragg and Dockdaisy could be doing this while they are on the side drinking before Ui comes to talk to them.
• We need to stick to our style of DARK and SINISTER. There are moments that are funny in this play, which we should embrace, but it is still trying to make a point about the rise of dictators and this needs to have the space to come trough. 
• Siou gave us a good note to think of the Gests as tableaux; having one gest on one line and then change in to another Gests. We can play around with the change either being fast and sharp or slow and smooth to create different moods. States of tension is something we should also take in consideration, since characters, especially Ui, change their tensions quickly.
• Keep acting and listening out! The style is acting out to the audience and we need to remember this!
• Scene 4
• More energy! Ui needs have so much more impact. The last time we did this scene Yunusa was basically begging on the floor and crying as Ui, which worked so well, but this time the drama was sort of forgotten about. 
• Use the states of tension!
• Scene 5
• We need to re-stage this scene. Personally, this was my first time doing this scene and I have also been changed character in the meanwhile, so I was out of place most of the time, or rather on the same place. With this scene we tried to show the two sides, by having all the Cauliflower trust people huddled around Dogsborough, and even though it might have worked for a bit, we need to get more movement in the scene and use the space better. We definitely need to look at this scene again more in detail
• move the body of Bowl in the middle of the stage
• More chaos when we hear Bowl has been murdered. HIGH TENSION!
• With this we could simply just do the tension exercise with the scene, without the lines, Have us set up on the stage and then have someone yell "Bowl has been murdered!" or "There's a bomb in the room!" and see how people naturally react to this and then take on some reaction and actions we like and use it to create the high tension in the scene.
• Scene 6
• Maybe instead of having a physical mirror or mirror frame, we could use the shadow as the mirror?
• Have the bodyguards get the chair for Ui from the audience.
• Scene 7
• Should the vegetable dealers be on the stage scattered, rather than in the audience? If they are in the audience they cannot really be seen by the audience, especially since they do react and talk back to Ui. 
• We shouldn't be really saying the bodyguard is a baritone, since I am not a baritone at all
• During the song, people could come around and even start singing with it, since it supposed to create a sense of home and working together.
• Transitions are way too messy
• Transitions in this run through didn't go well at all, and I think it is simply because we haven't discussed them. So far, we have been focused on doing the scenes, that most of the time we forget about the transition into the next scene, or simply put a black out to it. I feel that during some class, we need to go through all of the transitions, see where the scene ends and where the next one starts and decide what we are going to to do during it. I know some have talked about doing more run troughs, but I don't think there is necessarily point to run all of them back to back if we actually do not know what we are doing. We should discuss them first, try the transitions and then do a run through with all of the scenes. 

We tried out what the VIP tables would look like. We will probably fit 6
 tables which each can seat 3-5 people

•    Did I achieve my last goal? What could I or the group improve on?
• For this lesson I didn't make any specific goal, I have the general ones going on such us working on my Gest and lines. I feel like I am getting comfortable with my lines, especially in scene 6, but I still need to get off book and soon!
• What did I learn during this lesson? How can I use it?
• I feel that we noticed all that we haven't been really focusing on the details of the scenes, but also working trough them a little too fast. I feel like we work on one scene for only day, even though it would be good for us to look at some of the scenes a day or two later we have created them, to see what doesn't work. Also, if people are missing we need to do the scene with them in it, because today there a couple of scene that people simply didn't know what they were supposed to be doing, because everyone else had moved on too quickly. It is important for us ask what the group did when we were away, but something words do not translate the same to everyone, which then creates confusion. 
• What is my goal for the next lesson? What do I need to do to achieve this? What information do I need?
• In next lesson I think, rather than starting on a new scene, we should perhaps work on some these scenes that need the most work, for example scene 5 that desperately needs blocking. Also us Ui really need discuss the prologue and what we are going to do in it. I will come up with some ideas to share to the class on Tuesday. I also want to look at the scene changes and maybe come up with ideas for that as well.