Rehearsal- 24th February

Having sent the actors away to work on their character breakdowns I thought it were wise that we met up for a rehearsal.
To enable the actors to apply their feelings to the script I made them walk around the space envisioning the character's world; their past, present and future. I wanted them to really become the character and for them to think about this it then made the character their own.
After this we then came back together and discussed individually their character breakdowns.

Hedda: Ellie decided that Hedda was a fairly jealous character as well as nosey. For this to work she had to really commit to the character as she was fairly reserved during rehearsal to open up about her past.

Mrs Elvstead: Chess on the other hand felt that the character of Mrs Elvstead was being bullied and she was not in control. Later Chess revealed that she had been bullied at a previous work place and felt victimised.

Eventually both of the actors came out of their shells and worked on characterisation along side the script.

After this I told the actors to re-do the exercise of answering each others line with the same line that had just been spoken. I believe it really helped the actors not only learn their lines but it made the conversation more natural as they really had to think about what they were answering and their response.

As the play is set in Oslo I did not want the actors to try a Norwegian accent so I set the scene in 1890's Britain. To get the typically British tone in their voice I asked them to read their lines through in a common accent. This was to balance the correct accent I did not want the girls to be melodramatic however I did not want them to speak their lines in their normal register.