Unit 2 Callahans office scene

 Working on Callahan's office scene was one of the more difficult scenes to work on over all the whole show because of the complexity and the sensitivity of the scene. As a woman myself, i wanted to do justice to the sensitive topic and not make it a comedy topic like i know a few other shows that i have seen have done. Also, because of the age rating of our show, 12A, we had to be careful on how we presented this heavy topic to an audience that could quite possibly be too young to understand. 

Starting blocking these scenes, we wanted to get the bare skeleton blocking down so we could work and build on that. we played with the chair in the centre of the stage and the proxemics and levels between Elle and Callahan. We started by having Callahan sitting down in the chair and then moving to standing to sort of make Elle lose the confidence she had gained from her previous win. However, when looking at it from an audience perspective there was not enough power emitting off of Callahan to show just how much higher he was on a power dynamic than Elle. So, we changed up the blocking with Callahan always being stood up and him transferring her down to the chair to really push on the power dynamic. I think in the final performance we executed this very well and you, as the audience, can clearly see who has the power and how Callahan is guiding and using physical power to control Elle. I think the proxmics worked very well and the concept of both the characters statuses in the scene had been established before this scene but the dynamics and power between the two of them were set in concrete in this scene.

Next we moved onto the proxemics between Elle and Callahan, we knew we wanted something in the previous scene, no matter how little, to sort of make the audience aware of the fact something was going to happen because, me and the actor who played Callahan, felt that we wanted to have this whole scene close together, even though we had the whole stage to work with, to amplify the different goals that both characters wanted to achieve. Elle, being close to Callahan to show the trust and admiration she has for him for letting her follow her dreams and Callahan being so close to Elle because he wants to make that move on her and get something physical out of it, which he believes he is entitled because of letting her join the internship. To do this we made sure we were only using the small section of the stage around the chair and stayed in that section to really amplify the feelings of closeness. From watching the final performance back, I think this went well. It wasnt the most effective way of conveying the relationship and feelings between the two characters but i believe this with the other factors ive discussed involved really made this relationship dynamic clear.

Next was the physicality in the dynamic, we decided we wanted to add that uncomfortableness of Callahan being so close and after a lengthy discussion on what we all thought was acceptable to do with our age rating, we came to the conclusion that we wanted to have Callahan going in for the kiss, instead of in the MTV version where he actually went in and kissed her. We decided this was a better option for a few reasons-

1. Both me and the actor who played Callahan weren't 100% comfortable with the idea of kissing

2. We weren't sure whether we would be showing the right thing to an audience of 12A

3. There were no other kisses in the show, so we were worried that it might be a bit on the nose to make this the only kiss, when there were many couples in the show that hadnt and wouldnt kiss. 

We also knew we wanted to try out stage combat. Luckily, we had James Barnett, who played the other casts Callahan, who has a qualification in stage combat and Cameron Thorne who also had experience with stage combat to help us figure out the scene. We knew we didnt want anything over the top, so decided on a slap but we wanted a bit more content in the scene so made it a lengthier chunk of the scene. Starting off, we practiced the slap and how far we needed to be from each other to make it look believable but also made sure that we were both safe. Thinking about the show days, we collectively decided we would need to be practicing this stage fight atleast once before every show and thats exactly what we did. We did the whole section of the scene atleast once before every show to make sure both of us were completely comfortable with this. I think this went okay in the show because whilst the whole scene set out the way we planned it, it wasnt the most believable and almost looked like we were trying to make it overly dramatised. So, in the future, that is something id like to work on, making stage combat look more believable.

The last thing me personally as an actor had to work on was the different feeling and emotions opposing to the other characters in the scene. In this scene, there was obviously the hurt and heartbreak when Callahan tries to make a move on Elle. But there was also the emotions i had to convey towards Vivienne, warner and eventually Emmett. For Warner, i wanted to show the denial and her trying to show that she didnt want to kiss Callahan whilst also show the embarrassed side of her when she realised that he wasnt going to believe that Callahan had kissed her instead of what he believed had actually happened. Finding the emotions that Elle was showing towards Vivienne was a bit harder for me to grasp because she was such a complex character, so to figure it out, I had a look at the development between Vivienne and Elle and realised this is the turning point of their characters when vivienne starts seeing Elle in a different light and vice versa. So i wanted to show the initial shock to Vivienne sticking up for Elle then the thankful look to knowing that she knew exaclty what had happened in the office. For emmett, i wanted to sort of have the emotions hidden but almost like Elle couldnt hold it back, this was a bit more difficult because i know a lot of the time my emotions are always written on my face so i tried to reign it a bit and have them jsut appearing on the surface. I also wanted it to seem like it was hard for her to say what had actually happened to her to Emmett because she didnt want his views on her to change and for him to see her the same way Warner did. I think i conveyed these emotions successfully and made the audience really feel for me as this was the most emotional scene i had to do in the whole show, and it tested me as an actor due to the many different characters with all the different relationships in such a small time.

Overall, I think this scene went really well and conveyed the message of how women are treated in the workplace and made the audience feel the uncomfortable energy we managed to explore. However, i think if i do work with stage combat again i would like to work on it a bit longer and break down every move. To counter this though, people in the audience who had never seen this show before had said they were "completely gripped by this scene and did not expect it at all". This song was one that the adjudicator, David Beech, had picked out for its simplicity in its story telling exellence. So i am overall very proud with the final outcome.

Unit 2 final performance and SMART target reflection

 For our final performance i think overall the performance as a whole went really well. There were a few things that i think could've been improved but there was overall a lot of strong things that happened throughout the whole show.

Act 1 Scene - Omigod you guys

This scene was a really nerve wracking one, not because it was hard to sing or difficult blocking, it was mainly because I had a lot of nerves about going on stage. However, I had noticed that my stage-fright wasn't nearly as bad as it has been for other performances so i feel like that was not a big deal. I also found ways to manage this stress so it wouldn't affect my performance on stage. For example, take a minute to take a breath and relax instead of working myself up over every small thing that could go wrong and also taking myself away from the big group of people backstage so i didnt get any more stress or nerves from the people around me. The actual scene went really well, however i did notice i did look a bit shaky when i first onto stage. However i have been told and know from experience that nerves are good and when i feel a little bit of nerves, i know it means that i care about the performance i am producing. My SMART target was to not feel so much nerves to the point where i feel sick and not want to go on stage, and reflecting back on my performance i have definetely acheived that.

Act 1 Scene- What you want 

Another one of my SMART targets was to improve my stamina, specifically in the dance sections i had to perform as Elle and my muscle memory in the choreography. A great example of a hard dance scene was What you want. This scene tested my dance memory and stamina due to its high paced sequences, different styles of dancing and the added on fact that i had to sing the whole way through it. Watching back my final performance, even though i knew the choreography, i can tell that there is a lot of hesitation in my movments, so in the future of the things i will be working on is nailing the choregraphy and having full trust in myself that i know exactly what i am doing. Another thing that is clear that i am struggling with is my arms movements in my costume, i think i couldve definetly danced more fluidly without the jacket as it limited my arm movements greatly. i am really proud of my stamina and muscle memoru in my tap section  because that is the one section that i really struggled to remember and dance because of the fast paced movements. Another stamina section was the movement dance near the end, at the beginning of rehearsals i really struggled to go into this section because of how different it was to the other sections in this song but i think watching this section back that not on did i remember this choreo well i also kept up with the other girls in the scene whilst also keeping my characterisation. One last point on the stamina target is something that i struggled with was after this dance scene, regaining my breath, i think it is clear to see that my singing at the end of this scene struggled because i wasnt able to catch my breath quick enough. To fix this for future shows, i will do more exersise during rehearsals with trying to sing afterwards to help understand how i can fix this.

My last SMART target was to improve characterisation in song. I was going to measure this target by looking at my characterisation in one of the first rehearsals and then in the final performance. I think one scene i struggled to keep my characterisation up was the scene in the classroom, i felt as if looking at the show i wasnt fully keeping the whole time and i was waiting for my lines instead of reacting to things as if i was being there for the first time, so next time i will make sure if i feel myself slipping out of character to remind exaclty what my character will be thinking in this scene and display that. A good example of when i feel like i had good characterisation is in the party scene, i believe that all my expressions and body language was true to the character and as if i was hearing all these things for the first time, i also think my acting bouncing off of other people in this scene was really good because i had the right reaction and expressions for how Elle would be thinking in this scene. i liked how i acted in the song with Warner, adding the comedy but also the loving actions towards warner, with the childish actions that Elle was still exibiting at this point in the show. Another example of this was in So much better, i think i really harness the sheer determination that Elle was feeling and made the audience feel this as well. A special mention that i really enjoyed, although it was a small section, was my time acting dumb after seeing warner, the audience really enojyed this section and i feel like i captured the comedy in this scene then quickly moving into the determination that she had realised she needed. 

overall, i think i did really well in my character, even though there are some things i would improve for in the future, i enjoyed acting as this character because it was completely out of my comfort zone and i felt she was the complete opposite of my real life personality and i enjoyed managing to capture her as a character but adding my own twist on her. my emotional scenes were some of my favourite to act in because it gave me a chance to portray Elle as someone other than the ditzy blonde girl and it gave her some shape as a character and helped me to make her more relatable to not only just me but to the audience aswell. It was a pleasure to be able to work on and perform as Elle and hopefully i will be able to act as her again in the future.

After we had finished the show, the adjudication for the David Beech awards got recieved by us.

This is the comment that i recieved.

"This was another well-rehearsed, polished and confident performance, Millie.  We saw a young woman who just wanted one thing in her life – to be married to Warner and your excitement that this was about to happen was infectious.  Your heartbreak when he broke up with you was plain to see and we felt for you.  As time moved on we began to see you change from a rather gentle character to someone with a fierce determination to prove yourself, at first just to Warner, but then to yourself and others around you.  You interacted well with your fellow cast members and your relationship with Emmett was touching.  I particularly liked the scene on either side of the door.  You have a beautiful singing voice and were an absolute pleasure to watch."

Me and the actor who portrayed Emmet worked a lot on making our relationship development and actual relationship believable as we wanted the audience to feel like they were watching real people falling in love, instead of the fake relationships that can sometimes ruin the rest of the acting on stage. To do this, we both did a lot of independant rehearsals working on the little nuances and how we can react when the characters first meet and how they would react and look out for each other in the scenes following this. With us being friends outside of getting cast as Elle and Emmett we both found it incredibly easy to just take the friendship we have and add things that would project it as romantic to the audiences. Because of the amount of work we had both put into this to make it believable to the audience, I am really happy that this was one of the things the adjudicator specifically picked out.

My confidence on stage links to my SMART target 4. I set out to feel more confident in myself so i could present Elles overly confident personality to the audience so it felt authentic to her character. I did many rehearsals infront of the rest of the cast and crew so i already had a sense of what an audience was going to feel like. My main help with my confidence was breathing techniques, i would take myself away before the start of the performances and just do some breathing by myself so i knew i had calmed myself down as much as i possibly could to commit to the best performance. Im so glad that the adjudicator also commented on this because it was one of the main characteristics of Elle that i really wanted to nail. 

My SMART target 3 was my characterisation in character. Im really glad that the adjudicator pointed out that the audience felt for me during the scene when i was heartbroken because i had really gone through the script and marked where she would be feeling each of her different emotions at each time. So im happy my hard work and determination i put into this paid off.