Shani Berenholz

During out last couple rehearsals everything seemed to click! Rebecca helped us to make all of our beats very clear. She told us that we seemed to know what we were supposed to do because we knew where the beats were supposed to be, but did not quite understand how to perform them. The way we worked on making the beats more clear was making sure we knew how our characters should feel and react during those specific beats. For example when Thea laughs because my last job was at a quaker school and I am now going to work in the Bronx, my character is supposed to act very offended and prove that I am capable of working there because I am a good teacher. Additionally, Callie is supposed to be acting a little judgmental because she does not believe that someone who came from such a nice school can handle a dangerous school in the Bronx. By playing up these reactions the beat is more clear because it shows the differences and tension between the two female characters. We also worked on little things like how I am supposed to feel when I first enter the apartment. I say "wow some apartment" and "it's huge!" which means that I am supposed to be amazed by how nice the apartment is. So therefore, I made the choice to walk into the apartment and while I am saying these lines I look around the apartment in shock and awe at how nice it is in order for these lines to have meaning. After our rehearsal with Rebecca we continued to work on the relationship with our characters by getting to understand how our characters should feel during certain moments. Specifically, we worked on keeping more eye contact towards the end of the scene so the sexual tension would build up between our characters so we could heighten up the tension to the scene with the eight ball where we realize that we might like each other more sexually than we intended.