Lewis & Clark Moodle

HOO-HA! I am super proud of the first run that we did! All of our hard work paid off! During the scene, I felt that Dara and I were super connected, focused, and all of that other good stuff! Also, Dara's monologue was killer, and I'm super proud of her! Boy oh boy though, it was super difficult to re-run the part where I explode over and over again. xD

Thanks to advice from Rebecca, we now know that the part we need to work going forward is the last 5th of the scene, where I notice blood on Dara's arm to the end. Apparently, we lost some of the juicy specificity we had in the rest of the scene, so when we have a chance, we'll examine that scene and see what we can do. 

We haven't been able to meet up since the break ended however. We both had stomach problems last night, probably thanks to the bon food. However, we are not disparaged! Rehearsals will resume soon enough!

- Simon

This week we met up for an hour to continue working on the notes we were given. We finally feel comfortable adding a couch to the blocking, per Rebecca's suggestion, and it definitely opened up our scene. The blocking feels much more natural now. It was a bit rough coming back from break, but we feel pretty good about what we ended up with. Emma worked on raising her status within the scene, and I worked on building up my anger. We're eager to get new notes on whether or not those were well=implemented. We've found all of our props and costumes for the show, which helped bring a sense of reality into the performance. I even brought an engagement-style ring from home that Emma will wear (see attached). After running the scene a few times, we feel ready for new notes, so we're excited to perform it for everyone tomorrow!

HI GUYS! So we've been busy little bees, and working in all the notes you guys gave us as well as woking on more details about the set and props. After being on break, we felt kinda disconnected from our characters, and it took a lot more energy and time to bounce back into something we deemed acceptable for a while. Though, during that time, we thought it best to rework some blocking-and we reworked a lot of it. We really wanted to focused on not being so close to each other, especially when we yell, in order to make the situation more dynamic and realistic. Also, we realized that we didn't have specific intentions behind all of our lines, and that we were saying them just because they were in the script, so we stopped and figured that all out. We spent a lot of time working on how to portray the grief our characters both feel regarding the death of our father, and how to carry that out throughout the entire scene. All in all, it's been a little more rough of a rehearsal week than we would like or had anticipated, but we're still making progress and doing our best. We have confidence that it will all work out, and that we can get everything to where we want it to be for our showing on Friday. Hope everyone else is having a good week of rehearsals!!

Hey ya'll so Simon and I have been doing a lot of rehearsing this last week. Our first rehearsal we did last week Thursday. We met up for an hour an a half in the Platt-Howard main lounge and just ran lines over and over again. At this point, neither Simon or I were completely memorized so we used the time to become more familiar with the lines together and talk about what sort of props we needed to have and who was going to get/bring what. Here's a picture of us from that day:

Then we met up on Sunday for an hour in my common room in Howard to make sure the other person had their lines memorized. We both did pretty good! I also practiced giving Simon a black eye for the scene. I really wanted him to look a little beat up but I wasn't sure how we were going to do it because I don't have a lot of makeup. I ended up using lipstick and it looks pretty good! I also made the bandage for my arm and the fake blood came out fine with a little lipstick and some red sharpie. =P Here's a picture of the makeup on Simon:

We met up on Monday and rehearsed in the black box for an hour and a half. This rehearsal felt really good because it was the first time we had all of our props and we were finally able to test out some blocking. We were able to work through the logistics of the scene and felt like we were getting closer to where we wanted to be.

We also met up Tuesday night (from 11pm till midnight) because it was the only time the black box was avaliable and we wanted to get in another practice with props, set and costumes. I think this is the best rehearsal we had because we had previously worked with props and we had been working on lines for awhile. In one of the runs where Simon and I were fighting back and forth it got so intense and I became so grounded in the scene that when he yelled at me I completely blanked on my line. I was so surprised and impressed while Simon and I were doing the scene that I got lost in it. Whoops. Hopefully that won't happen when we preform it for real. Hope everyone else's rehearsals are going well!

Last week we prepared for the first showing last wednesday, so we wanted to make sure we had a complete scene for you guys. This led to us focusing on the broad beats of the scene. One of the notes we received from R-bex was that we had manifested these broad beats, but the smaller ones weren't there. So this week we tried to focus on the little beats and how to not get stuck. Switching the blocking from behind the bar to the front of the bar was weird. It still feels less natural but were figuring it out and it's definitely a better choice for the scene. We ended up just focusing on the first third of the scene and didn't get to the other stuff because we would just lose track of time and spend it all on the first two-three pages. Another thing we discussed was adding to our set. We're going to make a sign for the "Sandbar" and probably add some furniture to contextualize the room. 

Another thing we talked about was inspiration/things we've seen in movies and stuff that remind us of the vibe of the scene. We watched and talked about the first scene in the Social Network, where Jesse Eisenberg is a total smart-ass piece of crap boyfriend, and Rooney Mara is his well-intentioned, open-hearted girlfriend. 

Trevor:

Jess and I haven't gotten a chance to rehearse since our showing on Friday, so I have been reflecting a lot about our showing and feedback we got. Up until our showing, I thought that the first part of our scene would be much more well received than the last 2 thirds given that the time spent on just that part had been so much more than the other parts. But apparently it was quite the opposite. The first part seemed less specific and thought out than the later parts, and I'm guessing that is due to the work on that part being left out of context of the rest of the scene - it's much easier to start at the beginning and stop part way through than to pick up in the middle of the scene and do just the end, so you work on the beginning first, but you don't have nearly the detail about the end that you will later, so it is necessary to revisit (and probably change lots about) the first part now that we have made decisions and constructed the end. Goals next are to specify and make sense of the first part in the context of the whole scene. happy Thanksgiving, stay safe. <3 T

Jess:

I think Trevor and I were both pretty excited with how our first presentation of the scene went. The stakes felt a lot higher than in rehearsal, so I felt myself needing to restrain myself just as Kayleen does. I was feeling a lot and showing slightly less. You guys told us afterwards that the scene felt really intense, so I was really glad that those emotions were coming through in a good way. It was helpful to have an audience because we learned from Rebecca’s notes that we need to extend the connection we have with each other out into the space. I am not really sure how to proceed with that. It seems like there’s a tricky balance in between ignoring the audience and being too affected by the feeling of being looked at (whether that manifests itself as nerves or starting to be too performative). Another big note that Rebecca gave me specifically was to work on my breath. I need to put my breath into my words rather than sighing before I speak. Hopefully taking that note will also help project my emotions into the audience more.

After are preview on Friday, Kela and I jotted down everything that you guys said you thought was powerful, where there were laughs, what we needed to improve on and where/how we could build on to what we already have. So here are some obstacles that we have been working with as well as how we are trying to work on how to fix/make more appealing to the eye... 

1.)Pacing: During our preview, I think because of jitters, we went a little fast through our scene. Rebecca gave us the note that we weren't really in it and we agree. Once we took her note about just taking our time and really listening to each other, it made a HUGE difference. Not only were we more in tuned with our characters but we felt more grounded and had better kinesthetic response. 

2.)Space: There are times in the scene when the characters Catherine and Claire get in an intense argument and when this happens Kela and I always have a tendency to move closer to each other so that we are yelling at each other right in the face. However, on a stage, this inhibits us from moving too much and opening up to the audience. We solved this problem by spreading out our set as well as picking one moment where we can be loud and close and then making all of the other moments when we raise our voices father apart. Therefore, adding more variety to our scene. Through this we also found that there shouldn't be too many moments when we are in each others faces because where can you go from there? Over the next few rehearsals one of our goals is to try and find a time when the scene builds and where is its highest point. 

3.)Beats: After our first preview, I think Kela and I both found new beats that we didn't know existed before which is very exciting. So for the next few rehearsals we also plan to dive deeper into why we think there is a beat there and maybe go over some inner monologues that the character might be having in that moment. 

4.)The underlying grief of our father: I think this idea will come a lot easier now that we are slowing down the pacing of our scene. However, how does this idea also come into context with every word that we say to one another? Together, we have talked about when the thought of our dad pops into our heads the most and when it the thought of our dad is substituted for other ideas. I think the idea of telling each other our inner monologues may be an interesting idea for us to work with. For example, when one of us wants to know what the other is thinking we can stop and ask each other or when one of us wants to say what our character is thinking, we can stop the scene there as well. 

Emma and I worked mostly on the notes you gave us. We ran through the scene a few times, with her focusing on playing higher status and me focusing on building up to anger as opposed to starting with it. I think that we both improved with the notes, but we'll have to keep rehearsing in order to make the scene even better. We also worked with the possibility of an additional couch on stage, and it definitely opened up the blocking. We will most likely incorporate it into the final scene. Now that we're offbook, the runthroughs are much smoother and we're both able to focus more on the specificity of moments/characters. We hope to work in the Black Box when we return from break because I think it'll help the scene feel more grounded in the space if we rehearse in it. We've been working in a small Copeland lounge (pictured below), and while it has been sufficient, I think working in the larger space would be good. Overall, the rehearsal process has been going well.

HeY ThErE AgaIN PALs iT'S YA GuRLs $-mon3y and J-$wiZZL3 coMIN At YA wiTH  oUr WeEK 2 VlOG.

ENJoy.

once again just click on the tiny film in the right hand corner to watch

HELLO FRIENDS,

Wow, this has been an incredibly busy week, especially with all the events on campus over the weekend. Nevertheless, we have managed to find time and rehearse our scene. 

We have vastly improved this week and it is really exciting to see our connection growing. I know that for me, personally, I have been able to let myself be more affected by the lines. The beats are also becoming more distinct allowing our characters to change throughout the scene. We still need to work on making our characters not absolutely hate each other but I believe we can do it. Positivity people. As Zeth mentioned in his blog post last week, we have also had difficulty getting the black box at times that work. Our rehearsal spaces have included the troom, a classroom in JR Howard, and Stamm. 

Until next time, happy rehearsing