On the 8th of March we had another rehearsal with the boys for scene 4. Our previous rehearsal had been productive, scratching two beats out but not as enjoyable as others as there was a need for a bit more talking as we tried to create some movement from the text for one of the linking sections between movement we had already put to text. We immediately knew that this was not a way that George and I like to work or how the boys respond best.
Everybody was feeling somewhat creatively stunted. We work together with the boys to explore their movement and they have input in how to make those movements better. However, in the previous rehearsal it was perhaps a case of 'too many cooks' as we were unsure as to what was the best course of action and needed to try a number of things out. Furthermore, Alex, who is playing the Bomber of Stephen's text, (while the others are playing the three other London Bombers but remain voiceless) has got a huge task on his hands and at times, he understandably struggles. He has a very difficult script to learn and very difficult movement to put it together with and get both right.
For the previous rehearsals we have been using an exercise that George did with the bombers a couple of weeks ago, watching the videos together and using those movements as inspiration to develop on in our rehearsals, finding text where they may work. However, as there are more sections, Alex is becoming more flustered with his text and in turn the movement stop/starts frequently which can result in the boys as a whole finding the end of the rehearsal difficult. Therefore, on the 8th, we decided to split his rehearsal into a text based individual rehearsal and then have him join the boys and do two hours physical work as a quartet and then put words and movement together. It was clear that all involved were happier with this arrangement and this is how we hope to go on in future rehearsals.
I ran two movement exercises with the boys to try to create some more footage for us to work with as starting points for development so that the movement remains organically created, something we had worried was not happening in the previous rehearsal we had struggled in. At first I ran LeCoq's colours exercise. Having previously had a LeCoq workshop with me as a full ensemble, it was interesting to see the movements which they had previously done and new movements if they continued to explore some colours. We then ran a follow the leader exercise. This was both to find new movement and to aid their concentration and ability to move together in sync for the work we were to do with the actual scene later in the rehearsal. At first, I let them explore their movement together, taking whatever stimulus from the ideas of the scene they wanted. However, this was not incredibly successful in terms of creating movement but definitely ensured they were concentrating and moving together.
I then gave them four themes to explore as they moved together 'terrorism, hatred, destruction and fire.' They had previously explored ideas of destruction and fire with me during the LeCoq Elements exercise I ran in my movement workshop with the full cast. It was more successful giving them themes to work with and I would have liked to continue the exercise longer but we needed to continue working. I hope to revisit this at the start of next rehearsal. The following work with the text seemed to be back to the way it had been, experimenting with different movements for the scene and developing them together. Paul Allain, the supervisor of the directors and a man of many talents, one of which is physical theatre (having worked with numerous famous people I have spent these three years learning about and admiring!) attended the last two hours of the rehearsal and seemed pleased with our progress. Videos will be up shortly if i can work out how to shorten them so they upload quicker! (not brilliant quality, still rather sloppy as only at scratching stages and cant hear the sound very well but you get the gist!)
One thing that we are beginning to realise working on this text is the different ways we are having to approach each scene and the performers in them. Different performers respond to different ways of being directed and different ways of finding movement for their characters. It makes it more interesting for us being able to employ our different skills depending on the performers we are working with.
Thats all folks!
Ellie
Everybody was feeling somewhat creatively stunted. We work together with the boys to explore their movement and they have input in how to make those movements better. However, in the previous rehearsal it was perhaps a case of 'too many cooks' as we were unsure as to what was the best course of action and needed to try a number of things out. Furthermore, Alex, who is playing the Bomber of Stephen's text, (while the others are playing the three other London Bombers but remain voiceless) has got a huge task on his hands and at times, he understandably struggles. He has a very difficult script to learn and very difficult movement to put it together with and get both right.
For the previous rehearsals we have been using an exercise that George did with the bombers a couple of weeks ago, watching the videos together and using those movements as inspiration to develop on in our rehearsals, finding text where they may work. However, as there are more sections, Alex is becoming more flustered with his text and in turn the movement stop/starts frequently which can result in the boys as a whole finding the end of the rehearsal difficult. Therefore, on the 8th, we decided to split his rehearsal into a text based individual rehearsal and then have him join the boys and do two hours physical work as a quartet and then put words and movement together. It was clear that all involved were happier with this arrangement and this is how we hope to go on in future rehearsals.
I ran two movement exercises with the boys to try to create some more footage for us to work with as starting points for development so that the movement remains organically created, something we had worried was not happening in the previous rehearsal we had struggled in. At first I ran LeCoq's colours exercise. Having previously had a LeCoq workshop with me as a full ensemble, it was interesting to see the movements which they had previously done and new movements if they continued to explore some colours. We then ran a follow the leader exercise. This was both to find new movement and to aid their concentration and ability to move together in sync for the work we were to do with the actual scene later in the rehearsal. At first, I let them explore their movement together, taking whatever stimulus from the ideas of the scene they wanted. However, this was not incredibly successful in terms of creating movement but definitely ensured they were concentrating and moving together.
I then gave them four themes to explore as they moved together 'terrorism, hatred, destruction and fire.' They had previously explored ideas of destruction and fire with me during the LeCoq Elements exercise I ran in my movement workshop with the full cast. It was more successful giving them themes to work with and I would have liked to continue the exercise longer but we needed to continue working. I hope to revisit this at the start of next rehearsal. The following work with the text seemed to be back to the way it had been, experimenting with different movements for the scene and developing them together. Paul Allain, the supervisor of the directors and a man of many talents, one of which is physical theatre (having worked with numerous famous people I have spent these three years learning about and admiring!) attended the last two hours of the rehearsal and seemed pleased with our progress. Videos will be up shortly if i can work out how to shorten them so they upload quicker! (not brilliant quality, still rather sloppy as only at scratching stages and cant hear the sound very well but you get the gist!)
One thing that we are beginning to realise working on this text is the different ways we are having to approach each scene and the performers in them. Different performers respond to different ways of being directed and different ways of finding movement for their characters. It makes it more interesting for us being able to employ our different skills depending on the performers we are working with.
Thats all folks!
Ellie
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