10th February

In this lesson we started off with a warm up. This started with a walking in neutral and then adding layers on top which involved a stretch, drop and running to the wall. We then added another layer by doing it in one of our characters from the play. I chose to do mine as the goat. We then did the whole thing in slow motion. This was helpful because it really made us think about our characters movements to every detail which can then be transferred to when we run scenes. We then went back to normal speed movement but added in greetings and rejections. This made me think more about character interactions. For example the goat would greet Lisa because of the 'friendship' he wants with her, but may be dismissive of Jane because she is taking the place of Lisa in the 'BAU'. The warm up exercise helped me in thinking about how he would do this. We then delivered one line from our character to a member of the other cast as if it were confidential. This was useful as the goat because I picture him as a sly and manipulative character and so it may be that some of his lines are delivered in this way to Lisa, an example of a line that could be effective like this is 'just be quiet and you might just enjoy yourself!' because of the slightly creepy feeling of the line. This warm up could help me with my character development because of the way you can change the way a line is delivered to give in more emotion just perhaps by saying it as if it is a secret.


We then looked into the staging of how the play is set. We set up staging block around the outside of the stage at different heights as though there were castle turrets. In the first act they could be used for characters to stand on or sit on. Me and Luke had the idea of the Goat being tethered in the high up corner turret, but being there a bit earlier than his first line but in the darkness so it is not obvious he is there. Kim also mentioned the idea of the blackboard paint and how boards would be all around the turrets and these will be drawn on to show what something is, for example the hot dog stand, and can also be used to write specific lines on that can then stick with the audience through out the first act. During the second act, these will the be moved to the rig, which will be away at this point, and they will be Lisa's therapy boards in her hospital room.


Me and Luke then went into the classroom and ran our lines for the Goat. The warm up was really helpful with the movement aspect of this. Having Luke playing the Goat as well is good to compare ideas with and if he does something I think works really well it means I can take the idea and work it into my performance.