Thursday 1st October (Rent Page 1-15 Run Through)

In this lesson we ran through the scenes and songs from page 1 to page 15. For me this included the opening song Rent, being a 'bum' on the street dotted around the stage, some simple movement during the beginning of the song One Song Glory and the song Light My Candle. The opening song wasn't as successful as we hoped it would be, it was quite confusing as we had done some more work on it since we were last in the theatre space so it was difficult to get used to the staging again. I suggested that we involve some solo improvisations of running across the room doing some forms of physical theatre inspired by Frantic Assembly, and nearer the end having everyone come on stage facing the audiences and singing directly to them, this worked well because everyone was involved and it helped to immerse the audience by breaking the fourth wall and interacting directly with them. We decided that this song needs to be an angry, energized song as it opens the whole show. After this we returned to our initial positions on stage on the floor huddled in small groups as homeless people, I made sure I kept a slouched posture and didn't make too much eye contact to show fear and hopelessness. My next action was to walk slowly, maintaining this character during the opening counts of One Song Glory. When I am off cast I will just move to another spot on stage but as Mimi I will walk off stage to prepare for Light My Candle which I have to start in section G, which is only accessible from behind the curtain and up stairs made from staging blocks when you start off stage. We don't have this set out yet as it is too early in the process but I made sure to act and react to the space as if it was real. Next was Light My Candle, my first duet with James, playing Roger. This is the first time these two meet officially as Roger explains in the lyrics he has seen her around before but they are introduced properly in this scene. I feel my run of the song was very successful, I didn't need my script for most of the song and I felt relaxed and comfortable with the notes I had to sing. Mimi uses her sexuality and confidence in a comedic way which I really emphasised in this rehearsal, it got a very good response from the rest of the class as people laughed and when I looked around the room everyone was watching and seemed engaged, this gave me a lot of confidence and made me think about what more I could do with my character with humour. For example upon looking through my script in more detail I realised that Mimi has some sarcasm in her lines and I really want to use this as much as I can because from my research of watching other schools/colleges performances of Rent, the movie and the filmed Broadway performance this take on Mimi's character hasn't been done before. I feel confident using comedy and therefore think it will work well. After the lesson Charley, playing Mimi in the other cast, James and myself spoke briefly about blocking a simple plan for movement, just how we will walk around the stage, when we will walk to certain places and specific movements we need, and noted this in our scripts.

To finish we sang through the song Seasons Of Love to work out the harmony groups and make sure we knew the lyrics, as this song is very important for the narrative of the play and to stay true to Larson's initial intentions.

Friday 25th September (Rent Speed Runs)

In this lesson we wanted to look at the plot of Rent, to do this we were split up into our casts, with non double casted parts evenly divided up into both. In these groups we did speed runs, one group doing the first act and the other group doing the second act. I had to do the second act, so we read it through and picked out the most important things that happen in it and created a way to demonstrate that visually and through important dialogue. We tried to be our characters as much as possible but because we didn't have every character in each group some people had to multi role.
I feel my group was successful because we included every important aspect of the narrative in the show, and we included every song efficiently and smoothly.





From this, many aspects of the show were a lot clearer to me-

• Order of songs
• What people and characters are in each scene
• When I am on stage
• The layout of the staging
• Spacial awareness
• Narrative of the play
• Meanings of the songs

Doing a speedrun of the second act helped me because I now understand the order of the songs and when I am on stage a lot better. I also know the staging and rhe layout of the spacing, this helps me top be much more aware and confident when blocking my scenes. I feel a lot more prepared about my character interactions and with my general knowledge of the play.


Theatrical Conventions: A rule you make for your own show that you must abide by throughout rehearsals and performance
Immersive: Involving or encouraging the audience into the set/action/performance space
Fourth Wall: The 'wall' at the front of the stage that divides the actors from the audience, in our show we are breaking that and not having 'walls'
Traverse: Having the audience on either side of the actors on stage
In The Round: Having the audience surrounding the actors on stage

This is a diagram of the layout of our staging- 

Friday 25th September (Rent Opening Song Physical Theatre Development - Dance)

In this lesson we looked at the physical theatre routine we had created for the song Rent that opens the show. We knew we had to develop it as it didn't have the energy we need and with our characters it wont work, we found it didn't flow well and wasn't busy enough on stage.

We began by running through and film what we had previously choreographed with the music and noted down what we need to improve on through self assessment-

• using more of the space efficiently so that each audience section can see everything easier
• have more purpose when walking or moving, using stylised pedestrian movement
• refine movements better using dynamics and timings
• make the movements and motives more realistic
• develop characterisation

We then realised we needed to break up from our groups to make it more interesting and natural, so in pairs and small groups we choreographed motifs, based on the stimuli of people in the street in a violent circumstance. My group and I wanted to be as physical as possible so we looked at lifts or jumps to create levels and bring energy to the piece, we settled on using different types of trust falls and using the floor space to create the scene of people being chased. 

I contributed narrative ideas to this piece, such as each group and partnership having a motive to follow and choreograph around as their stimuli. I made suggestions on the final formation and the movements we could repeat to keep the energy up and not look awkward while singing. One thing that we were struggling with was keeping the pace up and a lot of people moving around the space, I discussed with others that we could have everyone randomly running across to a different side in various intervals to create confusion on stage, which ended up being in the piece. I feel this adds a lot of energy and has a natural style that we really wanted to portray, to put the audience in a street setting and start off the show with them involved. 

To finish we brought it all together with our new additions and ran it through, it fitted well with the music and before filming it we added more characterisation and energy to develop it. 

2nd Video Of Rent Opening Song Physical Theatre Development - Dance (25-9-15)

Thursday 24th September (Rent Early Character Work)

To begin this lesson we discussed some simple foundations of our rehearsals, as this is our first lesson with characters we can now work on character. We now know that we will take at least one hour out of our Thursday or Friday lessons to dedicate to singing our ensemble or group songs, and also work on songs with less people in when some people are running or scenes.
As I have never been casted the same role as someone else in a cast I really want to focus on my own interpretation of my character as much as I can. We were asked to think of at least two ideas for our characters origin or past-

• Mimi didn't have a father figure at a young age because her father left due to troubles with his wife, Mimi's mother, and money, so she had to take on that responsibility herself to look after her younger siblings (two brothers). This has lead to her not wanting to be feminine and being afraid of seeming 'girly' and vulnerable in that way later in life.
• She had a boyfriend before moving to The Alphabet City who gave her aids due to unprotected sex and was the person that introduced her to harmful drug use. The problems with her father as previously mentioned caused her to fall hard for this man even though she knew he was bad for her but because she was weak in self esteem at the time she ended up being abused by him and only stayed with him for the drugs. When he found out that she had aids he left her, which is why she is afraid to tell people she has aids or make it into a problem because she is afraid of being judged or left alone again. This breakup left her alone with little money and a bad drug problem and so she found herself in NYC trying to make a living like many others.
• Mimi danced when she was little, her parents would pay for her lessons but they couldn't afford it when her father walked out on their family, therefore she had to give up her childhood dream of dancing. This is why she has the job at the Cat Scratch Club, as she has experience in dancing and being feminine is a good thing, this helps her confidence a lot but she only does this for the money, she would rather have more respect off of other people but this is the only job she can get with her lifestyle. 

We then, in pairs, created small improvisations with different characters in situations that would reflect the decisions we had just made that would also make sense with our characters. We continued this moving around the room in different partners. This was really helpful for me as I struggled to make up things about my character from her past as I don't know a lot about her, Improvising on the spot is something that I feel very comfortable with and it helped me to come up with more characteristic as I acted my scenes out and gave me an idea of what my character is going to be like in later development and rehearsals. We were then given provocative situations in pairs such as finding a dead body on the street or suspecting a close friend has gotten into drug use and discussing this in character. I also learnt a lot from this exercise because I began to understand how my character would react and interact with different characters in the cast.

From this we made at least 3 definite decisions about our characters that we found out from this workshop-

• She is afraid of being feminine in front of other people in daily life
• Her father left at a young age and she doesn't have a good memory of him
• Doesn't keep in contact with her mother much as she is afraid she'll be disappointed
• She doesn't like or deal with commitment well

This lesson was really beneficial for me as it was the first time I worked with the character of Mimi, I am very excited as I wanted this part a lot and I am looking forward to seeing ho my character develops and how it contrasts with the other Mimi in the other cast. I have learnt a lot about my skills in character development and good techniques in devising, I feel I can use these in performance to keep in character and react or interact appropriately with others on stage. 

Friday 18th September (PAB Audition Evaluation/HE Research)

In my audition for West Side Story and Rent I was required to sing two songs, one from each musical. The options for West Side Story were Somewhere and A Boy Like That, and the options for Rent were Out Tonight and Light My Candle. I chose to sing Somewhere and Out Tonight because I feel this shows a variety in my vocal range and the most contrasting character. I feel the song Somewhere is very romantic and heartfelt, showing a vulnerable and feminine character whereas in Out Tonight the level of energy is very high with a lot more movement. I really tried to get into the character of Mimi as much as I could to sing Out Tonight as this is the character I wanted to play the most. I was confident and used the space well, trying to worry less about my actual signing and more about being Mimi instead of myself.
One aspect of my audition that I thought was successful was my energy, this is important in an audition because I want to make a lasting impression and this shows that I will have lots of energy in the final performance and throughout rehearsals which is professional. This linked well with my characterisation, I had to have a lot of energy to bring the character of Mimi to life, especially in this song. This is because the song is about her life and how she wants to be treated, the lyrics describe her lust which contrasts with her surroundings of being in the club where she dances for money. I moved around the space using appropriate hand gestures towards a specific point in the audience to make it easier to focus on my character.
In my audition I feel I could have been a lot more professional, when asked questions in a short interview after I sang I was still thinking too much about my singing rather than what I wanted to put across. I did not answer the questions about the character I wanted to play in the way that I had prepared to, i feel this let me down and I will try to prepare an answer next time instead of being confident in mt knowledge of the musicals. I was also worried throughout that I was going to be asked questions about West Side Story, luckily I only had to opportunity to discuss Rent, I feel this is because I made it clear that I wanted a part in this more than West Side Story. I definitely prefer Rent and only really read into this, which is very unprofessional as if I was asked about the other option I wouldn't have much to say and even if my performance was good This could really have effected my casting.
This audition has given me the experience I need to be successful in future auditions for shows and drama schools. I have learnt that it is very important to be confident no matter what, because even if your talent isn't as good as others, being confident shows potential. This also applies to your energy level, having as much energy as you can shows how far you can go, as it is easier to have a low level of energy, showing whats harder proves that you do that and anything below it. I now know that being prepared is extremely important, the interview plays a big part in auditions especially for drama schools and research is key. This also helps with job interviews and being able to conduct yourself professionally in the industry.