Double - Children's Theatre (FMF) - Blog 13 - 27/11/15

This lesson, we performed a full run through. We decided this to see which scenes we needed to work on and which need to be changed.

When performing the, "Three Farmers," scene, we decided that it wad very short and didn't introduce Boggis, Bunce and Bean in the comical and slapstick fashion that we wanted. When introducing the farmers, we wanted the audience to laugh and have them understand the relationships between them and their characteristics. We then added a small mime sequence at the beginning of the original, "Three Farmers," scene; it went like this:

• Bunce runs in with a chicken drumstick. He checks around for Boggis and starts devouring it.
• Boggis walks in, gasps, rolls up sleeves, walks towards Bunce.
• Boggis taps Bunce on the shoulder, they argue over the chicken, Boggis holds it above Bunce's head.
• Bean walks in looking disgusted at their childishness, he takes the chicken and the three farmers stand ready to start the predetermined scene.

When performing, "We'll Never Let Him Go," halfway through we were very stuck on remembering our lines and stage directions. Also, when trying to work out how to perform our the chase between Bean and Bunce, it was very difficult and we decided it wasn't worth doing. Instead we felt, it would be better and simpler to just skip to the next part of the scene. As we had cut a very active and loud part of the scene, we had to make sure that the remainder of our movement is high in energy and that we fully express our characters emotions and feelings.

After our run through, we received notes from Miss McSherry on how to improve our performance; we received individual notes and group notes. As a whole, our group needs to dedicate a lot of time towards lines and providing a lot more energy! At times we forget how little our audience is so we must always keep our audience in mind when performing. When performing, "The Race," our facial expressions were very good! When we performed the chase during, "We'll Never Let Him Go," it wasn't choreographed very well and this would need work; this doesn't matter now as we have removed it. Finally, our creeping scenes during the raids were very impressive and hilarious.

For my individual notes, I maintained focus throughout the entire run through but I need to vary my voice when talking as Bean; it seemed rather monotone so I would need to very my tone and pitch. Also, my lines seemed very rushed so I'd have to slow them down in order to still fully articulate.