Finished with the play, just as the Year 13 finish their IB Theatre course!

Monday 25th March

Today we were supposed to hand in our set designer research homework. Unfortunately, I was unable to hand mine in on time and had to ask for an extension for Wednesday. I felt ashamed that my inability to complete a task resulted in a general scolding for everyone else, as it was my fault, along with the others who didn't hand in their work. It's things like that bring teamwork and energy down in an ensemble, as when some people don' put as much effort into their work as the others, the whole thing is ruined. However it has taught me a valuable lesson in work ethics, as I plan never to disappoint the rest of the ensemble like that again. We spent the rest of the lesson discussing our play and blogs.

Tuesday 26th March

Now today really was a learning experience. We watched the Year 13's TPPP, which is basically a 30-minute presentation reflecting on the IB Theatre Drama course. Now, I say basically but it's so much more than that! It's a performance in which you have to showcase yourself to the IB examiners. It's the culmination of two years of hard theatre work. And it's also worth 25% of the mark. What I took away from their presentations, which were frankly amazing, was a set of good ideas to bear in mind when doing my own TPPP.

• Be confident, interesting and natural. Don't read it off a piece of paper and don't monotone.
• Everything MUST be linked with your experiences as a theatre student, and more importantly how they made you grow as a theatre student.
• Show your understanding of what you did wrong, don't just showcase your talents in theatre. IB examiners LOVE a student who can say "Well, I did that wrong, but here's what I would do now, looking back".
• TAKE NOTES OF EVERYTHING. No matter how tedious you find the task, you will need them. All of them.

I am terrified of the thought of doing my own TPPP but also eager to get it done. 

Wednesday 27th March

We started this lesson with a clowning activity. We had to each stand up in front of the class, put a clown nose on and obey Mr Fearnehough's instruction. I was very apprehensive of this as it looked a lot like an earlier activity in which we had to stand up and make people laugh. I utterly failed at that because i was blocking myself from being ludicrous, which is of course what you have to do. However, I was pleased to find that the clown nose, despite being quite small, was in fact a mask. i discovered I am a lot more comfortable acting in mask than out of it. 

That being said, I did have some problems, notably when Mr Fearnehough told me to make a sad face. I already thought my neutral face looked funereal, so pulling a convincing sad face was very hard, as in the end I thought I looked too ridiculous to be sad. I was also nervous and fidgety, so I moved from face to face very quickly, instead of using slow deliberate movements.

Thursday 28th March

Finally, four weeks behind schedule, after many trials and tribulations, "Love wins all" is done! We performed it in front of Mr Fearnehough, and after a few minor tweaks and and bit more audience interaction (of which there is never enough), it will be all ready and polished up.

Commedia has been a very interesting subject but I look forward to working on a different theatre style.