Drama Day number 1 - 1st read through, details and line learning

I'd like to start this post with a massive thank you to all who came today and played with such commitment and involvement.  We made a great start to the development of this production and by the end of the day had got quite a distance into our shared journey to the performance on the 21st May (and beyond).

What a lovely day we had, a great turn out and lots of skills and talents offered by the group.  Most of the group didn't know each other before today, and it was heartening to see the enthusiasm with which people worked together in an open and generous spirited way.  Because of the sunshine we were able to work much of the time outside, in the lovely gardens of the Hayes, which made it all the more enjoyable.

We started with a round circle general introductions, in which everyone got a chance to say who they are, what they do, and what they can offer to the group.  A good few people can make all 6 Sundays, which is a relief as we are on a tight schedule.  Another plus point is that we have between us more than enough skills to make this play a great success.  Some people had to choose between which of their many skills to offer, due to being unable to be in two places at once.

Once we'd done initial introductions we went into the drama room for a warm up session.  Some random walking around the room and speaking in different voices, introducing themselves to each other in different ways that got more creative and quite amusing.  It is important to challenge the "embarrassment" factor in drama, and break down inhibitions around being seen to be silly.  Being deliberately silly in a group of friendly also silly people seems to be the best way to do this.  Once we start the more academic stuff of role and script interpretation and character development, we have already faced the embarrassment factor, and rather enjoyed it.  This also releases some of the energy in the group, as it is important in performance to be able to draw on all of your energy in a positive way, so that the final show is truly as entertaining as it can be.

The first read through was lively as people seemed to enjoy their parts, putting feeling and drama into the reading, despite the fact that many didn't have a clue as to what was going on some of the time.  Nettle Roots has a meandering, twisting and many layered plot that took some getting our heads round.  It was also an opportunity for the cast to comment on some parts of the script that could be tweaked to make details clearer,  and in one or two cases changed altogether.  In places the conversation got extremely animated: we asked for people to be honest and they were!  

Beti stayed with us all the way through, which is a good sign, as she did say she wouldn't hang around if it got too painful (as someone who has written plays I can identify with this sentiment), and the group came to some broad agreements about details that could be modified, whilst being very appreciative of the fantastic and lively storylines and characters that Beti has written into the play.

Despite the fact that I hadn't thought we would cast the play today, we did mostly cast it, as the group that turned up seemed to fit many of the parts very naturally.  Many of the group haven't acted before, and were quite nervous, but still managed to be skilful and creative in their characterisations.  Most have given firm promises to stay with their parts, with just one unsure (but we hope will stay with us) and three more actors coming for the first time next week.




After the reading we had some lunch and got to sit in the sunshine and relax, however I was very pleased that even then the animated conversations about characters, motivations and plot development carried on, with people taking an energetic interest in the development of the play.

This still continued into the "pairing off" session.  With so many levels of relationships between the characters, I wanted to start off as simply as possible, so we focussed on pairs of characters.  This was very useful as people could go quite deeply into who their character is, and how they might interact with just one other character.

 The theory is that when we start to work on scenes with larger groupings, the relationships that we have studied in depth today will have more conviction and meaning, and clarity for the audience - as well as the actors.

The end "showing" part of the day took place back in the drama room, with chairs put out in the position of that they will be in on the 21st.  The actors thus took on the role of audience, taking turns to enrol into character and perform their dialogues to the rest of the group.

This is important on many levels.  Firstly, the actors get to see the play from the audience viewpoint - very important, and give comments and suggestions to each other.  Secondly, performing in the room, set out as it will be on the night, will help the actors to become familiar and comfortable with the performance space.  Despite only having worked with the script for three hours, most of the time the performances were done without script or with small glances at the script.  This is also extremely important, as scripts in hand inhibit performance more than anything else, and whilst the actor may feel less nervous with the script in the short term, in the long term they will be more confident and spirited in performance if they are used to not having it.  This came out when characters ended up ad libbing, giving a great performance, that never would have happened with script in hand.

So, my final statement in this post is in the form of a plea - please please please, all those with definite parts, learn your lines, don't think you can't because you can.  Become familiar with them, get friends to hold the script and prompt you, even if to begin with they have to prompt every line.  You will be surprised how quickly you can learn lines, by forcing yourself to work without the script.  Another good thing to do is to read your part into a Dictaphone and play it to yourself whilst doing other things (even sleeping).  The less you use the script, the more you will enjoy your role, and the better your performance will be.