Week 28- Y2- Workshop with David Kirkbride

 02/05/23

This week we are going to be having a two day workshop with David Kirkbride. He used to be a student here at Stockton riverside college, doing the same course as I am now. He's now out in the acting industry and he's come in today to talk all about it. The first thing we did was just talk and ask questions about what he does and things that we would like to genuinely know about acting. I found a few things out which is great to know! One thing he said was, "you will never get the part you want". Which was honestly not great to hear. He said a lot of harsh things about the industry. I already know that the acting industry is super hard to get into and will not be easy. However more and more things keep getting added to that list. Just means that I've got to put a lot of hard work in. We then did a game where we had to pass each other, but we could only say the word 'sorry'. It was fun to see how different everyone did it, even tho we all could only say one word. The more different it is, the more people want to see what happens next. And that's how acting is. People don't want to constantly see the same thing. When they go to a theatre they are there to get out of the real world and see something new. David was saying that every time we rehearse something we should do it differently each time so that we can keep it fresh and so that it doesn't get boring. We then went onto animal studies. I think that it was something everyone was a little eh about. I know that when I go to uni/ drama school animal studies is something I'm gonna have to be doing for a good few months. I didn't mind doing it today! it just threw me off of drama school when I found that out. We had to walk around the room, David would shout a number out and the closer it gets too 10 the more we have to become that animal. I choose to become a sloth. So I had to walk very slowly. I also lead with my hands because I know that they use them a lot to climb stuff and grab a hold of things. David said that when he plays a character he always thinks of an animal to add to them, and will use that animal when playing that character. He asked us to think about what animal our characters were playing in these two shows would be. Of course the seagull is a seagull, Amy I would say is a cat. They can be very sassy and independent, but they are also loving. 

It's also film premier day for counter-punch! We all got ready at college, as we didn't have enough time to go back home. The film turned out great and I'm so proud of everyone. 

03/05/23

Second day with David. We focused a lot on warm ups today. Which you'll see from this video:

We warmed our bodies up by doing a small workout. Except no one expected it so we were dead by the end of it. We then went on to warm up our voices. Personally I think that these warm ups are very important. It gets our bodies and vocal chords prepared. We looked deeply about becoming an ensemble today and working together. It's hard to explain what we did in words, but we did this thing where we all had to walk together as a group. It shouldn't look like there's a leader and we should all be flowing in the same direction. We started off by getting our breaths to match. It was cool seeing the other group doing it. We then began working on our scenes for the last resort. Me and the other Seagulls added a few more funny bits to the end, which we all love. We got to watch a few people do their scenes, and David redirected them. This went on to the fact that if we do it differently every time it's interesting every time. One thing he did change was how we fight each other. We did it where they fall down to the ground and tussle with their wings, but he wanted us to kind of get up in each other's face. He also said to not go down to our knees but to stay on our feet with our knees bent. This gives off more of a seagull appearance. I learnt a lot from David and it was a great opportunity having him come in and teach us all these things.

04/05/23

I'm happy that we get to finally work on little woman today! the people who are in the first scene all had to come in at 10:30 today. Kelly our teacher has added a lot more scenes in, which is great, as I love them! but it made it a little complicated. We got given another script, and for the whole morning we sorted them out. Cutting out the pieces that we don't need and writing down what parts go where. We got there at the end. Cast one got to go through the very beginning on scene one. This scene really shows the audience the difference between all the girls, so us as the actors are going to have to set and show the characterisation well so that the audience knows who's who from the very beginning. After lunch we worked on the dancing scenes again. Everyone's got the jist of it now. We tried it on with the big puffy under skirt to see how close we can get to each other. We then talked about production roles. I put my name down for costume as it's something I've not done before. Also the costume for little woman excites me. I didn't realise but quite a few of us are doing costumes, so we separated each other into groups. Some will be doing it for the last resort and others like me are doing it for little woman, I'm doing the girls costume and some will be doing the boys. Although I had one idea for the Seagulls costume. I'll link it here: bird socks. Now onto the little woman costume. Kelly has already found a dress that she wants all the sisters to wear: Victorian dress. There are a few colour options, so me and the girls put them in categories. We decided who would wear what colour. We choose colours based on the characters personality. 

Jo-  Dark blue

Meg- Pink

Amy- white

Beth- Light blue 

After we had that sorted we still had to see who could fit into what, as were not going top be buying everyone a dress each. Not in our budget. We decided who can share, depending on sizes and cast. All the Jo's can share the dark blue dress. All the Megs can share the pink dress. Two of the Amy's can share a white dress and two of the Beth's can share a light blue dress. This leaves us with 6 dresses that we need to buy, which adds up to £360. very pricey. Which is why there's a team which is planning on making a fundraiser. The Megs also need a fancier dress for the ball scene. We found one but we have to run it by Kelly first. We began thinking about shoes too. Were thinking about character shoes which are around £30 a pair. I know that some people already have their own pair. This is something that people would need to get on their own. Sienna has put in the group chat for everyone to send her their shoe size. From then we will see who can share and who is willing to buy a pair and not mind sharing. So far we are off to a good start.