The Plant – First Rehearsal Chunk

We had our first read through of the script and it was really nice to hear it out loud with the voices of the characters, giving the play a life instead of just reading it off a page. James was interested to hear the interpretation of the actors and how this contrasted with the voices he had heard in his head during writing.

We then went outside to Albert Square as it was a bonnie day and Jo worked closely with Alex and Jonny on characterisation. The boys worked on visualisation and physicality of their characters, their relationship to the space around them, and to each other.

Alex and Jonny also had time to do it on their own and study each other. They focussed on describing the other character before them, and then interacting to try and affect a change in them. We learnt about the potential dynamics between them, and differences in their energies and presences. Later on they discussed between them, and Jo, what they noticed about each other, the way they walked, where they lead from within their bodies and also how Leon and Keith see the world. This provided a strong basis to return to the script and complete some closer script work.

Following a second read through, we discussed who has control and higher status on the script at different points. Jo decided not to unit the play as she doesn’t want that to impact the play – she feels, and the cast agreed, that it needs to be a fluid and spontaneous bout of storytelling, and therefore the risk of dividing it into chunks might trap the actors into divided portions rather than one continuous narrative. She instead suggested going about it as control levels and status shifts between Keith and Leon. This will make it easier for Alex and Jonny to be aware of the power shifts and therefore hopefully easier to learn.