Today was not a good day for me in general.
We began the lesson by stretching. After stretching, Ben showed us a mockup of what he had made for an alternative for the blood packs. In a plastic bag, he had an orange sponge drenched in fake blood; he said that the blood would be in a bucket where there would be sponges swimming in them and we would get them out to squeeze onto one another. I think this would look a lot more effective as there would be a lot of blood being held inside of the sponge and also they would be a lot easier for us all to use.
After looking at the sponges, we started doing some vocal warm ups. Izzy led one of the exercises with the toffee in the mouth to exercise your tongue and jaw. Ben led an exercise where we would wave to someone in the distance and call out 'HELL-OOOOOO', speaking the 'HELL' and normal and then dropping the 'OOOOOO' down a tone and then beginning the 'HELL' next time with the lower tone and so on... When we got to the lowest tone in which our voice still felt comfortable with, we would squeeze out palms together and shake them while using the lowest tone to say 'EEEEEEE'. We then repeated it squatting down. I enjoyed this exercise as it taught me which tones felt more comfortable to me and which one was my natural resonant sound.
After some more exercises, like tongue twisters, we did a song all together that was led by Ben. The song was a call and response song where we stomped, clapped and tapped out thighs to create a rhythm. The parts of the songs I remember were 'Vi!' 'Vi Fi!' 'Vi Fi Fo!'. We repeated it in a faster way and in a more 'Hacca-type' way. This was such a crazy song that got me in the mood to create a play while also putting me in a good mood.
We then switched rooms and, using our warmed up voice, walked around the room speaking our lines. As there was a loud environment, I wasn't scared to experiment with my voice and ways to use it.
Next, we did the first Hacca all together, using a YouTube clip of a Rugby Hacca was inspiration. We all did the Hacca the best we've ever done it! We were going crazy! I feel as if, by warming up in the morning and singing the song, it put us all in more of a mood where we were't scared to experiment.
Running Scenes
Ben said that he was going to be very picky with these scenes to perfect them however when Kate got two words in and he stopped her, it scared me what he was going to say to me when I still didn't know those two lines fluently.
When it got onto my bit, I planned to go forward to Kit's face and grab it when I was saying some of my lines; because I was going to make a bold decision, which I didn't know when was going to do it, my feet started moving a lot. Ben came over and held my ankles in place so there was no point at which I could grab her face as I was too far away from her. He then came over to me and started trying to teach me my lines, which I was grateful for but, for some reason I began getting more and more upset with these constant notes from the last few days. He then opened up the conversation to the class and Shanay came up to me saying 'Don't worry about it', which just made me cry and I just ran out of the classroom. As someone who doesn't like to cry in public, this was a big moment for me however Gemma, Yasmin and Nicole came to the toilet and made me understand what I need to do to improve, ensuring me that it wasn't because I was awful at Shakespeare.
After break, we ran scenes people felt they needed more work on. Watching them practice the rape scene really interested me as the moves look really realistic. Although I am just sat at the back in that scene, I feel as if the audience will really enjoy watching that scene as their moves are now are refined and perfected.
I felt really awful that lesson because I think I kept saying 'no' too much. When we were practicing the Nurse scene, Ben suggested that I screamed, as he was scrapping the pig squeals, which I agree would have looked really good however I do not enjoy screaming therefore I just said no. Everyone was trying to get me to screams I felt really awkward therefore I wasn't comfortable to scream. Ben then decided to change it to me deep inhaling and the ensemble scream. I much prefer this decision although I feel bad for saying no too much.
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