Week 9 - 28th to 1st April

First Run of Act 2 Feedback:

• Don’t enter the scene at a 10 energy wise because there is nowhere for it to grow and progress.

• Work out windows moment in Act 2 Scene 1 pg 41.

• Scene 2 choreography is working.

• Pg 48/49 transition is working, Chantel’s death.

• Scene 4 ‘he was beyond my skill to console’ follow Ben is working.

• Keeping the lightness more in Lockwood and Nelly’s conversations, push the comedy more.

• Think about Nelly's thought process behind speaking about Cathy’s death when was the last time she spoke about her death. Pg 49.

• Channeling the fact that this is Nelly’s is reliving her life.

• Pg 50 - ‘Nelly puts baby down’ chairs move - slight problem here everyone forgot.

• Make sure the chair doesn’t fall where Hindley and Heathcliff when chairs fall down.

• Keep track of props

• Dip in energy in scene 5

• Turn away from Lockwood on ‘Don’t worry yourself on that account, Mr Lockwood.’

• Change in tone of storytelling from pg 62.

• Figure out song pg 63

• Work out Scene 10 more with Ben

• Great run in and discovery of Heathcliff’s body.

• Last moment is a strong breath moment

• Nelly finally becomes part of the tapestry.

The main note for everyone was to not enter the scene at a 10 energy wise otherwise, it becomes long-winded and one note. It's better for it to grow with your given circumstances and objectives in the scene. To solve this, before coming on stage as your character you must consider where you are coming from and why, so you can gradually build from those motives and guide you through the scene. This general note is a bit challenging for me as I am always on stage and how I sustain that energy but still having peaks and valleys. The main thing I can do is remained engaged with the story I am telling and processing the story as Nelly not as Katrine. There were a few prop issues in this run, as particular queues were missed, but staying focused and aware of the happenings in the scene will easily be fixed. There is another Nelly prop opportunity in scene 1 with windows that our director pointed out which Tash and I are going to explore, utilising the hand held windows form Act 1 Scene 2. This is a prime example of how much detail there is within the text that we keep on discovering every rehearsal and how we can add it to our show.

A specific note given to Lockwood and I was to sustain the comedy and lightness between our exchanges and to keep pushing it further and explore all the possibilities. Nelly and Lockwood have a vastly important role where they keep the audience in the loop with the story and act as a breather for the audience before/after a tragic event takes place on stage. It's also important not to get stuck with what we know works, comedy wise, otherwise it will look and appear over-rehearse. But as well as keeping the lightness I must also as Nelly take into consideration when was the last time Nelly spoke about these events. Nelly is reliving her life on stage and seeing all her choices and decisions play out. During this run it really struck how challenging this must be for Nelly, but also the wave of guilt and regret she must be faced with. This a new layer to Nelly that I will consider to explore, as she isn't just reacting to some random drama, but to her life and decisions she made many years ago.

There were many particular prop moments that need to be discovered and performed with full commitment. Everyone forgot the chair choreography in Act 2 Scene 4, to solve this we need to set a cue line for us to move the chairs o it happens in sync. This moment is similar to the one in Act 1 Scene 8, when we create a door out of the wooden chairs acting as a barrier between Heathcliff and Cathy. The door made out of chairs has organically transitioned into a motif, like the feathers, throughout the play and is another example of how Nelly moulds into the story and inhibits the furniture that play an important role in the story. When returning to particular scenes to rework sections the chair moment is one that we need to block through and figure out the staging of it, and also block through when in the theatre space as the space is quite different to rehearsal room we discovered on Monday. There are a few holes and gaps discovered in this run, particularly as there was a major energy drop in scene 5 on wards, there was a lack of commitment and when one person dropped the energy, so did everyone else. This was a great example as to why the ball game we play at the start is important and how it translates to on stage. When we lose focus whilst playing the ball game, everyone keeps on dropping the ball - this is exactly what happens in scene 5 on wards. To solve this we all need to pick each other back up after energy is dropped, also people sitting at the back of the stage need to also keep engaged because when focus is broke amongst the tapestry, focus is lost on stage.

This was mine and Ben's first time doing a full run of our scene, that marks are very monumental moment in Heathcliff's and Nelly's relationship and is possibly the last time and person Heathcliff spoke to before his death. More needs to be discovered in this moment, Ben and I need to uncover more of the underlying emotions that our character's are facing and how they truly are feeling, as it can be different to the lines they are saying. Between Nelly and Heathcliff there is a lot of unexpressed emotion and grief for each other, which is just all exposed in this scene so we need to properly dissect these underground feelings towards each other. There are elements of grief but also acceptance, which I think is Nelly's main battle and dilemma in this exchange.

We also did a full run of Act 1 this week, main points of feedback are below:

• good choices of standing on rocks in the opening

• Stop fidgeting

• Keep connecting through breath in opening movement

• Possibly having a moment to showcase all split castings

• Maybe put aprons on at the start?

• Use rocks to sit on during Sam’s opening

• More reaction to Heathcliff’s entrance, lean in

• Make the story telling really clear, move closer to Lockwood, sit on the rock in front of him

In this run of act one I began with a lot of self-doubt and this was really evident in my performance. Before starting I began worrying if I new my lines or not and if I knew my prop cues, even though I do as I have put in the additional work. The thing that was my downfall was that I was in the mind-set of self-doubt and not Nelly. I did forget a few lines, but instead of just moving on and re-finding my feet I continued to self-doubt and criticise myself more about how I forgot my lines. And because of this cycle that entrapped myself in I continued to make errors throughout. This has always been a struggle and problem for me during the rehearsal process and the worry of doing things wrong and making mistakes, but this has to happen in the rehearsal process and allows you to discover more of yourself and character. This is a mindset and mantra I need to always return to so I can try to prevent further self-doubt that overtakes my character work and performance.