Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 22 - 05/07/16

Today in single we blocked a physical theatre section where Winston leaves Room 101 and ends up back in the café. Below is the movement we planned:

• Winston starts on the chair with the box on his head, "Dig" - Mudvayne starts and O'Brien takes the box off his head and exits. The chorus, still in the surrounding formation from the interrogation take four lunged steps towards Winston, one per bar, as if we were to attack/grab Winston.
• On the fourth beat Lorna, James, Hope and I grab a leg from his chair and lift him up with Charlie supporting the back of the chair. We tilt the chair back and Lorna and Hope go to the back with Ollie and Kat and help them support Rob's body. James and I pull the chair out from beneath Rob and we slam it down in the position it needs to be for the next scene in the café. James and I stand behind the chair ready for the next section.
• Everyone else lifts up Rob and turns him around. They then place him in front of the chair and push him into it. Rhiannon fetches the table while they bring him to the chair and places it in front of him.
• James mimics breaking his neck and fetches his chair for book club.
• I smash his head on the table and fetch my chair for book club.
• Ollie M and Kat mimic breaking his fingers and fetch their chairs for book club.
• Charlie pulls the tablecloth over his face and suffocates him then lays it out across the table. He then fetches his chair for book club.
• Lorna almost smashes his head on the table but then pulls him up ready for the waitress scene; she then fetches her chair for book club.
• Hope walks on with a vase of flowers and by the time she places it on the table, everyone will be back in book club.

We then ran everything from the opening to the end and resolved any issues we had. We got up to the beginning of pg 22, the first scene featuring Charrington. The one issue we had, besides people not knowing their lines, was confusion at the end of the Prologue. When we walk off in our lines, we were originally weren't sure where to grab a chair from and where to go with it as the two lines weren't in order of how we sat in book club. After a quick bit of organisation, we sorted this out so that when we exit we all walk off to the side we sit in book club, we grab a chair then we sit in book club and wait until everyone is seated until we begin.

Next lesson, we will continue to run the play as much as we can.