Week 11 - 11th to 15th April

Full Run of Act 1:

• keep focus among group and keep engagement

• accents are working

• Tia and Chantel have really found their relationship

• more listening

• Don't enter the scene at an energy level of ten, you will have no where

• important to set the mood with the beginning, be controlled and present

• Follow the bird more at the beginning

• look at Ben when arm comes up

• Think about how you are watching Lockwood's opening monologue

• First scene needs more pace

• Move things on stage with purpose and direction, think back to Laban Efforts

• Has to be a realisation that Sam has fallen asleep when swaying before transitioning to the dream

• Lockwood's dream energy is much better

• Power is not in yelling but in presence

• moving props needs to be part of the piece

• Need more confidence in myself

• 'Seventeen'is looking much better

• The is a motif of left to right, a continuum of the journey - the stage is the journey and representative of Cathy and Heathcliff.

• Always think back to the ball game and it's importance and relation to the pacing of the play.

• Good reaction from the Nelly's in Scenes 5 and 6

• Remember apple sauce pot, also think about what is in the saucepan, is it hot?

• Figure out chairs more.

• Let the pinch shock you in scene 8

• Have confidence in the singing

• Every time you play it, it should be brand new

• Keep those small impulsive interactions between Nelly's and Lockwood.

These were the main points of feedback from the run of act one. The main note I was given and a self note was that I do need more confidence. I do often lose confidence in the rehearsal process, and because of this I have lost clarity in my storytelling. This is something I have been rebuilding back and I finding in rehearsal again. I think there is still a worry about making a mistake or forgetting a line, when I actually just need to trust myself that I know all my cues. The less I over think it the easier I will find Nelly and lines will come to me naturally. Today I really enjoyed watching Tia and Chantel (Isabella and Cathy) in Act 1 Scene 12 as they have found such an interesting dynamic between them. The pacing of the scene is also great as they both letting the lines come out naturally and the scene is taking form of a tennis match going back and forth between Isabella and Cathy. Watching this scene as Nelly is also really interesting as she was just an observer in this exchange and is just watching Cathy and Isabella reveal so much gossip. When Abdul enters this scene as Heathcliff the dynamic instantly shifts. This scene has such a great paradox of lies and truth distinctively portrayed by Tia, Chantel and Abdul who always enter with clear intentions and objectives and that's what from the opening of the scene makes it so engaging. Another key point about this scene is that they are clearly listening to each other and responding on impulse, the scene is never the same.

This then links to some of the notes that we are repeatedly getting and that is listening to each other and responding and pacing. There is a pacing issue in scene 1 particularly as it's the opening scene and requires to be really engaging for the audience as it sets up the rest of the play. I have been evaluating the pacing problem and trying to figure out as to why it has been such a large problem for us. People on stage are just waiting to get their lines out, they are just listening out for the final few words of their cue line instead of listening to the whole line and reacting with impulse. This then adds those awkward pauses in between lines that just drags out the scene. By being more present in the scene and taking in what your scene partner is saying will allow the pacing to pick up. Focus at the back of stage is another element that needs work, I am on stage at all times and when everyone else is sitting at the back among the rocks it really does provide this extra layer of atmosphere and energy - it brings the ensemble together. And I can tell when people aren't focused at the back of stage as the energy does drop on stage and it does effect those acting centre stage. At this point in the rehearsal process it's all bout fine-tuning and focusing on the details so most of the feedback has been on small particular moments but still have a vast impact on the play. The opening movement section still needs some detail and rework so we can really convey the atmosphere of the moors and transport the audience to the world of the play.

I really interesting motif that we discovered today was how the stage is a continuum and represents the journey of the characters. Everything in our play travels from left to right, when Cathy and Heathcliff are young they are on the left side of stage, but as things turn darker Cathy dies on the right side of the stage. The journey of the characters is shown through the staging and is representative of the characters of the play. Visually in our play there are many metaphors that foreshadow and depict particular key moments in the play in a stylised way. Most props were remembered this run however, the movement of props and furniture needs to be moved in a stylised way as it is still part of the story. Channeling the energy of the moors when moving props is what our director suggested, so everything ties in under this one motif that we have throughout the play.

We then did a full run of act two:

• Scenes 1-3 work really well

• Focus and momentum was lost

• more listening and reacting

• what is your purpose when walking on?

• collective mirror drop

• sensory work, the play is a sensory experience

• keep transitions flowing

• Scenes 5,6,7,8 needs a lot of work

• props were missed

This run of act two didn't go very well, all notes that were given previously all went out the window. The pacing was very slow and after that it was just a domino effect. People starting forgetting lines and props were missed. We could've easily given up but we kept on going pushing through to the end. Now more than ever the pacing note is relevant, we are going to have an additional rehearsal this week to work through those scenes that aren't working and dissecting what is going wrong. Something that I am going to be working on is my purpose when walking into a scene, and what I was doing before I go back into the scene from being the observer. In particular Act 2 Scene 10 when Nelly has a conversation with Heathcliff, I need to ask myself these questions: Where am I coming from? Why am I walking on stage? When was the last time I saw Heathcliff? These three simple questions is what provides a character with agency and direction when walking on stage and makes the original intentions clearer. We have another run this week so we can use all the notes and put them into play, hoping to improve the quality of the run. Also we did the Act 1 before lunch and Act 2 after, so doing a full continuous run with just a 15 min interval will improve focus and energy.

Full Run Feedback:

• good pace with Nelly and Lockwood

• great delivery of 'a framed a bit of a lie there.'

• work on nursery rhyme

• use the 'oh' and 'ah' in the text and find the emotion in them

• anytime you say a character name it should be a moment of re-engagement

• in sync Nelly moments are really working, particularly Act 2 Scene 3

• vowels are releases of emotion

• profess, confess and share

• play with how words linger in the air

• 'mr, miss, mrs' need articulation

• diction

• consonants = thought

• vowel =emotion

• focus on death more during 'She saw her father...'

• make last line more clear

During this run I finally felt that the Nelly's were finally connected and we really started to move as one, share interactions and be in sync with each other. I also set the pace of the play really well with Lockwood whilst having small interactions with each other throughout the play. I'm also experimenting with different reactions that Nelly has to different scenes and playing with how she remembers things and how she views some of her choices that she made. A general note for everyone was to improve vocally, accents are working but diction and articulation is lost and then the story is lost. Niama gave some great feedback on this tailored to the language, and how the vowels are what express emotion and the consonants express thought. This has really encouraged me to enjoy the rich language that Bronte and De Angelis have written. Diction and articulation needs improvement so I will do more vocal warm-ups before runs and also doing vocal warm-ups in a Yorkshire accent so I can work on my Yorkshire accent diction and articulation. I also need to play with how words linger in the air, particularly my lines as they define key moments in the play and I announce the deaths, and my words definitely echo and linger through the play. Linking to this I need make a few of my lines more, in particular my last line to Lockwood and the deaths in Act 2 Scene 8 as it explains the next part of the story. I will also go over my lines over articulating as a warm-up so the muscles in my mouth adjust to the way I speak in a Yorkshire accent. Some particular sounds in Yorkshire dialect are quite challenging to articulate with, so I need to go back to the original work I did and go over the harder vowels, to ensure there is clarity and diction in my storytelling. Another note given about storytelling was that whenever a person's name is mentioned that should be a moment of re-engagement, I have really taken this on board as I state all the characters and who they are married to for the audience. It is important for me to have as much clarity as possible in my storytelling so the audience can follow along with all events. I have been playing with playing to all three sides more in rehearsal also, as I stated in a previous evaluation, and I have been directing the most important parts to the audience so they observe all information.