Jack and James L teamed up to report in on Journey to X
You might think
spending all day for a week with the same people doing the same thing every day
might get tedious and boring and also make you get at each other’s throats.
Luckily this isn't true with the cast of Journey to X.
The February half term is usually that week off where members of Yew Tree get time to relax, but for those who choose to do Connections it’s a week of intense rehearsals, finding new things about the play and characters and getting it truly ready for performance.
It has been a tiring process, filled with countless runs of scenes, to fill them with personality and truth within the script, not to mention bringing the energy needed to power through the performance whilst still keeping it entertaining especially in scenes where not a lot may be happening on stage.
Discovery is the key word of this week. It can be major things about character, to looking at the different ways a line can be delivered. It’s making sure that rehearsed actions look spontaneous, its freedom to experiment. It’s fun.
But it’s also hard work. This isn’t simply running the play again and again until it is all perfectly etched into our minds, it’s about trying to find new things within each character, each scene and each line. This week isn’t just a way for us to make our performance enjoyable for the audience, but to keep it fresh and enjoyable for ourselves after several months of rehearsing there’s a good chance it becomes stale for the actors, thankfully this week helps us create something new for us to enjoy within each run we do.
We had full sessions on exploring character, working out how they stand and walk. Devoted time to looking at back-story, the relationships between the characters, history that isn’t shown in the play. Making the characters believable, that they have a life between the scenes that we see. Essentially, making them real for us and the audience.
So much happens to the play in connections week that when you look back, it’s...well, mental, how much has been done since we started work on Journey to X. And even more mental is how far it’s come in just one week.
The February half term is usually that week off where members of Yew Tree get time to relax, but for those who choose to do Connections it’s a week of intense rehearsals, finding new things about the play and characters and getting it truly ready for performance.
It has been a tiring process, filled with countless runs of scenes, to fill them with personality and truth within the script, not to mention bringing the energy needed to power through the performance whilst still keeping it entertaining especially in scenes where not a lot may be happening on stage.
Discovery is the key word of this week. It can be major things about character, to looking at the different ways a line can be delivered. It’s making sure that rehearsed actions look spontaneous, its freedom to experiment. It’s fun.
But it’s also hard work. This isn’t simply running the play again and again until it is all perfectly etched into our minds, it’s about trying to find new things within each character, each scene and each line. This week isn’t just a way for us to make our performance enjoyable for the audience, but to keep it fresh and enjoyable for ourselves after several months of rehearsing there’s a good chance it becomes stale for the actors, thankfully this week helps us create something new for us to enjoy within each run we do.
We had full sessions on exploring character, working out how they stand and walk. Devoted time to looking at back-story, the relationships between the characters, history that isn’t shown in the play. Making the characters believable, that they have a life between the scenes that we see. Essentially, making them real for us and the audience.
So much happens to the play in connections week that when you look back, it’s...well, mental, how much has been done since we started work on Journey to X. And even more mental is how far it’s come in just one week.
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