Alright – so line learning is proving very difficult. I’m finding it hard to have all my lines down pat. The issue is that line – knowledge is crucial to a good, smooth performance. It affects our focus, as if we know our lines well focus can be on character realization. It affects the pace of the performance as the better we know them, the quicker we’ll say them thus the play won’t get boring. We know that pace is crucial to this play and its humor; many of the little conversations have to be said very quickly, so as not to give other actor’s the chance to respond, and to display certain relationships. Also, if this play doesn’t maintain a quick pace, certain sections are very boring and once we lose audience attention – it’s hard to get it back. With the lack of movement in our play the lines and their pace are crucial in order to maintain audience-interest. There is also the obvious that if people don’t get fed the right cues, parts will get skipped, or it’ll be chucked out of order which is never good, and has proven to be disastrous (e.g – Macbeth, “GET OUT, GET OUT”) also, when we do forget a line, or miss a cue – it naturally flusters us and therefore we panic which can cause loss of character. For all these reasons and many more, it is vital that we read our lines EVERY NIGHT, make sure we know each one by the day – especially go over scenes and lines which we know we don’t do so well. When the line-issue is solved, this play will be spectacular, so let’s pull together, support one another and learn learn learn some friggin lines!
MWA – love u ready steady act!

So, today, we were happily rehearsing getting ready for our approaching performances when bad news struck like lightening on your noggin. Scotty revealed to us, that the UIA is using the Pac on the 21st of May for a concert at a time which will coincide with our performance; this concert will involve bands, music and numerous noisy interruptions which means audience members will not be able to hear actors’ voices (which is not ideal as the dialogue is crucial to the understanding of the plot). SO, we could either, stand our ground, refuse to budge and work on voice projection, conform to the desires of bureaucracy, or kindly request that as UIA booked the Pac after us they move their show to a later time. Our original decision was to stand our ground and despite being lacking in numbers against the large organization against us – insist on keeping our original arrangement. This, however hasn’t seemed to work and it seems as though the lil’ guy has lost again, and as any young, thriving theatre company would do, we may have to accept moving our show, as I like to say we’ll have to build a bridge and get over it.
The problems with the show being at 5 are firstly, we will have less time to get ready and will have to hurry to be ready to perform by 5 and that this time will prove difficult for audience members who work or have uni classes late to attend and therefore may result in losses in numbers. However, there is a positive side – being at 5 o’clock this will be a more appealing time to our Scopus friends as they will easily be able to stay after school and then come see us perform. Also, we’ll be able to get home earlier! (OR PARTY LONGER AND HARDER) We’ll find out tomorrow the final decision – but either way, let’s look on the bright side and focus on putting on a GREAT show! I know we have it in us, we just have to pull out all our efforts for the final stretch!

The count down has truly begun!
Promotions are going well, pat on the back to Kimmi for all that hard-work! After all, a good performance relies on having a decent audience present to view it! But we must make sure we don’t let Kimmi’s huge effort stray us from putting in our own hard-yards to promote this show 
Acting:
So, I started my process of learning lines like a week or two ago, and it was going along well and everything I have learnt, I feel fairly confident that I’ve learnt very well – I just need to work on recognizing my cues. However, I’ve started to find line-learning frustrating and feel like I’ve come to a bit of a stand-still in this process. I’m up to Monika’s drunk scene, in which she has quite a few large paragraphs and I’m finding it a bit hard to get my head around having all these paragraphs with not much brake between each – but I’m sure ill get there. I found that in rehearsal, while it is easier to act without a script in hand, we at times lose our characters very easily because a lot of focus is on remembering lines correctly, rather than on maintaining character. This has motivated me to put in more effort into perfecting my lines as soon as possible, so that by performance time it will no longer be a worry and I can put all my efforts toward being Monika on stage. I recommend this to all actors. I also found that I must remember that other actors depend on me knowing my lines and therefore it is also for them that I must perfect line-knowledge ASAP, so I started rehearsing in the shower :p. I’m still having trouble with my crying scene and making it believable, and feel I need some work and stricter direction in this scene…HELP! While I love acting drunk, it is demanding to maintain the seriousness of Monika’s words and realizations in her confrontation with Dympie, at the same time not losing too much of her intoxication and maintaining her original level of drunkenness. I hope the seriousness and depth of this scene is not lost in the comical aspect and vise versa. It has come to the crux of development process and I have now begun dreaming about theatre! READY STEADY ACT has consumed me! Hehe (o.k – I exaggerated a little at the end there)
Costumes:
I’m thrilled to hear (from Elise) that the costumes have helped people get into character. I find this to be true for myself and I hope everyone else too. It was really good to see all costumes on the actors and on stage. It really does help bring the characters to life and I’m so relieved and glad that I finally finalized the costumes and got it right! There are a few finishing touches, mainly from you guys – like yanivs pants, elise’s shoes, waiter outfits and I need to attach Paula’s hood. Also, I understand that some of the costumes aren’t in the cleanest condition as I purchased from oppe shops, but it is too difficult for me to wash everything – id prefer to go dirty, hehe, so if this is bothering anyone, or if after rehearsing in them (and maybe making them smelly yourselves) you’d like them washed, I am leaving that as your responsibility. Each person can wash their own costumes…just let me know if you are taking stuff so I don’t panic that things are missing. And, I know there are some “spilling” scenes in the play, in these scenes we are going to make the drinks water – Mel is going to try to get non-clear glasses – this will just make things easier as all we’ll need to do is dry the costumes, no need to wash them every night! Hope everyone is happy with their outfits and if anything needs to be added, let me know! Thanks dudes….
Pretty soon we will be backstage, truly able to say “READY…STEADY…ACT!” and then the play will take off with Gordon’s climactic line “waiter”! can’t wait!

Hi guys,
Well I must start off on a bit of a bad note and say I’m pretty disappointed I didn’t get any comments or replies to my last blog. In case you don’t remember or didn’t read it I asked for feedback, opinions, criticisms and compliments on any of the costumes so far so that I could take new opinions and visions into account when finalizing the costumes as I was having a bit of a creative blank. Unfortunately, I still received no feedback. Disappointing. But, on a good note I none the less have almost finalized all costumes. I went shopping on Friday and the following is a list of my purchases:
Dympie - a beige skirt. clip - on pearl earrings. cream glomesh handbag. (i also have a navy skirt option)
Gordon - lemon shirt. beige knit vest. tie. tie-clip. banker arm bands.
Stephen - navy suit jacket. grey king-gee style shorts. belt with feature buckle. knuckle-duster ring.
Monika - black cardigan. wedding ring (in case she’s still wearing it). clip on earrings. gold leather handbag. navy court shoes.
Paula - A NEW DRESS, it is an aqua metallic knit a-line dress, very easy to attach a hood with organza - it will look like part of the dress. cream glomesh handbag (diff. style to dympies) clip-on earring, lots of tacky bangles.
Hope to have time to show you all these new costumes on Monday, if not do your best to imagine them! Good news – no one will have to go on in their birthday suit! I would still like to see Kim and Scotts costumes because as of yet, you’ve both told me you can get your own and I need to know NOW if I need to get you anything, otherwise it’s going to get to too late notice. Hopefully this time I’ll get some feedback.
Thanx yall

Ok, so I know I haven’t made much progress on these in a while. And – I’ll be honest while I intended to do more shopping in the holidays – I simply didn’t find the time. I’ve changed Goofy’s style and know Mel’s skirt needs to change. Apart from that, gordon’s suit is pretty much set – I’m working on Monika’s top at the moment – it is going to have beaded flowers sewn into it. I must find Paula a hood but personally, I like the dress we have for her – I am, however willing to do more research. I’m also planning on looking into aprons for waiters. Right now, I think the most important thing for me is to have some feedback from you guys on what you think of the costumes so far, so then I can take some new visions and opinions into account when finalizing the costumes. I’m having a bit of a creative blank so PLEASE, help me out and give me some feedback, criticisms, compliments and new ideas because as of yet – I’ve heard nothing in regards to cossies. Mond – thankyou for showing me your waiter costume – its great. Scott and Kimmi, I’d appreciate if you guys could show me yours too, even a photo will do. Mel, I’ve seen your shoes and I like – Elise I think I recall you telling me you also have shoes so if I could see them that’d be great! Hoping I see replies to this blog asap – I need you ready steady act!
Thanks! Ciao

We have a blocked play!
The two rehersals during holidays were very beneficial! Despite the lack of attendance to the first rehersal, we got through a scene which needed further work and development – in which Monika was drunk and had an encounter with Gordon and a fight with Dympie. This scene is going well and Mel – you’re getting there with your outburst, still work on getting more angry and stern with variation in your voice and making the fight look as natural as possible – as if its happening on the spot – audience members need to feel uncomfortable and together, you and I need to work on creating this atmosphere.
Chanov, our little encounter is wonderful and I look forward to bumping in to you in many rehersals to come – remember how uncomfortable this situation is for you – while you stay and chat because you’re very polite – all you’re thinking about is getting away from this crazy, widowed, drunk woman!
Rehersal number two was great – we finished the blocking and finally had a full run through! Everyone is going really well and characters are beginning to really come alive! I, myself, learnt that while in my drunk scene – I must obviously be drunk and this can be quite comical, the dialogue in this section is very important. The realizations that Monika’s coming to are huge, and not only is she revealing them to the entire bistro – but to herself for the first time. She’s thinking as she’s talking and I have to portray that she’s realizing and remembering things as she says them, avoiding seeming like the lines are rehersed. I have some feedback id like to share on the progress of other ready steady act members!
Mel – great to see you took our advice and researched something for Dympie, BPD. I read your blog research and could easily relate a lot of the things to your character immediately – now that you have this research, the important thing is how you used it. You should be thinking about instances in which you can identify BPD in Dympie and use it to establish her motivations for things, for example her extreme moods and her attitude toward Paula, justify her actions with this research. I think this will really help develop Dympie (though she’s already awesome)
Elise – I said this to you today, but I guess there’s no harm in adding it to the blog. Yes, Paula is a whiny character and whinges to Dympie a lot. But, I think if you look at what she’s saying, there’s often sence in her words and you can take it on a different angle. I find the a great number of your lines are being said in “whinge” and many can be interpreted differently. Other than that, I think Paula’s coming along really well – your outburst to Dympie is great – I can almost feel the tension in the air, and I can genuinely see Paula getting hurt by Dympie which is awesome!
Goof – while I know you weren’t there in the holidays I still have a couple of things to comment on. I picked up on the fact that you’re not as similar to Stephen as we initially thought – and from what I’ve read on the blogs, others seem to agree. While on the outside, you may have the cocky, flirty attitude in common – I don’t think you have the deep complexities inside that Stephen has and it is important that these are portrayed in your character. I think a backround story and further research will really benefit you and im happy to help! Don’t get caught up in your similarities with Stephen and take for granted that you can be yourself on stage and just say his lines – the fact is you’re not in your mid-thirties and haven’t experienced some of the horrible things he has (I hope!) the accent is sounding much better and I have every faith in you that you can make this character work!
Kim – your publicity flyers look great and thanks for your input at rehersals! I’m glad you enjoyed it. I like the idea of you being a waiter and having a love affair with mond! Hehe
Scott – going strong – love your work! Thanks for the blog, its great to see some directors notes up there and hope they continue! I know we tended to interrupt you sometimes and put in our opinions on the way things should be done but the way you take what everyone says into account , try different things and make a final call is very commendable. You’re a great team player 
And Mondy, thanx for filling in as Stephen and you’re going strong as waiter!
Well, I hope everyone benefited from that and enjoyed reading it! I’ll be back….
Peace

Today we did another workshop with Scotty. We worked on breathing techniques, linked with voice usage. I found this very interesting and beneficial, as sometimes I find myself running out of breath on stage, not knowing where to take breaths in soliloquies. We learnt about the diaphragm muscle – the biggest muscle in your body that is right down the middle of you. I will now be more aware of my breathing throughout performances and know to breathe using my diaphragm; I also know not to clench my abdominal muscles when standing, which I usually always do. I feel these tips will help give me a more comfortable performance on stage and it’ll give me the option of focusing more on expression and performance. While it sounds easy, these tips and techniques are actually quite hard to follow, especially when I’ve been in a different habit for 17 years! But with some work I hope I can constructively use them to improve my performance 

Today we continued blocking the scene in which I’m drunk and highly inappropriate. It’s hard to act drunk with a comical aspect while maintaining the underlying emotions. It’s something I need to work on but feel I’m slowly but surely getting the hang of. Scotty.W mentioned something today that stuck out in my mind, in Mon Mon’s soliloquy’s there’s a strong sense of anger and frustration that need to come out. Mon is angry that she settled for an unhappy marriage and unhappy lifestyle, and now it’s almost too late to start over again, get married, settle down and have children. She’s angry that she wasn’t strong enough to get out of the relationship herself and now that its over, it may be too late and she is possibly now living with regret of settling for this lifestyle that she so hated. She’s angry that she wasn’t living for herself but rather for Martin, who she now realizes stole so many good years of her life. She doesn’t know how to deal with these emotions and therefore drinks away her sorrows, but through all this drunken madness she actually comes to many realizations that can’t be left “upstaged” by a drunken performance. She becomes confrontational and makes the firm decision that she is going to live for herself now. This night truly is an emotional rollercoaster and journey for Mon Mon, which I am privileged enough to have the challenging and exciting task of portraying. New aspects of Monika come alive to me every day and I finally feel like I’m strongly developing a character! Look out everyone here comes MON MON!

I officially hate this website! (although it is very good) but it deleted my detailed, long, lovely blog 5 times! So now im typing it on word so I can SAVE it and I’ll copy it onto a blog after, hopefully it’ll allow me to publish it this time! Forgive me if this blog isn’t amazing as it’s the 6th time I’m writing it and am beginning to feel quite frustrated!!
SO, here we go:
Today was an interesting and different day. Firstly, Scott.S spoke to us about acting, using expressive skills such as facial expressions, gait, voice and movement. He referred us to the textbook (page 12) for further information which I look forward to reading. We then did some workshops with Scotty before continuing to block. In our first activity, we began walking around as ourselves, then as 10 times heavier than usual, followed by ten times lighter. Our next activity was in reference to characters. We started off standing as ourselves with our eyes closed and had to envisage a tunnel with a figure in the distance slowly approaching us until we could finally make out who it was. We had to imagine the figure right in front of us, with no facial expression and we had to picture how they’d be standing and what they’d be wearing. We then had to step out of ourselves and become that person, we had to walk as them and portray them under certain circumstances, which Scotty outlined. We did this exercise with the characters Paula and Stephen. It gave us an insight into the other characters. I realized a few things about Stephen through this exercise. I think there’s a lot more to him than we think, and certainly a lot more too him than is portrayed on the outside. He’s a much more complex character than we give him credit for. While being arrogant and outwardly portraying this attitude, he actually has many deep insecurities, it is therefore possible that he’s not being true to himself and putting out a façade. We can draw some parallels between him and Dympie and I think these two actors could learn from each others performances. We can also draw parallels between Gordon and Monika in that they’re both dealing with a loss. Paula on the other hand is original within herself. The one thing they all share is loneliness and the desperate need for companionship, though they all express this very differently. This exercise is a good way to get into character and further develop your character. We then did an activity regarding gait (woo, Nai learnt a new word). We began by walking around as if a rope was coming from our spine, out of our head and we had to follow it around, we then repeated this with chest and pelvis. We discussed what kind of people walk in each style, and established that those who walk with their head are very aware of their surroundings, those who walk with their chest are unaware of what’s around them and those who walk with their pelvis are concerned with themselves. We established that Stephen would be a pelvis walker, Monika and Paula would be chest walkers and Gordon and Dympie would be head walkers. This activity made me realize that while being Monika, I have to abandon “Nai” in every sense of the word. I have therefore been trying to stay in character all through blocking, even when we stop to receive directors notes, because once in character I find it’s more effective to stay in character and fully absorb this new person, rather than attempting to click from being me to Monika. I learnt that I really have to establish a walk and movements that fit Monika in order to fully realize my character. I look forward to working on this more, further developing my character and fully absorbing her. With some more research, determination and hard work I think we’re well on the way to achieving some great acting! I’m pumped! Woo!

helo?