Dry Run

Today we got to run the entire play in the  new theatre with all our props! (minus the set and lighting). We had a lot of ups and downs; more successes than failures but it wasn't perfect. It was a very fruitful experience to run through our whole show in the space it will actually be performed in. The most surprising thing for me was navigating the new dimension. For instance on the marked out platform there was way less space than I had originally thought. This meant I had to adjust to moving around Kai when he was at his desk or when I needed to come over and talk to Lay. It was important for me to problem solve in the moment as stopping was not an option.

This was a great opportunity to figure out my entrances and exits for the whole show. Instead of just standing off at the side I could finally know exactly where I was coming on and off from. This changed a few things. During the street scene I now know that all the walking and running must be done on the diagonal as we didn't account for the 3 sided audience when we were choreographing the sequence. I either have to run towards A,B,C or D when running and go as far into the exit as possible. If we just walk in straight lines then we will be blocking the audience off from the action and the sequence will not be as effective.

Vocally the space absolutely sucks the sound away. This was really apparent as after the run was over my voice felt a little fatigued. I need to make sure I sustain a well projected voice throughout the whole performance otherwise not only will the audience not be able to hear me but if I'm not constantly hitting them with strong vocal energy they will switch off. Everything about the play is super high energy, from the music to the physical sequences. I must make sure my voice matches this on every single level. I must also be careful of damaging my voice however. I got a note in a previous session about how I was slamming my vocal cords. I was unaware that I was doing this and know that this can be very bad for my overall vocal health. I need to unsure I take part in my own intensive vocal warm up before every single session to avoid this happening again.

As a whole the show felt really strong in the space. We played to three sides very well opening up the performance for every imaginary audience member and not closing ourselves off. We had a lot of zip and pace to most of the scenes meaning our run time was not as high as we thought. I believe this was down to us really driving all the way through the play. In nearly all of the sections people were taking command of the action and hammering it home. It's so important that this far into the process we are now starting to all be in charge of the show and taking equal responsibility to how it runs.

In conclusion this was a good session and we discovered a lot about what real performance conditions will be like. Although we still need to work on discipline as there was a lot of talking going on back stage which obviously cannot happen in the real production. I think it's a case of just really tapping into what's going on around us and focusing on being in the world of the play.