Rehearsal - Video Annotation

Once we became off book, we started to use props, so, that we were used to them for the actual show. For example, I was given a staff to hold this would have to be in my hand constantly, but this wasn't necessarily a negative as it made me seem more powerful and dominant as it was quite a creepy looking object, it was used for the characters spells and magic. This video was a clip filmed roughly 6 weeks before the show went up, here is the clip and an annotation of it. The notes at the bottom are from both myself, pier and director feedback.

* "World" sounds like "werld" - I need to annunciate more clearly.
*  I need to slow down when speaking as I am connecting words together and that results in it not making any sense, so I need to be more pronounced.
* Remember all lines, I have either missed words or mixed them around at some points in the rehearsal.
* I need to use bigger actions and utilize the prop (staff).
* More evil! My laugh needs to be bigger and bolder.
* Be ruder to the spirit, the character is meant to get on your nerves.
* Be prepared for the audience to boo and hiss, so pause to make sure you give time to the audience to do so.
* Stop pacing and moving about the stage - relax and react to what is being said and done on stage.
* Get the audience involved and don't be scared to break the 4th wall.

Rehearsals - Blocking and Run through

We started our rehearsals straight away. Our first rehearsal was blocking the first act, we were allowed to have our scripts for the blocking but we were set a deadline to have learnt all the lines by and after that we would have to be off book for the next set of first act rehearsals. We had to use a smaller room around the back of the stage, which was hard because as soon as we practiced it on stage we had to adapt to our larger surroundings, all actions needed to be bigger and we had to give dominance on the stage.

As a few of the First Act rehearsals went by, we had  director and peer feedback, here is the feedback I was given from Jodie. She played the bad character in her years Pantomime play, so, she has had experience which is positive to have the feedback from. I have taken the feedback on board and had decided to look up some evil characters (which has been posted on to the blog). I looked up pantomime bad guys on Youtube also.

Act 2 was a weaker performance than the first and it was noticeable. It was clear we knew the first acts lines a lot better, as the majority of the cast were stumbling and forgetting lines. So our blocking became stiff. After this the director told us to go over our lines and also learn the cues, not only our own but most of them because that way we would be able to cover or rectify a sticky situation arises. Also knowing a scene change would help us to understand the plot as we are not just learning our lines we are following everyone else to. This helped us to understand the text and it gave the cast a clearer incite to the play we were performing.

Character Building

Who have I based my character on?...

I have chosen to base Abanaza on two different characters. The first being Maleficent, the reason I chose this character in particular is because of the way she catches the audience’s attention throughout the movie with her striking facial expressions and how she gestures to conjure up her magic which is what is needed for my magical character as she uses the ring to summon the spirit. Maleficent links to my character, Abanaza, as they are both the same gender and she must always stand out on stage, and keep the audience gripped by my presence. Also, she is a magical being which is a similarity to my caracter Abanaza as she is a magician, though a difference between the two characters is that Maleficent is against the king who is the bad guy whereas Abanaza is against Aladdin who is the good guy. This makes Maleficent a likable character as you can empathize with her situation. Because of this I have another character to take influence from when I play Abanaza.

I looked at another role to counteract the differences I had with Maleficent. This character is called Ursula the ‘baddie’ from the Disney movie, ‘The Little Mermaid’. I chose this character because of the personality and the outright evilness of her. These are  the sort of characteristics that I want to portray with my character. Also, Ursula is an animated character, she looks false and the audience knows she isn't real but believe in her existence in their imaginations. That is the illusion that I want to create with my audience of panto goers as panto land is not real either but like Ursula makes children believe in her existence in the real world I would like to achieve the same with Abanaza.

Another,  reason that I am basing my character
on Ursula is because of the similar themes between the two stories of Little Mermaid and Aladdin. Both Ursula and Abanaza plot to steal the leading lady/princess in their respective roles.

There are some physical differences between Ursula and Abanaza ie: Ursula is a huge sea creature half woman half octopus whereas Abanaza is an eastern human magician they have in common their greed. In both situations they get the princess through their cunning for a short time and in both the hero saves the day which is a classic Disney scenario which is why Disney have also made a movie from Aladdin.

Here are clips of both the films they were in, these are particular scenes that that helped develop my character...