WEEK ONE

A monument that I found in London that shows a group of WW2 pilots, symbolising the sacrifice the bombers made for England's victory.

Key for Content

  • Planning & Production

  • Problem Solving

  • Evaluation

  • Targets

17/01/2022

Our first rehearsal began with us all doing a Read-Through of the play together. The aim of this exercise was to help us become familiar with the text and officially introduce ourselves to each other as the cast of 'A Matter of Life and Death'. I found this quite helpful as I did not have much knowledge of the story prior to the upcoming rehearsals, so it was interesting to hear the lines read by the cast and take note of the changes happening within the play.

From what I gathered from the script, the plot is set in England on the 2nd of May 1945. As for what I remember from my history lessons, this date is significant as it is close to the end of the Second World War. Initially, I thought that since it is a play based around war, it would have a more sombre tone. However, the more we read the play, the more I realised that the play is a romance that has comedic and slightly wacky events included inside of it.

In A Matter of Life and Death, my character is called 'The Judge' and keeps the celestial realm of the heavenly plane in order and makes the final ruling on Peter Carter's fate. Given that she does not appear earlier in the play, I don't have enough information about her to give an opinion of her character. Additionally, 'The Judge' only makes an appearance in the last scene, so this means that I need to consider ways to make my character outside of the ordinary and dynamic when speaking to the other characters. My concerns from this continued to grow as was unsure of how much I would be involved inside the play until scene 19 came, meaning that I need to give my full energy even as a play as part of the ensemble. Initially, I thought the Judge's character had its pros and cons because the role of the character is quite pivotal towards the result of the ending, but the role is only present at the end of the play and so I won't much of a presence until then. Although I had my reservations about the character, as an actor I know that a character can only be as 3-dimensional as I can make her, so my challenge is to exaggerate whilst also committing to my ensemble moments so that there is a clear difference when I change characters.

18/01/2022

Before looking at the text, we were placed into small and tasked with making Warm-Ups for the beginning of each rehearsal. This is our plan for our session when the rehearsal comes:

  • Semi-Supine - (2mins with breathing, including sirening, fricatives and humming)

This will be useful to actors as it will help them regain focus on themselves and those around them.

  • Wish Wash and Splat Game - (We will have two rounds; one for rules with practice and the last round.)

This will ensure that the ensemble are engaged with each other and it will require their attention.

  • Sun Salutations - (including stretching)

This will support the actors to regain their concentration and centre themselves.

  • Wink Murderer - (one round)

used to finish the warmup, it's calm but will also keep everyone attentive to each other.

  • Humming the songs and harmonising - a cool down that will also help us remain acquainted with the songs.

Rules for Rehearsals:

  • No phones.

  • Bring in a notebook and pencils.

  • Share ideas with the Director.

  • Discuss issues to the Director.


In regards to our initial plan for our Warmup, I think it is quite well rounded in keeping the attention of our fellow performers. However, as I look at it now, I don't think we had enough focus on exercising our vocals and stretching our bodies completely. So, I believe for next time we will include more vocal/physical warmups, such as tongue twisters.

A PLANE CRASH

After playing many games to boost our energy and become attentive to each other, we were then put into small groups (3 or 4 members) where we had to retell the story of the play from our own understanding and include vital points in this activity. We multi-roled different characters and made sure to include the characters that had a large impact on the play. I found this quite useful as it improved my understanding of the play when discussing it with my group.

After this, we moved on to looking at Peter Carter's Plane Crash in larger groups. In my group, we prioritized making the shape of the plane and having Peter look like he was sitting inside the aircraft. From this, we had two people supporting the pilot's legs for her to squat on. Then we had another pair of people supporting her upper body by holding her arms. I suggested that I and my peer could create the shape of the plane's wings by holding her hands so that we're could be through to move like we are changing the trajectory of the plane. Lastly, another performer would hold onto the pilot's back for balance while the last would act as the tail and begin the soundscape.

Once the soundscape started and we began to move, I think it can be said that the aircraft came to life. From the transition of the pilot flying to crashing and fighting through the fog, we were able to show the different stages of the event that we accomplish with the full ensemble. However, there was a safety risk for all of us as my group decided to be quite ambitious about how to dismantle the aircraft and have the pilot jump out. For example, the first time we tried to do this and the pilot kicked her legs out, she did let go of my hand and hit me in the face in the process. As frustrating as it was to not have the group respond to that mistake, I did my best to keep my cool and explain to my group that we need to figure out another way to help her down without jeopardising our safety, which we were able to do.

I think I was able to support my group effectively as I quickly adapted to the number of voices that were sharing ideas at the same time and helped to organise them as a set of instructions that we could follow. Additionally, I think that we could have committed more to formulating the soundscape so that the sound would be more specific and impactful. As for myself, I think I did well to be patient with my group at times when they weren't listening, committed to the physical piece we made and not get frustrated when incidents happened.

Creating my Playlist for Love

After our discussion about the initial ideas for songs, we were tasked to make our own Playlist of songs that were about love and being in it. I really liked the idea of this task because it made me think of the different eras of music that do well to articulate the feelings and ideas of young love.

I think the aim of this exercise was to help us become accustomed to the context of the romantic side of the play and involve us in the development of the play as the Director wants us to collaborate with each other and perform what we are happy to do.

Candi Staton

Young Hearts Run Free

I think this song explicitly tells the relationship between June and Peter, which the ensemble could sing or play as they first meet each other or when they are reunited at the end. The title is quite playful and adventurous, which I believe illustrates Peter's need to run from his fate and June doing everything in her power to save him.

Stevie Wonder

My Cherie Amour

I really like this song because of its upbeat tempo and serenading words that he sings. I think in comparison to the other songs, it would make a good song for the ensemble to sing with Peter. Moreover, it contains made words and phrases relating to the themes in the play, like the milky way etc.

Nat King Cole

Fascination or Unforgettable

I think either of these songs would work well for the play because they have a nostalgic tone towards the era and they are catchy for the ensemble to learn. Either song could be used for the transition between the pairs of June and Peter. 'Fascination' could be sung by the chorus when June and Peter first meet after only hearing each other's voices. Additionally, Unforgettable can be a duet between June and Peter.

Michael Bublé

Me and Mrs Jones

Although the lyrics may not be an accurate depiction of June and Peter's relationship because it is modern. However, I think the lyrics work really well from Peter's perspective, especially when he survives the crash and the next time he sees her after the Conductor.

"Me and Mrs Jones

We got a thing going on

We both know that it's wrong

But it's much too strong

To let it go now"

My Playlist for the Court

Adele

Skyfall

Although the script states that fanfare is heard before I enter, all I could think of was how it is all coming to an end for the star-crossed lovers. With that in mind, I thought that the last scene should begin dramatically, but rather than be overwhelming, it should be intense and contained. From this, I think it would be great before my entrance as I could either match the quality of the song or choose to take my character in a completely different direction that is more lively.

19/01/2022

In this session, we did another Read-Through of the play, but this time we looked at the script in depth so that we can unit the whole script. After agreeing on the gear changes in the script, we decided that each number of units in the previous scene will reset so that we don't face any confusion when we start to block the play. I found this quite useful as we chose to make the units focused on the different physical actions that would act as visual cues for us. Additionally, it helped me realise the stage directions of the majority of the play and what the play could look like on stage. Alongside this, we also discussed the specific moments where songs may be included (whether it is noted in the script as stage directions or not) and the options of songs that we initially had.

This is a video clip of me showing the annotations from today's rehearsals. Included inside are the units, a diagram of the stage to help me with stage directions and key information highlighted so that I can do further research. For next week, I want to research the topics that I found in the script and the words that I don't know so that I will understand their relevance to the play.

20220124_174600_1.mp4

A video clip of the notes I made in my script, including the units, highlighted words that I want to research and a doodle of the stage.

Our List of Songs

After we all individually found music that we thought would relate well to love, we were then put into small groups of 3 and made a 'Jukebox of Love Songs' where we each pitched in one song that we would like to be considered as a song used in the play.

As for the songs I wrote, I contributed 'My Cherie Amour' by Stevie Wonder and 'Unforgettable' by Natalie and Nat King Cole. As seen in the picture, my contribution leaned towards the older side of music as I am much fonder of the jazzy and raw tones which leave us to play around more with it.

During this part of the rehearsal, we wrote all of the scenes (including those without songs in the script) and looked at different songs that all the groups had put in their jukebox. We then created a list of them that we wanted to use in the play.

As shown in the second picture, you can see a variety of sheets from different scenes and the songs that we thought would fit well into them.

Although this part of the rehearsal was not difficult, it did become quite hectic as everyone wanted their song to be picked or at least considered for different scenes.

The aim of this exercise was to help us collate different music that we could potentially use within the play. I also think that it was a fun experience because I was able to see the different styles of music that the cast was interested in and wonder how they will affect the scene in the show.

So, in order to deal with the number of songs that weren't assigned to a scene, another list was made for them.

There are many songs that we could decide whether we wanted to keep in the play or have them as options so we made another she and made a list to include those songs on.

As shown in the picture beside this, the picture shows the list of songs that weren't fully decided on and I added my songs to the list with the specific ones that I thought would work for it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY