Rehearsals 3 & 4 - Active Analysis
What went well:
Came back with stronger given circumstances, think this really helped for the active analysis. Constant reminder to my actors of what's going on around them - their daughter upstairs, the heat of the environment around them, the history of the affair and how Barbara found out, the layout of the house, Beverly being missing and so much more. It seemed to really inform the actors performance during active analysis and helped them to improvise when they weren't sure what to say.
They really enjoyed using active analysis and although they felt they weren't performing their best, they progressed in learning lines a lot quicker than I expected, and if not they at least understood the underpinning motivation for the lines they improvised.
What could be better:
Time. Actor forgot about rehearsal 3, meaning that we have now only had three rehearsals total so far and next week is show time. I trust my actors and they are confident they have time to rehearse together before our next rehearsals. I just want to give them enough time to be comfortable with the scene as a whole and to give them further notes.
The pressure of the active analysis sometimes got to the actors in terms of making an effort to remember the lines. We renewed the energy by doing mini warm-ups where we shook off the energy in between etudes. I also gave them reassurances and breaks where needed. They definitely did better than they felt that they were doing.
What to do moving forward?
Homework. They're learning their lines and I've also sent them information about their given circumstances and what more I would like them to consider in terms of their characters.
Utilising time as well as possible - we are going to schedule an online table reading once they've learned their lines just so I can give them any notes before rehearsing in the space.
Keep at the given circumstances! Just because it feels comfortable now doesn't mean that it is no longer needed.
















