Second Rehearsal - Scenes 7 &11

In order to get through the most amount of work and devise efficiently we split the group. So I will focusing on the session that I was in and the ensemble scene we did. We primarily focused on Scene 7 & 11 or the "raider" scenes:

Scene 7
We bust through the main doors snarling and looking around the space in a block formation. I use my physicality by puffing out my chest, clenching my face and using facial expression to give my character a look of being a scary, fearsome raider however in order for this to look effective everyone must do this. We have to be really intune as an ensemble and react off of each others performance. We then have a hand sequence that sort of resembles the macarena while using our diaphragm to make a "HUH" sound. This is supposed to mirror a war chant and be very intimidating. We must connect our body and voice as we do this. When we are cued by the raider leader to move into this physical theatre movement sequence. You grab your partners wrist, pull into each other then counter-balance and pull away. We do repeat this sequence over and over again to create the illusion of the raiders exploring the space.

We then contract to centre stage where we lift the raider chief so he is now exploring the space. Cox is then brought on in a firemans lift and we gather around him and lift him as a group. Whilst we lift him we chant "HA HEY WHO" so we can all communicate at what point to release him. We must be very careful with this section as it is a very dangerous manoeuvre. We then put him safely on the floor and back off into a circle around the unconscious Cox. We embody animalistic features as we squat. It is the raider chief's job to stop us from attacking Cox. We want to keep this scene high energy and suspense filled. When Cox wakes up and starts his monologue we must make sure we keep reacting to everyone of his words. For example when he grabs Sammantha we all have to freak out and be scared as we are confused about the situation. On the cue line "I am the chief of the raiders and I say: fight." we form a triangle around the raider chief and we assume fighting stances. We have to keep up our potential energy like we are going to attack at any minute. When the chief is shot he is thrown back into our triangle and we must catch him. From analysing the way this move has gone in previous rehearsals we need to be further back and catch him at the height of his jump for it to go successfully. At the end of the scene we make a cross with our arms as we are crying over the dead body to protect ourselves from Cox.

Scene 11
We enter this scene continuing the raider hand gesture motif that we establish in the previous scene however we have slightly tweaked it to make a christian symbol with our hands; this is done to symbolize Cox's new control over the raiders. I am in charge of carrying Polegrave on a pole like he's on a spit roast stick. This scene is far more simple as my job is just to support Hector's weight on the carpet. On the cue line "Bad meat make them slaves" we turn the upside now and lift them up so they can deliver the lines "We're no slaves. Englishmen".  We then place them on the floor and drag them across the space and finally out of the main entrance.

Evaluation of rehearsal
This rehearsal was very successful as we managed to devise two scenes and also run previous work in under a 3 hour time period. When people were not needed to participate in scenes instead of messing about they took themselves to the side and made notes about what we were creating or they would be running lines. This is really helpful to the process as I could now ask for feedback or additional notes for my own after the rehearsal had finished. However a problem we ran into was focus and unnecessary talking. During some moments within the session as a company if we weren't immediately being directed we would lose focus. We need to cut this out early on or it could develop into a serious problem. We also need to work on staying in the moment and reacting off everything we are giving. We must do this because we can not control whether an audience member is watching us or not and it will kill the piece. Finally I have discovered the importance of taking notes; It is very easy to forget the simple nuances of a piece of blocking. I must make sure that I am recording the things we are devising a very session so I don't forget what I am doing.