Week 8- Y2 Wizard of Oz auditions

07/11/2022

It's the wizard of Oz audition day! I've been so anxious for this day because it's something I have been waiting for a while. I have known that we are going to be doing the wizard of Oz for some time now and ever since I found out I knew that I wanted to be Dorothy. Dorothy is the main role of the show and is in every single scene. I know that she is going to be a challenge to play for several reasons such as her accent, age, all the lines she has etc. This is even more why I want to play her. I really want to challenge myself so that I can  add new skills to my list. What I did to get ready for this audition was read the whole script. This allowed me to know everything that's going to happen throughout the show and Dorothy's character development. I then went on YouTube and did some research on her accent. I am terrible at an american accent, so I thought that this was the most difficult thing to try and concur. After looking at a few clips of Dorothy and some people doing a Kansas accent, I began getting the hang of it. For now I think that it's pretty good, and it's something I can work on whilst rehearsing as Dorothy if I get her. I learnt the lines then I got it up on its feet. I started mapping it out. I knew that the first paragraph is when she wakes up from the dream, so I knew that she was in her room. I knew that she was talking to her auntie, Toto and her close friends (Scarecrow, Tin-man and the Lion). Dorothy is frustrated because no one believes her, but by the end of the paragraph she also shows that shes happy to be back home. This all drives her to say the things she does. In the second paragraph, Dorothy is off on her way to find the yellow brick road. She is with Toto and she suddenly finds the Scarecrow. So this really all describes where she is and who shes talking to. I know that Dorothy is very curious, and doesn't really get surprised by any odd talking things e.g. the Scarecrow, shes more fascinated by him. Now that I know how she is driven I put all the emotions and other things that I ruled out together. This all helped to create a lively and fun scene!

When it came to audition day I was incredibly nervous the whole day. I always am when it comes to auditions. They make me fill sick to the stomach. At any chance I was given I'd rehears. I was so scared that I would forget a line, as in every audition I get so nervous that I jumble up a line. I also wanted to make sure that my accent was at least decent and that I had my characterisation on point. 

Now finally lets talk about how the audition went. I think that it turned out amazing! I didn't forget a single line I didn't stumble or stutter. It went smoothly. I made sure to keep the accent on the whole time and stay in character as Dorothy. I told my teachers that I was nervous and I said that I'm not sure how good my accent is. They said that they have been waiting for me for this role! so this made me incredibly happy. They also said that we can work on the accent later on. I did the first paragraph and they said that they loved it! they also said that the accent was good and that I don't have to do the second paragraph. Of course i went ahead and did it because I wanted to show them more. I personally really did like how it came out. One thing that I wish I had done to make it better was to really show who I was talking to. I felt as if I kept on looking around the room instead of talking to one person, but I know that that will change once there are actual real people to talk to.

08/11/2022

Today we have chemistry reads, we have all been given a section of the script to do. I was paired up with a Lion, scarecrow, Tinman and a Glinda. It was the scene where Glinda tells me that I could have always gone home with the silver shoes. I quickly learnt my lines so that I could focus on the stage directions and what was going on in the scene. After about 15 mins of going through it with my group we presented it in front of everyone. I'd say that me and my group did really well! We had to do it twice as there were two Glinda's in my group. We made sure to include the stage directions which I thought really helped to put our scene together. Every group did so well and every Dorothy made me panic because of how good they all are. We will just have to wait and see how it all turns out when we get the casts lists.  

09/11/2022

After doing some warm ups to calm ourselves down we got given the cast list! We all sat down and our teacher Kane read out who got what role. The first reveal was that it's going to be three casts. This is because there are so many of us, and this way more people get an opportunity. He read out a character and all three people who got it. It came to Dorothy. I swear he read them out so slowly it gave me so much anxiety. Millie T got read out first then Milly S and then finally the last person..... Me!!!!! I got Dorothy. I was extremely happy and proud that I finally have something big to work on and put all my effort into. When my teacher read out the two people who got Dorothy I thought that I was done for and that another person got it since they were brilliant. I knew from that moment on that all I'm going to be working on will be to perfect being Dorothy and to be able create a whole new world for the audience to watch. We began doing rehearsals straight away! We started with being Munchkins. I gave my Munchkin a name: Tallulah. A job: Sweet seller (Blue lollipops and Blue bon bons). and her age is 17. Another person in my cast list liked my idea so she asked if we could be twins so I agreed. My Munchkin name will be Tallulah and hers will be Talluh. We showed our teacher Kelly how we will appear when we first meet Dorothy. We made some to be the leaders and not be as scared and then the others to take their time to come out since they are more timid. I personally really like how the three things we add to our munchkins (Age, occupation & name), can really help to develop a character. 

10/11/2022

Today we talked about another project that we are going to be doing. It's mostly for the film and TV students but us as actors can also help out and put out input into it. The Film and TV course are going to be making short Christmas films. We got shown two films that were exceptional that were made a few years ago by past students. This was to help give us ideas of what we can do and to also help give us inspiration. I'm really excited for these films because they seem really fun to do. I personally would love to be in a comedic one since I haven't done something like that yet.