Unit 7 - Theatre in education

Wednesday 24^th January

Dress rehearsal

Today was the day that we were having our tech/dress rehearsal in preparation for the performance tomorrow.

A few weeks ago we got in contact with one of the directors of curriculum here at college to ask if it would be alright to invite students to come and watch this rehearsal. Once this was agreed, we were then able to start inviting people to come and watch the performance. Students were then timetabled to attend the session if they did not have another lesson at this time. The reason why we wanted an audience for this rehearsal was so we could have any last minute feedback if they thought we needed to make any necessary changes to the performance. The word was then spread around college asking students to attend the performance. I also went around college asking staff to come to the performance too and staff were also informed via email that they were all invited to the performance.

We were asked to arrive for 1:30pm at the performance studio so we had enough time to get ready. We spent time getting makeup on, putting on our costumes and carrying out a warmup. The audience were asked to arrive for 2:40pm so there could be a prompt start. We then decided to start the performance at 2:45pm to give the audience enough time to get seated and settled before the performance was going to start.

When we were getting ready, Cara came into the dressing room to tell us that Heather wasn’t able to make it today because she has come down with a virus. Heather is one of the college volunteers and she was helping us backstage with props and ensuring the Robert didn’t miss any of his cues because he sometimes has problems staying up to speed with the script. Heather not being able to make it meant that we, as a cast, had to divide the responsibility between us to make sure that Robert was kept awake, on time for his cues and help with the props. The main reason why Heather was helping backstage was to help with the car which is one of the props that the Sweetie Monster uses. The car is a large prop which goes over the body and is held up by braces. Because Heather was unable to make it, it was up to whoever was backstage at the point before this scene, to get the car on to Robert. Before the rehearsal, we worked out who was going to be able to help Robert get in the car. We worked out that Kellyann and Lorren were backstage just before the car scene so they were able to help Robert get into the car. Getting the car wouldn’t be a problem as there was me and Kellyann backstage to help at this point. I was then left in charge of the headphones which he uses in the last scene.

When all of the audience were seated, Cara did a small speech to the audience which told them a bit about the performance. She asked if the audience could act as if they were 5 years old because that is the age of which the performance is aimed at.

Overall, I think that the dress/tech rehearsal went really well. Despite a few glitches and Heather not being able to make it, we managed to pull off a great performance. There were a few moments in the show which did go slightly wrong. Firstly, in scene 4, Annie Apple’s hat fell off as she was exiting stage. We need to make sure that this doesn’t happen tomorrow during the real performance as it may ruin the scene and drag the audience’s attention away from the storyline. Another problem which we had during the show was that there were a few lighting and sound problems. When Annie Apple sat down on the magic chair in scene 2, there was no sound effect. I think this was because I came in with my next line too quickly which didn’t give Callum any time to play the sound effect. This is something which I will remember to do for the performance tomorrow. Another sound and lighting issue was during scene 6 when Fiona is talking to Nancy. There was some confusion over lines and I think that a line was added at the end of the scene. The cue for the blackout at the end of this scene was my line ‘How sensible of you Nancy.’ However, another line was said after this which confused Callum on the lighting and sound deck. This meant that there was a bit of a delay on the blackout. This is also something that we will make sure doesn’t happen tomorrow. Something else that went wrong in this rehearsal was that I forgot to give Robert his headphones. This was my responsibility as Heather wasn’t able to make it to the rehearsal today. Because I didn’t have long in between the scenes, I completely forgot about giving Rob the headphones. However, this was covered when he got on stage because he just mimed that he had some small earphones. This still worked and fit with the scene but I will try to remember to give Robert the headphones tomorrow if Heather is unable to make it. Also, another problem that we had in the last scene was that Robert was a bit slow on his cue. Ideally, Robert needed to come in with his line “Lollipop, lollipop…” during the conversation between Tanzie, Fiona and Annie. However, this did not happen in the rehearsal and we were waiting on stage for a few seconds before he started his line. Hopefully, if Heather is in tomorrow, she will be able to prompt Robert so he will be quicker on his cues. Also in the last scene, some dialogue was skipped. The Sweetie Monster missed out some of the dialogue by combining some lines. This then led to Tanzie also missing some lines too but because this has happened several times in rehearsals before now, it wasn’t a complete surprise to the cast. I then also forgot to say my line at the very end of the performance but this didn’t really apply to the audience anyway because it mentions the evaluation forms and gifts which we weren’t giving out at this performance. However, I can’t forget this line tomorrow as we will be giving out the evaluation forms and the fruity gifts.

At the end of the performance, the audience were given a chance to give any feedback that they had. Comments included that the whole cast had very good projection and diction because all lines could be heard and that the storyline was very clear and easy to follow.

After the performance, I spoke to many members of the audience. I was overwhelmed with the feedback that I was receiving from everyone. One member of the audience said “That was amazing! The performance brought out my inner 5 year old!” Another audience member said “The amount of effort that has gone into the performance is evident. Everything was brilliant – the costumes, the story, the message and the glitter! I thoroughly enjoyed it and I truly think your audience tomorrow will love it.” Another quote was “You’ve pitched the performance just right. The children are going to love it.” Hearing all this feedback from the audience was really great to hear because I felt like everything was now coming together and that we are now ready for the real thing tomorrow. The performance went down really well in the college and I am really glad that we had the opportunity to perform this infront of our peers. In a way, I think that performing infront of your peers is harder than a group of strangers. However, although I was very nervous to perform this to the college, I think I will be equally if not more nervous tomorrow before we perform to the children because I have been working on this script since October 2017 and I really hope that all the hard work pays off.

Prior to the performance today, I had asked one of the staff members in college to take some pictures during the dress rehearsal. Here are some of the photos which he took: