Rehearsals 1-2:
After delayed development of presentation 2 for The Second Shepherd's Play we had a pretty good idea of where we wanted to go with the play. Originally I was cast as one of the Shepherd's but Andy had informed us that he was planning to drop the course so that changed by the second rehearsal. During the first meeting together we looked over what we have in terms of props, staging, lighting, etc. JRS went around group to group at which point she wanted us to figure out the placement of the cottage and the entrance to it. After Derek had mentioned that we have a door standing as the entrance JRS immediately agreed with the idea and added another take on it. She introduced the idea of a moving door which exaggerated the comedic element to the play. Instantly we knew it would work and after confirming that a door is available in from the Drama department we were eager to use one. Other elements such as blocking and staging were discussed and lighting was determined. By the end of the class JRS informed the performances will be taking place in HH 180 which meant as a group we had to come together and make changes again.
During the second rehearsal of that week I was now to play Mak and there was no practice from the group prior to the rehearsal that was to be viewed by JRS. Unfortunately we have had some trouble with attendance in our group and only one other actor showed up. So Derek and Kelly stepped into fill lines. Blocking was not practiced and JRS suggested we be prepared for having missing group members. She also mentioned we figure out what is going to be on stage in terms of where the door is,where the shepherds enter from and where Gill is during the scene. We then grouped together and discussed what we could do with Gill and blocking. As a group we determined that Gill was to be running around in the background very nervously screaming and occasionally entering the audience.
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| A small script Derek had made for each group member. When you look closely you can see some of the blocking that was written down for the actors. |
Rehearsal 2-3:
Again prior to this class no one had showed up for practice over the weekend after making efforts to arrange one. People became to busy or were not in Waterloo at the time. In class this time we were practicing in our actual stage at HH 180, again a few members missing but this time the majority of the group was there. We went through lines and some blocking but the space was occupied by the other groups, we were just not fast enough. I am beginning to see little motivation in some group members to come together and work hard.
Between the two rehearsals of that week the actors were to memorize there lines so we met up as a group and tried our best to go over lines. Again, people were missing. We also determined the final light and sound ques to inform Janelle.
The dry rehearsal was not very dry at all. Many of the actors including me had forgotten lines and referred to the script occasionally. But more importantly we had not practiced using the space so we were not comfortable with the blocking. At this moment we were also not sure of what the door had looked like and not all of our costumes and props were obtained. At this rehearsal however I did notice the group was motivated to work harder and come together as a group and schedule practices before the final performance. The dry rehearsal was really the push we needed.
In between the time of the final performance and are last class rehearsal the group had met up twice for 2 hours each were we practicing lines and blocking. We made sure our characters had certain behaviors to distinguish them for example Hannah was playing Gyb and she was more curious than the other Shepherds and Paula playing Daw was more authoritative. We also got a hold of the door and props. We memorized our lines and began to start flowing with the play. Light work was finalized and the song was tested for the beginning of the play. Some members were having trouble memorizing lines so Derek guided the actors through an "Italian run through" which helped a lot! We all worked on finalizing the props and getting comfortable in our costumes and practiced till we were satisfied. Despite all the positive vibes we still had not seen the clothing rack we were going to use for the door. We were in hopes that we would receive it the morning of the presentation (and we did, luckily). In the case that we might not have received it we did practice with the actual door (Woyzeck's door).
Next was the performance!
